Established in 1945 (Years before the Pacer saw production) at the center of Canada’s first crop circle, the church has seen its membership grow from the original founding 3 to a militarily stunning 15 in 1978.

After predictions that the Pacer would take over the world and transport everybody to some mythical place called “Dedroid, eh” membership in the church has fallen off dramatically, to the point where it now boasts only 1 member – one Frank Frankson, grandson of the first Pope of the Pacer.

Much of this would be filed under “Christianity and other Nonsense”, were it not for the crop circle containing their church. Apparently, in an effort to distance itself from what it considers “a raving bunch of loonies”, the crop circle has extended a pseudopod to the west, intending to move closer to the One True Religion: “Mopar”, or its younger sister “Cessna”. Or, maybe it’s simply moving west in order to consume the inhabitants of the completely unsuspecting town.

If this is the case, the townsfolk are very lucky that a ley line passes between them and the crop circle – you can see from the pictures that the pseudopod moving west has encountered the barrier and is now searching for a way around it.

Of course, this is taking some time, since A) the crop circle – like Weeping Angels – can’t move when it’s being observed, and, B) everybody knows that the larger a creature is, the slower it moves.

Here is a much clearer google map (satellite view) of the one on the South of the Dallas/Ft Worth airport.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=dfw+airport&ie=UTF8&ll=32.869094,-97.040171&spn=0.002336,0.003237&t=k&z=19&om=1

(The answer is that Google Earth usually agrees with the listed values to within ten meters in North America and Europe, with the occasional exception. Elsewhere it can be hundreds of meters off, I’d guess due to the use of different datums (data?).)

This structure is indeed the Fort McMurray VOR/DME. It sits 2.8 nautical miles almost due east of the runway. The approach plates linked to by Yossarian correspond with the Google image nicely. I’m not sure what type of search you did, but many times a navaid used for an airport is not included in the airway route structure and won’t show up on those searches.

You are all partially correct. The structure is actually a combination of two different types of navigational aids (navaids). It is a VOR/DME. The VOR is used to determine aircraft bearing from the station and the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) is used to tell distance from the station. These stations actually receive signals from aircraft and then transmit the aircrafts’ radial (bearing from station) and distance from station in nautical miles. This is a very common type of naviad combo used in Canada. In the U.S. the most common type of navaid combo is the VORTAC. Which is a combo of the VOR and the TACAN (Tactical Aid to Navigation). All these naviad combos allow aircraft to determine their aproximate position (within 1 or 2 NM depending on distance from the station) with reference to only that one station.

OK, probably way more than anyone wanted to know about this.

I’ve drilled wells near that location.

Every June they do a Con, and I made it out this year for the opening of a VR 3D game, where you command a starship, fighting Klingons!

Another full list (pdf) of canadian VORs. I looked it up before reading through everything, but mapping the Fts VORs they seem significantly west off the object in question. Could be I’m not wise enough or have the know-how of how this is supposed to work, but plot local VORs in google v where the object it and they all seem significantly west of there. Not crazy much and it probably is a VOR, but it’s odd that it’d be so far off the airport while being reported (including past links) smack on it. Perhaps I just need to delve deeper yet into how this works.

I had always wondered what it was. Thanks for the enlightenment.

… and you wondered why abductions are so traumatic

:p

Not that you know of anyway =)

–Flashy Things You–

50 degrees 24 minutes N by 113 degrees 15 minutes W

I love aviation, I hope to continue flying lessons in the near future.

http://www.worldaerodata.com/wad.cgi?nav=FORT+MCMURRAY&nav_id=YMM&nav_type=4

VORs, on the other hand, give you a directional bearing to the station. Navigation radios can tune into 2 or more at a time, and by seeing which ‘radials’ you intersect, you can pinpoint your location on a map (provided there are 2 VORs to tune in to).

They’re frequently placed in line with the end of runways at airports, so you can fly the radial to hit the runway. In Fort McMurray, you’d follow the 260 radial right into runway 25.

http://charts.ivao.ca/CAP3/CYMM.pdf

Really, though, VOR station sounds right. Now, it’s been a while since ground school, but from what I remember, VOR is pretty well only used to listen to baseball games on AM radio frequencies now…If I’m not confusing it with another type of navigation (like I said, it’s been a while and I haven’t done any flying in ages…)

Now for those not up on the lingo, what VOR is (essentially) is an AM radio wave broadcast, and there is a corresponding instrument in most planes (only real use would be as a backup system…when all other nav systems fail, VOR to the rescue!). The instrument in the plane determines the direction that the signal is coming from, but the pilot has to turn a little knob, and a little needle jumps up or down depending on what direction the station is in, determined by how strong the signal is, but it doesn’t actually give you a heading. As a result, if you navigate with just vor, your flight path looks something like this: /\/\/\/\

Now again, like I said, it’s been a while so anyone who wants to elaborate/correct please feel free!