On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 13:15:57 GMT, James Robinson
wrote:

Cecil Chapman wrote:

Only question I would have about the comments you saw would be separating
how much of the analysis of her flying was truly objective or simply male
chauvinism of the times towards her being a female pilot ...

Much of the criticism came from Paul Mantz, who was a friend of hers,
was her technical advisor for the trip, and was rumored to have had an
affair with her. Paul Mantz went on to a distinguished career as a
Hollywood stunt pilot.

.... and died tragically in the filming of "Flight of the Phoenix.

Mantz is quoted as saying that Earhart was in such a rush to start her
journey that she was inadequately trained on the new radio equipment ...

1. She and Fred Noonan, her navigator, refused to learn Morse Code.
They planned to rely on voice. This became a fatal flaw when they
needed to communicate with the Coast Guard crew waiting for
them at Howland Island.

2. Amelia took out the Hooven radio compass and replaced it
with an inferior RDF system (according to Hooven, at any
rate).

3. A flight test of the RDF system failed just a few days before
the departure from Lae, New Guinea. Amelia said, "We were
too close for it to work." In fact, her inability to make the system
work on the test flight probably showed something wrong with
the hardware or with her DF technique.

4. AE seemed to have a poor grasp of how to emit a signal
to let the Coast Guard get a bearing on her. She didn't stay
on the air long enough for the radio men to get a fix on her
position.

routinely ignored safety procedures,
had not had enough practice flying
the aircraft, (she pranged it on takeoff in Hawaii, and had to delay her
first attempt,)

The crash on takeoff was the end of the first attempt.
She had three men on board with her: Fred Noonan,
Paul Mantz, and Harry Manning. On the second attempt,
only Noonan accompanied her.

was only an average pilot, etc.

1928: First woman to fly across the Atlantic
(acted as “logkeeper”).

1931: Altitude record for autogyros (18,415').
Coast-to-coast in an autogyro.

* Broke first airframe. Finished in
a replacement.

1932: Second person to fly solo
across the Atlantic (15 hours 18 min).

* Made an off-field landing on the coast of Ireland.

1932 & 1933: Broke women’s transcontinental
speed record.

1935: First person to fly solo from
Hawaii to California.

1937: Crashed on takeoff from Hawaii.
Disappeared after takeoff from Lae.

The Lae takeoff was masterful and courageous.
The plane dropped off the end of the ridge that
the runway was on and skimmed over the waves
until it was out of sight--probably flying in ground
effect.

AE and FN were trying to go around the equator,
where earlier "round-the-world" flights flew shorter
routes:

Wiley Post and Harold Gatty:
1931: 15,474 miles; 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes

Wiley Post solo (one good eye, autopilot & RDF):
1933: 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 minutes.

(1935: Wiley Post and Will Rogers died on
takeoff in Alaska.)

For more details on AE, FN, and the history of
the era, see www.tighar.org.

(I am a dues-paying member of TIGHAR
and I have done research in Fiji and New Zealand for
the group.)

Marty