There are map people and then there aren't.

[alaskaflyer]

I've enjoyed reading this series a couple chapters per night for a while, and found this installment particularly poignant. Enjoy!

http://borderpilot.com/48 RIGHT OF NORTH.htm

I have argued that my maps had been made from actual aerial photographs and compiled by U.S. Government cartographers, and therefore had to be correct. The reply to this argument would usually be, "I've lived in this country all my life. What makes you think some government S.O.B. knows more about this country than I do?" That was a hard position for me to argue against.

 

[SkyHog]

I've enjoyed reading this series a couple chapters per night for a while, and found this installment particularly poignant. Enjoy!

http://borderpilot.com/48 RIGHT OF NORTH.htm

That's a pretty good read. Could have done without the "gringo" talk at the end, but it was a good read. Interesting, and it kept me going until the end.

 

[tonycondon]

borderpilot is addictive, lots of good stuff there

 

[Everskyward]

That was great! I'm a map person from way back and have taken plenty of these photographs.

maps made from actual aerial photographs and compiled by U.S. Government cartographers

Nowadays I often need to drive around unfamiliar places. It's interesting how many people have no problems giving directions using the left-right-left method but when I ask for a map they can't locate our route or the destination on it. Must have something to do with the way your brain is wired.

 

[tonycondon]

some people just grasp cardinal directions a lot better Mari, most pilots are pretty good at this. Ive been known to set off on trips across Iowa on county and/or gravel roads. Im never quite sure where Im at but I know where im going and thats all that matters.

and thanks to this, ive now blown the last hour and a half reading the first 15 chapters of borderpilto. must....resist...

 

[Everskyward]

some people just grasp cardinal directions a lot better Mari, most pilots are pretty good at this. Ive been known to set off on trips across Iowa on county and/or gravel roads. Im never quite sure where Im at but I know where im going and thats all that matters.

Cardinal directions are also much easier in a place like Iowa where the roads are laid out along section lines. If you go a few states further east it's hard to find a north/south or east/west road.

I agree that being a pilot probably helps with orientation on the ground too... well, in most instances.

 

[wsuffa]

Real map people use their maps north-up.

(ducks, runs for cover)

 

[fgcason]

Real map people use their maps north-up.

(ducks, runs for cover)

Which way do you hold the map if you're at the south pole where the pole is marked a the center of the map?

 

[flyersfan31]

Try driving around a place like East Germany! No maps, and even the road signs pointed in different directions. Seriously. If you could find them.

On our way home from Poland via East Germany, I remember my dad asking 4 different people the way to the border. This was back in 1973. Yep, you guessed it, four different answers. They probably figured a VW microbus full of kids with a Pennsylvania license plate HAD to be a STASI plot....

Crossing the E/W German border, well, that was a whole 'nother experience!