There is more to this hobby than building and flying aircraft! I stumbled across an old folder in my files, and thought I would share some of the hard work that is the foundation for making this club successful.

In 2012, we decided that the Vinton Rd. flying site was no longer viable for us. The farmer wanted to use the area to plant more crops, and our treasury could not afford to support 3 flying sites. The club voted to vacate the site.

That left us with a problem to solve. What were we to do with the shelter that we built in 2008? It would be nice if we could relocate it to our "new" Cedar Springs field, but how could we move it?

Terry Witt suggested that if we could remove the support posts and cut the roof in 1/2, that it would fit on his implement trailer, and we could transport it that way. So...the adventure began.

The farmer had offered to help us by loaning us a forklift to raise the roof so that we could remove the posts and lower it to the trailer. However, the day of the "move", the forklift had mechanical problems. That presented us with another challenge. It was decided that we would pull the trailer under the shelter, and then lower the shelter by going around it and shortening the posts about one foot at a time with a chain saw. As each post was cut, the roof would drop on that corner. The process continued until the roof was resting on the trailer. At that time, part of the roof was blocked up, and a sawzall was used to cut along the center truss, separating the roof into 2 halves.

Without the use of tractors or forklifts to do the heavy lifting, we had to use some ingenuity and simple tools to accomplish the job. We had some house jacks, cable winches, chains, and levers. A combination of pushing, pulling, and a lot of straining of tired muscles finally got the 1st half loaded on the trailer, strapped down, and ready for the move.

It took us 3 days to complete the move, but we finally got it moved to the Cedar field, blocked up and stored on the ground. Thanks to everyone that was a part of this project. Here are some pics from the project to show how it was done: