How to search on the Internet for Steve Fossett's Citabria taildragger

In sci.geo.satellite-nav Rolf Blom wrote:
http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/ ... Texas ...

LAT 31-50-23 (31.8398944) LONG 94-57-40 (94.9613278)

That would be in the wrong state.

A Google Earth Search for "Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch"
gives me a placemark at 38.608,-119.002 for the airstrip.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On 2007-09-12 18:08, wrote:
In sci.geo.satellite-nav Rolf Blom wrote:
http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/ ... Texas ...

LAT 31-50-23 (31.8398944) LONG 94-57-40 (94.9613278)

That would be in the wrong state.

A Google Earth Search for "Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch"
gives me a placemark at 38.608,-119.002 for the airstrip.


Yup, you are correct; it had a Texan namesake, sorry.

On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:38:51 +0200, Rolf Blom
wrote in :


Where did he take off from? Yes, I know it's a ranch owned by Hilton, but,
do we have coordinates or a google-able address?



Fly M Ranch (7TA7) is listed in FAA 5010 and he
http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/Texas%20R6%20R.htm

LAT 31-50-23 (31.8398944)
LONG 94-57-40 (94.9613278)

Nice try:

http://www.airnav.com/airport/7TA7
7TA7 Flying M Ranch Airport
Reklaw, Texas, USA

FAA INFORMATION EFFECTIVE 30 AUGUST 2007
Location
FAA Identifier: 7TA7
Lat/Long: 31-50-23.6200N / 094-57-40.7800W
31-50.393667N / 094-57.679667W
31.8398944 / -94.9613278
(estimated)
Elevation: 310 ft. / 94 m (estimated)
Variation: 05E (1985)
From city: 2 miles SE of REKLAW, TX
Time zone: UTC -5 (UTC -6 during Standard Time)
Zip code: 75784


Perhaps this location is at least in Nevada:

Adventurer Steve Fossett missing At 8:45 am, on Monday, September
3, 2007, Fossett took off in a single-engine plane from a private
airstrip known as Flying-M Ranch ( 38°36'13?N, 119°00'11?W *),
near Smith Valley, 30 miles south of Yerington, Nevada, near
Carson City and the California border. The airfield is owned by
Barron Hilton[12] and is the site of the biennial Barron Hilton
Cup invitational soaring encampment. Fossett was searching for a
suitable lake bed for a world land speed record attempt.[13]
* http://tinyurl.com/2n82vc


http://www.airnav.com/airport/NV54
NV54 Flying S Ranch Ultralight Flightpark
Pahrump, Nevada, USA

FAA INFORMATION EFFECTIVE 30 AUGUST 2007
Location
FAA Identifier: NV54
Lat/Long: 36-18-25.2600N / 115-59-20.0400W
36-18.421000N / 115-59.334000W
36.3070167 / -115.9889000
(estimated)
Elevation: 2800 ft. / 853 m (estimated)
Variation: 14E (1995)
From city: 7 miles SW of PAHRUMP, NV
Time zone: UTC -7 (UTC -8 during Standard Time)
Zip code: 89048

Ultralight Flight Park Operations
Ultralight Flight Park use: Private use.
Permission required prior to landing
Activation date: 06/2000
Sectional chart: LAS VEGAS
Control tower: no
ARTCC: LOS ANGELES CENTER
FSS: RENO FLIGHT SERVICE STATION
Attendance: UNATNDD
Wind indicator: yes
Segmented circle: no

Ultralight Flight Park Communications
WX ASOS at DRA (19 nm N): 119.675 (702-295-7278)

Nearby radio navigation aids
NDB name Hdg/Dist Freq Var ID
MERCURY 158/19.3 326 16E MCY -- -.-. -.--

Ultralight Flight Park Services

Runway Information
Helipad H1
Dimensions: 40 x 30 ft. / 12 x 9 m
Surface: concrete
Traffic pattern: left left

Runway 5/23
Dimensions: 800 x 25 ft. / 244 x 8 m
Surface: gravel
RUNWAY 5 RUNWAY 23
Traffic pattern: left left

Ultralight Flight Park Ownership and Management from official FAA
records
Ownership: Privately-owned
Owner: VIC SPANKOWSKI
1451 E FORT CHURCHILL RD.
PAHRUMP, NV 89048
Phone 775-764-2334
Manager: VIC SPANKOWSKI
1451 E FORT CHURCHILL RD.
PAHRUMP, NV 89048
Phone 775-764-2334

