60% by Christmas !

[dakota-cowboy]

http://www.operationfly.com/contact

Here is a flying goal for the PoA frequent readers; take the percentage of airports claimed on Operation Fly from 56.88% to 60% by Christmas, That is only 152 airports or just 3 airports claimed by 51 pilots.

With 2095 airports left to be claimed there has to be 3 close by your area.

Look at the monthly stat link and see how many unclaimed airports your state has and go claim 3 of them!

60% by Christmas !

 

[Jim Logajan]

Barb Miller all on her own should have that many claimed by then....

Seriously though, if it wasn't for the rain forecast the next 10 days in my area I'd be claiming some more this week. Also, the nearest unclaimed fields are becoming much more distant.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Don't worry about starting over just return to Palmdale (KPMD) and Jacumba (L78) and Holtville (LO4). Fort Bidwell (A28) would be more suited for someone in Oregon. Claim those 3 and CA will almost be completed.

Fort Bidwell is on my list of airports to attempt (along with Malin in Oregon (4S7) which is right on the border of Oregon and California.)

 

[Jim Logajan]

I signed up and took a look. Not much left around me.

Not counting the 10 left in TN, look south; these 6 seem close to your home field:

1M3 M38 KHSV 5M0 4A6 8A0

 

[Jim Logajan]

I'm new to this adventure. Do I understand that a pic taken with the Android app is all that's needed? No extra signage, etc?

Something with the keyword needs to be in the picture;
"Your airport claim is made on this web site and must include a photograph which identifies the airport in some way and has the challenge key word visible. The challenge key word is "Operation: Fly," although "Go Fly America" can be substituted if so desired. A printable sheet you can use in your photographs can be found here, but you can make your own as well. Just remember that the password must appear in the airport photo or the claim can not be approved."
The complete rules are here:

http://www.operationfly.com/rules

 

[Jim Logajan]

Yes, I read all those, I just thought I saw somewhere that the app eliminated the signage....assuming it grabbed GPS location data and maybe watermarked the image with the Operation: Fly info. So I assume the app only facilitates the submission process?

Sorry - misunderstood your original post. Didn't realize there was an app. This thread seems to confirm you only need the app:

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45862

 

[Jim Logajan]

Last Saturday was just flat out frigid. This Saturday should be warmer and better flying. Just 11 flying days left before Christmas......it's going to take an extra effort from a lot of flyers to reach 60% by Christmas now.

Have had snow and below freezing here for the last week. It is finally warming, but now spotty fog forecast. Malin and Fort Bidwell are likely under snow and will stay that way for a while (no snow removal at Bidwell.) I might find time to claim some of the half dozen grass fields unclaimed around Portland OR. Or not - weather and work may conspire against it happening, alas.

But I'll be digging a trench deeper ths Saturday - no flying this weekend.

 

[Jim Logajan]

How's the total going?

http://www.operationfly.com/reports/monthlyStats

Stuck.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Got a couple of more in Fla. Last week.

Good work. Hasn't been much decent VFR weather in my part of the country (Oregon) to do any fun flying. Fog for weeks on end, followed by snow and freezing rain, followed by heavy rains and wind. Maybe a break next week.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Don't worry about starting over just return to Palmdale (KPMD) and Jacumba (L78) and Holtville (LO4). Fort Bidwell (A28) would be more suited for someone in Oregon. Claim those 3 and CA will almost be completed.

I managed to fly into Fort Bidwell (A28) today (a bumpy 2 hour flight from Creswell, OR (77S)) and have submitted a claim for it. That leaves just 3 California airports, all in south, to be claimed to complete the state.

Fort Bidwell was the first airport (of 10 so far) I've flown into where I couldn't find a sign or anything else to identify it, so took several photos of anything that might uniquely identify it (attached below because after 4 hours of flying I wanted something to remember the effort. I submitted the one with the airplane in it.) According to Airnav A28 gets about 10 operations a year; maybe one a month. But no one appeared to award me "airplane landing of the month" (it was a gusting crosswind.) I've always been partial to that sort of semi-barren isolated terrain.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Great job Jim ! Your claim was like claiming 25% of CA. Sorta like it at least.

