Gary M
Well, that's the way I looked at it back then in 1989, 21 years ago and at 44 years since the end of WWII. It sounded very much to me like a staff transit move on Big Mac's pathway of leapfrogs back to Manila. The 5th Air Force on its' way out of New Guinea to be replaced by the 14th moving up from the Solomons.
The Internet was not in the picture then and we were using 286 PC's, the advanced 386 was another year or so away and I got my 486 in 1992 and the www. on the screen in 1993 !
Well the other thing about R-1340 S3H1 engines, even if the SWPA had any aircraft powered by the S3H1 (which my research says "No"), would be that they would not be sent against Fortress Rabaul. Earhart's aircraft was "the" only aircraft anywhere near New Guinea before, during and immediately after WWII that had R-1340 S3H1's as power. Lodestar's had a different engine anyway.
Well, the Japanese were confident enough at the start to fly around in natural finish but most aircraft in New Guinea were camouflaged.
Gillespie has painted himself into a corner with Gardner Island (Nikumaroro) and after spending US$5 Million there, it would be "jest a leeetle difficult" for him to do an about face and consider New Britain. I'm happy with that situation. What strikes me about the "1940 Bones" that led him there to Niku is that he completely disregards the fact that 11 Crew of the SS Norwich City died there in 1929 and only four bodies were buried there in shallow coral graves. A later visit by a New Zealand survey party reported bones all over the beach when they landed. Yet, to him they were Earhart's bones true enough. Nobody mentions that they could have been Fred's. Poor Fred seems to get forgotten somewhere along the line...... Dr. Hoodless's examination and measurements of the 1940 bones concluded with "They were of a Male, Pacific Islander origin, 5 feet 6 inches tall...". When TIGHAR finds the Hoodless measurements in English records, they are fed into a computer and emerge as: "Female, Nordic Origin, 5 feet 9 inches tall..." which broadly fits Earhart. The mind boggles......
Fleet 16B
The "alternate plan" was stated to Gene Vidal before she left on the RTW flight. He had asked her what she would do if she could not find Howland, to which she had replied "I will turn back for The Gilberts and find a place to put it down, a clear area, a beach, or close to shore". That is contained in a recorded statement by Vidal which is in his memorabilia bequeathed to the Uni of Wisconsin and the tape was found about five years ago (in Box 40, I believe). She was clearly not anticipating going into the Phoenix Group which was uninhabited at the time, except for a small outpost on Canton Island.
Of course she was looking for Howland but she never got there.
If you previously plan to return to The Gilberts, you have to have a cut-off at a certain level and I believe that level was 300 USG. "Fuel running low and getting to my cut-off before I have to turn back for The Gilberts..." would have been a better way of putting it, Yes, I would agree. Earhart was famous for "not" divulging what she was doing.
"If she was giving up looking for Howland and was going to an alternate, she would have radioed her intentions just as any other logical and responsible pilot would have and just as she had been doing thru the flight." Maybe she did radio her intentions and was not heard due to a radio glitch. Her Rx was definitely "out" and she would not know if any of her calls were acknowledged .... the famous exceptiion being the Letter "A's" that she did receive. Why she did not set up a TX in voice on the main aerial and an Rx in Morse on the Loop will forever be a conundrum that no-one can answer All she would have to do was request a single letter for "yes" and another letter for "no".
I don't have to convince you Fleet, you believe what you like.
"Writing around the edge of a page just is not proof that would counter what A.E. herself is telling people. The paper has not be 100% authenticated (?)" It's enough for me and that's all that matters.
"However, I would encourage you to keep investigating at the very least you may find a wartime aircrew that can be accounted for." Correct, even if it finally turns out to be a wartime aircraft, as you say, it will bring closure for some families.
"If Noonan's dead-reckoning did not bring the plane directly over Howland at the "line of position," Earhart would fly up and down the 337-157 degree line until she found the island." Bear in mind Fleet, that the 157-337 is in TRUE degrees and if converted to MAG with the 10 degree variation in that Pacific area, it goes nowhere near Gardner. There is a paper written by a man named Gary La Pook which proves beyond doubt that the 157-337 line supposedly cutting through Gardner actually cannot be used. The paper can be found by using the Google engine.
You yourself now mention a "five hour" fuel reserve which at low level equates to circa 300 USG. That's how I derived "my" 300 USG. After recounting the histrionics, you then say: "Then the radio went silent."
Not quite Fleet, there were "other calls". The radio was not dead yet.....
Fred Goerner, in his 1st Edition of "The Search for Amelia Earhart" recounts finding a radio call heard by Nauru Radio at 1030, which was "Land in sight ahead", heard on 6210Kcs. The call was only heard by Nauru and therefore, the aircraft that made the call was out of range with the USCG ITASCA. The timing quoted by Goerner is obviously in relation to Local time on the USCG ITASCA for he says: "One and three-quarters of an hour after the last supposed call (at 0844L Itasca time), Nauru hears "Land in sight ahead" " That puts the time at 2200GMT or 22 Hours into the flight. If Earhart made that call, and it was on the frequency she stipulated, then if she had been heading for Gardner, ITASCA would have heard it, therefore, she had to be heading further away from ITASCA and if she was on her "Gilberts" plan, then the "Land" would have been The Gilberts, one of the atolls.
If AE turned for the Gilberts and "thought" she was at or close to Howland, she would not expect to see The Gilberts for four hours.
To travel the distance and see the atoll at say 15 miles in one and three quarters of an hour at her power setting to deliver 150 mph (as was her usual habit) and now with a tailwind of say 25 mph she will be doing 175mph over the ground and will have travelled 300 statute miles in the time. This means she would have been 200 Miles (at least) from Howland when she said "Must be on you...."
That was not the last Radio call either. Nauru Radio heard more calls at 0825GMT, 0831GMT, 0843GMT and the last at 0854GMT. I thought it was three only at this time, but Gillespie says there was also the 0825GMT call heard by Nauru. The Nauru Operator said the calls were unintelligible but sounded like the voice he had heard the night before but there was 'no hum of plane' in the background. So, who would be on 6210Kcs over the SW pacific at those GMT times which correspond to 1825 Local to 1854 Local New Britain time ?
J Boyle
"David..I didn't mean to sound like I'm going off on you, it's just that conspiracy theories are just silly."
No offence taken, I assure you, I enjoy "robust" interchange ! I completely agree about the conspiracy theories.
Earlier in the piece, I joined that "august" group known as "The Amelia Earhart Society" and conspiracy theories not only flourished, they were invented there !!! One contributor there wrote the awful book, "Amelia Earhart Lives", which he has had re-printed again and which has more holes than a colander.... Another wrote "Amelia Earhart Survived"....which also leaks like a sieve.... There was an erratic Monsignor featured on there who lived at Rumson NJ and who told everyone he had brought Amelia back from Japan, out of Horohito's Palace and had shaved her head to look for microchips of all things. Another told of AE being held at Weishien Concentration Camp in China and flown out by US Forces at the end of hostilities in a battered Betty Bomber, crewed by Japanese pilots under the command of a US Army major with a cocked .45..... Then there was the ex-USN guy who was on the USS Constellation and saw the Electra 10E and the missing Sikorsky S-42 being taken off a desert island and loaded onto the Glomar Explorer..... Astounding stories, good for a belly laugh but completely off the planet.
David Billings
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