Geolocation Exercises

[FatPhil]

Alien Reproduction Vehicle, a flying saucer made by the US military using captured alien technology.

Wow, so that was quite a false dichotomy being presented. Alien or alien clone (specifically the Area 51 craft, it appears), that's all you get to chose from.
https://www.altpropulsion.com/mark-mccandlish-reverse-engineering-the-flux-liner-arv/

Less than 5 months before his tragic death, Mark McCandlish delivered a final detailed, technical presentation on the legendary Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV) at the Alt Propulsion Conference. In a field crowded with rumor and recycled lore, McCandlish tried to do something unusually specific: treat the ARV story like an engineering problem—naming parts, proposing materials, describing electrical pathways, and arguing that multiple witness traditions converged on the same architecture. The result was less a "UFO story" than a guided tour through a speculative machine—one he insisted was reverse-engineered, human-built, and dangerously real.

Which links to 3 hours of babbling on the matter.

 

[purpleivan]

Oh no, not more improbable jargon/ dodgy TLAs from the UFO scene. I'm not sure it's grammatical. Maybe Reproduced (or Replica) Alien Vehicle?
-If we copied a Toyota we probably wouldn't call it a Japanese Reproduction Vehicle.
Alien Reproduction Vehicle sounds like a cozy little UFO carrying suitably chromosomally diverse beings after touchdown on a Friday night.

The word reproduction is used in this way for other things, for example "reproduction furniture", i.e. copies of period furniture.

However, when first reading "Alien Reproduction Vehicle", I thought this was something related to the idea of human/alien hybrids, or similar fantasies.

 

[JMartJr]

However, when first reading "Alien Reproduction Vehicle", I thought this was something related to the idea of human/alien hybrids, or similar fantasies.

So we know it has a back seat...

 

[John J.]

The word reproduction is used in this way for other things,

Yes, it was the word order rather than the word that grates with me.
Using the analogy of a replica of a Toyota built e.g. in the US, "Japanese Reproduction Vehicle" sounds like it was built by Japanese people.
"Alien reproduction vehicle" might suggest a vehicle reproduced by aliens, or a vehicle connected to the reproduction of aliens. Reproduction Alien Vehicle, maybe Alien Vehicle Reproduction makes more sense (to me!)

 

[purpleivan]

Yes, it was the word order rather than the word that grates with me.
Using the analogy of a replica of a Toyota built e.g. in the US, "Japanese Reproduction Vehicle" sounds like it was built by Japanese people.
"Alien reproduction vehicle" might suggest a vehicle reproduced by aliens, or a vehicle connected to the reproduction of aliens. Reproduction Alien Vehicle, maybe Alien Vehicle Reproduction makes more sense (to me!)

Agree with you about the word ordering. An RAV makes the most sense to me, although it does sound like it's made by Toyota

 

[Giddierone]

Quiz time! I took this on 26 Aug. Where is it? Can you identify the (two) aircraft?

 

[flarkey]

A838 - Google Maps (I think you were parked in the layby up ahead)

Sun is on a bearing of 210 degs, giving a rough time of 3pm Local

Two typhoons passed through this area at low level around this time.

Aircraft are ZK350 JEDI21 in the lead with ZK310 JEDI22 behind. (ADSBex linky)

ZK350

ZK310

 

[Giddierone]

Sun is on a bearing of 210 degs, giving a rough time of 3pm Local

Yeap, 14:52

 

[flarkey]

Yeap, 14:52

I should have said how I narrowed down the area - I thought it was low flying area in the UK - so either Wales, Lake District or Highlands. I checked the historical cloud cover for the 26 August PM and The Highlands looked like it has the weather & clouds that matched @Giddierone 's photo.
https://zoom.earth/maps/satellite-hd/#view=54.076,-3.485,6z/date=2026-08-26,pm

A Google Image search didnt bring up an exact match for the location, but it did suggest that the area was The Flow Country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_Country) which matched the weather. It also made sense that the aircraft were Typhoons, so possibly from the nearby RAF Lossiemouth. This image on the wiki page was promising. A reverse image search of that image lead me to this image https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/uplands/the-flow-country

A reverse image search of that image lead me to Foinaven. I then just used Google Street View to look around and find a mountain that matched. The actual point was about 7 miles from there.

G

 

[GM4AJK]

A Google Image search

In the world of Geolocation, I've always thought using Google Image Search was a bit of a cheat . But well done @flarkey. When I saw the image, my thoughts were, "hmm, looks very much like the far NW Scottish Highlands", but that's where my attempt ended. Glad to see I was "close"

(edit: I should also add @flarkey educated me there; despite being up there many times, I've never heard of "Flow Country" before. Odd)

 

[flarkey]

In the world of Geolocation, I've always thought using Google Image Search was a bit of a cheat .

All's fair in love, war and geolocation

 

[Giddierone]

Good stuff @flarkey. I'm not sure i'd be able to decipher the location using that weather method, but the ridge line of the mountain would have been my first line.
They seemed to have some fun noodling around. Flying in a tight circle then separating and flying toward each other before turning. We saw the same two "Jedi" jets the next day also out over the ocean on the North coast, they appeared to be circling some kind of giant Christmas decoration... Seems they turn their tracking off over land?