Guys-----we cant think like its 2012-----or 1977. We have to take a time machine BACK to 1937---using their technology. Dark ages I know, but using todays stuff isnt going to figure out what SHE did.
As for Fred---take out the GPS, the TACAN, the XM weather, oh and the radio, and then navigate over the open ocean, under the clouds, and see how close YOU come to Howland. If you are that good, maybe we should buy the Electra that was on Ebay, outfit it EXACTLY like NR16020, and have the same radio communication problems that they had, and fly under similar conditions. Whose game? Harry? Gary? Not me---
Perhaps the best quote in Fred Goerners book came from Paul Mantz (supposedly)---the lae-Howland leg, "would like taking off fom my field here in Burbank, flying all nite with nothing to navigate by, calculate your drift, or take a star shot, and try to land on the 18 fairway on a golf course in New Jersey". I remember as a young man reading that than thought it was crazy.
Knowing what I know now------with all the problems, it was suicidal.
How many of you pilots out there fly a good distance without radio contact to someone". Oh yeah---you can nav by the ground and a map. Ok====try New York to the Virgin Islands---cloudy, nitetime, with maufunctioning radio, with just a compass. Anyone up for that?
Lets think about it-------
Tom