Still from ROV video

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 12:36:07 PM

Tom Swearengen · January 13, 2012, 01:10:54 PM

Hey Richie----if you can conjure up some pics of the reef/ocean bottom, that would be cool.
Oh ---at Nikumaroro!
tom

Bruce Thomas · January 13, 2012, 01:23:28 PM

Nice picture, Richie. It's a Lockheed PV2 Harpoon, apparently tail number NL10PV. Other pictures are available, including one on www.airliners.net that is identified as having been taken at an airport in Schellville, California. Other pictures here that show the rear landing gear nicely, including the one you've posted.

By the way, those who love to spend precious time Googling things, Richie's posting without any captioning caused me to ponder, "Where'd he get that photo?" Clever people, those folks at Google. :D It's the first time I've tried using Google Image search with a picture instead of keywords for the description. In a few moments, a v-e-r-y few moments, the Google results page came back with that picture listed first and the webpage it's used on. Underneath that were lots of other "visually similar" pictures, including one of a Sukhoi T-4 and (what I can only describe as) a Russian picture of an automotive wingwalker.

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 02:23:11 PM

haha bruce

i logged on an said give me half hour, an will post some pics being a smart a*!s

well it took me over that to find 1 good pic ov electra tail wheel :o

but forgot to add link sorry

BUT that picture, the tail wheel looks alot more advanced than what earharts was ric has posted an image in the past in relation to the nessie photo but can i find it NO :(

i will tho

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 02:45:23 PM

http://loftyambitions.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/img_6011.jpg

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 03:14:47 PM

http://e-archives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/earhart&CISOPTR=284&DMSCALE=100&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMX=300&DMY=1782&DMMODE=viewer&DMTEXT=%20Electra%2527s&REC=17&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 03:16:31 PM

http://e-archives.lib.purdue.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/earhart&CISOPTR=502&DMSCALE=100&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMX=2094&DMY=1098&DMMODE=viewer&DMTEXT=%20Electra%2527s&REC=16&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0

richie conroy · January 13, 2012, 03:33:41 PM

jeff as ur good wid images wat do u make ov this image

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/19_Forensicupdate.html

i was messing about on cs5 highlighting diffrent area's an noticed it

Harry Howe, Jr. · January 13, 2012, 06:49:39 PM

Let's bear in mind that in taxi-ing a tail dragger that the forward progress is gained in a series of "S" turns allowing a view in the forward direction thru the side windows. If the tail wheel were to drop into a hole or groove in the reef flat while moving in this fashion there would be side forces that could shear off the wheel apparatus and trap it in the groove.

IMHO it's hard to believe that the ROV had no backup GPS capability. Oh well, Stuff Happens.

John Ousterhout · January 13, 2012, 07:22:46 PM

"IMHO it's hard to believe that the ROV had no backup GPS capability."
That sort of redundancy costs $$. The less expensive option is to try very hard to avoid feeding your single GPS reference antenna into your ship's propeller.
I'm sure TIGHAR would appreciate enough funds to provide redundancy for all of the single-point failures that accompany every expedition.

