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A lesson in aviation cache! Listed coordinates are of the airport, plenty of parking. There is a little playground and two charcoal BBQ stand alones that you can use if you want to make an event of it! I tried to make this a kid friendly cache! There's a some kid swag!
Please note I've placed this cache with the permission of the Falcon Field Aviation Authority.
Container is a large boat box.
This is a cache that will teach everyone a little bit about general aviation and Falcon Field!
General aviation (GA) is one of two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights. As a result, the majority of the world's air traffic falls into this category, and most of the world's airports serve general aviation exclusively.
In the United States, there are almost 20,000 airports and heliports, of which around 5,300 are available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft. In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 600 airports in the U.S. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, general aviation provides more than one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.
General aviation covers a huge range of activities, both commercial and non-commercial, including private flying, flight training, air ambulance, police aircraft, aerial firefighting, air charter, bush flying, gliding, and many others. Experimental aircraft, light-sport aircraft and very light jet have emerged in recent years as new trends in general aviation.
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You will need the following information to find the cache; field elevation, CTAF & AWOS frequency, the runways at Falcon Field, and the ICAO format of Falcon Field’s name. During operational hours (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily (winter hours 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily)) you can get this information from the desk at the FBO.
N X° Y
W Z° Q
First, you’ll need to find out what runways Falcon Field has. If you look at it, there is only one big giant paved strip where the planes land, but this is actually TWO runways! Runways are named for the direction that you land on them. So, if you wanted to land on runway 18 you would need to be heading South (or 180°) in order to land on it. And since every runways is actually two runways, if you landed on the other side of the runway it would be runway 36 and you would need to be heading North (or 360°) to land on it!
Now, when you find out what runways Falcon Field has, use the following:
Runway 1 + Runway 2 - 11 = X
Next you’ll need to find out the CTAF frequency. CTAF stands for Common Traffic Advisory Frequency, in the absence of a control tower, or if it’s closed, the CTAF is a where all the pilots talk to one another and let each other know where they are.
Example: Falcon Traffic, 4-2-4-Whiskey-Golf is over flying mid-field at 2900 feet, Falcon, and Falcon Traffic, 6-2-5-Sierra-Foxtrot departing the area to the East, Falcon.
Once you have the CTAF frequency, and do this:
144.5678 - CTAF = Y
Now you’ll need to find out the ASOS frequency. ASOS stands for Automatic Service Observation System. This is what tells pilots how the weather near the airport is. Want to listen for yourself? Sure! Here’s the phone number: (770) 487-1610. Here’s what it’ll say:
Peachtree City, Falcon Field, Atlanta, GA. Automated Weather Observation, 0657 Zulu. Wind 130 @ 7, Visibility Eight, Sky condition overcast at 3500 feet, Temperature One Six Celsius, Dew Point One four Celsius, Altimeter Two-Niner-Niner-One.
The first part tells you where and what it is. The second (0657 Zulu) is aviation time. The next tells you how windy it is, in this case it’s coming from 130° at 7 knots. After the wind is how far you can see, then if there are clouds. In this case there is a completely full layer of clouds at 3,500 feet. After cloud cover is temperature and dew point, and then the local altimeter reading. Pilots take the altimeter reading and put it in there airplanes altimeter instrument to tell them how high they are.
Once you have the ASOS frequency, do this:
202.525 - ASOS = Z
Finally, to get the Q portion of the coordinates you’ll need to find out the ICAO identifier of the airport in the pilots phonetic alphabet! ICAO stands for International Civil Aviation Organization and it’s the international organization that helps to control aviation across the planet!
For example, the proper ICAO format for the Peachtree-Dekalb airport is KPDK, and when spoken aloud it is: “Kilo Papa Delta Kilo”
When you ask for the identifier, make sure it starts with Kilo! Now, add all the letters up in the words and do this:
59.1447 - words = Q
Now you know where the cache is!
However! Before you go looking for the cache, you’ll need to know the password! And the password is the field elevation for Falcon Field starting with Zero.
Happy Hunting!
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Please take a photo of yourself with the cache, and when it's full I'll develop them and put them up online!
After you find the cache, head over to Falcon Aviation Academy, it’s to the right as your looking at the FBO. I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem with letting your kids sit in one of the planes and walk around the ramp a bit!
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Congrats to Dancer Girl KS for Foxtrot Kilo Tango Foxtrot!
Congrats to Martin, from Franklin, GA for FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
V ubcr guvf pnpur yrnirf lbh cvavat gb syl!