Hi all,

In my club, we foresee to renew our runway, and we thought to use the geotextile mat system.

http://www.usfabricsinc.com/products...raftgeotextile

If you have such a runway, can you give me your opinion, and/or your experience?

Thank-you in advance.

Blue skies

The Keswick club in Ontario Canada has one. They have had great results with it over the past two years.

Ours seems to be holding up well, but it's no match for a prop strike coming from a larger plane. For that reason, gassers take off and land on the grass located on the other side of the fabric.

http://tricountyrcclub.homestead.com/

Ours works great. The good news is that it is more forgiving than asphalt. The bad news as noted above is that prop strikes from any size aircraft can potentially damage it. That being said, it is repairable. I honestly do like ours. Once stretched properly they last a long time and are wrinkle free.

Make sure to prepare the underlying ground. We put ours down in a farmers field, and every spring there are more lumps and bumps but a big roller takes care of the worst of it. Also, burning electrics will burn through.

other then that, it's a great alternative to paving!

My club has it. The stuff is great, though props can tear through it if they strike hard enough. I'd have to ask what kind of glue we use but it's a type of rubberized material.

I flew on this a few times out in the SW region. My only complaint was with the spikes used to lay it down. Some had come up a touch and where murder on wheel pants.

They are hot like asphalt in the summer.

It works fine and seems to hold up well, several of the clubs around here use it. It does get lumpy over time and requires rolling periodically.

But my one big complaint is that the ground stays wet underneath it and it soaks through with any weight, even just rolling your plane will leave wet lines where the tires touch the matt along with wet puddles where your walk. So, you can't kneel down to work on your plane and if you sit you'll get a wet butt. I avoid flying at those feilds for much of the year because they seem to be wet all the time. The only time I like to go to clubs with the geotex is after a long dry spell.

I've flown off Geo stuff for several years... I've nothing against it, other than to say as others have, that prop strikes take their toll after a while. Roger Brown at Cheaha RC had it and recently removed it and went back to grass. If I were going to suddenly make a landing strip tomorrow, I think I'd lean towards grass because of the damage to fabric by the props.

Geotextile is good for 3-7 years per their claims. It runs about $4.60/sq yard. Asphalt will last a whole lot longer than that, at around $18/sq yard (local prices will vary.) Why not just buckle down and either pave and asphalt runway, or groom a real nice grass strip. Our club has paved cross runways, and they're pretty nice, but they still require maintenance and periodic sealing, etc. I wish we had grass.

I fly gas, and prefer to do that on grass as well (same with full scale!). However, I also spend a fair amount of time learning 3D with smaller electrics (32"-48") that don't do well in grass at all. For those, flying off something like this is pure joy.

Just me, but I don't think this stuff in about flying the bigger stuff at all.

Originally Posted by AHicks

Just me, but I don't think this stuff in about flying the bigger stuff at all.

Agree...the few fields that I've flown that had Geotextile eventually went to grass or asphalt...yea, it was great for smaller planes while it lasted but didn't stand the test of time, maintenance and expense... I can only guess...

Hi guys,

Thank-you for your commentaries and advices.

Feel free to post other ones.

Blue skies.

In our dry arid climate grass is not feasible but it is by far my first choice to fly from. I consider Geotex only preferable to a dirt runway.