Author Topic: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation on Spoilers  (Read 674392 times)

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Offline DrRox

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #675 on: January 23, 2009, 12:23:20 PM »
Phil and Bertram are just going to shake their head and smile when they see this.....lol
Matthew 7:15

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #676 on: January 23, 2009, 12:32:39 PM »
I love this!!  TAR detecting at it's best!  :wohoo:
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Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #677 on: January 23, 2009, 12:45:58 PM »
Here is the LINK to the pictures, and here is this too in case it helps. (embedding so this treasure is never lost, lol!)



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Offline walkingpneumonia

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #678 on: January 23, 2009, 01:08:50 PM »
Here is the LINK to the pictures, and here is this too in case it helps. (embedding so this treasure is never lost, lol!)


Interesting - the mat traveled on Air China 983 on November 22. AC 983 is a direct flight from Beijing to Los Angeles. Do they use 2 mats (an understudy  ;D ) ?
Because this mat should have been in Hawaii for the finale on Nov 22 - unless the Hawaii speculation is wrong...
From there to here, and here to there,
funny things are everywhere

Offline woden

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #679 on: January 23, 2009, 01:19:47 PM »
They use the giant mat for the finale.


Offline apskip

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #680 on: January 23, 2009, 01:20:19 PM »
walkingpneumonia,

I have always assumed that there is a mat for each pit stop. Then the advance teams can have it ready and nobody has to worry about the making sure it makes a flight. The cost of 11 mats vs. 1 cannot  be huge.

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #681 on: January 23, 2009, 01:21:46 PM »
The pic is a little blurry, but I actually thought the tag read 11/27...

no, looks like 11/22!
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Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #682 on: January 23, 2009, 01:23:24 PM »
It could be said that this is not the finale mat, they use that large one at the finishine. I hardly think they had time to have a regular "pitstop" in Hawaii. Perhaps they just sent the regular pitstop mat ahead? ..to LAX.

Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #683 on: January 23, 2009, 01:23:51 PM »
They use the giant mat for the finale.
GMTA  :lol:

Offline woden

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #684 on: January 23, 2009, 01:30:29 PM »
Jinx!  :lol:


Offline walkingpneumonia

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #685 on: January 23, 2009, 01:59:40 PM »
It could be said that this is not the finale mat, they use that large one at the finishine. I hardly think they had time to have a regular "pitstop" in Hawaii. Perhaps they just sent the regular pitstop mat ahead? ..to LAX.

OK, never mind...

So this would be the Traveling Matt ?
From there to here, and here to there,
funny things are everywhere

Offline apskip

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #686 on: January 23, 2009, 02:56:07 PM »
In my post of several weeks ago in a dialogue with walkingpneumonia, he identified S7859 OVB BKK 0205 1005 and I identified BKK HKT TG1205 1030 1150 as a route to fly from Novosibirsk to Phuket arriving the morning of Sat. Nov. 15. It has been my stated belief that teams would travel on the fabled TransSiberian Express railway (why else other than Lake Baikal would one want to go to Siberia?). There are only a few major stops on it, with Novosibirsk being one. Kransojarsk is on the line (as the 3rd largest city in Siberia it was designed in when decisions were made where it would go). The question is "would a trip from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk arriving Novosibirsk the afternoon of Nov. 15 make sense?" Trains go east and west. A logical stoping point for AR14 if starting in Krasnojarsk is Novosibirsk westbound. A logical stopping point eastbound is Irkutsk.

Here is the schedule from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk on a weekday (Thursday actually):

Dep.Kr  Arr.No Duration
00:57  14:09  13:12    
02:01  17:27  15:26  
04:10  16:01  11:51    
05:59  20:06  14:07  
06:52  18:51  11:59  
07:18   22:52  15:34    
08:05   21:24  13:19    
10:09   23:55  13:46    
10:36   23:12  12:36    
11:16   00:58  13:42    
12:36   01:12  12:36    
13:51   02:24  12:33    
14:37   04:19  13:42    
15:27   04:33  13:06    
18:26   06:47  12:21    
23:36   12:38  13:02  

The similar schedules for Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk are:
04:03  21:44  17:41    
05:21  06:13  24:52  
06:56  01:18  18:22  
07:45  01:03  17:18  
08:54  03:19  18:25  
09:16  03:28  18:12  
10:28  04:07  17:39  
11:52  05:34  17:42  
18:10  18:35  24:25  
19:16  13:00  17:44  
20:55  14:40  17:45  

The next question I have to ask is "could teams have flown from Krasnojarsk to Novosibirsk?" The answer is probably not. There are no nonstop flights on the appropriate days of the week (Friday). Connecting flights are possible but for a relatively short distance of 762 km one flight combination takes 8 hours through Irkutsk and all the rest take 11 hours through Moscow.

