Adkins Family Blog » geography http://adkinsgroup.org/blog Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:00:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Toncontin Airport http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:52:02 +0000 Brian http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/?p=395 “Toncontin International Airport serves as the major airport in and out of Tegucigalpa. The origin of this name is unknown. This airport is frequently criticized for being one of the most dangerous in the world (due to its location next to a sierra, its short runway, and difficult approach, which requires large commercial jets to execute a tight hairpin leftward u-turn turn at very low altititude to land on a very short runway–American Airlines pilots, for example, receive additional, specific training for the Toncontin approach).”

Pilot’s view of approach and landing. Starts slow, you can see the airport at about 2:35.

]]> http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/feed/ 0 Kwajalein Atoll http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/30/kwajalein-atoll/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/30/kwajalein-atoll/#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 12:36:09 +0000 Brian http://lojic.com/blog/?p=81 When I worked at CompuServe around 1993, I saw a picture of Kwajalein Island on Alisa DeSisto’s cubicle wall. As it turns out, she was stationed there for a year or two. I was fascinated by the concept of people actually living on such a tiny island (about twice as long as the airport runway!) in the Pacific Ocean many hundreds of miles from any decent size chunk of land. Is this place cool, or what? :) Click on the link or picture to view Kwajalein on Google Maps so you can explore virtually. Google allows zooming in to the 200 ft. resolution level.

Kwajalein on Google Maps

kwajalein.png

]]> http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/30/kwajalein-atoll/feed/ 7 Bermuda Triangle http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/28/bermuda-triangle/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/28/bermuda-triangle/#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 10:45:21 +0000 Brian http://lojic.com/blog/?p=79 I just discovered that if you take the average of the following locations:

Bermuda
Grand Rapids, MI (my mom & step-dad)
Columbus, OH (Andrea’s parents)
Orlando, FL (my dad & step-mom)

it results in a point roughly 15 miles from my house – cool huh? :)

Well, I had to cheat a little to get it that close. I used Grand Rapids instead of Rockford, Columbus instead of Centerburg, and Orlando instead of Altamonte Springs; otherwise the point would be a little north of Wake Forest, but that’s still pretty darn close. So, if we end up visiting our parents and Bermuda equally, then we live in a mathematically optimal location. I guess I should check on travel arrangements to Bermuda…

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