Tom Swearengen · January 13, 2012, 08:17:09 PM

----and a deep dive submirsible, and a BIG barge with a crane with alot of cable, and someone to mark the spot. I've been looking over alot of the material the past few days. Somewhere is was written that the electra was off the southern shore. Also read wher it was thought to be near the lagoon channel. Look guys. I believe its there. There happens to be a pretty big area when we are looking for a needle in a haystack. The ROV video has lifted the spirits, and suspicions of alot of us. With that, several more questions come to my mind. Obviously first, what general area was the ROV when this video was taken? I assume it was near the shipwreck/landing site, because that seemed most probable. 2nd) approximately what depth along the reef was it, and 3rd) do we know where the bottom is? Answers to 1&2 seem pretty easy. 3 is alot harder, since the ROV only had 900+- feet of cable , and still didnt get the the bottom. But I assume it wasnt intended to go to the bottom.
A couple of other things do come to mind. I occured to me that some 'others' may just be right (by accident or by ESP) in placing the location on other parts of the reef/bottom. Thats where the search become a needle in a haystack. Niku has a pretty good sized reef, and we really dont know much about its topography. I would hope that a circumvental search of the offshore waters with magnetometer or maybe a different side scan sonar would be used to help eliminate some of these areas. The problem I see with that is, there is ALOT of ship wreckage all over the place, having been moved there by storms, ocean currents, and other forces of nature. Obviously that put alot of target out there to investigate. All of this search technology costs money for equipment, and operation time. I think Ric has done an unbelievable job of using the assets he has to get this investigation to this point.
What we really need is for some corporations to step up with their technology and help, before some others with DEEP pockets that the information presented here and go searching themselves. Didnt take long after the Titanic was found several others we going to bring back artifacts. Anyone remenber the Glomar Explorer? Yes the assets do exsist. So, I would challenge ANY corporation to contact Ric to see how they may help in this investigation. Manufacturers of submirsibles, ROV's, side scan sonar, underwater mapping gear, computer software, salvage companies, even some Fortune 100 companies.
This is a VERY worthwhile investigation; possibly helping to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century, a story that has been passed down from a couple of generations. It is my hope that we can do that. As a team, we will.
Tom

Harry Howe, Jr. · January 13, 2012, 08:38:29 PM

John O.
Consider the following as a 5 minute stab at a backup.
A battery operated, hand held Garmin Gps device can be purchased for lkess than $300.00 at any Walmart. A waterproff plexiglas box to house said device could be fabricated for a nominal cost. Bingo, backup GPS.

richie conroy · January 14, 2012, 05:55:03 AM

http://www.wc5c.org/WC5CClub/NikumaroroAmeliaEarhartHamRadioTest/tabid/570/Default.aspx

just wondering if Tighar was aware of this ?

Jeff Victor Hayden · January 14, 2012, 06:20:04 AM

Quote from: Harry Howe, Jr. on January 13, 2012, 06:49:39 PM

Let's bear in mind that in taxi-ing a tail dragger that the forward progress is gained in a series of "S" turns allowing a view in the forward direction thru the side windows. If the tail wheel were to drop into a hole or groove in the reef flat while moving in this fashion there would be side forces that could shear off the wheel apparatus and trap it in the groove.

IMHO it's hard to believe that the ROV had no backup GPS capability. Oh well, Stuff Happens.

Harry, I was considering this. Of the three wheels on the Electra I would speculate that the rear one would be the one that was most likely to susceptible to severe damage on the reef. It's attached to the lightest part of the plane i.e. the part that will be shunted about the most by waves, currents, tides, storms etc... So lots of sideways motion scraping the rear wheel over the reef. I would be suprised if the tyre remained on this wheel. The the tyres on the main gear had more chance of surving as they were on the heaviest part of the plane, the pivot point of forces acting on the structure. Wave action, tides, storms etc... would tend to push the plane around on this pivot point, using the upright tail fins as rudders/sails as the means of transferring this energy into sideways back and forth motion. It's a theory so is not written in stone.
Jeff

Jeff Victor Hayden · January 14, 2012, 06:30:14 AM

Quote from: richie conroy on January 13, 2012, 03:33:41 PM
jeff as ur good wid images wat do u make ov this image

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/19_Forensicupdate.html

i was messing about on cs5 highlighting diffrent area's an noticed it

Richie, I have been looking at these early photos for months now. There are a number of limiting factors that prevent them giving up much in the way of useful information. The resolution, the altitude from which they were taken, the sea conditions etc... They are, as Ric mentions, useful in a comparison to previous photos to track any previous suspicious objects. That's the area in which I have been researching these photos.
Great pictures of rear wheel assemblies Richie, thanks for your help in this part of the search.
As I mentioned before, it's likely that all this junk originates from a plane but, is it the Electra? could a WW2 plane have ditched here? is there any record of this happening? You wouldn't be interested into researching this possibility Richie?
Great work Richie, keep going.
Jeff