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Author Topic: Taraia object  (Read 21817 times)

Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #30 on: September 18, 2020, 11:47:54 AM »

It doesn't help that the pilot took that turn like he was dodging a VC machine gun. Probably an old Cav guy. It looks like he was having fun.

He was definitely having fun and the old Cav guy in the back of the Hughes 500 (no seats, no belts, nothing to hold on to) was grabbing anything he could find trying to stay aboard.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #31 on: September 18, 2020, 11:54:11 AM »

  What if the Taraia object is exactly where it crashed and not brought in by tidal movement over any period of time.

Any hypothesis that has the Electra landing in the lagoon has to dismiss all of the post-loss radio signals and the Bevington Object plus assume the Navy fliers missed an airplane wreck sitting right there in plane sight.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #32 on: September 18, 2020, 12:06:05 PM »

Here we have a blowup of the 1938 photo of Taraia area.

This is the area of interest in 1938 photo. Using Photoshop, I have discarded the color, rendering the image in black & white.
I don't think there's anything there.
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Christian Stock

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #33 on: September 18, 2020, 12:33:00 PM »

It doesn't help that the pilot took that turn like he was dodging a VC machine gun. Probably an old Cav guy. It looks like he was having fun.

He was definitely having fun and the old Cav guy in the back of the Hughes 500 (no seats, no belts, nothing to hold on to) was grabbing anything he could find trying to stay aboard.

Hopefully they had a harness for you. It looks like the cameraman was in the pilot's seat.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #34 on: September 18, 2020, 01:09:31 PM »

Hopefully they had a harness for you. It looks like the cameraman was in the pilot's seat.

No harness.  No nuthin'.  Mark Smith was shooting from the right seat up front.
The helicopter had no provision for passengers in back so the original plan was for me to show the pilot where I wanted him to take Mark, then we would come back, I would get out, Mark would take my place in the right seat, and I would wait on the ground while they went out and filmed.   But when we got Mark strapped in, I couldn't stand the thought watching them fly off without me so  I went around to the pilot's side and hollered, "Is it okay I ride along in the back?"  He looked at me like I had lost my mind.  "There's nothing back there!"   I said, "Not a problem. I rode in slicks all the time in the Cav."  He said, "Suit yourself, it's your ass."  And off we went.  Life is cheap on Niku.  You routinely do things you wouldn't dream of doing in the real world.
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Daniel R. Brown

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #35 on: September 18, 2020, 01:27:48 PM »

five and a half feet from keel to top

Ric, can you comment on the Electra 10 "keel"?

Dan Brown, #2408
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #36 on: September 19, 2020, 08:23:50 AM »


Ric, can you comment on the Electra 10 "keel"?


The keel was a heavy aluminum extrusion that ran from the main beam aft and anchored all of the circumferential bulkheads.
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MichaelAshmore

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #37 on: September 19, 2020, 09:08:25 AM »

     Hello everyone,
   
         I`m in agreement with Ric, I didn`t take in account all of the evidence thus far. I know
    my theory is off the beaten path and is total speculation. So if this proves to be her plane
    wreckage and taking in all of the other evidence, the float in theory would be the most
    plausible.
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Don White

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #38 on: September 19, 2020, 01:48:00 PM »

It's seemed to me from the beginning of this thread that there are three possibilities. It may be late to write this now -- I intended to post it when the discussion began -- but here goes.

1) It's an object that is periodically uncovered and covered, like the Maid of Harlech. This could be part of the Electra. The evidence against this is that metal detectors -- and visual search -- in that area did not detect it.
2) The area where it is seen occasionally captures elongated objects (perhaps logs) for a time, but does not retain them. The question is whether there is a source of such objects to land in the water and be moved into that place and then elsewhere by natural forces. It seems that People Who Have Been There have been answering that question.
3) It's an optical illusion, which Ric thought it was initially, and which seems the likeliest explanation, given that nearly all such sightings are exactly that. The evidence against is that occasionally some have been determined have a high probability to be real, not illusory objects. An example is the Bevington Object, now considered to have a high probability of being a landing gear assembly from the Electra. There are others also considered to have a probability to be other than illusory.

Don
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #39 on: September 19, 2020, 03:31:15 PM »

1) It's an object that is periodically uncovered and covered, like the Maid of Harlech. This could be part of the Electra. The evidence against this is that metal detectors -- and visual search -- in that area did not detect it.

If it's a part of the Electra, it's a big part of the Electra that must have floated in.  The only part of the Electra that looks remotely like the object is the fuselage.  The fuselage, or any portion of the fuselage, is not buoyant unless some of the fuel tanks are still in place and intact. It is hard to imagine that a piece of wreckage like that could go undetected for all these years.  In size, color, and proportions, it looks like a coconut palm log with a root ball on one end.   

2) The area where it is seen occasionally captures elongated objects (perhaps logs) for a time, but does not retain them. The question is whether there is a source of such objects to land in the water and be moved into that place and then elsewhere by natural forces. It seems that People Who Have Been There have been answering that question.

When storms hit the island from the west, tidal surges erode the banks of the main passage and under-wash coconut palms growing along the edge of the passage, exposing the root ball and killing the tree. (photo below from 2007)  Some are washed into the lagoon.  Taraia is a logical place for one to wash up.

3) It's an optical illusion, which Ric thought it was initially, and which seems the likeliest explanation, given that nearly all such sightings are exactly that. The evidence against is that occasionally some have been determined have a high probability to be real, not illusory objects. An example is the Bevington Object, now considered to have a high probability of being a landing gear assembly from the Electra. There are others also considered to have a probability to be other than illusory.

There's definitely something there in some of the photos but interpretations of what it is are prone to pareidolia.
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Bill Mangus

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #40 on: September 20, 2020, 06:44:25 AM »

That picture sure provides the scale of things on Niku.

Nice!
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Christian Stock

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #41 on: September 21, 2020, 12:09:07 PM »

Well, make a note to look in this spot next trip. If it is a 23' piece of fuselage, you will probably still find bits of aluminum even if it moved. If it is a 23' coconut palm trunk with a root ball, it should still be in the vicinity.

I would take some of those tongs the oystermen use in the Chesapeake Bay.
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Jon Romig

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #42 on: September 21, 2020, 07:32:31 PM »

If it is ~23’ long then by my rough scaling it is ~18” to ~36” in width (depending upon whether the dark lines are part of the object, or are shadows). So it is highly unlikely to be the fuselage.

Is 18” - 36” diameter the scale of local-origin palm trees that might wash up there?

Jon
Jon Romig 3562R
 
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Christian Stock

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #43 on: September 21, 2020, 09:45:00 PM »

3’ was my thought as well. Much more treelike than airplane-ish.

There are many thousands of coconut palm trees on the island. There has been, at best, one Lockheed Electra.
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Ric Gillespie

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Re: Taraia object
« Reply #44 on: September 22, 2020, 09:36:31 AM »

18 to 36 inch diameter sounds about right for Niku cocos.  Most are inland and not susceptible to being washed into the lagoon, except the cocos along the Old Village edge of Tatiman Passage.
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