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Old 06-30-2012, 07:50 PM
  #11  
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Originally Posted by TallFlyer View Post
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong but once you know the altitude and the elevation it's a simple trigonometric problem?

And once I plug in 3.5 degree elevation and 37,000 feet of altitude I get a distance 114 miles.....

Regardless, cool shot.
Simple is right. You need to pull your head out! Photographers always use nautical miles, metric feet and degrees Kelvin! Geesh!!
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Old 06-30-2012, 08:03 PM
  #12  
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Metric feet? Try smoots.
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Old 06-30-2012, 10:31 PM
  #13  
Nice lookin' tree, there!
 
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Originally Posted by Flying Dog View Post
This is very cool.



Prints can be ordered at:

Flight to Venus Prints - Bob Fugate's Photos | SmugMug

D800 Venus Transit Shoot - Bob Fugate's Photos | SmugMug

From the photographer, Bob Fugate:

“Flight to Venus

This is a United Parcel Service MD-11 aircraft UPS Flight 4911 en route from Ontario, CA to Louisville, KY flying at 37,000 ft and was 71.3 miles from the camera. Elevation was 3.5 degrees.

After a week of inquiries, I have made contact with the crew -- Captain David Kantor and 1st Officer Dean Burke. I have made two large prints and will be mounting, framing, and sending them to David and Dean.

See next photo for a map showing the locations of the camera and aircraft.”


From Captain Kantor:

“So....I get this call from my first officer this afternoon and he says, 'Hey, the FAA and UPS thinks this is OUR flight #4911 from ONT-SDF the other day!' It was...
I asked the photographer, 'How did you figure out we were 71.3 miles away from you?' He said that once he found out we were an MD-11, he looked up the dimensions of the aircraft, he estimated the heading we were on (the FAA confirmed his calculation was within 5 degrees), he knew angle he shot the picture at, he then calculated the distance based on the known length of each pixel in the photo, ABQ Center told him that we were at 37,000'....and came up with 71.3 miles.
Fly Safe,
David Kantor
MD-11”
Nice! But while you weren't looking, one of our triple-sevens went by Uranus. Sorry.
fbh
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Old 07-01-2012, 05:31 AM
  #14  
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Originally Posted by frozenboxhauler View Post
Nice! But while you weren't looking, one of our triple-sevens went by Uranus. Sorry.
fbh
That made my week!
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Old 07-01-2012, 05:53 AM
  #15  
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Math = awesome
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Old 01-01-2017, 12:37 AM
  #16  
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Originally Posted by TallFlyer View Post
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong but once you know the altitude and the elevation it's a simple trigonometric problem?

And once I plug in 3.5 degree elevation and 37,000 feet of altitude I get a distance 114 miles.....

Regardless, cool shot.
Ok, Im really late into this discussion, but .. I have had correspondence with Fugate regarding his photo. His initial calculations estimated the altitude of the plane at 36,800 and the distance at 68 miles. After supplying the FAA with his GPS location at the time of the photo, they are the ones that supplied the 37,000 feet and distance figures. Oh, I have the poster-sized print of this photo, autographed by Fugate, framed and hanging in my office at work.
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Old 02-22-2017, 09:21 PM
  #17  
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Default Captain David Kantor

Captain David Kantor - Captain of the Flight to Venus, passed away on 18 FEB 2017 at age 51.
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