Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning


October 8 - ..., 2007: The adventures of Flat Jacob

Jacob's teacher has assigned a Flat Stanley project for her class. Stanley was a litle kid that was standing in front of a bulletin board - it dropped and smashed him flat. The bad news was that he was flat. The good news was that he could travel to distant places by mail. This is the story of Flat Jacob. Flat Jacob lives in Tennessee, but Flat Jacob is a very curious boy and will accept any invitation to visit distant and interesting places. Flat Jacob already know something about adventure because his sister, Abby, told him about her the adventures of Flat Abby. First, the real Jacob and the real Flat Jacob at the front door with Rachel

Jacob Starmer Flat Jacob opening the door

Flat Jacob's dad grows coral. Flat Jacob likes very much to look at the aquarium.

Flat Jacob looking at his dad's aquarium

Sometimes Flat Jacob plays in the bushes beside his mom's garden

Flat Jacob in a bush Flat Jacob smelling a flower

Flat Jacob went with his family to visit his uncle in Louisville Kentucky. Then Flat Jacob decided the driving was boring and took too long so he decided to fly to New York. So off he went with his grandpa for a flying adventure to Singapore. This map shows where Flat Jacob's grandpa flew - with Singapore Airlines and Continental Airlines as well as driving from Chapel Hill to Charleston. In Charleston, Flat Jacob's grandpa is having a photo exhibit at the Karpeles Museum . While the flight from Singapore to Newark passes over Alaska and south of the North Pole, the return flight is due north to the North Pole, then due south, more or less, to Singapore. Here is the Newark - Singapore the polar flight path and the more southern Singapore - Newark flight path. (Click the image to explore the flight with Google Earth

Polar flight
paths -->

Here is a global view of the Asian flight paths and a global view of the US flight paths

Asia flight
paths Asia flight
paths

He was invited to the cockpit to actually help the pilot. Here he is landing at Newark Airport.

And if you click here you can see a video of Flat Jacob landing the Continental Airlines jet

Flat Jacob lands the airplane

Here the pilot and co-pilot are helping Flat Jacob adjust the engine thrust

Flat Jacob adjusting thrust

And here the pilot and co-pilot are just making big smiles because Flat Jacob learns very fast

Flat Jacob and his helpers

Flat Jacob was having so much fun traveling by jet airplane that he decided to fly to Singapore. The Singapore Airlines flight, SQ 21 was just about to leave. Here is Flat Jacob checking in at the counter

Flat Jacob checking in for
SQ 21 to Singapore

The Airbus 340 took off and here is what New York looks like at 11:20 pm at night

Flat Jacob sees New York

Here is another view of the night lights

Flat Jacob and New York by night

Here you can see the faint outline of the engine (on the right) and the wing light at the end of the wing

The AirBus 340 wing and engine

Here is Flat Jacob enjoying the inflight entertainment and National Geographic (Flat Jacob enjoys reading)

Flat Jacob likes the entertainment system

Here Flat Jacob is talking with the First Officer of SQ 21 - which, by the way is the longest non-stop commercial flight (18 hours from Newark NJ to Singapore

Flat Jacob and the 1st officer

Here is a geography lesson - or rather problems the happen when a map is displayed as rectangular. Not the yellow track over the North Pole. In the jet, we cross 12 time zones in about a minute. But this presentation of the flight path suggests that it takes a long time because it appears as a long distance. The global map above provides a better presentation of the actual flight path.

Rectangular map of flight paths

Flat Jacob learned from the First Officer that the fastest way to fly to Singapore was to fly north to the North Pole. Flat Jacob is a high tech Jacob. He turned on his GPS so that he could locate the North Pole. Here is the day as seen at the North Pole (N 87 30.996, W 0 21.72 ).

Here is a Google Map of our route. With this, you can zoom and drag to explore the geography of our trip and understand why time flies when you fly over the North Pole.

Daytime at the North Pole

Here is another view of the North Pole day and the wing of the SQ flight

The wing at the North Pole

Here Flat Jacob is talking with the Singapore Airlines flight crew

Flat Jacob and the flight crew

and after arriving at Changi Airport in Singapore, Flat Jacob rode the MRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) to his granddad's apartment

Flat Jacob going to grandpa's on the MRT

Many people in Singapore like to eat at "Hawker centers". Grandpa is one of those people. He met Mr Song and his wife - they make Lime Juice. Here is Mr Song and his lime juice stall

Mr. Song's Lime Juice stand

Mr. Song's friend makes Fried Kway Teow - a sort of fried noodles

Fried kway teow

And Flat Jacob discovered Mr. Song's sugar cane. In addition to fresh lime juice, Mr. Song makes fresh sugar cane juice. Hmmmmmm - tasty.

Mr. Song's sugar cane

Here is Mr Song and his helper, Mrs. Song

Mr. and Mrs Song

Saturday Craig and Dee Ann Stenberg invited Flat Jacob to dinner at Zhou's Kitchen - near Anchorpoint in Singapore. Flat Jacob ordered fried dumplings and herbal tea. He liked the fried dumplings but the herbal tea has some ways to go to catch up with sweet tea.

Flat Jacob eating
at Zhou's Kitchen

Flat Jacob visits Australia

We first visited Sydney where Flat Jacob enjoyed the monorail

nov 21 4155 flat jacob monorail

nov 21 4156 flat jacob monorail

nov 21 4159 flat jacob powerhouse

nov 21 4168 flat jacob locomotive

nov 21 4172 flat jacob construction

nov 21 4177 flat jacob powerhouse sign

nov 21 4178 flat jacob monorail

nov 21 4206 flat jacob waterfall

nov 21 4210 flat jacob pool

nov 21 4240 flat jacob shop

Then Flat Jacob visited the Sydney Opera House and High Tea

nov 21 4251 sydney opera house

nov 21 4242 flat jacob high tea

nov 21 4263 flat jacob opera sign

nov 21 4288 flat jacob flat

Then to Alice Springs where Grandmother waited for the Airport Shuttle

nov 22 4387 flat jacob shuttle alice springs

Here is a typical street in Alice Springs

nov 22 4429 alice springs street

Then to Adelaide - where Jacob practiced take-off and landing

and some photos of the desert from the flight

nov 26 5429 river

I walked along Rundle Mall where there were some pigs that I visited

dec 01 6909 hog flat jacob

This guy was just walking but would not give me a ride

dec 01 6911 flat jacob

Hmmm - time for a Coke from the local Woolworths store. Happiness is a shop that opens at 7am

dec 01 6915 flat jacob woolworths

Here is the University of South Australia

dec 01 6919 flat jacob univ sa

Walking further, Flat Jacob found the hospital but hurt his arm while looking at the hospital sign

dec 01 6928 flat jacob hospital

He decided to visit the Botanical Garden

dec 01 6940 flat jacob adelaide botanic garden

Where he visited the Bicentennial Center

dec 01 6958 bicentennial center

and the ducks in front

dec 01 7047 2 ducks

and the bees harvesting pollen

dec 01 7080 orange pollen bees

Flat Jacob is out of Australian money - so where else to turn than to your friendly ATM machine

dec 01 7170 flat jacob ATM

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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