Ultralight Flight Park Operational Statistics
Aircraft based on the field: 3
Single engine airplanes: 1
Helicopters: 1
Ultralights: 1


Instrument Procedures
There are no published instrument procedures at NV54.
Some nearby airports with instrument procedures:

KVGT - North Las Vegas Airport (39 nm E)
KLAS - Mc Carran International Airport (43 nm E)
KHND - Henderson Executive Airport (46 nm SE)
KLSV - Nellis Air Force Base (46 nm E)
61B - Boulder City Municipal Airport (59 nm E)



You can tour the brothels in Pahrump if you like:
http://www.lasvegaslove.net/limos/lpackages/broth.htm

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...509266653.html
September 05, 1999

Pahrump growth endangers brothels
Church opposition

En route to the Chicken Ranch or Sheri's Ranch at the end of Homestead
Road in Pahrump, travelers in Town Cars and taxicabs pass a 20-foot
white cross and the sign for Living Waters Bible Church.

The church -- a double-wide trailer with neat trim and pale yellow
doors set well off the road -- is run by the Rev. Keith Lyons, a
seven-year resident of Pahrump.

"I live right down the street from the brothels -- less than 2 miles
-- but I don't have anything to do with them," said Lyons, who was
once a part of an ill-fated effort to close the brothels down.

"I wish they weren't there, but it's none of my business now. I just
see the limos going up and down the street, creating traffic.

"I got into opposing them a few years back because I do believe
prostitution is a problem -- the Bible condemns sexual sins.
Eventually, sexual sins will cause the downfall of our nation.

"But I do not preach specifically against the brothels because they
are a legal entity in Nevada. (The brothels) really don't rock the
boat, and that's the end of it."

The church-going community has led several anti-sex industry movements
in Pahrump. Most recently a group has begun protesting billboards and
signs that advertise massage parlors and a new topless bar. It is
illegal in the state to advertise prostitution.

The bar owners painted a picture on the side of their building --
which is across from an elementary school -- of a cowgirl who was
clothed only from the waist down and had her arms folded across her
chest.

"People were upset," said Bishop. "So apparently the bar owners are
going to paint over it because they want to get along with the
community."

But the billboards advertising Madame Butterfly's massage parlor and
the Brothel Art Museum in Crystal are still up. Madame Butterfly's is
owned by Pahrump Valley Gazette publisher Joe Richards and stands next
to a brothel -- Cherry Patch Ranch -- also owned by Richards. "We
counteracted. We got our own Jesus billboard," said Sandy Gleason, an
employee at Crowns Christian Bible Books and Gifts store in Pahrump.
The church community pooled its funds and rented billboard space for a
"Jesus is truth" message about three months ago.

Battles between church communities and the sex industry are brewing
statewide. Reno Southern Baptist activist Barbara Jones has been
speaking at public hearings in favor of outlawing prostitution in
northern counties, and is trying to create an organization to formally
oppose brothels.

"I oppose it on two levels -- spiritually and practically. It's
against Scripture, and it's detrimental to those who participate in
it," Jones said.

"It's time for Nevada to change its image. I grew up here, and just
like everybody else I bought into the idea that it was just a fact of
life because it's been a part of the state since the old days. But I
got much wiser about it.

Battles in Southern Nevada between anti-brothel churches and brothel
owners such as Joe Richards are not new.

In the early 1990s a Southern Baptist minister led an effort to make
prostitution illegal in the Pahrump area and was challenged by
Richards' editorial firepower.

"Back then there was talk of putting another brothel in Amargosa
Valley to accommodate airport clientele," the Rev. Ron Trummell of
First Southern Baptist Church in Pahrump said. "The plan was aimed at
Japanese businessmen who would fly in and get serviced and leave, and
I said, 'No. Enough is enough.'

"The next thing I know, I'm getting calls from Reuters and the
Associated Press and death threats in the mail, and then Joe Richards
has me on the front page of the local paper.

"He compared my wife and I to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker; he said I was
playing free golf on a golf course here -- things that were hurtful to
my image," Trummell said.

Richards, who did not return telephone messages to the Sun, is
considered by many to be influential in Pahrump's policy-making
circles.

But Bishop said that Richards' influence is lessening as the town
grows.

