Google Maps Scavenger Hunt

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 25 2007, 08:37 PM) [snapback]485124[/snapback]</div>

Curious, we must be missing something.

P.S. Airportkid, it looks like one runway is marked with an 8 which is probably correct for its heading. Does this help?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 25 2007, 11:50 AM) [snapback]484691[/snapback]</div>

Found them finally. Fort Huachuca! http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...p;z=15&om=1

This link http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/Arizona.htm led me to them after a google search on the terms "two paved runways" (of what seems like the 100th search I did!) :blink:

This was after spending too much time searching Nellis, Edwards, and Tonopah and a few others.

Continueing the theme. Here is one for Airportkid. I bet you haven't landed here either.

[attachmentid=10129]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 25 2007, 10:10 PM) [snapback]485187[/snapback]</div>

Mad Hatter will have to answer. It is one of many bases, test ranges or training sites. Not sure why this is significant other than it was hard to find.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 25 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]485199[/snapback]</div>

There have been several entries where I've been tempted to complain that the site was too nondescript, too random, too much of a no-name place to be considered a proper entry - but in every case, someone eventually found it out - and that, to me, is the bottom line criteria - if there's enough that someone can eventually spot it, that all by itself makes the entry a valid one.

I personally give up trying to find entries that require (what I consider) excessive trial and error - I'm much more interested in entries that require solving a puzzle, not bone tedious picking through eight billion possible candidates - but if an entry gets nailed, it's fair game in my book.

Now this last one put up as a personal challenge to me - at first glance I don't see enough in the image to even begin to point me in the right direction; it looks like any of a thousand strips. It has the appearance of a one way strip; it's obviously a private strip (no markings), but these are insufficient to distinguish it enough to tell me where to start looking. But that's OK - I'll sit tight and eventually Toups will break down and furnish a clue - maybe two clues - and at some point there'll be enough information to lift the image from being an exercise in tedium to being an exercise in puzzle solving. And in the meantime if someone else enjoys the long hunt through the haystack of possibilties and nails it down first, so much the better!

By the way, Toups, hold off on clues awhile - perhaps there's something in that picture I've overlooked.

MB

 

Airportkid and everyone else!

No real clues, but a clarification (non-hints) based on recent comments.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 25 2007, 10:36 PM) [snapback]485208[/snapback]</div>

The non-hint is that this is not a no-name place.

Although I was able to find the Ft. Huachuca site through extensive use of google, the clues given and the image seemed to suggest searching for government facilities in Arizon, Nevada, Utah and California. That narrows things down a bit, not. I believe the government owns much of those states. I do think it was fair, but it deserved a hint that could result in an "aha" moment rather than a tedious search.

At this point you have been given very little to go on. Unless you have stumbled across this airstrip before, you probably don't have enough to go on. But then again, you may know it but just can't yet place it.

Sorry, but I won't have a chance to post any more clues until late tomorrow evening. With a few clues or maybe a little more image, there will be a major "aha" moment for someone.

Although I have addressed it as a challenge to airportkid, it is meant for all on this site. :lol: However, with a few exceptions such as Ft. Huachuca, airportkid manages to find the airstrips first. :lol:

As you can tell from my past posts, in many cases, the first post is a bit of a tease, but later clues make everything clear. <_< But in a few cases, a post I thought was hopeless is figured out before I finish posting it!


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 25 2007, 11:06 PM) [snapback]485230[/snapback]</div>

Fair enough. Since I can't get to clues until too late tomorrow. Let's try one now:

The site/area containing the strip is famous and well visited, yet how many planes do you see on the strip?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 25 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]485199[/snapback]</div>

The next clue would have been that they were too small for a Cessna 185. These are the airstrips for the Army's main UAV test and training facilities - the newest generation of long endurance and armed UAVs is being tested here. As I said earlier - I was surprised the airspace isn't restricted.

Evan, is that enough significance, or do you think it's still too obscure?

I am sorry if it was severely frustrating. I've never been sure how often to post clues - some of us look at the site often, others just once or twice a day. Unfortunately, there was also an inevitable 2+ hour delay as I commuted home from work where I couldn't respond.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 25 2007, 08:21 PM) [snapback]485231[/snapback]</div>

I'll be damned, I found it on the first guess after that clue: Disney World, Florida!
Now I'll admit being subliminally pushed in a Florida direction - look closely at the fine print in Toup's image. But that could've been some artifact of irrelevant software (what IS that, anyway?)

