The PoA Relay (Race)

[EdFred]

So I kicked this idea off a few people here and all thought it was a great idea. It accomplishes at least two things: Giving us yet another reason to fly, and two, getting you out from behind your computers and meeting some fellow PoA people. And for those of you with sociophobia this might be more up your alley - because you don't have to go to a fly-in.

Who's interested?

And if you aren't, GET INTERESTED!

www.sidnaw.org/relay

 

[Jim Logajan]

I already have most of the code done for a "What airports can I fly to from [Airport ID]?" that qualify. That's currently in its infancy and can be currently found here.

My home airport of 77S has some reasonable legs. Nothing reasonable for anyone in nearby EUG, though.

 

[Jim Logajan]

You guys are cool.

This "relay race" idea seems to be EdFred's way of getting PoA pilots to physically meet up to punch embrace each other and sing Kumbaya. Oh all right, no way would he characterize it that way in this or any alternate reality.

Looks like you're new here, so just to let you know this isn't the first sort of "challenge" that has been proposed and run. Here is is an older challenge where pilots were challenged to fly to airports and be the first to "claim" them: http://www.operationfly.com/
Go to the Maps/Reports menu and select View Maps, then select New Jersey. The airfields in red are claimed, the blue ones are not. I think Nick said he was shutting it down but I'm not sure if he has followed through yet. If not for that challenge, which I discovered years after it first started, I would not have flown into a bunch of neat airports in Oregon. Many of the paved ones had been "claimed" by the time I started out, which turned out to be a great thing for me - since most that were left were cool out-of-the-way grass, dirt, or crushed lava strips. A little scary at first trying to land at some, but pleasantly satisfying afterwords.

 

[Jim Logajan]

see if we can connect at least one leg in all 48 states.

I like that idea. I punched in Rhode Island because I thought it might be tough matching some of those airports, but each one has at least one relay airport within 230nm. I haven't checked Delaware yet.

If the PoA member map is any indication, there may not be enough active members in the western states to make it easy to complete legs in the west in any timely fashion: Longer distances coupled with lower population density. The east and midwest at least has higher density of residents and therefore PoA membership.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I added a new page for the relay in case this gets up and running.

www.sidnaw.org/relay/search.php

This now allows you to search within x miles of where you are based to see if any airports qualify as a valid relay airport based on the current airport in the relay.

Minor bug report: After selecting 200 as the distance and clicking "Go!", the distance field reverts to displaying 100. Operationally appears to apply 200. All other distance selectors seem to do the correct thing.

 

[Jim Logajan]

How about now? Looks like there was a misplaced single quote in my code.

That seems to have fixed it!

 

[Jim Logajan]

For what it is worth, the following airports encompass all three west coast states and there appear to be airport variants in WA and CA that appear to allow relays well north, south, and probably to the east.

S20 - Goldendale (WA)
S21 - Sunriver (OR)
O21 - Hoopa (CA)