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Ely [appearing on moving map]

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Old Oct 13, 2018, 12:28 am
  #16  
 
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It's BA's way of increasing Russian tourism, Ely is famous for it's cathedral, 66m tall, "the ship of the fens". Look out for Salisbury coming soon to a moving map near you.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 12:51 am
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by Giggleswick
Maybe it was put on the map by somebody who likes medieval architecture. The cathedral is one of England's best, especially known for its Lady Chapel and for its octagonal lantern (a tower-like structure, not a lamp!) over the crossing, which is visible from miles around (not so hard, considering how flat the landscape is). And, yes, I've actually been there. What a nerd I am.
Aimed at Russian tourists?

(Doh - as the above post....!)
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Last edited by CKBA; Oct 13, 2018 at 8:03 am
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 12:53 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Some relatively obscure places that show up simply have an aviation beacon in the vicinity, and/or a historical aviation connection. Such as RAF Witchford, home to the 115 Squadron Lancasters. That squadron dropped more tons of explosives for RAF Bomber Command than any other unit.
Originally Posted by Giggleswick
Maybe it was put on the map by somebody who likes medieval architecture. The cathedral is one of England's best, especially known for its Lady Chapel and for its octagonal lantern (a tower-like structure, not a lamp!) over the crossing, which is visible from miles around (not so hard, considering how flat the landscape is). And, yes, I've actually been there. What a nerd I am.
CWS - very recently I have actually been to what remains of RAF Witchford to visit its small and lovingly created museum and includes an original Lancaster engine rescued from a nearby field. I have a personal interest as my uncle was a Lancaster pilot in 115 Sqn and was based there before being shot down over the Netherlands at the age of 23 along with his crew (one aged only 18) in March 1944 - another aircraft on the same mission had Nicholas Alkemade on board, a fascinating story.

The original base like many others in the area became a small modern industrial state but one of the original hangers remains (now a recycling centre) along with three of the original nissen huts used by crews - these nissen huts are to be used to expand the museum. There is a small stone memorial to 115 Sqn in the estate built on where the original runway was - the huge losses of the squadron make very sad reading.

So Giggleswick you are not as nerdy as you thought - and I have also visited the village of Giggleswick too.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 3:07 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by lwildernorva
On my recent flight in from London to JFK, the Airshow happened to highlight the North Carolina city of Fayetteville over its much larger neighbors, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Wilmington. It's odd, yes, but definitely part of the third-party software, not BA's attempt to educate us about obscure cities.
All the time when I fly from London towards the Middle East I am hoping to cross the German-Austrian border close to 'Passau' (a beautiful historic city which is my hometown) but most of the times I see the little village of 'Wildenranna' on the map - even for German standards a rather obscure name for a city

I am not sure if Wildenranna (maybe 500 people living there) has a connection to air traffic; maybe its a waypoint as plenty of UK/ Europe traffic to the Middle East and Asia is flying ov
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 3:08 am
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by lwildernorva
On my recent flight in from London to JFK, the Airshow happened to highlight the North Carolina city of Fayetteville over its much larger neighbors, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Wilmington. It's odd, yes, but definitely part of the third-party software, not BA's attempt to educate us about obscure cities.
All the time when I fly from London towards the Middle East I am hoping to cross the German-Austrian border close to 'Passau' (a beautiful historic city which is my hometown) but most of the times I see the little village of 'Wildenranna' on the map - even for German standards a rather obscure name for a city

I am not sure if Wildenranna (maybe 500 people living there) has a connection to air traffic; maybe its a waypoint as plenty of UK/ Europe traffic to the Middle East and Asia is flying ov
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 3:40 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Some relatively obscure places that show up simply have an aviation beacon in the vicinity, and/or a historical aviation connection. Such as RAF Witchford, home to the 115 Squadron Lancasters. That squadron dropped more tons of explosives for RAF Bomber Command than any other unit.
Whilst that is true, I live about 25 miles from Ely and in that radius are a dozen such sites of historical interest (some more so than Witchford). Expand that out to the whole of East Anglia and Lincolnshire and you have an encyclopedia of places of aviation interest. So it doesn't make any particular sense that Ely was picked out. I think the algorithm could do with some attention. Most people get their bearings using the major population centres and when over the US for instance I find it frustrating to see 'Warsaw' picked out on the map, rather than say Cleveland or Columbus. I have no idea where Warsaw is (actually I do now, becuase I'm geeky and looked it up later), but the bigger cities would render the map far more useful in identifying your location.

Having said that, I think most of us on here would easily be able to locate the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone on a map, I do hope it comes up as a pub quiz question soon.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 3:46 am
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Some relatively obscure places that show up simply have an aviation beacon in the vicinity, and/or a historical aviation connection. Such as RAF Witchford, home to the 115 Squadron Lancasters. That squadron dropped more tons of explosives for RAF Bomber Command than any other unit.
Sadly 115 Sqn lost more aircrew than any other RAF squadron during WWII. they flew Wellington Bombers then Lancaster IIs with Hercules engines before moving onto the more commonplace and better performing Merlin engined versions.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 4:27 am
  #23  
 
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It’s a cunning plan to boost inflight wifi usage, as people google places they have never heard of.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 6:55 am
  #24  
 
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My first thought was actually, Ely, Norfolk, or Ely, Nevada? Despite being from the UK, I've actually only been to the latter!
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 7:11 am
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by Mordac
My first thought was actually, Ely, Norfolk, or Ely, Nevada? Despite being from the UK, I've actually only been to the latter!
It's Ely, Cambridgeshire Close to the Suffolk and Norfolk borders, but very much in Cambs. A former isle in the Fens before draining, it's still know locally as the isle of Ely. The majestic cathedral is the dominant feature and known as The Ship of the Fens as it can be seen on the horizon for many miles around and featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1994 album The Division Bell (the videos for the tracks were all filmed in the area).

Not to be confused with Ely, Cardiff, and the railway station of the same name.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 7:50 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by FeedbirdNiner
It's Ely, Cambridgeshire Close to the Suffolk and Norfolk borders, but very much in Cambs. A former isle in the Fens before draining, it's still know locally as the isle of Ely. The majestic cathedral is the dominant feature and known as The Ship of the Fens as it can be seen on the horizon for many miles around and featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1994 album The Division Bell (the videos for the tracks were all filmed in the area).

Not to be confused with Ely, Cardiff, and the railway station of the same name.
Urgh, you are, of course, right. For some reason (probably to do with railway services) I was picturing Ely where King's Lynn is, which is in Norfolk.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 8:30 am
  #27  
 
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Along the line of aviation significance, Ely is very close to RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath air bases. In fact, it is the closest place to catch a train from those places.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 9:54 am
  #28  
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I wouldn't be remotely surprised if a pilot came along and told us that it's an RNAV waypoint.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 11:34 am
  #29  
 
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What would work for me would be the standard Sat Nav map with live traffic. They could leave the aviation screen to display the height, ETA, speed etc and hand the map over to the one we all use and understand.

Think of the route planning you could do and the feeling of smugness as you overfly the red lines of stuck traffic.

Would probably be a lot cheaper licence for the airline to boot.
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Old Oct 13, 2018, 11:42 am
  #30  
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I've been there. It's a very nice little historic town, with a good place for afternoon tea and IIRC an old church. It's a pleasant drive from Cambridge.

BTW, there's also an Ely MN (USA) that's a northern resort town. IIRC it's where the International Wolf Center (zoo/museum about wolves) is located.
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