Garmin pilot school

It’s that time of year.  The time when children are up early to wait at the bus stop. The time when groans about homework are echoing around the house. The time when yellow buses always seem to stop in front of you when you are late for work.  Yes, it is time for school.

But for a pilot, school (or at least the education) never really stops. We are always reading new information, or practicing approaches to refine our skills. Going into the school year and fall thunderstorm season is a great time for a little education. To that end I recommend Garmin’s online training course for the G1000. There is a VFR and IFR course available to help you get up to speed. Each training course has examples and demonstrations that walk you through the basic to the advanced. Visit flyGarmin.com for more information and pricing, and don’t forget the #2 pencil.

GeoEye releases aerial imagery from the Joplin tornado

It’s been a few days since a devastating F5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, and we’re just starting to get some aerial imagery of the area. GeoEye, by way of MJ Harden and their digital imaging aircraft, has posted an amazing image of the area around Joplin High School:

joplin-hs.jpg


I presume that the lack of recent satellite imagery of the area is due to the continuing bad weather (and subsequent clouds) in the area. I expect we’ll see more once the weather clears up.

For this particular image, you can view details on the GeoEye site or download this KML file to view it in Google Earth.

The Google Map Maker on Campus

As part of the recent US Map Maker launch, the Map Maker Community team has begun a series of campus visits across the US.

Our first stop was the University of California at Berkeley, where we gave students and faculty a chance to learn about Google Map Maker and work with Map Maker team members in person to map their campus.


Even though the map of Berkeley and the UC Berkeley Campus on Google Maps were already well mapped, students still identified many opportunities to add their local knowledge to the map. Edits included moving location markers, tracing building boundaries, and adding names of campus dorms. The Google Map Maker community team was on site to guide these new mappers and note their thoughtful feedback.


Participants were excited about making corrections and contributions to the map in their area, particularly the U.C. Berkeley campus, and seeing the edits they made appear on the monitor that had been set up on the big screen at the front of the room to show real-time mapping.

Everyone has local knowledge they can add to the map. Help us make your school look even better! Check out your college campus at mapmaker.google.com and leave your mark on the map by drawing walking paths, adding details to your school’s buildings, and more.

For more information on how to get started and to connect with other mappers, check out the Google Map Maker community forum. You can also reach out to the Map Maker community team at mapping@google.com.