Asphalt naturally expands and shrinks. The expanding is not as big a problem as the shrinking. As it shrinks it makes cracks. These cracks don’t disappear when the asphalt expands, but they do get bigger next time it shrinks. Small cracks can be sealed with a crack sealer that gets melted in a crack sealer machine and pumped out through a hose, then smoothed over the crack as it flows down inside. When the cracks get too big, the sealer just keeps flowing out every time it gets hot; which is every day from May through September.
Now is the time for the thick stuff, QPR. For big cracks we use a bagged patch material that looks like pea gravel with soft tar on it. It flows like hot asphalt and hopefully hardens up before getting stuck on the tires of whatever drives or lands on top of it.
We use two trucks with a compressor on the back of one and two trailers on the other. The second trailer was a small one that we dumped the material into from the bags to make it easier to shovel. When I went to pick up the trailer it had two flat tubeless tires. I was able to get one pumped up but the other had been flat for so long that the bead wouldn’t seal. I went down to Ron’s Tire shop on 95 and begged some goop, Foster’s Soap, I think, that gets smeared between the bead and the rim. It is about the consistency of axle grease. Then you just pump up the tire and it holds the air in until the bead seals. Amazing stuff. We also have a compactor that unfortunately I didn’t try to start before we needed it. It wouldn’t start of course. I had to use the van to compress the material. I had to clean it before Hsien-Ling saw it, and then cleaned a little more. Hsien-Ling saw me and thought I was so nice to clean the van for her. Whew.
The actual process involves first blowing out the cracks to remove the loose dirt or rocks,
(It's a tough job but someone has to drive the truck)
then shoveling in the mix.
The crack needs to be filled a little above the road level with the patch material so that it can be compacted into place.
John Cowgill and I drove to Las Vegas Monday to buy the material. This is John.
Unfortunately they had less than one pallet, only 50 bags. Two years ago, my partner, Jerry Bruner, used about a pallet and a half. Maybe it will be enough. Wrong.
We only finished less than one third of the runway and the cracks were getting wider and wider. I had scheduled two days to finish, and had officially closed the runway. Now I had to notify the FAA to change the NOTAM so pilots would know when they could or couldn’t come in. We also needed the compressor for Thursday but not for Wednesday. Luckily RSC Equipment rental told me to keep it and I would only be charged for two days instead of three. Great guys. I had to let the flight school know also. It is a bit of an inconvenience for them as they have to move part of their fleet to operate out of Laughlin-Bullhead airport while we work. They took the news well.
The material arrived in Las Vegas so John and I picked it up. We dropped the compactor off at Highway 95 Tool Repair and begged that they would fix it in one day. They did, but they closed at four and we were still out of town. Luckily my brother, John, picked it up for us. Now with two pallets of QPC we seemed to be ready to finish.
John and John getting the compactor out of the back of Doris's car.
Five am on Thursday arrived but the help didn’t. We had to roust John Cowgil from bed, and at 5:15 Manuel showed up. Jason showed up at about 5:30 and the third John showed up at about 5:45. Brother John hadn’t planned on working, but as Bill had been sick all night and couldn’t make it we were one man short, so he did. Having a brother can be either a curse or a blessing, probably depending mostly on which brother you are. To me, my brother was a blessing, so that must have made me the cursed one….
The blowing out was finished by about 9:30, so brother John took off and Jason came back and shoveled QPC with us. I alternated shoveling and compacting, but of course no one took my picture. At 11:45 we ran out of material again with about 750 feet still to finish. The cracks were getting farther apart, but also getting much wider and deeper. Oh BOY, another trip to Las Vegas.
Friday at 9:45 found John Cowgill and I on our way to Las Vegas again. We stopped at Cal-Nev-Ari, Kidwell Airport, for breakfast. This airport was built by Slim and Nancy Kidwell and is still run by Nancy. I took a refresher Private Pilot Ground School class from Nancy and Slim many years ago, and about three years ago bought my Cessna U206B from Ace Kidwell, Slim’s son. A couple years later my partner, Jerry Bruner, bought Nancy’s Comanche 250. Small world. After Breakfast we stopped and chatted with Nancy for awhile about old times. We discussed what it took to actually get water out of the ground and to all the houses at Cal-Nev-Ari, and how people now-a-days took everything so much for granted.
Back on the road we made our way to Las Vegas and to Construction Sealants and Supply. We bought another pallet of QPR and while we were there also bought a pallet of crack sealant figuring we would need about three in August and could only carry two at a time.
The trip home was slow because of the weight on the trailer: about 5,700 pounds. We stopped for lunch in Searchlight to let the wheels cool, and finally got home about 5:00, hopeful that we would have enough to finish the runway on Monday.
Monday morning, 4:00am came early. I picked up the ice and met John Cowgill at his house to ready the trailer with the trailer on the back. Two helpers showed up at just after 5:00am and we quickly settled into a routine of dumping the material into the little trailer and shoveling it into the cracks. As we got material down and it seeped into the cracks, I operated the compactor until I caught up with them and then rejoined in the shoveling. John Cowgill had an appointment that morning so brother John relieved him at about 7:30. By 8:50 we were finished filling the cracks, and still had 16 (out of 60) bags left over. Perfect. We got all the shovels and trailer cleaned up and officially re-opened the runway. Now that the cracks are all filled, we can wait a month and go back over them with the crack sealer. Maybe……………………no rest for the weary. Well, maybe a little.