The next logical question is "can we accommodate  Phil being in Delhi early on the morning of Nov. 14?" My guess is that he has a 36 hour lead due to an extended rest stop. So what would that allow him to do? One possibility is to get to Moscow(to be addressed below) on Nov. 14 in time for SU555 SVO DEL 1850 0330+1, connecting with DEL BKK TG724 1155 1725 and then with BKK HKT TG223 1820 1940. To do this he must have been unable to get the Moscow to Bangkok nonstop flight SU553 on Nov. 14, which should have been his first choice but could have been full. The next question is how Phil could get to Moscow-Sheremetyevo for these connections. Here are the possibilities that fit(although all have long connect times in Moscow):

Best is Irkutsk IKT SVO SU748 1400 1525
Novosibirsk    OVB SVO 5N808 1055 1210
Krasnojarsk    KJA  SVO SU782 1040 1145

We don't know for sure that teams were on the TransSiberian Express but it makes good sense. For them to fly into Krasnojarsk makes good sense, but it could also have been Irkutsk or Novosibirsk. Which way they traveled on the TransSiberian Express is not known yet. Which city they flew out of is also not clear at this point.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2009, 08:08:09 PM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #687 on: January 23, 2009, 04:27:04 PM »
Following up on the possibilities that Krasnoyarsk presents, here are a few salient facts about the city of 900,000+ population and surrounding region:

1. It is a major port on the Yenisei River, the major south to north river in central Siberia emptying into the Arctic Sea. Due to the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam 32 kilometers upstream, the Yenisei never freezes in winter and never exceeds 14 °C (57.2 °F) in summer temperature through the city.

2. It is a major stop on the TransSiberian Railway

3. The most popular place of attraction for tourists visiting Krasnojarsk is the huge national nature reserve Stolby (Pillars in Russian) or the Rock Pillars. Stolby covers an area of 181 square miles with numerous giant granite rocks formations up to 100 meters high, many of very extraordinary shapes. Stolby is also a major rock climbing location, many local climbers intentionally do not use any belaying equipment and call their extreme sport "stolbizm", which is known around the world as solo climbing.



Offline DrRox

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #688 on: January 23, 2009, 04:35:03 PM »
Well, we do know from TAR13 that WRP uses two production teams, that flip-flop during the race. It makes sense that each production team would have a pit stop mat. When the production team in Bejing was finished, they would have shipped their equipment back to Los Angeles.

Btw, just a tremendous bit of detective work mwooden!!!!!
« Last Edit: January 23, 2009, 04:48:05 PM by DrRox »
Matthew 7:15

Offline Belle Book

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #689 on: January 23, 2009, 05:41:17 PM »
It could be said that this is not the finale mat, they use that large one at the finishine. I hardly think they had time to have a regular "pitstop" in Hawaii. Perhaps they just sent the regular pitstop mat ahead? ..to LAX.

OK, never mind...

So this would be the Traveling Matt ?


HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!   :funny:

I loved Fraggle Rock!

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Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #690 on: January 23, 2009, 08:09:16 PM »
extended commercial


Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #691 on: January 23, 2009, 08:13:02 PM »
 :wohoo: :wohoo: :wohoo:

:popcorn:
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #692 on: January 23, 2009, 08:33:23 PM »
Thanks, Puddin  :waves:. Assuming they're still on the first ep, there are a few Interlaken paragliding companies (see the bottom of this pdf), and one, TwinParagliding, that specializes in tandem flights for noobs.

Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #693 on: January 23, 2009, 08:54:54 PM »
Video



 

or option below that I just noticed for a higher quality video, lol

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #694 on: January 23, 2009, 09:07:04 PM »
thanks puddin and Slowhatch!

gosh they get to do helicopters, bungee, and a tandem jump all right off the bat?? Yippee! Maybe they are picking the tasks up a notch this season! Looks like fun to me!

 :chute:
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Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #695 on: January 23, 2009, 09:07:30 PM »
Thanks to Gman!!

5 Interlaken - Paras landing

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #696 on: January 23, 2009, 09:13:18 PM »
OoHHH  Go here:

http://www.twinparagliding.com/en_theflightoffer.html#

click on the panoramamap--neat! Choose our spot, lol!
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Offline puddin

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #697 on: January 23, 2009, 09:28:37 PM »
*wonders where the map thread is?* I hate re posting a map that might already have been posted, especially since Slowhatch is light years ahead of us :lol:

Interactive search + locate

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #698 on: January 23, 2009, 09:35:10 PM »
ummm...haven't started one yet! Just stick em all here and I'll troll them out in awhile...


 :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
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Offline Slowhatch

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Re: The Amazing Race 14 Speculation and Sightings!
« Reply #699 on: January 23, 2009, 09:37:33 PM »
GeoHack is usually a good start. Dial up a place--Interlaken, for example--in Wikipedia. You'll notice a lat-long in the right sidebar. Click on it to bring up GeoHack. Global mapping on the left, local stuff on the right. Sometimes local mapping solutions are of poor quality or nonexistent, but Switzerland has plenty to choose from.

As far as the paragliding goes, I've found two databases: Paragliding Earth and the Swiss database Flyland.