Anyway, more than a fair entry in my book, requiring no specialty airport knowledge. Oh, and that railroad looked odd, it looks elevated, yet too small gauge to be a real railroad. So I though "monorail" and it was all downhill from there. Plenty of information in that image after all, combined with the knowledge that it wasn't an obscure site.

Good pick!

And no, I've never landed there. Half a century old and I've never visited Disney World at all, ever. (Should I get a medical checkup? )

Let's see if I can find something of wide interest ---




Alright, here we go:

Neither Jacques Piccard nor Don Walsh ever went here, but if they had, they would've achieved a feat as yet unaccomplished by any human being in all history (so all you Guinness Book aspirants, here's an opportunity!!

[attachmentid=10145]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 25 2007, 09:11 PM) [snapback]485259[/snapback]</div>

There is one particular resolution on Google Maps where there are faded "Copyright Google" notices tiled throughout the images - usually like one zoom click from where the satellite stops being available, but not always. In this one it appears to say "2006 Google"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 25 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]485266[/snapback]</div>

Absolutely correct - the famous Predator is the first of the UAVs to see general service.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 25 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]485266[/snapback]</div>

I guess I was banking on the elevation clues to give a better indicator than they did about just how tiny these airstrips were - not really suited for planes.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 25 2007, 09:32 PM) [snapback]485266[/snapback]</div>

I should hope not! Unlike many of us, your work can have real, immediate significance - far more so than any silly airstrip.

I was shooting for an airstrip not immediately recognizable by the numerous pilots, yet with a chance for the rest of us - sorry if I missed the mark.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 25 2007, 09:08 PM) [snapback]485256[/snapback]</div>

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is too small for a Cessna 185, especially one outfitted with tundra tires!

I just put a picture up two posts or so up (as an edit to the DisneyWorld find)

MB


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 25 2007, 09:21 PM) [snapback]485262[/snapback]</div>

It says Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Tiny print but clearly readable.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 25 2007, 09:54 PM) [snapback]485273[/snapback]</div>

I guess not - I just saw specs for a 185 with a Robertson STOL kit - a ground roll of 487 feet?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 25 2007, 09:54 PM) [snapback]485273[/snapback]</div>

Missed that one - there is a "2006 Google" in there as well.

I'm going to pass on this one - like the Manicougan crater it was immediately recognizable for me.

 

Let's see if I can find something of wide interest ---
Alright, here we go:

Neither Jacques Piccard nor Don Walsh ever went here, but if they had, they would've achieved a feat as yet unaccomplished by any human being in all history (so all you Guinness Book aspirants, here's an opportunity!!


[/quote]

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&q=27.9...p;z=14&om=1
The hint gave it away. Since Piccard and Walsh were the pair who went to the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, I looked for the highest location, MT. Everest.

Now, for something else [attachmentid=10155]

Posted by Mrs. Toups, who has commandeered the Prius this week, because I'm putting 150 miles a day on the car, driving three kids to three camps in different directions. You can bet we don't dare breathe in Daddy's new car!

 

Posted by Mrs. Toups, who has commandeered the Prius this week, because I'm putting 150 miles a day on the car, driving three kids to three camps in different directions. You can bet we don't dare breathe in Daddy's new car!
[/quote]

If you need a hint, the first one is that the scale is 20 miles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 26 2007, 03:27 PM) [snapback]485611[/snapback]</div>

Hey, I let them breathe! But my daughter changed the display to french at my wife's instigation.

Another hint: Although some would like to spend $18 Billion on a project here, a treaty might prevent this.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 26 2007, 05:29 PM) [snapback]485816[/snapback]</div>

Found it. The border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, at the southern shore of Lago de Nicaragua.

Just purple luck - I had no idea, but a Google search on treaties mentioned Panama and on a hunch I dialed up the isthmus on the map display and sonuvagun there were those same alto-cumulus clouds all over the place. Tracking north all of a sudden there was a familiar looking lake! I had to switch over to map to see where the hell it was - and go get my atlas for the name of the lake.

You'll have to fill us in on treaties and $18 Billion - I haven't been following Central American news closely enough to know the latest developments here.

How about having one of your kids come up with the next one?

MB

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 26 2007, 09:10 PM) [snapback]485843[/snapback]</div>

Regarding the treaty, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan-Chamorro_Treaty

Regarding $18 Billion, see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/04/nicaragua_canal/

Regarding a site, let's see what they can come up with!