Yes it is Marty,
So much parallel to the 'Last Flight' ... but without most of the mystery.
And by replying to a post that was on topic, I created 'thread drift'.
Whoa! Nice work! An aircraft of similar size and configuration to the Electra (despite being butt-ugly) lands successfully on a reef worse than Gardner's, loses the tail wheel, and gets washed off the reef and lost? This needs further investigation.
I had just been skimming through a general Google Search of [landing on a reef] trying to find that quote I had seen on the old forum about
Gatty's statement and it was about #220 out of 11,000,000.
Some excellent links provided in recent posts, I especially liked Jeff's 'flightglobal' that shows a chart on the second page. Heading for the left tip of that large island (Timor) and then got 'vectored' 30* further left... I can just see Fred looking at that and saying "What were those guys thinking... can't always go by Radio Bearings. Try common sense."
According to the crew in
this article in the 3 Nov '36 Canberra Times; the corrections made by the pilots were first 2*, then 5* and finally 1* (all to the left). If anyone could have ever used an 'offset' Landfall Procedure....
The radio operator asked Darwin if they were sure correct bearings were given.
Reply came back
"OK., all pilots doubtful of this crossing."Flightglobal's third page tells of unexpected Compass Deviations on reaching Darwin of greater than 15*, they had a Tech aboard, they could have located a Compass Rose and 'Swung' it.
One factor in common with the AE/FN tragedy was their 'hurry' (to set a record for Australia to England) so there was no time to properly TCB.
Jeff's first link The
Outside Lomcovak Club What's in a name...
[link fixed by BT 10:22 EDT 8/24/2012]Shows the ST-18's 'beauty' best; imagine swept wings in 1935.
A more recent British ship is the
Bison Beagle; a twin in the three ton category, that makes a Twin Bonanza look sleek. But pilots who know them, love them, an outfit in Fort Lauderdale had some (with support) until quite recently.
No doubt the Spitfire's and Mosquito's make up for a lot of ugly British Aircraft.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ric,
Lots of posters present lots of guesses (not facts) but it is when they then dig in on those opinions as if they were facts.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bruce,
Thank you for doing the link repair for me, sorry I didn't return earlier.
And Marty for 'filling-in' on it as well.