davjohns 1 #1 Posted November 8, 2023 As I try to figure out true retirement (all play - no work), I am trying to locate someplace to live / have a base. I want to be close to a DZ, major airport, SCUBA, hang gliding, etc. It seems I need Google Earth layers to show me where the stuff I want is located so I can figure out where I want to live. Anyone know of a layer or database showing where DZs are in the US? Or a significant effort to create one? The function we have here does not appear to translate to a map well. If I could get access to the underlying database, I might could create a layer. Not sure. Appreciate any help. David 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wmw999 2,122 #2 November 8, 2023 While I can't do anything about layering in maps, Just off the top of my head I'm wondering what kind of scuba you do, because most of the places I can think of with relatively accessible mountains for hang gliding are close to cold, not warm, water. BTW, retirement rocks. Wendy P. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kleggo 138 #3 November 8, 2023 2 hours ago, wmw999 said: BTW, retirement rocks. Wendy P. Planning on starting mine 29 Feb 24 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SethInMI 145 #4 November 8, 2023 4 hours ago, davjohns said: Appreciate any help. I didn't realize the Map version of the dropzone directory was not a feature of this site anymore. It looks the like the data (LAT and LON of each DZ) is still there. I might take a crack at scraping it into a KML file, I have wanted to play around with scraping a bit this would be a good excuse. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
the.Legend 54 #5 November 9, 2023 (edited) https://baseline.ws/map It also has some BASE exits. You might want to reach out to @platypii who created it and put few more locations :) And if you're into speedflying/paragliding then use this one too: http://www.paraglidingearth.com/ Edited November 9, 2023 by the.Legend 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davjohns 1 #6 November 9, 2023 21 hours ago, wmw999 said: While I can't do anything about layering in maps, Just off the top of my head I'm wondering what kind of scuba you do, because most of the places I can think of with relatively accessible mountains for hang gliding are close to cold, not warm, water. BTW, retirement rocks. Wendy P. Part of my conundrum is finding where everything is closest together. Oddly, the water temperature and weather are not always related. The currents off the Carolinas make the water warm in late fall. And there are mountains nearby. Go figure. But I have no problem following the seasons. I tend to run hot and cold on hobbies. I will get into one heavy for a while and then take a break. So far, retirement looks like a base camp to store stuff and retreat to for a breather; a truck with my hang glider, skydive rig, SCUBA gear, motorcycle, and some camping stuff for emergencies (maybe a kayak); and proximity to an airport so I can go spend two or three months rolling around in another culture when it is too cold in the US and the base camp becomes confining. It is not a complex plan. lol Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davjohns 1 #7 November 9, 2023 18 hours ago, SethInMI said: I didn't realize the Map version of the dropzone directory was not a feature of this site anymore. It looks the like the data (LAT and LON of each DZ) is still there. I might take a crack at scraping it into a KML file, I have wanted to play around with scraping a bit this would be a good excuse. I will not go overboard and describe this as a service to the community, but I would be grateful for such an effort. :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IanHarrop 37 #8 November 9, 2023 On 11/8/2023 at 8:13 AM, SethInMI said: I didn't realize the Map version of the dropzone directory was not a feature of this site anymore. It looks the like the data (LAT and LON of each DZ) is still there. I might take a crack at scraping it into a KML file, I have wanted to play around with scraping a bit this would be a good excuse. Unfortunately the dropzone info is way out of date on here. If you do go about scraping the info and creating something new, it would be great to have a way for users to provide feedback for updates. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
michaelmullins 77 #9 November 9, 2023 On 11/8/2023 at 4:16 AM, davjohns said: As I try to figure out true retirement (all play - no work), I am trying to locate someplace to live / have a base. I want to be close to a DZ, major airport, SCUBA, hang gliding, etc. It seems I need Google Earth layers to show me where the stuff I want is located so I can figure out where I want to live. Anyone know of a layer or database showing where DZs are in the US? Or a significant effort to create one? The function we have here does not appear to translate to a map well. If I could get access to the underlying database, I might could create a layer. Not sure. Appreciate any help. David go here: https://www.uspa.org/dzlocator?pagesize=8 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
the.Legend 54 #10 November 9, 2023 Just a side note: that link shows only USPA-affiliated DZs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SethInMI 145 #11 November 10, 2023 alright, I think I got it to work, scraping is brittle and a bit tedious. The attached kmz has about a 1000 dropzones. Some DZs didn't have coordinates or I couldn't parse them and they ended up at 0,0. I grouped them by country as they were in DZ.com. There is no additional metadata other than the name of each DZ, I might add a url back to its DZ.com page but I probably won't. As someone pointed out, this data is probably from 10-15 years ago. google earth can be found at https://earth.google.com/ dropzones-full.kmz 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IanHarrop 37 #12 November 10, 2023 Very cool. The DZs in Alberta are way out of date. What's the best way to send you updates? This page shows the 3 Alberta DZs today Alberta Sport Parachuting Association - Dropzones (aspa.ca) (full disclosure I'm the webmaster for ASPA.ca whose function is "The Alberta Sport Parachuting Association is a non-profit organization that promotes sport skydiving in Alberta") These are from the KMZ file and are incorrect Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SethInMI 145 #13 November 10, 2023 33 minutes ago, IanHarrop said: What's the best way to send you updates? I don't want any updates sent to me ; ) In case anyone was wondering how I made this, I wrote a small program that automatically finds and downloads all the individual dropzone web pages on dropzone.com, finds the name and geolocation of each one on the page, and saves them all to a single kmz file. It takes about an hour to do that (I put a few sec delay in between each download), and as long as dz.com doesn't change the format of their website, I can re-run the process at any time. If there is data that is out of date, I think it would be best to update dz.com itself, and the re-run the program to create new kmz file Another alternative would be to add some data to @platypii 's website and work on keeping that up to date. They could provide a kmz download button if you wanted a google earth view. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IanHarrop 37 #14 November 11, 2023 10 hours ago, SethInMI said: If there is data that is out of date, I think it would be best to update dz.com itself Unfortunately this is not an option. Over the years I've tried to get the data updated but no one a dz.com responds. Thanks for creating a map! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davjohns 1 #15 November 17, 2023 Thanks, Seth! You make it sound so easy. You must have some wonderful skills. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
