Very easily, and in fact I can land just across the street in the park (we have no driveway or even parking spot) without ever moving the mouse more than about a half a centimetre on my screen. Montreal is ridiculously easy to find from orbit, and the park in front of my house is massive and distinctive and you can see it very early on.
The only thing is, Google still believes I live in Hamilton, Ontario, so if I needed my car, I’d have to land there! Luckily both Hamilton and the area I lived in are easy to find, and I can land next to my car and then drive home (%^%$$#%… 403/QEW/401…^#^&^#)
ETA: Google doesn’t have details at my parents or in-laws places, but I can land within a 5 minute walk based on what I can see. I can land in my aunt’s backyard with a few minutes of thought at each zoom level. This is fun!
No trouble, really. But I have to admit, I have it easy. I’m living near one of the Great Lakes. And Irondequoit Bay is a hugely distinctive feature. From there I just followed the major routes home.
Considering that I live in a small town amidst a bunch of flat farmland, I’m pretty impressed that I was able to zero in on the highway one block over from my house. Being able to orient myself from Lake Superior and then zoom in on the little lake we’re beside helped, though. So long as I’ve got distinctive water to navigate by, I’m golden.
So you folks that land on your house are just centering the map over what you believe to be your house, and then zooming in. Not doing any panning at all as you zoom in? :dubious:
Not sure what you mean by panning, but as the OP states in post #3, you can re-adjust the center of your zoom. In other words, zoom in a little, re-center, repeat. AIUI, you just can’t drag the map or zoom back out.
Damn. I was trying to spot freeways from too far up and missed by a bit. By the time I recognized I was looking at the 60 instead of the 10, it was zoomed in too far, and I wound up in Pico Rivera, about 25 miles away from where I should have been.
Which part of the roof of my building did you want me to land on again?
Toronto is really easy to find (look for the furthest-downstream lake of the five big ones in the middle of the roughly-triangular continent connected by a narrow isthmus to another); then you just look for the islands and sandbars near one end, then look for the river flowing into the bay a little closer to the near ned of the lake to those islands, then look for the industrial complex next to that river, then the plaza a little firther over, and you can see it from there.
Parking your saucer, though, may be a bother. The parking laws of Toronto were apparently written by rabid weasels.
Piece of cake. But I have a cheat. If I zoom in from the default position of Google Earth, it takes me straight to my town. I just have to navigate a little bit east to hit my neighborhood and my house.
I landed about 60 miles away in KC MO. I can anesthetize myself with a Royals game before I start the long, awkward walk home. At least, I’m assuming I’ll walk a bit awkwardly, what with all the probing and all.
The first time I tried it I landed 79.33 miles away (in the middle of Freakin Nowhere, by the way, so no hitching a ride or catching a train back). Then Mangetout explained the rules, and I ran out of zoom. But I would have been within half a block if I had enough zoom.
