tommygun32

Was just looking over San Diego for another thread and spotted this plane captured on google earth on final approach. [8D]

tommygun32

SNAP!!! Check this out.....Just zoomed out a bit and spotted a 2nd one. I know for a fact though that these have to be 2 seperate pics 'cause I've never seen planes THAT close coming into Lindbergh Field.

redfisher1974

I have been looking at google earth lately and noticed the pics are all like 2 years old, Do they ever update them?

tommygun32

I believe they do, but it's just an on-going project.

I know there are sections of google earth that show parts of Dubai that are more than 5 years old.

warheadforever

I saw the google earth car once, but that is the extent of my interest in this stuff, though those are some neat shots! LOL

SAVAGEJIM

Sometimes they do, other times they do not.
These satellite photos are not reliable for a number of reasons:

1) As you observed, they are a few years old. It all depends on when the satellite owners take the pictures and how quickly Google can purchase them. And you will notice that there are distinct lines in the pictures. One side of the line can be 2years old, and on the other side of the line, the picture could have been bought from the satellite owners yesterday.

2) Pictures over government installations are never updated, or if they are, they are updated with some obscuration in the way. For example, you will see Army forts with clouds over them. Or if you can see them clearly, they are out of date or they are pictures that do not let you see too many of the equipment parked in the motor pools (tanks, trucks, jeeps, etc.).
This is to keep perspective enemies from doing "Saddam Hussein Intelligence." This is where the enemy watches public media like a hawk for any military information. During the 1st Gulf War, Iraqi officers under Saddam Hussein got information of troop movements, bombing sorties, etc. from watching CNN!
The last thing the military needs is for the enemy to go on-line and count tanks at Army forts to see if a unit has been deployed.
So, either in respect to the government and at the request of the government, only old, out of date, or otherwise pictures deemed harmless are put online.
I know this because I was in the armed forces, and today, I work as a civilian in the government.

3) The pictures oftentimes neglect to update photos of rural areas. Farmlands, open ranges, low populated areas are not a photo priority, so Google will buy these pictures less often. The reason why is little happens out there in those distant areas. Google tends to purchase pictures of the populated areas more often. The reason why is the cities and growing towns are always changing. Urban sprawl causes precious farmlands to be destroyed and replaced by low-density residences. Highways and roads are being built and upgraded to support the new massive traffic coming from these urban sprawls. In the cities themselves, buildings are torn down and skyscrapers replace them.
And if it is a big name city, chances are that Google will buy updated photos of those before they buy a photo of Old McDonald's farm.

SAVAGEJIM

That will change soon. As Dubai becomes a more and more popular tourist attraction, I am sure that Google will put pressure on the satellite owners to take more recent pictures of that area.

One of the things tourist-travelers do is go on-line to look at these satellite photos of the places they want to visit. And this trend will only increase as more and more travel agents catch on and begin to use satellite photos as one of their aids to convince a customer to visit somewhere.

HJJFFFAA

According to Google Earth I still have a 1987 Buick Regal and a 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix.

DaveG55

The google earth photo of my house was updated this past spring, March I think.

DaveG55

That got me wondering so I did a search on spacing for final approach. From as near as I can tell the minimum spacing for two large jets is 2.5 - 3 miles. It's real hard to tell distances w/o knowing something about the area but those may me that far apart.
Keep in mind I have zero aviation background, unless you count crashing an rc heli, so I could be totally off.

One thing I did learn from my quick search is that air traffic controlers have a WHOLE LOT to factor in when landing planes! A lot more than I had ever considered!!

Tjettzky

I HATE that! I want to throw things at my TV when a reporter says things like "I'm in the southern town of XXXXXX and I'm part of a unit which is gathering with others for a large assault on a XXXX compound scheduled for tomorrow morning". Thanks for telling them we're coming, jerkwad!

SAVAGEJIM

Yeah. The military learned its lesson from the 1st Gulf War. As a matter of fact, during the 2nd Gulf War, Geraldo Rivera was fired from one of the news broadcasters because he pulicaly on the news gave away troop movement and operational plans. The D.O.D. made a formal complaint to the news company he was with, and shortly afterward, they canned Geraldo.

tommygun32

I am by no means an expert either, however, those two planes are about 13 blocks apart. At the speed they're traveling, they are maybe 10 - 12 seconds apart. Lindbergh Field only has 1 runway, and there's no way you can have one plane landing before the 1st is completely off the runway.

Again, I'm not an expert, but I actually used to sit on my motorcycle in the parking lot at the very beginning of the runway watching the planes land. Sometimes you can see them stacked up 4 or 5 deep at night, but there was always at least 1 minute between them.

I believe there are also rules about how close they can follow eachother due to air turbulence and stuff.

I've done some research on flight controllers.....and agree....they do some seriously hard work. Way beyond my realm of understanding.

jatoracing33

Moving to street view, Pittsburgh has you beat.

SAVAGEJIM

LOL, that is too funny!

jatoracing33

There was also one somewhere else with someone aiming a gun at someone else. I think that has since been delete, though, because I can't find it

RWeston

and this is just east of Prescott, AZ:

crustychief

There used to be one more plane behind that second one on the east side of Balboa Park. My friend owns and lives in the pie shaped building off the Stbd wing.

The_Shark

thats sweet... well, for you, not the guy at the other end of the gun.

too bad we cant predict when they will take a shot!

1320Fastback

I remember a street view that had two guys in scuba diving equipment and they chased the car down the street holding their spear guns in the air like they were mad at the car.

farr301

My uncle was flying around Texas in his plane recently alongside a friend and they flew of an area where a man has boldly written his name in massive letters with a tree line. If you google map Buescher State Park, Smithville, TX. and zoom out 2 to 3 notches you can the massive name "LUECKE" spelled out. The letters were estimated to be about 3,000 feet tall and each stripe in a letter was about 100 ft wide. It's said these can be seen from space!

Jake

oldvet70

My Feedback: (10)

According to the scale in Google Earth the aircraft are 0.67 miles apart.

KiwiKid

A flying buddy of mine got snapped down at our local park by Google maps

Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

redfisher1974

Wonder how he got it so perfect? Looks cool.