Re: The crazy stuff you see from an airplane...

[Newps]

Jay Honeck wrote:

>>>>Someone having fun with a tractor... must be GPS driven or something.
>>>>Pretty cool!
>>
>>We have two here in our town. Has nothing to do with GPS. Not sure how
>>GPS would even be helpful.
>
>
> A few years ago I attended the Iowa Farm Implement show, because (a) it was
> nearby, and (b) I knew NOTHING about farming, and thought it would be a fun
> thing to do with the kids.
>
> At the show they were demonstrating GPS for farmers, and I was astounded at
> the capabilities of the units they had on board -- they were WAY more
> sophisticated than anything in our planes.
>
> They showed how you could keep track of where you had planted (or not
> planted) on your moving map. It simply turned the planted areas green on
> the moving map as you went along -- it was therefore impossible to "miss" as
> section, or over-seed (or fertilize, or weed) a section. The units could
> be linked to the machinery in ways that fully automated planting, or
> whatever -- and they were data uplinked to the main computer back in the
> office, so you could automatically control inventory, etc.
>
> It would be absolute child's play to plant a corn maze -- or create giant
> billboards -- with one of these units.

I know how they use GPS on the tractors to save time, seed, pesticide,
etc. With a corn maze they simply lay it out on the ground first(best
way) or they essentially mow it off after it is 6-12 inches high in June.

[AES/newspost]

In article >,
Newps > wrote:

> > "Dave Russell" > wrote in message
> > om
> >
> >>Someone having fun with a tractor... must be GPS driven or something.
> >>Pretty cool!
>
> We have two here in our town. Has nothing to do with GPS. Not sure how
> GPS would even be helpful.
>

Brad Parkinson and engineering students at Stanford have worked in the
past on using GPS to control moving vehicles, e.g. farm tractors. One
of the demos some years ago was embossing (with permission) a huge
"block S" in a farm field of some sort (wheat? corn?) in the San Joaquin
valley.

[They also worked on automated landing of aircraft under GPS control. I
was a bit startled at first by a story in the university's news magazine
some years ago on tests they'd carried out using a big-iron airliner of
some sort, with the results being, quote, "99 successful landings out of
100 attempts".]

[Dylan Smith]

In article >, Todd Pattist wrote:
> There's a hang - glider filed near where I fly (N82
> Wurtsboro NY) that has a mural of Jimi Hendrix mowed in the
> grass.

In Texas, between Houston and Austin (closer to Austin than Houston I
think, I saw it when flying from SPX to Bergstrom) there is the word
'LUEKE' (IIRC) written in trees on the ground. Mature trees by the looks
of them so it's been there a while.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"