[Gertie]

I've long felt that a map showing which fields are growing rape seed would be of considerable help to visual navigation - the patterns of yellow fields can be much more distinctive than wood, water, road, railway etc.

A bit late, because everybody uses GPS now anyway, but finally there does appear to be such a resource:

https://map.onesoil.ai/2018#10.89/52.2066/0.1434

[Dave W]

It's a bit transient for navigation, both in terms of the crop lifecycle, change of use of fields in successive years and the currency of overhead imagery. Doesn't really fit with the "big picture" method of visual navigation that I was taught either.

Other than that, I see no issue with the concept.

[Gertie]

Doesn't really fit with the "big picture" method of visual navigation that I was taught either.

I was thinking perhaps of being (for wx reasons) kept down to 2,000' over Suffolk, where the "big picture" is "a maze of twisty little villages, all alike"

[Bert Presley]

I think it's a brilliant idea. Hopefully, Sky Demon will take note.

Another excellent tip is that, in a farmer's field, the gate is always placed in the muddiest part. This is done for sound agricultural reasons.

Consequently, in the event of a field forced landing, make sure you keep well away from the gate.

[seanxair]

Be easier to map solar farms. Very visible and pretty permanent

[seanxair]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/52%C2%B050'40.7%22N+1%C2%B041'02.2%22W/@52.844648,-1.6861387,435m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d52.8446479!4d-1.6839502?hl=en

[Dave W]

I thought to myself "What would the solar farm at @seanxair's link look like, say at quarter-million scale?

So I threw something together using Google Earth and Tim's Terrific Tool™, and it looks like this:

250k:

In other words, you can't see it.

Even at 50k, which nobody is going to use to fly unless in the circuit or they are a helo pilot looking for a specific indistinct site, it's insignificant. (It's the green polygon in the middle of the image)

[Paul_Sengupta]

I don't think you'd see wind turbines or TV masts at half mil scale but they're still on the maps!

But they do stick up a bit more than solar farms.

[Dave W]

There are rather more solar farms (and rape fields) than there are TV masts or wind turbine sites! They are typically found around many other ones, too . Differentiating one from the other would be nigh-on impossible, I'd suggest.

Of course, typically the wind turbines are in large groups over a significantly greater area than a typical solar farm.

A solo wind turbine (such as the one not far from Bourne Park) is not on the chart or shown on SD. Interestingly, a solo one is so (relatively) unusual that it possibly could be a useful navigation pin-point!

Back to solar farms. Truly, do we think this is going to be useful if on an aviation chart? Or just confusing?




(Data from here)

[Paul_Sengupta]

A solo wind turbine (such as the one not far from Bourne Park) is not on the chart

'Tis.

It's marked as "Windfarm" which seems a little grandiose.

Nah, don't need solar farms on the chart, it would only be confusing.

[Dave W]

Aha! Not on TTT™.

However, the point stands.

[Rob P]

It's marked as "Windfarm" which seems a little grandiose.

>5 = Windfarm
3-5 = Windsmallholding
2 = Windallotment
1 = Windgarden

Rob P

[Dave W]

<1 Windowbox

[johnm]

Visual navigation is obsolete

[seanxair]

I know there are quite a lot around but it does look like a cluttered map! Ours is 50 acres so noticeable from the air, as are the others locally, especially at the sort of heights I fly at.