This is January '91. Right in the middle of the proposed air field was this huge dogwood tree. We bought the property left of the abandoned dirt road in '83 and began clearing for the runway.
Ed's Folly - Field cleared 1500 x 100 feet. East end is @ I-20. West end drops 80 feet to Little Black Creek. For STOL proposed one one & two nine. Our house is behind circle drive. Neighbors JW and Shelby in far left corner. My Mom was born in that house.
Ed's Folly looking East. Last 300' of West end belongs to my double first cousin, JW Price. Yep, his Dad & my Dad was Brothers. His Mom & my Mom were sisters. Flight in Aiken's Cessna 152 was with CFI Al Bonadies in March '7. Other neighbors, The Hallmans live on the pond. The house on the left in the center of the picture is within 15 yards of our back yard property line.
Looking North
Taildragger with STOL was for sale in Texas for $35,000. It would look nice in Pond Branch.
This one was for sale @ Santee, SC for $34,900. With STOL & 150 HP it would do nicely in Pond Branch also.
Looking east. Note power lines along with the trees.
Obstacles on east end April 29, 2007
Trees cut for firewood by one man show, Ed
Power lines on east end are buried for 225 feet
East end cleared
Neighbor Leonard backhoe work
East end between Elzie Hallman Rd & I - 20 graded by Ed & wore out Massey Ferguson
Lot of progress made this day with Leonard & his backhoe
Trees cut here for new smoke house location. Leonard dug the stumps
Leonard has a collection of John Deeres, old & new
Seven pine trees removed here to make room for airplane parking area.
Grandparents smoke house was built in 1922 and moved here in 1980. Now moved over to allow view from house down the hill
New view of the "vista". Moved it this far on this Friday
New Smoke House location. From field looking up hill to the house.
Trees that have been cut on the west end
Most of these trees on the west end have been cut going down the hill from the "plane" of the field. It drops off steeply to Little Black Creek.
From west end looking east. Tree just behind Sandy intruding to field is needed hickory wood.
Always looking for suitable for framing sunrise. It's hard to get, especially with a $40 camera.
Riding East on I - 20
Brother Reg, Double First Cousin JW, EB. Regie cut out five of his trailer loads and helped me with limbs & pine trees to the burn pile
We processed trees in the vista where the fire ring is
Tree dragging
The west end power lines and box blade progress. Chocolate Chip, the brown Benz, is on the centerline of the end of the field
Looking down from the west end of the field
Wayne and one of his loads
Put 4.5 tons of lime out
Leonard pushed up the last stumps and and stashed them in a washed out place on the west end
12 inch deep clay pad for 40' square building
12 loads of 12 tons each
I now know the tires had water in them
They heavy too. I rolled them up the trailer into the pick up.
To the store
New diamond tread "turf tires"
One of dozens of scoops
I scooped dirt back up the hill for a couple days
Got sixteen 50 lb sacks of fertilizer from Price's Feed & Seed in Gilbert (No relation)
About 300 lbs in the hopper, Sandy, Bullet, & the clay pad.
The fertilizer spreading turned out to be easy.
Chuck drove the grader. Gregg got the check for services. Gregg has a machine made to plant Common Bermuda grass. I have asked him to do the job.
Chuck & windsock
Chuck at the East end. I didn't know the back tires on a motor grader helps steer. It has a long wheelbase and takes a while to get turned around.
Airplane parking area & Motor Grader.
I got 700' of black pipe to put out three faucets. The plan is to have one about 300' and another about 600' from the east end. I ended up with 300 more feet of the black pipe for a hose Bibb @ the 900' spot
This is the layout to run the water pipe.
Old faucet to connect new pipe
T in front of "basketball court"
Pipe going down east side of vista by two rows of okra
This through the woods to a spot about 600' from the east end. On this side we planted two rows of peas.
Common Bermuda grass seed is flea sized
Roller packed it down
Kevin Long and windsock
Seeder
Kevin had a dusty job.
Hose Bibb 300 feet from the east end
A sprinkler on 4 acres is like peeing on a forest fire. Moving two side by side rain birds 50' each move requires 30 moves to cover the 1500 feet. I've been getting around in 4 days. I have 600 feet of garden hose to handle the job.
We had 2.8 inches of rain. The run off washed some bumps across the air field. Bummer. Then it was draught until Father's Day when we got another inch.
The John Deere sprinkler has been great. Having it run with two rain birds, the pump runs 1.3 minutes and cuts off for 1.3 minutes. This works so good I need to get another.
This is the airfield terminal and the ATC company car.
First weeds cut
First golf balls whacked at the sock
Six foot Frank Copeland finishing mower brought home. I've had four flat tires fixed, sharpened the blades, replaced the milky looking 90 w from the gear box , and lubed the pulleys wheels and casters
First day of big league weed whacking
West end with two rain birds sprinkling
First pea pod
Spread out 600 more pounds.
Drilling a hole for the new west end north side power pole
With these two snips the airfield project is complete (except for hanger & airplane)
Its 325 feet to the east end from this spot in front of the windsock
It's 400 feet to the house
And its1125 feet to the west end
Flying over in Aiken's 152
It's ready for a hanger and a STOL airplane.
James last day on the job.
Flying Aiken's Piper Cherokee while John Kirkham's Cherokee with the busted nose gear sits in the yard.
1950 Cessna was purchased in April, 2010.
Pond Branch Airfield final to R/W 29.
The preferred landing is on the 11 end for the uphill roll out. The level "plane" of the run way is just past the sandy spot.
Casting a shadow on the hanger roof. This landing was # 75 for 84 Charlie on Pond Branch Airfield.
11th whacking in '11. First color picture with the new Droid tele July 28th
Landing on uphill R/W 11 on Oct 26, 2011
