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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Hewitt Schlereth
Date: 2022 Mar 1, 13:27 -0800
On Mar 1, 2022, at 7:17 AM, Gary LaPook <NoReply_LaPook@fer3.com> wrote:
It was no surprise to Noonan that they had a greater head wind that forcast since he measured in flight and reported " The next report received at 5.18 p.m. “POSITION 4.33 SOUTH 159.7 EAST HEIGHT 8000 FEET OVER CUMULUS CLOUDS WIND 23 KNOTS”.
This report arrived at Lae 7 hours and 18 minutes after their takeoff at 10 am local time. The Lae New Guinea zone discription is minus 10 so the takeoff was at 0000 GMT, July 2 and this report was at 0718 GMT. Her last transmission was at 1913 GMT.
So Noonan knew about the wind from observations he had made in flight. I can't agree that an unexpected headwind caused the loss since it is clear that he got at least one and possibly more that one observation of the sun and it's azimuth made it a "speed line" cancelling out ground speed error caused by the head wind.
See: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Chater_Report.html
