AK32 Gold King Creek Air Force Station

Has anyone here every flew to or by this place? It is about 30 miles
South of Fairbanks. I was flying around that area in MS FS 2004 and
noticed a runway on top of a small plateau in the middle of nowhere with
no other mountain terrain near by around. In FS 2004 it is 1000 ft tall
with just enough room for the runway. I found that curious and was
wondering if it is really like that. The only thing I can find with
google is it used to be a radio relay station for the air force, but no
photos or topographical maps to confirm what was in FS 2004.

--
Chris W

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Chris W wrote in news:P%yLe.297$5U2.197@lakeread07:

Has anyone here every flew to or by this place? It is about 30 miles
South of Fairbanks. I was flying around that area in MS FS 2004 and
noticed a runway on top of a small plateau in the middle of nowhere with
no other mountain terrain near by around. In FS 2004 it is 1000 ft tall
with just enough room for the runway. I found that curious and was
wondering if it is really like that. The only thing I can find with
google is it used to be a radio relay station for the air force, but no
photos or topographical maps to confirm what was in FS 2004.

I only have FS2002, and it is similar to what you describe for
FS2004.

I checked the coordinates given in FS2002 against some other
online sources and although it's not an exact match, it's pretty
close, within 1000 feet or so.

I took a look at some topo maps and digital elevation models from
USGS and the area is quite flat. There is no indication of the
strip on the topo maps nor do I see an obvious runway in some
1 meter imagery of the area. In the imagery, there are some areas
where the trees/shrubery looks unnaturally cut, but there's no 2500
foot runway (per airnav.com). The area looks to be a flood plain
(or possibly marsh) so perhaps it's since been washed away.

One thing I've noticed about FS is that in remote areas the
terrain mesh is not very accurate. Obviously in this case the
main terrain mesh is at a much lower elevation than the runway
and therefore it creates a mountain to put the runway on at the
correct elevation. I've seen this in other areas as well.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism

Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Blog: http://www.skywise711.com/Blog

Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

Chris W wrote in news:P%yLe.297$5U2.197@lakeread07:

Has anyone here every flew to or by this place? It is about 30 miles
South of Fairbanks. I was flying around that area in MS FS 2004 and
noticed a runway on top of a small plateau in the middle of nowhere with
no other mountain terrain near by around. In FS 2004 it is 1000 ft tall
with just enough room for the runway. I found that curious and was
wondering if it is really like that. The only thing I can find with
google is it used to be a radio relay station for the air force, but no
photos or topographical maps to confirm what was in FS 2004.

I've done further searching and discovered that the coordinates
everyone has listed for AK32 are wrong. Looking around the topo
maps on TerraServer.com I found it about ten miles to the south.

FS2002 -147°56.05'(-147.93417) 64°20.95'(64.34917)
airnav.com* -147°56.00'(-147.93333) 64°20.56'(64.34267)
terraserver.com -147°55.35'(-147.92250) 64°12.20'(64.20333)
*[and seemingly everyone else online]

If you look at the decimal latitude of the real location
and the deg/min latitude of the incorrect location, you'll
see 64°20 and 64.20. Obviously an error of nomenclature.

AK32 is located on a ridge, hence the need in FS to put it on
a hill to bring it to the right altitude.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism

Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Blog: http://www.skywise711.com/Blog

Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?