Nothing like it, but thanks for the sentiment. I believe Peter Yee has the honor of claiming a good portion of CA.

Now if someone in southern CAL or southwest AZ would clean up those last 3 in CA. CA could join WY, RI, and DE as being 100% claimed.

Now only 118 airports to claim to make 60% by Christmas 2014

I just asked Dale to consider removing KPMD from the list of airports because, while it is technically open to the public, it is a military airport that can only be flown into on official business and only with prior permission.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Dale has no idea how to update the airports list. I've been looking looking for someone (anyone) who is interested in taking over running the site. So far no takers.

I agreed to take over hosting the site, because I was under the mistaken impression that there were others involved. That was not the case. As much as I'd like to see some improvements, I simply don't have the time to dig into the back end software for the site to maintain it and make changes.

I'm willing to assist or even take over. Do you know what the backend is implemented in?

 

[Jim Logajan]

40 claims in May 2014. Last time there were that many claims was in March 2012.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Ok - some numbers:

Before:
Total Airports: 4858
Claimed Airports: 2837
Percentage: 58.40%

After:
Total Airports: 4779
Claimed Airports: 2837
Percentage: 59.36

PLEASE let me know if anything is not working as it was before - I took backups immediately before the update and can restore if necessary.

In California, Airnav lists KNUQ, CA13, CA84, 60CL, and 00ca as all being private use. They are shown as being available for claims. Oregon looks OK.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Barb's sign indicates she is California bound. Perhaps she will clean up L78 Jacumba and L04 Holtville and then California will be in "Claimed" column.

Airnav has a comment "AIRPORT CLOSED INDEFINITELY" for L04. If you look at satellite views of its runways you'll see they are marked with white X symbols indicating closure. Description of runway surfaces sound pretty bad.

To steal a phrase from "2010":
"All these airports are yours, except Holtville. Attempt no landing there."

 

[Jim Logajan]

If someone can confirm L04 is closed, I will manually close it. Looks like there was a comment issued, but the FAA data still shows it open

Check the comments under "General Remarks" on the FAA's NFDC airport lookup page:

https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=L04

Technically operational, but airport indefinitely closed. Comments in the "Runways" section describe non-trivial damage. Surface condition "Failed". I think someone in a helicopter or STOL may still be able to safely claim it.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Barb's sign indicates she is California bound. Perhaps she will clean up L78 Jacumba and L04 Holtville and then California will be in "Claimed" column.

She does appear to be heading southwesterly. I plugged her last claimed airports in WingX and got this:

 

[Jim Logajan]

Closed

Thank you!

 

[Jim Logajan]

In California, Airnav lists KNUQ, CA13, CA84, 60CL, and 00ca as all being private use. They are shown as being available for claims. Oregon looks OK.

I have manually closed each of these. I'm not sure why there's a discrepency, as we use the same data source. I wonder if AirNav has updated yet, as the data is only a few days old right now....I'll keep an eye on these and see if I need to reopen.

I also hid "GLIDERPORTS" as that appears to be a fairly new classification of landing zones in the data (at least, new within the last 2 years).

Nick - sorry about these bug reports - but something appears to be inconsistent with the way you are handling gliderports. When I enter CA84 in the "Search for Airport:" field in the upper right of the pages, that airport still shows up as being available for claim in the result map. I suspect it is also the airport that is responsible for the count of 224 claims out of 226 for California in the Monthly Stats report. But other reports only show L78 as the remaining unclaimed CA airport.

Also, I'm curious to know what your data source is for airport data, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Two days into my quest. Logged a few new to me airports,having trouble getting to the non claimed,will keep working on it this month.

You're enjoying the trip I assume!