Daily archives: May 15, 2006


Heavensent 3.3

The tri-motor banked and pointed itself east along the valley. A river lazily wound its way to the plain beyond, a spur feeding a large rectangular reservoir. There was forest and pasture on the northern slopes and mills and light industrial buildings on the southern. There was no airstrip.

“Did we read the map correctly?” Reed wondered.

“Two of the best pilots in the world getting lost? I think not.” Horse chuckled. “Watch, this is very clever.”

There was activity by the reservoir. Sluice gates on the feed channel were wound shut, and those on the drain channel opened. As Horse lined up his landing, the water level dropped sufficiently to reveal tar pack only a few digits below the surface.

“Flaps down.”

“Flaps down.” Reed echoed, mesmerised by the hidden runway.

“Gear down.”

“Gear down.”

They cleared the dyke at the western end and gently touched down, raising spray behind. Horse only needed two thirds of the runway to get to taxiing speed. He pulled off the main runway, pointed to a ramp and cut the engines. The doors of the nearest building had opened and more ground crew and a light tractor were rushing over to them. Before the plane had even been pulled to the ramp, the water was flowing back into the reservoir.

“I had heard of this place. I never believed it really existed.”

“Well now you know. Welcome to Dreamland, just wait until you see the toys they have for you.”

Heavensent 3.4
Heavensent 3.2
Heavensent 1.1

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Green Schools

The education secretary, Alan Johnson, has outlined plans to make all schools “models of sustainable development in their communities” by 2020.

“Young people are keenly aware of, and highly motivated by, environmental issues. In many ways they are ahead of adults in their attitudes to recycling and conservation. Channelling this enthusiasm helps raise achievement and improve behaviour and could save money as well as addressing big issues such as climate change – it really is a win-win solution.”

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Mappedchester

OpenGeoData has a short report on Mapchester. I was there, honest, I’d just stepped out to take a phone call when the picture was taken. It was only when I went to work today (for half an hour! but that’s a different story) that I began to realise how many connecting roads I’d missed by concentrating on the Northern Quarter. If someone will get me a Garmin I’ll go back and rectify that, honest. I did quite well with the GPS 60 I was given, but some people with the smaller eTrex units had problems in narrower streets.

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