Google Earth Glider on Tow USAFA

[Shawn[_3_]]

38°57'9.87"N 104°50'54.49"W

If you zoom out and find the airport to the ENE, you can see a TP (same
one?) and another AC landing to the south.

Shawn

[ContestID67]

Cool.

I see another glider on tow at
38°57'16.14"N 104°49'25.29"W
Copy paste this directly into "Fly to" within google earth.

I also see trailers, gliders on the runway, and airplanes in the
air.
38°58'22.18"N 104°49'19.52"W

Damn active. Looks like they have lots of Blanik L-23's

[Tony Verhulst]

ContestID67 wrote:
> Cool.
>
> I see another glider on tow at
> 38°57'16.14"N 104°49'25.29"W

OK, While we're at it :-) Greater Boston Soaring Club gliders at:
42°25'49.98"N 71°47'47.70"W
42°25'54.75"N 71°47'03.60"W
42°25'23.84"N 71°47'25.17"W
42°25'38.01"N 71°47'44.61"W

Tony V.

[Jay Ts]

Tony Verhulst wrote:
> ContestID67 wrote:
>> I see another glider on tow at
>> 38°57'16.14"N 104°49'25.29"W
>
> OK, While we're at it :-) Greater Boston Soaring Club gliders at:
> 42°25'49.98"N 71°47'47.70"W
> 42°25'54.75"N 71°47'03.60"W
> 42°25'23.84"N 71°47'25.17"W
> 42°25'38.01"N 71°47'44.61"W
>
> Tony V.

To find many more gliders on Google Earth:

1. Point your web browser to http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/search.php
2. Enter into the "keyword search terms" field:
glider sailplane
(optional: click on "in subject" radio button) and click
the Submit button.
3. You will get a long list of forum posts. I get 582 hits.
In the posts, there are buttons to open the Google Community
placemark in either Google Earth or Google Maps.

Have fun.

[[email protected]]

Here is a strange one. Take a look at the glider over the end of
runway 36 at Seminole-Lake Gliderport in Florida. The glider appears
to be on tow but there is no towing aircraft? Doesn't look like a
motorglider? The shadow of this glider on the ground does not appear
to be small enough to place the plane very high and the position is
not going to put it in a normal pattern. Only thing left is a high
speed swoop into a climb and abbreiviated pattern and landing I
suppose. The field looks crowded but not so much as to be a contest?
Seniors brings in about 50 gliders. Something to ponder...
Sorry, don't have co-ordinates.

To find many more gliders on Google Earth:
>
> 1. Point your web browser tohttp://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/search.php
> 2. Enter into the "keyword search terms" field:
> glider sailplane
> (optional: click on "in subject" radio button) and click
> the Submit button.
> 3. You will get a long list of forum posts. I get 582 hits.
> In the posts, there are buttons to open the Google Community
> placemark in either Google Earth or Google Maps.
>
> Have fun.

[Jay Ts]

ContestID67 wrote:
> On Jul 22, 9:03 pm, wrote:
>> Here is a strange one. Take a look at the glider over the end of runway
>> 36 at Seminole-Lake Gliderport in Florida. The glider appears to be on
>> tow but there is no towing aircraft? Doesn't look like a motorglider?

I found it in Google Earth, thanks to coordinates provided
by ContestID67. There is a Google Community placemark for it
that says it's a motorglider taking off. I don't think so,
because there's no shadow of a motor, either on the top of the plane,
or on the ground. And I think it's also too high to be taking off.

>> The shadow of this glider on the ground does not appear to be small
>> enough to place the plane very high

It's not the size of the shadow that is telling, but the position.
Look at the shadows of things on the ground. It looks like early
afternoon, when shadows are almost minimal. Now take another look
at the shadow of the glider in question. The shadow is a long ways
from the plane, as compared to other shadows. This plane is a few
hundred feet up, I think. My guess is that the pilot is overflying
the airport before turning around to land.

Aside from that, this gliderport brings back memories of living
in Florida. In the winter, thousands of hawks can be seen circling
in thermals over the I-4 corridor, about 17 miles to the south of
the gliderport.

