See it on Google Maps here
Here is what it looks like from helicopter. What is it? Answer below.
Image: Bob Barbanes
A pointer for pilots to help them find the airfield? No. It’s a gunnery range. Note the craters. The arrow double wedge shape was like chosen to allow for wind variance and to keep the exploding shells from starting fires in the trees. It would allow for two categories on ordnance to be tested with different ranges.
#1 by Gaelan Clark on May 14, 2011 - 4:19 am
That is Eglin AFB. Not Elgin.
#2 by Billy Bob Berkshire on May 14, 2011 - 7:10 am
That’s “ordnance” not “ordnace”.
#3 by Mike G on May 14, 2011 - 4:26 pm
OK. What the heck is this? I’ve asked some old-timer helicopter pilots from Fort Rucker and they just give me a blank stare.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.74%C2%B0+-87%C2%B0&aq=&sll=32.239521,-86.827698&sspn=0.549415,0.850067&ie=UTF8&ll=30.366655,-86.06329&spn=0.017514,0.026565&t=h&z=15
#4 by Al on May 15, 2011 - 10:14 pm
@Mike G: my guess is that it’s an area of forest that has very recently been logged. The greenish lines are where all the rubbish left after the logs have been stripped has been piled up by bulldozer.
#5 by Mike G on May 16, 2011 - 4:29 pm
I’ll go along with that. I’m just surprised by how precisely the rubbish has been piled up all the way around in such a geometrically precise way. This is old enough to where a new picture should show green taking over again from the re-planting. I’ve been checking it for about a year and haven’t seen any evidence of new growth (but, the pictures may not have been updated). If it’s not a clear cut, then maybe the nearby road named “Bunker Road” is a clue???
And, if it is a clear cut, there should be lots of other examples nearby. I haven’t seen any more precisely cut patterns like this. I guess the person managing this plot could have done it this way just to see what it looked like on google earth.