"He does not have as much sway as people give him credit for. He does
own a fair amount of property in Crystal and Pahrump, and he does own
a local newspaper. But I think there have been enough people moving in
that his influence has eroded," Bishop said. Trummell said the battle
against brothels is still one that many locals are loathe to enter.

"I contacted other churches, but I couldn't get a lot of support. They
said they oppose the brothels privately, but not publicly," he said.
Two of his church members left First Southern Baptist when he
confronted the brothels; four others joined from other churches, he
said. "I'm still against it -- I think it goes against God's word and
demeans God, but I'm just a little country preacher -- what can I do?"

Bishop said the new zoning ordinance, expected to be enacted by next
June, will regulate certain elements of the sex industry, such as
prohibiting nudity in advertisements.

"We are looking at adult ordinances -- bookstores, topless bars,
brothels -- and there will be some regulations, but none that will
affect the way that brothels operate now," Bishop said. "If the
brothels stay low-key, they'll be fine. They're at the end of a
dead-end road, we don't have bar fights or murders, and the sheriff's
office doesn't have to come out often."

In addition to avoiding the nuisance image, the brothels also generate
money for the town and perform civic duties, according to Bishop.

"The clientele comes out and buys drinks in the bar, and that's sales
tax. If they come in a taxi, they stop in Pahrump and buy gas. The
employees buy their food here, see the local doctors, fill their
prescriptions here -- it all helps.

"Are they civically responsible? Certainly. They are a big supporter
of various service organizations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions
Club, etc. They contribute a fair amount to school athletic programs
-- but it's done quietly, they don't do it to grab attention," Bishop
said.

Bishop is the chairman of a nonprofit food bank that received "a nice
contribution" from the Chicken Ranch.

In addition to underwriting civic projects, the seven legal brothels
in Nye County together pay $168,000 per year in brothel license fees
and employee work-card fees, according to county officials. The money
goes to the county's health department for the purchase of emergency
vehicles.

The state health department regulates the prostitutes -- they must get
weekly health tests. There have been no reports of HIV since 1985, but
there have been several cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Prostitutes generally work as independent contractors at the brothels
-- giving on average 50 percent of their fees to the owner. In some
cases, they pay $5 or $7 a day for their room, utilities, and food,
according to Kate Hausbeck, a UNLV sociologist professor who, along
with professor Barbara Brents, is writing a book on the Nevada sex
industry.

Generally brothel prostitutes charge a minimum of $300 for a sex act,
but average more than $600 per client.

"They fall into the middle of the echelon of prostitutes," said
Hausbeck. "The 'hegemonically beautiful' Las Vegas prostitute earns
more, followed by the healthy rural brothel prostitute, on down to the
street prostitutes."

In sci.geo.satellite-nav Dominic Sexton wrote:
Does anyone know the address or coordinates of the airfield that Steve
Fossett took off from?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&ll=3...11,-119.000258

Turning the view of GeoEye-Ikonos_1m on and off shows a change in
registration of the photo imagery around the airstrip. The point found
by a Google Earth Search is east of the runway by a little bit, I thought
due to rounding of the coordinate. Turning off the 1m view puts the point
on the runway. The point noted above is at the north end of the runway, at
a connection with an unused dirt runway. Toggling the 1m view on puts that
same point on East Walker Road on the photo.

You can see different planes on the tarmac. I would expect that someone is
performing photo comparisons between the two views to look for new items.

Seeing the planes on the ground gives you a "best view" of what you might
be looking for. If there is an aircraft at an angle, or damaged, it would
be smaller. My view looks like I would need to be at an eye altitude of
2000 feet or less to see anything.

Does anyone know where the other airplanes, the "previously unknown"
aircraft were located? Looking at that might give a clue what needs to be
discovered.


--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Yuck. You can just make up all the data.
There is freeware on the net which gives you reliable made-up data, e.g.,
it gives an address, phone number, and zip code that is "legit" (albeit
not true).

Does anyone know the name of that freeware?

um, the phone book???

In sci.geo.satellite-nav Some Other Guy wrote:
miket6065 wrote:
4. You can zoom down to the 12,000 foot level (or whatever) and search
the area for the blue Citabria taildragger. You can find a picture of
the actual plane here http://www.stevefossett.com

According to www.stevefossett.com:

The aircraft's last confirmed position on Monday (3 September) at
approximately 10:30 A.M. local time showed Steve west of Powell
Canyon (south of Walker Lake and southwest of Hawthorne),
proceeding east towards the canyon.

