Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort

"Bob's Your Uncle" wrote in message
...

"M. J. Powell" wrote in message

...snip...
B-26's carry bombardier navigators. Each one in the formation plots the
flight as though he was flying lead. As I
was plotting our course my plot looked as though the lead was taking
us
right
over Frankfort.I must have
made a mistake in my plot. I did it over and over. No mistake. When we
landed
we all talked about the error. It seems everyone knew where we were
except for
the lead navigator. We paid a high price for maintaining iron
discipline
in
radio silence. One more point, We never saw that navigator again.

Art, I would like to ask some stupid questions. Why keep radio silence
then? Mike
--
M.J.Powell

Why are these psuedo navigators plottting a course for home after hitting
the taret? One would think they would have that pre-planned as well as a
course from the secondary.

You cant pre-plan wind speed and direction, what Art is describing
sounds like comparing actual position with the planned position to
pass an updated heading to the pilot for him to fly. If you leave this
to the lead then you can get into all sorts of trouble if he goes
down or you get seperated from the group.

This is what is believed to have happened to the B-24 Lady Be Good
that got lost over the African Desert, she became separated from the
group and the navigators log book and charts showed no plot
had been kept. The entire crew died in the desert as a result.

This narrative is from someone who doesn't know the difference between
Compass Deviation and Magnetic Variation, as we remember!
Perhaps, in additio he meant a Heading instead of a Course?


Nope, the nav plots the course gives the pilot a heading to fly
stay in order to stay on that course allowing for wind drift.

Keith