Any General Aviation Geocachers??

[+Tallchick]

I'm new to geocaching, but love it. My husband is a general aviation pilot (that means that he doesn't fly commercially, just as a hobby). We fly our Cherokee 235 in and around Michigan. I'm looking for any ideas or poeple who have combined both hobbies. Obviously, we could pick a destination, fly there, geocache, and return. But if there are other cachers out there with GA experience, some sort of organized fly-n-cache event at/around airports could be really fun. My DH says "pilots aren't interested in that sort of thing. We just want to use our GPS to find the airport!" Help me prove him wrong!

 

Any ideas?

[+hedberg]

There is one cacher here in Gothenburg, Sweden, that are a pilot also that I know about. His username is Gavia.

[+W7WT]

I am sure there is a lot of Geocachers who are general aviation pilots. My geocaching buddy, Ajetpilot, is a retred Naval Pilot and American Airline's Captain.

In about four months I will be 79 so I sold my last plane a few years back. I could no longer pass the physical. I started out in WWII flying Stearmans as a Naval Aviation Cadet. We have owned two airplanes, a Cherkee 140 and the last a Archer, PA-28-181. Both planes were full IFR and I had a commercial, instrument, float plane and ground school instructor rating. My wife also had a private pilot license. My oldest son is a captain on a 747-400 Atlas Cargo Plane. He started out as a bush pilot in Alaska. We have made five trips to Alaska from Bremerton, Washington and camped out on the way. One of the big problems even if you were flying a supercub is getting around on the ground after you have landed. Here in Washington State there are lots of small fields where you could walk or bike to a lot of nearby caches. My wife still misses flying. It's a great sport. Smooth Landings Dick, W7WT

[+Capitalpete]

 

Just tell him it cost about $120 each time you go out (remember the $100 hamburger?) , he can play with a GPS, talk a special language, wear easily identifiable clothing, talk about new wonderful electronic components, the inherent danger of the sport, close calls with buddies, being directly affected by the weather, and hang out in the coffee shop afterwards doing a little "hanger geocaching" just like flying.

 

He will like it, you just have to present it in the right manner. Afterall he IS A PILOT........LOL

 

PS. Flying is where I learned how to use a GPS, it costs a whole lot more to go flying now than when I started in the 80's, but the GPS units are a whole lot more accurate and cost a lot less now.

[+CraZy Cache]

Don't know this cacher, but found one of his caches near his air strip recently.

 

Flywindy

[+wimseyguy]

We have one her in NC-AeroHeli. He has two aerocaches that I know of-I have found one-very creative hide:

Franklin County Airport

[dacflyer]

Hi there.. i talked to a friend of mine the other day about this same subject..i am new to this haven't been on my 1st hunt yet.but ready..

talked to my friend , asked her if there was any avaition caches...or such...

as in flying to a location or somewhere near...or even landing in a field

i own a ultralight and can land it almost anywhere thats free of trees or obsticles

have landed in yards / fields / roads etc...

ya i know i am a nut...lol

 

but i think the idea is a good one never the less....of course this idea of a cache would have to be accessable to anyone else as well to make it fair for all.. but flying to one could be a bonus

[+blindleader]

Here are a couple of locationless caches that, I think validate the type: Aircraft Nav/Aids of the world and AV8R The second one is temporarily archived, but both would be a really great place for snapshots from the cockpit. I don't know what happened to all the photos that were posted with the logs.

Edited January 2, 2004 by blindleader

[+Tallchick]

Thanks to all for the comments. I thought there would be more posts to the question, but quality is better than quantity, anyway. Posting a cache at all airports is a great idea. Next time we're at the airport, I'll check it out.

 

I was also thinking about an event cache -- similar to a road rally. Area pilots would fly to one specific airport. Get their clues the the caches which would all be in/around the airport. I would rotate the order that participants' clues were in so everyone wasn't going to the same place, then hunt. Eating would, of course, be involved after the hunt. To do this, though, we would need enough pilots willing to participate in and around SE Michigan

 

I'm trying to get DH to post a question on one of his many pilot boards, but I think he's embarrassed (he's a purist)!

 

Thanks again to all -- we'll see what transpires.

[+eff-J]

I'm a student pilot. Does that count?

 

I've got nearly everything out of the way, and if the weather cooperates, I'll be going for my checkride soon. I love the idea of airport-based caches--just to give me another good reason to fly to a new-to-me airport.

[warrior41882]

I also am a pilot. my friend/flight instructor and I will be setting up a cache at the Dauphin Island airport in lower Alabama in about 2 weeks.

I am very interested in setting up caches all over the place at small non towered airports.Forget the $100.00 hamburger. Im going for the good stuff(booty)