Field day Report

The annual spring field clean up was held on Saturday May 17, 2008. There were 12 members present. Two members are not included in the photos as they had to depart before the pictures were taken. They are Steve Patrie and Cliff Hall. Members started arriving shortly after 8:00 AM and most everyone was there by 9:10 AM.

Shorty Poulin raked the field / road edge, taking out the wheel ruts and rocks so that we can mow without dinging the blades on the mower. Cliff Hall started mending the plastic fences and retying where needed. He was soon joined by Roland Woodworth and together they completed that task. Dick LaPorte headed the crew of Jeff Laverdiere, Ron Gregory, Bob Kilmer, Shorty Poulin and Dan (Eric's step son). This crew dug out the posts of the canopy. It was pulled back into place with a come along and jacked up so it was once again level. The canopy was then lowered onto blocks placed on top of styrofoam and the post holes were then filled back in and compacted.

The frequency pin box, the cabinet and the radio tray were cut from the canopy and reattached to the shed. (Twice)! There was quite a discussion about the proper height of the frequency pin box. Eric Guilmet thought the height was perfect. However, I thought us vertically challenged types would have a hard time as we couldn't see the top row of pins. Eric finally gave in and we removed it (again) and reattached it at a lower height. (Thank you Eric, from all of us short people)

Eric, Don Finnemore, Steve Petrie, Bob Kilmer and myself concentrated on the shed. (Bob jumped back and forth between the two projects as well as doing some supervising! Note the photo of him leaning on the truck. The shed was jacked up and all of the old underpinning was removed. We dug down and placed sheets of 2" thick styrofoam 16" wide and 8' long crossways under the shed. We then placed the railroad ties on top of the styrofoam. Three new pressure treated 4"X4"s were placed the length of the shed. It was then lowered and shimmed to make it level. All of the dugout areas were backed filled, raked, compacted and seeded.

The whole project came out very well and should last many more years without any major problems. We were done and gone by 3:00 PM. I would like to thank all who helped for their hard work. Especially, Eric Guilmet for supplying the needed tools and expertise to do the job right. We should all be proud of our flying field. It is a great place to while away the hours on warm summer days with good friends and it is a great place to fly!