Crash site maps etc. using GOOGLE

[FrankieS]

Hi all !
Just experimented with Google Maps (beta version).
If anybody should be in need of nice maps of crash sites etc. It's easy enough to manipulate the Google map address field to map a given Latitude / Longitude geo coordinate. F.ex.
coordinates given by the LUMA calculator (http://www.gyges.dk/reporting_grids.htm).

Take for example Melsbroek/Belgium airport.
Here is the Google Maps address:
http://maps.google.com/mapdata?latit...min_priority=2

Quite nice runway map, or?

Multimap map for comparison (scale 1:25000) is here:
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...e=25000&icon=x

If you take a look to the Google address system you can see that latitude and longitude are expressed as a 8-digit figure. The first two ciphers indicate Degrees and the next 6 ciphers Minutes and Seconds given as a decimal fraction. So if you have Minute/Second coordinates you must convert these to a decimal figure, f.ex.:

Melsbroek airport is Lat 50°54'05"N and Lon 4°29'04"E
this corresponds to
Decimal reporting of Lat 50.901389 N and Lon 4.484444

Formula to convert Min/Sec into decimal reporting is as follows:

Decimal Conversion = ((Minutes*60)+Seconds)/3600

Don't enter the "." separating Degrees Minutes/Seconds.

The next thing is you can manipulate the zoom factor by modifying the figure following the "zm="of the Google address ("1200" is smallest scale, then double to 2400, 4800, and so on).

And finally you can manipulate the width and heigth of your custom map by modifying "w=" and "h=" the same way (use round hundreds starting with "100").

Two problems yet:
-couldn't figure out the system for coordinates west to Greenwich, somehow the LON figure has 10 ciphers then start ing with 49.... just west to Greenwich.
-Google doesn't seem to like military installations, f.ex.,
Chievres Airbase a "blue lake"? ;-)

http://maps.google.com/mapdata?latit...min_priority=2

That's it for today, hope of any help,
bye all !
FrankieS