Spotting from home - Black Helicopters & Paranoia
 

Can anyone shed light on the runway layout?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10...helicopter.jpg

It's good. But I've had it for about a month and the pictures haven't been updated yet. Any idea when they do that ?

Cheers,

NEO

Runway Layout
 

The field looks just like the training fields that surround the US Army Avn Trg Centre at Ft Rucker. They have about five (?) satellite fields with six tarmac lanes each to conduct high density circuit operations.

Given the newness of the tarmac, the presence of a (probably dark green) Blackhawk, and the sand everywhere, I'm going to float a guess that this is a new training airfield to be used by US Army aviators in Iraq or Afghanistan. Either that, or it's a Saudi or UAE training base.

Any other theories?

I bet you that picture was taken in Arizona, somwhere between tucson and phoenix there was that field...close to another field which was a CIA base, im not sure of the names since i don`t have the charts here anymore, but I`ll look it up

That CIA field was Marana (AVQ), yes I got my charts out quicly, I can`t find the helicpoter strip, but it was definately between phoenix and houston

it's pretty good, but i did hear off it filling up the space on guys computers so it can run!! one guy spent a day on it and had no memory left in his!!:oh:

They don't seem to update it regularly or at all. The images that are shown when you go to my area (North Queensland) are at least a year old (even though it says 2005 on the screen. ) The image shows green grassy paddocks where there are now buildings and developments which were built about 18 months ago.

I think you have to subscribe to the pay version to get latest images. But it is still a very useful program. I use it quite often when planning flying trips.

As RobboRider says, some of the imagery is decidedly old (there are several huge areas of Kuwait, for example, which have been built on for over 15 months which don't feature). I'm not convinced that paying for an upgrade gives you more up to date images - I've just been through the blurb for -Plus, -Pro and -Enterprise and they all seem to offer improved image handling, but no mention of newer/updated pictures.

However, within its limitations it is an attractive, potentially-useful programme.

If you look at Fairford, you'll find just one wee aircraft sitting on just one 'not so wee' hardstand. It's a TR 1 or U2 .
No other aircraft or activity can be seen.
And much to my surprise, there is a disused airfield just of the SW end of the main runway. Being that close it shows just how enormous today's Fairford really is. The original Fairford was at the western end of today's mega field.

To be fair, in the intro they do say pics have been taken over the last 3 years. This is to stop Osama Bin Liner to identify (accurately) his next target.

Would it work if each of us were to give a grid ref where we work so that we can look it up on Google Earth???

In the UK www.multimap.com works well for ariel shots, you can then combine the photo with a 25,000 scale OS map which will identify some of the grid lines.

You can put in a specific postcode or area.

I have found it useful can't vouch for recency of images.

great Navigation learning tool
 

I was using it to plan NAV's then zoom in on the departure point, pan the camera angle so that it was looking obliquely across the surface rather than straight down at it, orientate roughly in the direction of the destination, give it a click & drag, & it continues to rotate the earth slowly in the direction you indicated.

So that now it looked like a I was flying the leg I had planned; I sit back with my map & nav data sheet, picking up obvious natural landmarks, verifying my timings where I should be & getting a satelite accurate mind picture of exactly how my flight profile should be looking when at a given waypoint, or position check.

the terrain maps are sufficient that you pick out major features to aim at, you can count the ridgelines etc. turn left at 'somewhere' & drop in right where you're supposed to be. :ok:

considering there is no need to purchase a flight simulator package, local navigation specific scenery/imagery for your region & install, etc. etc., it is a cheep & accessible way for pilots to plan & (virtually) fly in areas that they are unfamiliar with before sitting bum in cockpit & getting geographically misplaced. :sad:

...of course then there is always a GPS. :hmm:

but for student pilots in their navigation phase of training - a wonderful training aide, use it to your benefit, particularly if you can obtain Lat./Long. of the locations you are flying from & to, you can placemark them before you start & be confident that on they flight you're NAV will be 100% spot on because you have already done a dress rehearsal so to speek. it takes all of 3-5 minutes of your time to achieve a 'fly over' - time well spent IMHO

cheers :O

gadget guru

I agree entirely. I recently flew an R44 back to north queensland from Bankstown in Sydney. I'd never flown out of Bankstown before (thought it was going to be all very difficult) and the ERSA (our Air Services publication which gives all the data about airports helicopter lanes etc etc ) gave specific details about the heli-lanes - stuff like track via "Michel's Patisserie".

I got on Google Earth panned in and there it was - a roof with a great big logo and the word's "Michel's Patisserie" on the roof. Planned my escape using the tilted view photo's of the Sydney suburbs and the harbour.

It actually turned out to be a very easy flight - much less difficult than flying in and out of Cairns.

Is this you? Google Earth snapped a heli in flight/on task near Streatley, Berkshire
 

Google Earth Flight Tracking
 

Not quite helicopters, but aviation related. I suspect some of you may have seen this before, but I hadn't. It uses Google Earth to track flights across the US, but also there is a feature to view airspace and sectional chart overlays over the Google Earth map.

Clever stuff!

http://www.fboweb.com/antest/ge/intro.aspx

Click on each plane icon and you get it's speed, origin and destination.

Ain't technology brilliant!

You know, thats cool and creepy at the same time. I mean if we can do things like this, I don't even want to know what the government can do....:uhoh:

Google Earth - Helicopter Before 05 Crash
 

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archi...arth_sl_1.html

I thought interesting, also check the news video. I know old news and sure you guys have covered in discussion but I was interested to know the root cause of the crash.

http://www.elmundo.es/documentos/200...ero/index.html

Also a video from inside - during the incident

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zTnYYKOtY&search=rajoy

I reckon this is one of them things that is arresting enough to look at and ponder for a moment but then is very difficult to find anything to say about other than perhaps "Oh yeah - cool/wierd/interesting".

Mind you there seems to be quite a bit of space outside that bullring...

Looks like there may have been an anti-torque failure. But why the pilot fly so low and close to the building? Performance limitations? (at capacity, hot, still air...). Wonder if they encountered wind shear as the reached th lip of the dome too.

TT

Stringfellow Dork You are aptly named! Mister slightly interesting!:)

It is amazing and one for the record! The mix of Google Earth and Aviation is fascinating to all I know. How could it not be?:ok: