Technically this has nothing to do with the RV-12iS but I thought you might be interested anyway. I haven't done any work on the plane as I'm waiting for parts from Van's. And when they came in, I was informed the company I hired was ready to resurface my hangar's ramp. I've been in a running debate about the poor condition of all of the ramps with the building partners but most of them don't want to spend any money. And why should they? They have no planes in their hangars; they just rent them out to people who put their planes in there that they never fly.

Anyway, the following narrative is from my report to the partners.

In August, I got an update from the company from their 2019 (I think) estimate they'd prepared for Jim and it was circulated to the partners on the East Side. I was the only one interested in having it done given the my RV-12iS project is moving right along now that the avionics package finally arrived after a one-year delay, and there is no way I'd ever start a plane on the east side what with all the stones and pebbles accumulating at the bottom of the ramps, and I'm getting too old to pull it over to the West Side (which has gotten pretty busy with the flight school and all.

They showed up with an army of trucks, equipment, and people precisely at 7 a.m. this morning. I would recommend these folks if/when you're ever interested in upgrading your properties too. They were good to work with and have now done a couple of projects on the field this year.

Here are some pictures. Hope you enjoy them.

This is the situation I was dealing with before. The asphalt was at the end of its useful life (especially for aircraft operations) and had opened up mall canyons where water had not only used the route to drain OUT, but also to get IN to the hangar. Everytime a plane taxied by, I'd get sandblasted inside the hangar.

Within the next year, potholes would be opening up. Not good. I'm not a big fan of spending money but the price is only going to go up and the problem wasn't going to go away.

Before

I'd already let Wipaire and a couple of neighbors know that Beechcraft would be relatively unusable for the morning. I probably should've told the flight school. I counted six dump trucks among the equipment and two bobcats plus the asphalt machine. We marked the area to be pulled up and replaced.

If you got the original estimate proposal, we were going to make the cut on the other side of a sizeable crack at Jim's hangar (to the right of mine in this photo) and past a developing pothole on the Pickett property because the estimator originally said if we didn't, the area between the new asphalt and that crack would immediately break up. Upon review today, I decided to go ahead and give Jim some free asphalt but felt the Pickett asphalt will not be damaged by having a newer, sexier asphalt neighbor.

Out with the old

I don't know how it is on the West Side but a sinkhole runs right down the building on the East Side, about 3 feet into each hangar. So that asphalt was gingerly removed. I was a little concerned with what we might find. It couldn't be utilities; electricity runs up top and there's no water, sewer, or gas lines. Interestingly, when I was taking on water during last year's spring melt, in addition to coming under the door, it was also bubbling up from the sinkhole crack, possibly from neighboring hangars; I don't know.

What did they find? Nothing, It was just a sinkhole. So they removed the asphalt and filled in the hole. I was a little nervous about this part of the operation because that's $100,000 worth of airplane parts still inside.

excavating

Once the old asphalt was gone, they brought in some more fill, leveled it, and then compacted it. By now there were about four different operations going on and these people were like a symphony; each playing a different part but cranking out a sum of the parts (OK, I mixed a metaphor there; just ignore it).

I wanted to be sure the grade was high inside the hangar (even higher than the existing asphalt) so that the water dripping off the roof wouldn't flow back inside. But I couldn't have it made too high because then it wouldn't meet the Pickett or Pederson asphalt quite right. My fingers are still crossed on this because the gap seal of the hangar door is also at the end of its useful life and the final grade was slightly high in the middle and slightly lower to the sides, to allow the water to run off in three directions. So there's a gap under the existing seal. I'll have to be sure to shovel thoroughly this winter because it may be awhile before I can get that door serviced (see below).

Grading

That's a big machine, right? And that machine is going right into my hangar and, yeah, that's a pristine set of RV-12iS wings sitting there. Like I said: nerve wracking.

Laying asphalt

As the machine operator and truck driver handled the laying of the asphalt; another start rolling it out. There were a lot of bodies moving and it looked like a few close calls; but ADS-B is not yet required of pavers.

Rolling

They had some asphalt left over so Wipaire asked them to throw some on three horrible potholes on his property and roll it out. I don't know how long it will last over there but he's got a lake when it rains now do anything helps. It still remains a mystery why Beechcraft and Aeronca weren't resurfaced when every other lane on the north side was resurfaced a few years ago and all the decision makers at the time are either in jail or working for MAC now.

Wipaire

And the final result

Inside out

The whole operation was wrapped up by 9:30

Looking north

And here's your Christmas present, Jim!

New walkway

Doug Beedon had installed a wooden "dam" across the front of the hangar when he owned it to keep water out (I fell pushing the RV-7A back in one November because it was slippery and I went down hard on the shoulder while trying to push over that dam and suddenly the arm was out of the socket; that wasn't fun), and I had to remove and dispose of that. So there's daylight now that I hope a new, beefier gap seal can resolve.

Gap seal

On that front, you may or may not know that Merle Marshall - the hangar door guy -- has retired and sold the business to his son, Jens Marshall and the company is now JFM Hangar. He can be reached at 612-503-6756 or jfmhangar@gmail.com and Marshall reports the man is super busy with hangar doors these days so, like everything else, some patience is required.

BTW, does anyone have a better idea for insulating their door besides Doug's method which consists of foam held in place by long runs of wooden strips bolted into the steel frame. In addition to being ugly, it's got to be adding hundreds of pounds to the door. Seem like there's a more elegant solution but I don't know what it is.

Stop by sometime and say "hello." I'll show you the RV-12iS project which is still stubbornly refusing to build itself.