Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
Near the Oregon border, just inside Washington state, there’s a small aircraft at a very odd angle. Given that we can clearly see its undercarriage, it would seem likely that this aircraft is right in the middle of a loop the loop!
The distortion of the plane is probably due to it being near the edge of an individual photo (where the images are warped to merge them together smoothly), but no amount of distortion could reveal its underside…
Thanks to Eduardo Sao Clemente and Eric.
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Could this be a cropduster? If you ever watch these guys doing their job, you’ll see that they fly low across a field (perhaps the one to the north in this image) spraying the chemicals, then pull WAY up, do a vertical U-turn, drop back down and head back across the field right next to their previous pass. Also, this plane looks like a older-model cropduster.
Sweeeeett!!
I think it’s a Citabria, and I think it it’s doing some sort of aerobatics. It’s too high to be a ‘duster.
you’re probably right Tinamarie, looks like you’re a pilot & should know….. but, I don’t see a shadow…. how can you tell how high it is?
If I had to take a guess, I’d be willing to wager that the pilot is a student. If I remember right, power-on stalls will invert the plane and the purpose of doing such a crazy maneuver is to teach the student the proper reaction when in such a predicament. Now, if this is the case, this photo was snapped at exactly the right fraction of a second as the plane is about to nose over and plummet to the ground, gaining airspeed, and the wings will start flying again. The student better remember to apply opposite rudder to keep from entering a spin.
Best sighting ever?
One day Rob, I’m going to count the number of times you’ve said that…
@ Glenn - without a shadow, the best way to get an idea is to compare the size to other planes! Obviously the bigger the plane, the closer it is to the camera…
Ok, in the water, right below the plane, what the hey hey is this? If you follow it to the right, the whole thing looks like a giant arrow. Could it be part of a pier that came off the bridge? Looks like it’s actually IN the water..
Hey Guys…I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about this find (given my hobby of looking for planes in flight). By the way, I don’t think there is any noticeable distortion. The plane is looping up to the NW. It’s just past going vertical. Given the angle of the loop, and the shape of the plane, it looks just right to me. Notice the shadow of the nose fuselage on the left wing, and the shadow of the right wheel and leg on the belly of the plane.
Very cool!
I think the distortion is caused by the push-broom scanner effect, as discussed in last year’s ‘Warped Plane’ post:
http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/09/27/warped-plane/
Dan - could it be a swing bridge?
Excellent answer, Alex, it could well be. But when a swing bridge is in the open position, then that part of the bridge is parallel to the body of water. If this is a swing bridge, then either what’s in the water is a permanent “resting area” for the swing part or it’s just an after-effect or some other artifact of the image itself (i.e., there’s nothing really there, or maybe it’s the image of the swing bridge when it was in the open position).
Swing bridges that I’ve seen in person don’t normally have anything underneath them when they swing out. Obviously, nothing’s going to be ON the swing part of the bridge, so it’s not pertinent that something support it..
yabbut the swing bridge that alex linked clearly DOES have a “resting place” that’s parallel to the current….
I don’t think it’s an artifact. There are shadows, and there’s also a similar triangle on the upstream side
Check this out:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-05-31-train-washington_x.htm
and here’s photos of the bridge:
http://www.iinet.com/~englishriver/LewisClarkColumbiaRiver/Images/lewis_river_bridge_2004.jpg
http://www.iinet.com/~englishriver/LewisClarkColumbiaRiver/Images/lewis_river_bridge_house_2004.jpg
looks like those “dots” are clumps of weeds!
Those clumps of weeds are actually growing out of the tops of pilings from what was once a sort of “divider” for the bridge suport. They are very common in rivers all over america.
The bridge is a swing bridge. You can see the gearing in Glenns pic. The supporting concrete column looks much newer that the rest of the bridge suggesting it replaced an older structure - hence the remains of the ‘pontoon’.. Must have been a tricky job to replace the supporting structure.
That structure that is perpendicular to the bridge is to keep boats from running into the “swing” portion of the bridge when its open.
Rich farmer a couple of miles to the east has built himself a maize / maze
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Thanks, guys, good info. I think it’s also true that from waaaaay up here at our vantage point, it’s a little easier to see the swing structure. Neato.
Thats a bloody massive house, Ben!
That house is huge! I can only imagine the luxury inside,
@ Ben…and everyone else
That huge farm is actually Allen Creek Farm owned and operated by the Young family. The crops they grow are, believe it or not, CHESTNUTS. Must be a huge fooditem in America.
They have a website, http://www.chestnutsonline.com.
And No, I am not affiliated in anyway with the Young’s or Allen Creek Farm. I just googled the address
The looping airplane is a great find! I live nearby in Battle Ground, WA, and just the other morning we were standing outside watching a plane practice stalls, do loops and barrel-rolls. We see this quite a bit in our area. I don’t know if there’s a flight school nearby, but we’ve been watching them do this for years.
Well, right by the darn thing, there are little dots. Who put those there????
I laughed hysterically when I saw the reference to our farm. “Rich farmer” — that’s an oxymoron if ever there was one. We live on social security and the chestnuts are a supplement to that. We work our buns off here and it’s not what we had in mind for retirement. But it’s good exercise. As to the “massive house” — it may be a little larger than average but under that roof is an apartment and a kennel so much of this is illusion. Oh, and the luxury interior — try homemade furniture from my old shop-teacher husband. If you want to see more we have a chestnut festival here on Saturday, Oct. 13, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. You’re all invited. If you’ve never tasted roasted chestnuts you shouldn’t pass it up.