> Anyway, after interpreting the directions show on the web site and
> following along on Google Earth, the coordinates are;
>
> 28°24'28.93"N 81°50'16.72"W

[ContestID67]

On Jul 22, 9:03 pm, wrote:
> Here is a strange one. Take a look at the glider over the end of
> runway 36 at Seminole-Lake Gliderport in Florida. The glider appears
> to be on tow but there is no towing aircraft? Doesn't look like a
> motorglider? The shadow of this glider on the ground does not appear
> to be small enough to place the plane very high and the position is
> not going to put it in a normal pattern. Only thing left is a high
> speed swoop into a climb and abbreiviated pattern and landing I
> suppose. The field looks crowded but not so much as to be a contest?
> Seniors brings in about 50 gliders. Something to ponder...
> Sorry, don't have co-ordinates.
>

Soap-Box ON -- Took me a heck of a time finding the glider port. The
"map" on the Seminole-Lake Gliderport web site (http://www.soarfl.com)
is, in a word, useless. There should be a simple link to a MapQuest
or Yahoo Maps page. Great place to fly I hear, lousey web site. Soap-
Box OFF.

Anyway, after interpreting the directions show on the web site and
following along on Google Earth, the coordinates are;

28°24'28.93"N 81°50'16.72"W

Hint: Once you find a place within Google Earth, the coordinates are
displayed at the bottom of the screen. To make it easy to copy/paste
the info, simply click on the thumb tack (push pin) icon.

I think the large number of gliders are typical. Looks about the same
on Mapquest. As to the glider on tow? A motor glider?

[Frank Whiteley]

On Jul 23, 9:21 pm, Jay Ts > wrote:
> ContestID67 wrote:
> > On Jul 22, 9:03 pm, wrote:
> >> Here is a strange one. Take a look at the glider over the end of runway
> >> 36 at Seminole-Lake Gliderport in Florida. The glider appears to be on
> >> tow but there is no towing aircraft? Doesn't look like a motorglider?
>
> I found it in Google Earth, thanks to coordinates provided
> by ContestID67. There is a Google Community placemark for it
> that says it's a motorglider taking off. I don't think so,
> because there's no shadow of a motor, either on the top of the plane,
> or on the ground. And I think it's also too high to be taking off.
>
> >> The shadow of this glider on the ground does not appear to be small
> >> enough to place the plane very high
>
> It's not the size of the shadow that is telling, but the position.
> Look at the shadows of things on the ground. It looks like early
> afternoon, when shadows are almost minimal. Now take another look
> at the shadow of the glider in question. The shadow is a long ways
> from the plane, as compared to other shadows. This plane is a few
> hundred feet up, I think. My guess is that the pilot is overflying
> the airport before turning around to land.
>
> Aside from that, this gliderport brings back memories of living
> in Florida. In the winter, thousands of hawks can be seen circling
> in thermals over the I-4 corridor, about 17 miles to the south of
> the gliderport.
>
> > Anyway, after interpreting the directions show on the web site and
> > following along on Google Earth, the coordinates are;
>
> > 28°24'28.93"N 81°50'16.72"W

Shadows appear to me to reflect a sun angle around 45degs, making
length near to height of object (look at the edge of the house
shadow. Figure the road is 18-20ft wide, so the glider span appears
about 55-60ft. The large horizontal would indicate to me that is
likely a G109B on departure at approximately 140ft-170ft agl.

Frank Whiteley

[Andy[_1_]]

On Jul 22, 7:03 pm, wrote:
The shadow of this glider on the ground does not appear
> to be small enough to place the plane very high

Since the sun can be assumed to be at infinite distance from the earth
its rays are as near to parallel as makes no difference. The size of
the shadow should not change with height of the aircraft. The shadow
will become more diffuse as height increases.

I've often wondered if the width of a potential landing site could be
estimated by laying the glider shadow over it. Usually to busy to
try it and suspect that it would only be effective at low altitude
when it's too late to pick another place.


Andy