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Author Topic: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???  (Read 32473 times)

Randy Conrad

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Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« on: August 31, 2013, 08:44:44 PM »

I ran across this last night as I was researchin in the Chicago Times archives. As I was reading this article, I was wondering what type of fishing line Putnam was referring to in light of Noonan's sitting on a rock and fishing away. Also, there is mention of Amelia and Fred having a life raft on board the Electra also. So my question is....does anyone know what type of poles or actual fisihing lines Noonan may have had onboard and what size or type of life raft they had at the time?
« Last Edit: August 31, 2013, 09:30:54 PM by Randy Conrad »
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Randy Conrad

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2013, 09:38:45 PM »

You think...if indeed a life raft was onboard at the time of the emergency landing...it would be accessable to use to transport items from point A to point B without having to walk back and forth all the time. Plus, a life raft would be very handy and very useful to catch rainwater if given the chance.
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Monty Fowler

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2013, 10:09:19 AM »

That's the thing, Randy, we don't know what was aboard the Electra for the second world flight attempt. The best we have is the inventory by the USAAC after her Luke Field crash that ended the first attempt - and it showed a life raft was not carried. There are anecdotal reports that the fliers had a raft for the second attempt but it was left behind in Lae, New Guinea, to lighten the aircraft. But that is only an anecdote.

LTM, who loves lists,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER
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Ted G Campbell

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2013, 10:00:48 PM »

Marty,
What happened to the message "since last log on".  It is a pain to go through the list of subjects to find where you may have left off?
Ted Campell
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2013, 10:31:33 PM »

Marty,
What happened to the message "since last log on".  It is a pain to go through the list of subjects to find where you may have left off?
Ted Campell

Click on thumbnail to see the answer to your question:

LTM,

           Marty
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Randy Conrad

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2013, 11:23:13 AM »

Hey Monty...Thanks for replying back to this topic. I was sitting at home this morning and started pondering on what I had posted yesterday. I guess I'm curious to find out from Karen Hoy, Ric, Tom, and others about what kind of archival information we have attributing to what they indeed left behind in Lae. What I'm trying to find out here is do we have actual evidence that a life raft was left there and other objects? Also, during the D.C. Conference Joe Cernigilia started talking about the "flying laboratory". Exactly what was her purpose and main objective goal with the flying laboratory? Was she conducting tests for the military, companies funding the World Flight project, or just for personal use. I guess I'm really baffled because of all the archive pictures I've seen that not one picture I've seen indicates any kind of laboratory experiment or product being used in small or large quantities. Kinda of like the stuff you would find on a bathroom shelf from your wife or girlfriend. Anyway, trying to figure out if this is the case...why anyone would leave a life raft behind. It's just not logical in my books!!!
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Jeff Victor Hayden

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2013, 12:55:27 PM »

Here's an example of one of the experiments Randy from a previous thread.

http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,642.0.html



This must be the place
 
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2013, 01:08:14 PM »

Exactly what was her purpose and main objective goal with the flying laboratory?

Earhart's main objective with the "flying laboratory" was the same as it had been with her previous aircraft - self promotion - but 1937 the record-setting, long-distance flying game was getting stale.  Just flying someplace wasn't good enough any more. The "flying laboratory" thing was mostly a marketing gimmick and a way for Purdue to justify funding the purchase of the airplane. They did make some attempt to take samples of the upper atmosphere to determine if any insects and bacteria were present.  This involved Noonan putting out a pole with a screening device on the end.  The pole was held in place by mounts just outside the cabin door.  In Earhart's notes for "World Flight" she makes reference to Fred "going back to catch a bug." AE also talked about being interested in the effects of long distance flying on the the human body and I've seen references to her having a selection of sunglasses with her. 

...why anyone would leave a life raft behind. It's just not logical in my books!!!

Ah, but you're not thinking like the early long-distance flyers.  Lindbergh carried neither parachute nor life raft.  In long-distance flying, weight was paramount.  The more survival gear you carried, the greater the chance that you'd need it.  AE and FN had to know that if they came down at sea and survived the ditching, their chances of being found before they died of thirst or exposure were almost nil. Itasca had no search plan in the event Earhart didn't show up. Earhart never asked that they have one. She seems to have accepted the fact that, just as with her previous flights, the price of failure was death - and she was right. 

In 1928, prior to being recruited for the Friendship flight that catapulted her to fame, Earhart wrote a now-famous poem that seems to provide some hint about her priorities:
“Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace,
The soul that knows it not, knows no release,
From little things;
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.”

It's a theme common in literature.  Shakespeare's Julius Caesar said:
"Cowards die many times before their death.
The valiant never taste of death but once."

We can all accept and even embrace the sentiment but we vary in the degree to which we apply it in our own lives.  What was it that Amelia Earhart was willing to risk death for?  Fame?  Fortune?  Or was it "release from little things"?  I think it's a fascinating question.
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Dave Potratz

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2013, 01:40:41 PM »

. . . .What was it that Amelia Earhart was willing to risk death for?  Fame?  Fortune?  Or was it "release from little things"?  I think it's a fascinating question.

Ric, I honestly think Amelia Earhart's drive, if perhaps not quite as epic, was akin to the likes of Homer, Polo, Magellan, Lewis & Clark, Lindberg, or George Mallory:   "Because it's there."

Unfortunately, as with a myriad of other tragic heroes (Icarus comes to mind) her reach exceeded her grasp.

my 2 cents.
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richie conroy

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2013, 04:32:42 PM »

Hi All

In the first PDF that Randy posted, George Putnam comments Miss Earhart probably rigged up the planes aerial to send SOS

Is it possible he knew the belly aerial was ripped off on takeoff or knew of another reason why it would not be rigged up anyway ?

Thanks Richie   
We are an echo of the past


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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2013, 05:47:22 PM »

In the first PDF that Randy posted, George Putnam comments Miss Earhart probably rigged up the planes aerial to send SOS

Is it possible he knew the belly aerial was ripped off on takeoff or knew of another reason why it would not be rigged up anyway ?
 

The belly wire was a receiving antenna. All that was needed to send distress calls was the vee antenna on the top of the airplane.  If George Putnam acknowledged that radio distress calls were sent, whether he realized it or not, he was acknowledging that the plane was on land and on its landing gear.
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Stacy Galloway

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2013, 09:30:36 PM »

Like Randy, I've also seen several news article that mention the 'fact' that a life raft was on-board the Electra. This could be rumor used throughout the news sources and repeated as if it were fact. It would be great to find that one piece of documentation stating what items were actually on-board during the Lae-Howland leg.

And that's interesting to know it was the vee antenna that was used for transmitting radio signals. What was the loop antenna for?

LTM~ who remembers decorating her car antenna,
Stacy
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2013, 09:54:01 PM »

loop was the direction finder

amck
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2013, 09:56:19 PM »

And that's interesting to know it was the vee antenna that was used for transmitting radio signals. What was the loop antenna for?

NR16020 antennas.

Loop antenna.

Trailing wire antenna.

The Lost Antenna.
LTM,

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Stacy Galloway

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Re: Life Raft and Fishing Lines???
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2013, 10:56:42 PM »

Thank you Marty and Andrew. I had switched the antennas around in my mind and somehow made the loop antenna the transmitting antenna.

After spending 20+ years in the Air Force, I know virtually nil about aircraft... I spent my whole career on Communication Bases-without a plane in sight. What I do know about aircraft, I've learned on this site :)

I'm still amazed at how much technology was actually in those planes in that day and age.

Now, I'll get back to reading in Ameliapedia...

LTM~ Who now knows her loops and vees,
Stacy
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