Quote from GL -
Through WW2 celestial navigation was the only method of long range, oceanic navigation. Towards the very end of the war, LORAN-A came on line and was installed in some planes. For example, the B-17 carrying Rickenbacker (a very big VIP on a high priority mission) only had celestial navigation for navigation and had only one octant on board and this was five years after Earhart disappeared."
I think your explanation of Rickenbacker's "fix" underscores the point: a "preventer" isn't a bad idea, now is it? Just curious, but what have WWII and later developments have to do with AE's fix in 1937? We're kind of stuck with what she was stuck with.
We call this "custom and practice in the industry" and a widespread practice in an industry
is admissible to prove something happened or was done on a particular occasion. The flying industry, from before Noonan's time until quite lately, had a practice of carrying only one octant on a plane so this tends to prove that Noonan did not carry two sextants on the Earhart flight. ( It was also "custom and practice" that only one sextant was carried on ships too.) Of course, if you can come up with a photo or a witness statement saying that Noonan carried a mariner's sextant on the Earhart flight, or that he always carried a marine sextant duct taped to his stomach (he told me "you never know when you might need one"), then you win, you've proved your point. The letter to Weems doesn't even come close and would not even be admissible into evidence because it is too remote and the situation is too different so it cannot be used to show a "habit" of Noonan's. There is a reason we have rules of evidence to keep this type of thing from being shown to a jury, and I am not just talking about in criminal cases where the burden of proof is "beyond a reasonable doubt" but also in civil trials with a much lower burden of proof of "more probable than not." The reason that this would not be admissible is that the people in the jury might make unwarranted and unreasonable inferences from it (kinda like you guys, I rest my case.
) And this is in a jury trial where the jurors are impartial and do not have a dog in the fight. Those who believe in the Gardner theory are not impartial, they believe that the sextant box found on the island supports their theory that the plane landed there so to help their theory Noonan had to have had that marine sextant in the Electra. This subtly affects their thinking regarding whether the marine sextant was on the flight. They are engaging in "circular reasoning." Earhart landed on Gardner so this sextant box came from them. Since this sextant box came from them then they must have had it in the Electra. Since they had the sextant box in the Electra and we found it on Gardner then we have proved that the landed on Gardner. We can go around the circle again if you like. This is classical "circular reasoning." For the box on Gardner to lend support to your theory you must prove by evidence
independent of the box on Gardner that Noonan carried it in the Electra and nobody has been able to show that, only speculation and unsupported inferences from an inadmisable letter.
I could still be convinced, but it is your theory that they landed on Gardner and I am only keeping you honest, asking you to prove it.
gl