2015-08-22 53 9

Sat 22 Aug 2015 in 53,9: 53.6552329, 9.7231957 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Compound around the barracks "Marseille-Kaserne" near the Uetersen Airport.

Participants

Hermann

Expedition

Originally, I planned to stay at home that day, doing dishes and other tedious stuff grown-ups do. But then this hash came along and so the internet forced me outside once again. I started my glorious expedition cycling north. I wanted to take the road through the forest Klövensteen, but the road was not there. I boldly vibrated my bike over the rubble and continued my way through the beautiful landscape.

The hash is located within the fenced-off compound around some barracks. I guess, I could have asked for admittance, but flying seemed easier. I arrived at the Uetersen airport and signed up for a flight. It was surprisingly easy to explain the concept of geohashing to the pilots, guests and curious bystanders. After a relatively short wait, I was handed a parachute, strapped into the guest seat and taken for a flight.
It. Was. Awesome.
The hash is located right at the end of the airstrip at that day, slightly to north-east. My GPS claimed, we were over the hash pretty much immediately. Either I misread the display or my car-GPS is really inaccurate while airborne. I didn't think long about this problem, since the pilot misunderstood my plans of taking a photo of my GPS' display and instead circled over the hash-site so I could take a photo of the actual hash-location instead. At that point of time I was so busy with screaming I completely forgot about checking the quality of the pictures taken.

After a couple of minutes circling over the hash, we had reached sufficient height to stay airborne for hours. I even was allowed to fly the plane myself.
It. Was. Awesome. Really.
For half an hour I checked the speed, looked out for other aircraft and searched for upwash. The thermal lift actually was that good I had to actively sink due to airspace restrictions. Only then I overused the yaw rudder, paniced and had the pilot take over again. I ran out of money and had to ask to be taken home. Up to that point I felt very much like Indiana Jones [1].

I tried to create a video-log-style report of the expedition, but I seem to be a lousy shot. Still, I uploaded the relevant material. For safety reasons, I had to tape my camera to my knee during take-off and landing, so the perspective pretty much describes a close-up view of my nostrils.

I attended a birthday party so the trip home took place at one o'clock in the morning. I forgot to switch off the GPS. Consequently it had drained it's battery. Due to the clear sky I managed to find the right direction by basic astronavigation. However, the way through the dark forest still was kind of spooky.

Tracklog

Unfortunately, the on-board GPS turned out not to have a memory card in it. As a result, no tracklog was saved.

Photos

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  Road under construction

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  Waiting for a plane

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  Stupid grin™ with GPS

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  Stupid grin™ with poster

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  The hashsite from above

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  The way back

Note the especially stupid grin due to GPS not being readable.

Also, enjoy these additional aerial shots of the nearby landscape.

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Achievements

Whether I actually reached the hash or not clearly is debatable and I cannot supply exact proof. I still award myself with the Air Geohash achievement because we were circling over the hash-site multiple times and for quite some time. I like to think we were in the correct position at least once.

Hermann earned the Air geohash achievement by reaching the (53, 9) geohash on 2015-08-22 by glider.