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sangiro

New Drop Zone Locator!

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Heya all,

We're happy to introduce our new DZ Locator. :)
You can now type in an address (or just a ZIP or Postal code) to locate DZs anywhere in the United States and United Kingdom. We'll add more countries as we get enough location coordinates for DZs.

Searches are limited to 3 per day. Premier Members have unlimited searches. Premier Members can also get driving directions from any location to any DZ in the database.

You can access the locator from the Dropzone Database home page:
http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/

Or you can go to the Locator page at:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/dropzone/finder.cgi

A huge "thank you" to Ross Simpson (simpsora) who put in a lot of his own time to make this happen. Hope you enjoy. We think this is hands-down the best DZ locator anywhere online. B|
Safe swoops
Sangiro

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What Aussie DZs are you missing? If you send me the list I'll see what I can do about filling in the blanks.



Well, here's how it goes. We can only add a country if we have geocoding data avialable for that country. Currently we use data from ESRI and they only have geocoding data available for the following countires:

United Sates, Canada, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland (Dublin only), Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

So, we'll go after these countries first while we look for alternative and additional sources of geocoding data. We're just starting though so it would not harm to start collecting latitude and longitude data for all DZs. :)
Safe swoops
Sangiro

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We'll add more countries as we get enough location coordinates for DZs.



If anyone's interested, here are some more or less technical details about the locator:

Firstly, doing searches and drawing maps of DZs requires us to have their latitude and longitude coordinates stored in a database. Similarly, when you enter an address into the locator, we must first convert your address to a latitude/longitude coordiate.
The process of turning an address into a latitude/longitude coordinate (geocoding) is explained here: http://www.mapquest.com/features/main.adp?page=geocode.

Also, our geographic data service provider only offers geocoding in certain countries. For the time being, we are limited to only allowing searches in the countries Sangiro listed above.

Aside from being able to geocode in a country, we also need to have each DZs latitude/longitude stored in our database.
The best way to accomplish this is to have your DZO update their DZ listing, as explained here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1204271

For those of you in countries not currently covered, we are looking into other solutions that will let us find DZs in your countries as well.

Enjoy!

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EGJJ 212' W 4913' N Elevation: 276 feet



More granular please. Degrees, minutes and seconds or the location could be out by miles on a map. :)



Sangiro

Drunk now, will take a GPS on a jump tomorrow.
then let ya, know ;)

cheers

James

"This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave

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ooops sorry didn't fully read the post:

ASC/Cedartown
Lat/Long: 41-37-00.000N / 093-38-26.000W
41-37.00000N / 093-38.43333W
41.6166667 / -93.6405556

The Farm
Lat/Long: 34-01-07.300N / 085-08-47.300W
34-01.12167N / 085-08.78833W
34.0186944 / -85.1464722

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Hans? Tim? Trey? Anyone?



Yes please! ICAO codes are good as I can try and look up your location but if you have exact lat/lng values (the more decimals the better) then give me those. :)


Yes, I checked the directions to Skydive Atlanta and they now go to Thomaston.

I looked at the specific directions for a handful of DZ's that I know how to get to, and the directions are *mostly* right. When it starts to get specific as to lefts and rights to get in to the airports, they are not quite right. I'd check with the DZ or mapquest for more specific driving directions before heading out using these directions.

I sent Greg a PM since The Farm is his farm. He should be able to get you the digits.

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Sorry HH! USPA lists ASC/Cedartown as being located at "Polk County Airport". I checked my sectional chart and the Airport Directory for our area and it's not on either one. Also doesn't show up on airnav.com. I'll ask around and see if I can find it. If anything I'll ask our jump pilot what the deal is. I'm sure the info for The Farm is correct though...

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