I was visiting with Barondriver the other day and asked him how
he was feeling after his recent surgery. He told me that he was
feeling great but was still having a little trouble getting around
like he wants to. He also told me that he had came up with a scheme
for hiding caches. It seems that he has obtained a friction
resistant paint and that when a geocache is coated with this paint
it can truly resist friction.
I am thinking at this point that maybe he may still be on pain
medication but I am not sure. He continues and tells me that he has
three ammo box caches painted and ready to go south in the morning
from Jabara. The caches are attached to the bottom of his company
Beech aircraft with some type of mechanism that allows release from
the cockpit. The theory is that with the known speed, altitude, and
bearing of the plane, he could calculate exactly where the cache
lands.
I am of course skeptical but think that maybe it might be
possible. I decided first thing in the morning I had to go check it
out. I loaded my geobag with all of the tools I thought I might
need and headed to the listed coordinates at the RWD #3 water tower
on 95th street south. I climbed the 100 foot tower and sat on the
top enjoying the day and just waiting.
At about 0900 I heard a familiar sounding twin piston plane
coming in my direction. I grabbed my field glasses and sure enough
it was a Beech BE58 Baron heading right in my direction. It had to
be Barondriver as I could see the ammo boxes on the underside of
the plane. I quickly grabbed my Acme 5000 XE locating device and
started tracking him. To my amazement he flew directly overhead and
I got a very good reading. I noted his bearing at 224° 17.580
minutes true, speed was 200 MPH, and an elevation 8000 feet above
my vantage point.
I started my stopwatch the instant the craft was over me. I
continued to watch with the field glasses as Barondriver continued
southwest. Suddenly an American Airlines Embraer RJ145 incoming
from DFW was setting up for final at Mid-Continent. Barondriver
took evasive actions to avoid the plane and turned sharply to the
east. To my delight one of the cache containers came loose and
continued on the same bearing before the quick turn. I marked the
event with the stopwatch and found it to be 1 minute and 42.7692
seconds from my location on the water tower. I tried to watch the
cache as it fell but soon lost it as it got too far away.
I spent the rest of the day trying to find the lost Barondriver
cache but have not had any luck yet. I was hoping that some of you
might be able to help me with this one. I remember a little from
math class about time in seconds for an object to fall due to
gravity. Something about finding the square root of twice the
height in feet over 32.174. I have calculated and looked all week
but still can’t locate the cache. I think it might have been
covered by a piece of tin by now due to the recent winds.
Back to Reality. The cache is located in a rural
area south of Mulvane. It is however on private property very close
to the road. I have permission, but please confirm your calculated
coordinates using the Evince link before you attempt this one. If
you are within 25 feet you will get confirmation. If that doesn’t
work feel free to E-mail me and I will be glad to help. I hope that
you have fun with this one!
A special thanks to Barondriver for being such a good
character and for letting me use him in this story. I am glad to
see him up and around and hope he doesn’t get any
ideas!!
