Airstrip Attack

[David Leikvold]

Found this on YouTube. It could be an idea if we ever find a decent sealed country town airstrip somewhere for local weekend events as opposed to Test and Tunes. I'm choosing to ignore the insurance issue for the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftut2sW90Q

Cheers
Dave

[Rob]

Dave,

One of the reasons I got access at Cudal was because we only run one vehicle at a time. He's flatly refuses the locals who want to drag race on it.

We can ignore insurance but sadly insurance won't ignore us.

Cheers,
Rob

[PLUCKA]

Guys I know the caretakers at Maralinga who are fantastic people. I have no doubt that if you wanted a bitumen experience it could be organised. Maralinga at the village has ample places to stay in and the strip itself is 2.5 k's long and the last time I was there was in great condition. It is wide enough to run either single passes or 2. Something to think about. Insurance well I have no idea. There would be someone around offering suitable insurance.

Plucka

[Greg Watters]

third try brief this time ..
Aon would cover us for ~$7k last time i checked , to the required 20 mil for aviation requirements
MA and Cams could do it if we meet there requirements

[David Leikvold]

Thanks for the info, Dave. Maybe the backup plan could be for everyone to divert to Maralinga if the lake is out of action and just run a bitumen Speedweek there for the week that was already booked. Arrange with the Speedweek insurer to get coverage for either venue. Run over 2km with 500m for braking and most people would be very happy. It would be faster than either the Texas Mile or the Mojave Mile. Apart from being even further away from Queensland, it looks OK. There'd be no complaints from the WA teams! The taxiways almost provide a complete return road and the strip faces north/south so the morning and afternoon sun wouldn't be a problem. The concrete apron in front of the only building at the airport would be a great spot for the pits. There's nothing to run into if you can't stop and no neighbours to complain about the noise. And it's not like we could do any environmental damage to the area. There's even a centreline marked on the runway. It almost sounds too simple, apart from it being a bloody long way, what am I missing?

Cheers
Dave

[Greg Watters]

Aparently the road in is better now with a nearby mine upgrading it for there use

[Stayt`ie]

if this was to happen i would suggest that we run over the mile, same as the Mojave and Texas, apples for apples, , i also dont like the idea of a minimal breaking area, this thinking only promotes an incident, ,,

[OLDtimer]

And we could run at night because everything glows in the dark at Maralinga.

[David Leikvold]

Ron,
You're right, one mile does make more sense for both those reasons. An extra 400m of braking area is not to be sneezed at. Most bikes would be OK just by refitting the original front brakes. Ditto for the cars. It wouldn't take much to adjust most cars to get their top speed at around one mile instead of three or more. No need for ballast either. Dr Goggles might finally have to relent and put some decent disc brakes on the Spirit of Sunshine

Pete,
I was wondering about that. Do you think we might all glow in the dark on the way home?

Plucka,
Back in 1988 we ran a one-off road race kart meeting at Oakey Army Aviation Base west of Toowoomba. We had to remove all the runway and taxiway lights, cover the holes with steel plates that we had to provide and then when the meeting was over we had to refit all the lights before dark and make sure they all worked. Do you think we'd have to do that at Maralinga? And before anyone from QTA gets too excited, the main runway is only 1.6km long.

Cheers
Dave

[outbacktrev]

Can guarantee you wont glow in the dark. My wife and I spent over a week up there helping the caretakers in November last year. Went to all the bomb sites etc with a gieger counter and couldnt get a beep out of it. I wasn't the only one with a gieger counter either and neither of use could get a peep out of them even in supposed "hot" areas So you can put that theory away Pete.
The airstrip is the only strip in the southern hemisphere where the "space shuttle" can land in an emergency as its landing pad is 5metre (yes 5 metre) thick concrete and the strip is in as good a nick as the day it was put down some 60yrs ago
I have land based and aerial photos (went up in a work chopper) of the area and it would be a perfect set up for a "flying mile" with big bitumen pit areas etc.
There is very limited accommodation in the area and the need for self sufficiency would still be required.
There are 240km of single lane bitumen road through out the site which are still in pretty good nick. Access would be via Ceduna for most and the roads are quite good with the majority being resonable bitumen.
Virtualy there is an unlimited rain water supply (1,000,000 gallons according to Robin, the caretaker) , a limited diesel generated power supply, and very limited showers and toilet facilities.
I'm sure if this was to become a venue of interest these issues could be resolved reasonably easy.
Having said that we will be having a race meeting at the end of May at Lake G
Cheers,
Trevor #298
PS Have just spoken with Robin (Maralinga caretaker) and the bitumen strip is 2500mtrs long with 500mtr of good dirt run off in either direction

[OLDtimer]

We may not glow, Trev, but you didn't mention the extra toes you grew !

[Stayt`ie]

in reply to Trevors post,, i have an friend in town who runs a small engineering business,, he is ex US airforce trained, and in the day stood in line to get onto the space shuttle project,, a cuppla months ago he was telling me off this runway somewhere in Australia that was built for landing the shuttle in emergencie situations, he stated that the runway was five miles long , obversley got the facts tangled with five meters of concrete, ,,, i`ll drop in on him next week and give him a bit of a ribbing, ,,,

[David Leikvold]

Ron,
Don't be too hard on him, he might know where there's an unloved 5 mile runway quietly waiting for us .
It is Maralinga though, there are various mentions on the interweb that confirm that a shuttle could land at Maralinga, one said the concrete landing pads were 15m thick. Maybe they meant 15ft. I wonder how they'd get it back out, the runway at Kennedy Space Center is twice as long and Edwards Air Force base is as long as you want.

Another thought. Would we need the permission of the Maralinga Tjarutja people to use the area?

Cheers
Dave

[penny]

I also have a friend who is ex british army who tells me of a five mile emergency airstrip for the shuttle in W.A. . He couldn,t remember the town name but says its visible on google earth .

[zork]

All of the above is at Woomera.