The geoeye-color.kml doesn't cover any of this area...

That is odd. I took three "hits", all in the southwest corner of the kml,
far away from that reported point, which is already east of the kml, and he
was reported heading east...

I zoomed to about 1000 feet, with a screen "ruler" of about 200 feet, where
the image goes from crisp to blurry on my screen.


--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

I zoomed to about 1000 feet, with a screen "ruler" of about 200 feet,
where
the image goes from crisp to blurry on my screen.


--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Clarence, did you notice any discrepancy in the dimensions you saw in Google
Earth vs. those they are showing in the "hit" images? Seemed to me they
differed by almost a factor of two on the few I looked at.

John Tyson

In sci.geo.satellite-nav John Tyson wrote:
Clarence, did you notice any discrepancy in the dimensions you saw in
Google Earth vs. those they are showing in the "hit" images? Seemed to
me they differed by almost a factor of two on the few I looked at.

The image shown on the web site is too small and dark for me to think
much about it. I noticed that they indicate the image is roughly 278 feet
square, but that has nothing to do with the initial zoom when you "fly to"
the coordinate in Google Earth. My initial zoom shows a ruler of 948 feet,
and an eye altitude of 3281 ft. They suggest an eye altitude of 1500 feet
for Google Earth. The hit that I just accepted is near some houses, so I
have some judgment of whether I would be able to spot a car or small
aircraft. If they expect people to just review the image on the web page,
that seems fairly worthless to me, but maybe it will work.

If he were around 37.422,-122.084 he would be easier to spot. There, I can
zoom to a ruler size of 40 feet and still see crisp imagery.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

wrote in message ...
In sci.geo.satellite-nav John Tyson wrote:
Clarence, did you notice any discrepancy in the dimensions you saw in
Google Earth vs. those they are showing in the "hit" images? Seemed to
me they differed by almost a factor of two on the few I looked at.

The image shown on the web site is too small and dark for me to think
much about it. I noticed that they indicate the image is roughly 278 feet
square, but that has nothing to do with the initial zoom when you "fly to"
the coordinate in Google Earth. My initial zoom shows a ruler of 948
feet,
and an eye altitude of 3281 ft. They suggest an eye altitude of 1500 feet
for Google Earth. The hit that I just accepted is near some houses, so I
have some judgment of whether I would be able to spot a car or small
aircraft. If they expect people to just review the image on the web page,
that seems fairly worthless to me, but maybe it will work.

If he were around 37.422,-122.084 he would be easier to spot. There, I
can
zoom to a ruler size of 40 feet and still see crisp imagery.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

The small images are definitely not usable. I can make out some detail on
the screen, but as you say they are almost black. Mainly though, the pixel
resolution in the images is much coarser than if you go to the Google Earth
location. I think they should probably have emphasized that in the
instructions, since some people may be trying to search the small images.
One thing I found useful, in both the presented images and the Google Earth
view, is to load the image into photoshop and enhance the contrast; on my
screen the Google Earth image is also very dark and lacks contrast. I
haven't looked, but there might be a Google Earth setting to adjust
contrast.

Per my original comment, the 278 feet seems to be closer to 350 or 400 feet
in the Google Earth imagery, so my "factor of two" was a little high.

John

In article , John Tyson
writes
The small images are definitely not usable.

They definitely are here. Only on a few of them have I felt the need to
use Google Earth to zoom in on part of the image that shows something
unusual.

I can make out some detail on
the screen, but as you say they are almost black. Mainly though, the pixel
resolution in the images is much coarser than if you go to the Google Earth
location. I think they should probably have emphasized that in the
instructions, since some people may be trying to search the small images.

I'm sure many are and in my experience that is perfectly acceptable.

One thing I found useful, in both the presented images and the Google Earth
view, is to load the image into photoshop and enhance the contrast; on my
screen the Google Earth image is also very dark and lacks contrast.

Sounds like you might benefit from adjusting your monitor:

http://www.users.on.net/~julian.robi...st-monitor.htm

If it is an LCD flat panel you may want to experiment with the angle you
view it from too as that can have a marked influence on the brightness
and contrast.

--

Dominic Sexton