Tim O'Conner- your help needed!

[StanFoster]

Tim-You have been an excellent volunteer at Mentone. I read awhile ago about you offering to help smooth out the sod for the gyros. Could you maybe consider helping out the powered rotor people? What I need is a nice concrete helipad at Mentone. Oh, no hurry Tim- I wont need it till Mentone 2009 ! Please make it "slightly oversize" like maybe 50 feet in diameter. I will be a fledgling still and will need this XXX pad! Please put this pad as far from the crowd as possible as I dont want people running for cover when I come in! I will of course want to contribute to this pad by painting a big yellow H on it. I am thanking you in advance Tim- and with the XXX size pad requested- I would be kind enough to let you land on it as well. Maybe by Mentone 2010 I can have you pour me a smaller pad . Stan

[StanFoster]

Tim- I typoed your name wrong - went back and changed it in my post- but the title of the thread wont change! I hope this doesnt ruin my chances for the helipad? Stan

[barnstorm2]

That's a TALL order for a days worth of work Stan but I will of course volunteer to be part of the PAD-Team!

Just don't forget unless it has LBL's (little blinky lights) I am unskilled labor!

You get the money raised and the permit and I'll schedule a vacation day from work to help any way I can.

Alternatively, I could help take up a collection to pay for a CFI to teach you how to land on grass....I'll even spray paint the grass with big arrows and a SGH for Stan's Grass Heli-pad...

[BUD ONEAL]

Stan,
Will the pad require a "mono" edge with rebar and if so what size rebar would it be,1/4",1/2"/3/4"? Will it require a building permit as it would in Florida with three inspections? What strength concrete would it need to be 2500# may not be enough,4000# would be better as you may plunk down somewhat heavy in your first year of flying and also it may be used by a somewhat heavier machine at times . Do you require a vapor barrier or can it be placed with out? You need to be a bit more specific if you want Tim to do it right !
Please let him know, Bud {just tring to be helpfull" O'Neal

[StanFoster]

Bud- Thanks for your input! I was premature on my specifications . Maybe a foam tanker could be on standby- just keep it far away from the pad. I think a 4 inch pad with 3/8 rebar 24 inches o.c. would handle my first year freefall landings from 15 feet. Chuck B . -would this pad handle such an impact? 850 pounds freefalling 15 feet? Please consider the excellent energy absortion designed into the Helicycles landing skids . They were wise in foreseeing me hopping in one of their craft somedy ! Tim- I KNEW I could count on you! Stan

[animal]

You Worry me Stan..lmao

Any Idea when your first shipments of the kit will get to you?

this is one build I plan to really watch carefully,with your craftmanship. I know this is going to be one sweet machine when done.

[BUD ONEAL]

Way to go Stan,Please don't try Larrys "chop and drop" just "slider in"

[StanFoster]

Tim- I am expecting my first shipment before Thanksgiving. I dont know about your "craftsman" comment. I might know a little about working with wood, but have seen superior work on many other gyros. McBirdman likes to call our type of work as "kitters" , putting bolt B in hole B, as he commented to Dragonflyerthom ! StAn

[C. Beaty]

Stan, to meet your needs, perhaps you should look into a rubberized pad like some running tracks.

I think it’s old tires ground up and mixed with some kind of binder; perhaps asphalt.

[digbar]

Let's see: 50 feet by 50 feet equals 2500 square feet, divided by 1/3 - for a 4" slab. 2500/3 equals 833 cubic feet of concrete. Figure a 6-bag mix, with 6% air entrained in it - makes is more flexible for when Stan's chop and drop takes place.

So, 833 cubic feet divided by 9 - # of cubic feet per cubic yard, equals about 92 - 93 yards of concrete at about $100/yard. Hey, Stan; you're gonna have to sell the chopper to pay for all that lead pudding (help place a few yards with a concrete rake, and you'll know why I call it lead pudding!). With no chopper, we won't need no stinking pad!

Oh, be sure to use the vapor barrier - it keeps the dry ground from drawing the water out of the mud, which would make it dry too fast and weaken it.

Can't we just bring over a bunch of Michigan topsoil (clay) from Ohio, and make a pad with it? As dry as summers have been, that's all we really need.
I call it Michigan topsoil, because the last glacier deposited trillions of tons of it in the Buckeye state, and the glacier came from the North!

[StanFoster]

Digbar-One little correction to your yard calculations. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. A 4 inch slab would cover 81 square feetper yardtaking only 31yards.

[barnstorm2]

Michigan topsoil! I like that! I am going to have to use that we have clay-a-crazy around here.