Amelia Earhart

Well, it doesn't take very long to learn dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah
dit-dit-dit, and that would have been of some use in the event.

Hell, it doesn't take long to learn the whole dang alphabet, to be
able to send and receive four or five words a minute, which which
have been enough to save their hides.

Astonishing they could have been so dumb about that.

vince norris

AE and FN talked their way out of meeting the 15 wpm
CW requirement. Then they took the 500 kHz antenna
out of the plane. Rumor has it that they also left the
key behind in Miami--more dead weight.

Yeah, a key must weigh, oh, two or three ounces!

vince norris

Until a few years ago, 500 kHz was the one frequency marine radio
operators were REQUIRED to monitor continually, day and night, for
emergency traffic.

That is correct. I think that rule came in after the Titanic sank
(1912).

IIRC, the Titanic's sinking led to the creation of the International
Telecommunications Union, which was the first international attempt to
regulate and bring some sense of order to wireless transmissions. The
ITU was one of the most successful of the world's efforts at
international cooperation, which continued through war and peace.

vince norris

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:12:34 -0500, vincent p. norris wrote:

IIRC, the Titanic's sinking led to the creation of the International
Telecommunications Union,

wrong, the ITU was founded in 1865 in Paris, France.
http://www.itu.int/aboutitu/overview/history.html

#m
--
http://www.terranova.net/content/images/goering.jpg

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:35:22 -0500, "Martin X. Moleski, SJ"
wrote in
::

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 15:04:19 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

... like many of her
fellow aviatrix' of the time, her bravado exceeded here piloting
skills.

I'd nominate Jean Batten of NZ for top honors in courage,
skill, and luck:

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jean_batten_bio.html

I'm reading Alone In The Sky now.

She wasn't all there psychologically, but neither am I. ;o)


I haven't found anything to support that allegation yet in her book.
She seem to have had a lot of pluck from an early age, and the skills
and courage to succeed. My hat's off to her. I wouldn't have
attempted an around the world flight at her tender young age in the
aircraft available in the '30s. In fact, I wouldn't do it now.

... their successes captured the world's attention and undeniably
demonstrated female equality with men at a time when it was needed to
publicly advance that movement.

It was also a way to earn a living. There's good money in
show business.

It's pretty apparent that was what motivated Jim Millison to wed Amy
Johnson.

wrong, the ITU was founded in 1865 in Paris, France.
http://www.itu.int/aboutitu/overview/history.html

Well, I learn something every day!

vince norris

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:59:20 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

I'd nominate Jean Batten of NZ for top honors in courage,
skill, and luck:

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jean_batten_bio.html

I'm reading Alone In The Sky now.

She wasn't all there psychologically, but neither am I. ;o)

I haven't found anything to support that allegation yet in her book.

I think I read Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies when I was
in Auckland (where her most famous plane hangs in the airport).
I didn't bring the book home with me. It traces her peculiar
relationship with her mother from childhood to old age. She
died unknown and was buried in a pauper's grave. No one
knew of her death and burial until years after the fact.

She seem to have had a lot of pluck from an early age, and the skills
and courage to succeed.

Agreed.

My hat's off to her. I wouldn't have
attempted an around the world flight at her tender young age in the
aircraft available in the '30s. In fact, I wouldn't do it now.

She did some amazing solo flights and survived many hardships.
Her single engine quit while she was on a long leg over water to
New Zealand. She kept at it and got the engine restarted in time
to tell the tale. Her navigation was excellent.

Marty

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:07:52 -0500, vincent p. norris
wrote:

Yeah, a key must weigh, oh, two or three ounces!

It all adds up, of course. Many serious backpackers cut the handles
off their toothbrushes.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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the blog: www.danford.net

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 05:21:51 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote:

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:07:52 -0500, vincent p. norris
wrote:

Yeah, a key must weigh, oh, two or three ounces!

It all adds up, of course. Many serious backpackers cut the handles
off their toothbrushes.

Here is the introduction to what TIGHAR calls "The Hooven Report":

"Before Miss Earhart took off on her Round-the-World flight she
removed from her plane a modern radio compass that had been installed
and replaced it with an older, lighter-weight model of much less
capability. I am the engineer who had invented and developed the radio
compass that was removed, and I discussed its features with Miss
Earhart before the installation was made. I have reason to believe
that it was the failure of her radio direction-finder to do what the
more modern model could have done that caused her to be lost. The
story is told herein, and it is plain to see why I have been so very
much interested in the subject.

"I met Miss Earhart for lunch at Wright Field in the summer of 1936.
She was accompanied by a younger woman flyer, quite unknown at the
time, Jacqueline Cochran. Although she moved in a man's world, and
wore men's trousers and wore a short haircut, there was nothing
masculine about Miss Earhart. Every inch a lady, she was gracious and
quiet-spoken, thoroughly feminine and attractive.

"Too much time has elapsed for me to remember when it was that I
learned that my device was not on the Earhart plane when it was lost,
or even whether it was before or after the takeoff that I learned. But
I have been possessed by the desire to know what did happen, and by
the wish that things had happened differently."

For the full article by Hooven, see
http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Documents/Hooven_Report/HoovenReport.html.

The gist of his argument is that in the interest of shaving a few
pounds from her DF equipment, AE installed an inferior system
that cost her more in drag than it gained in weight reduction.
Her inability to make the old system work, in turn, made it impossible
for her to find Howland Island on the morning of July 2, 1937.

Marty

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 10:00:01 -0500, "Martin X. Moleski, SJ"
wrote in
::

Her inability to make the old system work, in turn, made it impossible
for her to find Howland Island on the morning of July 2, 1937.

Thanks for the link to interesting Earhart information.

There is considerable speculation that the US government secretly
asked her to do reconnaissance over Japanese held Pacific islands on
her last flight. This was the conclusion reached by author Fred
Goerner in his The Search for Amelia Earhart.
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac...1661_2:113:280