We pilots would like to have two of everything but, in spite of this desire, most planes get by with only one engine, one compass, one altimeter, etc. So Noonan with one drift meter and one octant is certainly within normal bounds.
gl
Maybe so, Gary. But we're not in FN's shoes, and he'd certainly done otherwise on at least one other occasion, regardless of how you might see it.
The circumstances of flying the Pacific with AE may easily have prompted the same caution in FN that led him to carry a "preventer" on at least one previous occasion.
No amount of argument from me or you can prove what he did aboard NR16020.
We do have one record of FN having carried a "preventer" in a certain circumstance once before.
He apparently also thought enough of that detail to not only mention it in a personal letter to a colleague, but to state it in a Pan Am memo.
I just re-read Noonan's April 29, 1935 memo to Pan Am and I didn't see any mention of a preventer, can you point it out?
I am not aware of any other record where FN stating that he did otherwise, on any occasion. Which proves nothing about the AE flight.
But it does tell us something about what may have been important to FN, at least at a point in history that is recorded, regardless of what another might find important or rational.
Now, if there were a record of FN having said something like:
"I later found the carriage of a 'preventer' to be a waste of time, space and weight and elected to go without it",
He did say that all sights were taken with the bubble octant.
- then we'd have an equally compelling record about FN deviating from something he previously had bothered to point out, wouldn't we?
That would be far more than speculating about what you or I might do, if we were FN, as we see it today.
I guess the probabities are that we'll never know what he did for certain. I guess we can also draw our own conclusions about what we think he probably did, too.
LTM -
If you guys want to believe that they landed on Gardner you will have to do it based on evidence other than the sextant box. To get the sextant box to Gardner you first have to get it on the plane and you have no evidence for that except a two year old letter talking about what Noonan did when he was employed by Pan Am. My first job was in a machine shop and there was a drill press there. I worked on the drill press but when I quit they didn't let me take the drill press home with me. If you want to now prove that I do have a drill press then produce an invoice from Sears or a photo of me with a drill press in my home or at least a witness statement saying they saw me using a drill press at home. You can't, so it is completely unjustified to make the leap that I have a drill press just because I used to work on one at my job. Even if I haven't made a statement that "I don't have a drill press" you can't make the absence of such a statement proof
that I do have a drill press as you have done above where you point out that there is no statement from Noonan saying he didn't have a marine sextant, that he found them to be a waste of time. You are turning logic on its head.
All you have is Noonan's letter about a flight for his employer, Pan Am, in his employer's airplane, using his employer's equipment, two years prior to the Earhart flight on which he says a marine sextant was carried. (I guess you believe that everything on the plane belonged to Pan Am with only one exception, the marine sextant, does that make any sense?) This statement is just like my statement that there was a drill press in the machine shop where I was employed. You do not have any photos or witness statement showing a marine sextant carried on the Electra anywhere around the world. There was no marine sextant mentioned in the Luke Field Inventory.
Before you can place the sextant box in Earhart's plane you first must prove that Noonan had a marine sextant in 1937.
Noonan's letter said that "two sextants were carried" it didn't say "I brought my own sextant" on the flight, (see attached.)
What makes you think he could take the marine sextant home with him when he left the employ of Pan Am? Do you think he took the bubble octant home too? What about the fire extinguisher? What about the chart table? What about the left engine, did Pan Am let him take that home? Wait, we know that Pan Am didn't let him take the bubble octant home because they had to scrounge one up for the Earhart flight. Where did they go to scrounge up a marine sextant? If you believe that he had a marine sextant from his days on the sea then you must take into account that he had been working for Pan Am since 1930, seven years prior to the Earhart flight so didn't need a marine sextant to navigate his ship. And do you have any evidence that he even had a marine sextant of his own when he was a sailor? Even if he did have one when he was at sea it is certainly reasonable that he would have sold the valuable instrument in the intervening seven years since he didn't need one at Pan Am.
Marine sextants are expensive now and they were expensive then, see:
http://www.celestaire.com/Cassens-Plath/View-all-products.htmlSome have claimed that the marine sextant was modified for use aloft by adding a bubble horizon attachment although there is nothing in Noonan's letter or any other evidence that was the case. Today, a bubble attachment for a marine sextant costs $950 in addition to the $1795 cost of just the sextant and they weren't cheaper in 1937, see prior link. Do you think that Pan Am would allow Noonan to take home such a valuable piece of equipment when he quit, or was fired? If Noonan bought one after he left Pan Am then where did Noonan get the money to buy one since he was unemployed for some time prior to hooking up with Earhart? A couple of days ago I posted that Earhart had a Colt Pistol, Ric demanded "documentation." Where is your "documentation" showing Noonan owning a marine sextant in 1937? Do you have a bill of sale? A photo of him with his marine sextant at home in 1937? A statement from any witness saying that they saw him with a marine sextant at home in 1937? Or even a statement that Noonan had told them that he owned a marine sextant in 1937? I'll answer that for you, no you don't.
What we do have is an interview with Helen Day, a friend of Noonans. In sum, Day recalled that she was at Noonan's room in Miami, helping the party gather their equipment and stuff for the flight. Helen said she helped carry down some of their stuff, including a pith helmet, thermos, a machete (in case they were forced down in a jungle, ."Someone carried AEs small suitcase......Fred carried only his octant". Nobody was carrying a "preventer" out to the plane for the departure from Miami. Noonan obviously did not leave the octant in the plane when they were in Miami and he certainly would not have left the equally valuable marine sextant in the plane either. Day's statement is direct evidence that they did not load a marine sextant aboard the Electra and you have no evidence in any form to contradict that statement nor any evidence that Noonan even owned a marine sextant in 1937.
So believe all you want that they landed on Gardner but do it without relying on the sextant box.
gl