September 12, 2007
Maps of Strange
Mister Bookworm sent me this link to Maps of Strange this afternoon.
I thought the rooftop airstrip in Manhattan was kind of a stretch, but I looked it up in regular Google Maps and it's there! WTF? Can someone explain this to me?
Matt Chancellor, if you're reading this, what little plane do you know that could manage this? Does this seem real to you?
My coworker and I are skeptical of the idea of a plane scooting around Manhattan landing on a rooftop, particularly in light of the highly publicized plane crash that killed Corey Lidle last year.
Ok. My picture is really long, so I have to figure out ways to make this post longer.
I also like
- the crop circles advertising
- the Welcome to Cleveland sign that is on a rooftop in Milwaukee.
A couple of them are just people who don't understand Google Maps, like the tipped building entry is a result of piecing the maps together from multiple photos. Because the satellite took the picture from different locations, the lines of perspective don't always work well together. Cities with lots of tall buildings illustrate this "problem" best.
Also, a couple of them seem to me like the satellite caught a reflection of the sun on the surface of the ocean, but the readers of that site seem to think there are UFOs.
There are several other photos where people just don't seem to know how Google Maps are made. But it's a super cool site!
Posted by Flibbertigibbet at September 12, 2007 04:18 PM | TrackBackI remember when I was doing short field landing practice, my instructor would have me try to land and stop before the first runway intersection at Republic Airport's (long island) runway 19. That's about 700 feet and it was a challenge. That rooftop can't be much more than 150 feet. The takeoff roll is even longer. Maybe an ultralight could do it, but I've never flown one so I can't say for sure.
Probably just some wealthy eccentric having fun with us. That's 77 Water Street. The primary tenant is Goldman Sachs. The "aircraft" is most likely just a model of a high-wing plane like a Cessna 152.
If you're wondering about the legality of flying around Manhattan though, you can still traverse the Hudson River Corridor (flying north and south over the Hudson at 1100 ft msl) without any permission from any controlling authority. You can still fly up the East River where Cory crashed his plane in Midtown, but you have to get permission from La Guardia Tower first. They're usually happy to do so as long as they're not too busy (which means, the middle of the night is the best time to go flying over the East River). Whenever I take a friend flying for the first time and I ask where they want to go, they almost always ask to fly 'round Manhattan, so I've probably done it a dozen times.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure rooftop landings were banned in Manhattan after the horrible accident atop the PanAm (now MetLife) building in 1977. A helicopter landing on the roof had a gear malfunction and it flipped over, killing all the passengers. One of the rotors fell from the roof and killed a pedestrian on Madison and 43rd.
Posted by: Matt Chancellor at September 12, 2007 10:29 PMI was thinking ultralite, too, but thanks for all the info on this!
Posted by: Flibbert at September 12, 2007 10:59 PM