I only saw her flight website after a link was posted here about passing Howland, it was just a nice map showing their progress with no live video seen.
What strikes out to me was her Publicity Engine compared to the teenager's
(far more impressive) Solo World flight from
the link a few posts before, Amelia and her CoPilot passed over him during their trip. He had a headstart but Amelia's Pilatus was much faster and higher flying than his Bonanza.
A very Big advantage for a beautiful TV Personality named Amelia Earhart, but I give her a lot of credit for her promotion of the trip
and especially her support for young female pilots. What caught my attention the most was a story I was led to from Jeffrey Neville's link:
http://www18.tok2.com/home/soar/med/pc-12web1.pdfThis related to an AOPA Japan World Flight with a fleet of single engine planes ending with the
loss of a Pilatus PC-12 (same model as Amelia Rose's) into the Pacific Ocean.
This was a catastrophic failure of the Pilatus' Pratt & Whitney PT-6A Turboprop engine during high altitude cruise. This was followed by a depleted battery 'dead-stick' glide down to an ocean with a 100' ceiling and 15 knot winds with a very successful ditching into 10' waved seas. The four occupants were rescued by a Russian Freighter after 15 hours in a liferaft dressed in survival suits.
Their Pilatus PC-12 had remained afloat for several hours but then sank, removing potential for investigating the exact cause of that engine failure.The Pratt & Whitney PT-6A Turboprop (powers the Pilatus as well as most other Turboprop aircraft) has such an excellent reputation for reliability that former restrictions for Passenger-for-Hire in single-engine aircraft in poor visibility have been lifted worldwide. Over-water
Passenger-for-Hire single engine restrictions would still apply.
In 5,000+ hours of flight with PT-6A engines I have experienced two Pratt & Whitney PT-6A Turboprop engine failures. First one was just a simple loss of a cotter-pin rolling the engine back to idle, with two engines it was no big deal. My Second PT-6A loss was a catastrophic disintegration from a CT blade failure with a spectacular night show of fire outside the cabin from the prop to the tail.