RPM, FF, TGT…The Skull Fragment
Reported and introduced in the TIGHAR Forum…
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT……..and now for something completely different….
TIGHAR has now… wait fr it… TIGHAR has now introduced a fragment of a skull which is resting in the TARAWA Museum ….which has the possibility of being part of Earhart’s skull !
My Goodness !
I woonder whose DNA will be found on it, in it or under it…?
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…Laying the Groundwork…
If you have all been following the paid-up members only posting Forum, you will have noticed that Richard Gillespie started laying the groundwork for failure a few days ago. He made the suggestion of where Dr. Ballard should be intensively looking for the Electra by saying (in an assumption again) that, “If there is no damage to the tanks the Electra would float for 18 minutes and drift at less than 2 knots to the S.E. where it would sink.” He then said that a “Worst Scenario” would be that it sank right there where the stern of the SS Norwich City broke off in 1939 ….”, which would of course mean it would buried under “avast behind” [to use a Naval expression].
It is also a vast Ocean out there so there is a whole seabed to go at ….and three searches previously made have also failed to find anything.
My guess will be, “He didn’t look where I told him to look.”
Next fundraiser will be US$3 Million to hire a large floating crane to remove the Norwich City stern off of the Electra.
RPM….
RPM, FF, TGT…There are plenty of points to consider….
…for Dr Ballard to chew over before ploughing the waves to Nikumaroro.
The TIGHAR Hypothesis of a landing upon Gardner (Nikumaroro) Island is built on an assumption and that assumption is that AE & FN would, from an indeterminate positiom on a trackline,; “head off” on a TRUE heading of 157 degrees on a “slighty curved” Sunline and follow that imaginary line for a maximum of 350 miles to reach Gardner Island. However, that hypothesis requires that the sunline runs ‘through” Howland Island and although AE radioed “Must be on you”, we do not know that “She was on Howland” therefore, we have no idea of that line cutting through Howland.
Exactly how far she did get is the question and that can only be worked out from the groundspeeds attained that we know off in conjunction with knowledge of the wind from what historical data we have. The last Sea Level wind we know of comes from the deck log of the USS Ontario and that was 20 Knots at S.L. from 082 degrees. What would it be at 10,000 feet or Mary Lovell’s report of 12,000 feet ?
Flying against this hypothesis of cruising down to Gardner, is also the known statement of a “Contingency Plan”, of a reciprical heading “Back to The Gilberts” if AE & FN did not find Howland. I ask, which is the safest bet:
1. Head off into the blue for hundreds of miles, from an indeterminate position on your trackline into the S.S.E., where if you miss the next stop is Samoa ?
or,
2. Do the sensible thing and backtrack to a line of Islands 500 miles long set at right angles tp your reciprocal course.?
By Googling, take a look at all the other assumtions and enter: “TIGHAR and the TIGHAR SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY”…. There you will see all the other ‘assumptions’ which should have put Dr. Ballard off this quest for ever….
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…The Force of 2G’s…
I would say that on a past example that we are never going to get an answer out of Tighar, composed and written by Mr. Glickman if we consider the virtual ‘promise’ that Glickman would be issuing one of his famous “Reports” to Mr. Gillespie on the MIAMI Photograph. Mentioned earlier in a post by myself. That virtual ‘promise’ was made many years ago and a Report has never appeared.
All credibility of a ‘Board Certified” Photogrsmmetist, who is able to be honoured by being a State Approved witness in trials before a Judge does rest on the truthfulness of the Approved Person and if there are no rivet lines to be seen in any photograph of the Magic Scrap, how can that Approved Person say that there are rivet lines ?
Therefore the Force of 2G’s (Glickman and Gillespie) is never going to materialise for if it did we would be able to add the Magic Scrap to the Bigfoot lore. Don’t hold your breath.
RPM
RPM, FF, TGT…The Hallmarks of Elimination….
…of Artifact 2-2-V-1…did not bring happy occasions….
J. Boyle reminds us that a Forensic Test of the metal composiition of The Magic Scrap showed percentages of element content more akin to WWII metal content when breaking it down as to its composition containing various elements, Copper, Iron,etc, etc.. Yes that is so.
There was also the fact that the exterior face of the 2-2-V-1 remnant (the side where one remaining rivet head is still present) is the side which had the rolled on lines of permenent ink “ALCLAD” identification markings which would have been visible to spectators at MIami, Carapito, Dakar, Fort Lamy, Aden and Karachi. It was at Karachi (TIGHAR pronounce it as “Kratchy”) where one of the better photographs was taken which does not show these “ALCLAD” marks. As the patch was not intended to be painted and was naturally able to be seen as bare aluminium, same as the rest of the aircraft, it would be normal practice for someone who was there at the patch application to clean the ident marks off with thinners or white spirit before the patch repair was viewable by the rubber necking public. Amelia herself may even have done it.
There is also the matter of the funny looking “tab”, the part of the Magic Scrap which hangs down below a rivet line and makes it too big in dimension to fit the aperture left by the removal of the window glass and framing. It was said by the original proposer of Artifact 2-2-V-1 as being the window patch that this “Tab” covered a defect or tool mark made by the people who did the “patch” to cover the mark. I think I would call time on that suggestion.
So, we have Wrong Metal composition, Wrong Size, No Ident Marks visible in pics, Rivet Lines which do not match original structure rivet lines, no Supporting Structure perceptible because of the dings and overall, a piece of scrap metal obviously taken off an aircraft in an area where the rivet lines have a slight tapering effect such as on a wing or rear fuselage or tapered horizontal or vertical stabiliser. Artfact 2-2-V-1 bears all the hallmarks of being removed from a wartime painted aircraft by a local person or persons armed with a bushknife, used first to chop through the skin near a rivet line and stringer and the bushknife then used to prise and lever the skin until rivet heads pop-off and the piece is then manipulated to stress faiilure…. ultimately being used to fry fish in s little coconut oil over the embers of a slow fire….
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…The Magic Scrap…
The acquisition of the film and still photos is a further attempt to get The Magic Scrap, otherwise known as “Artifact 2-2-V-1”, accepted as the cover patch riveted over the aperture left by removing the AFT window on the Starboard side of the Electra fuselage before Earhart departed MIAMI. The Miami “departure” photograph taken then, shows a bright and shiny slab of aluminium sheet at the previous window location as the aircraft taxies out.
Mr. Glickman of Bigfoot fame (as mentioned by J. Boyle) has already used his talents to declare that he could see rows of rivets in the Miami Departure photo but hardly anyone believes that simply because the photo itself is fuzzy and it stretches the imagination as to how he could possibly see rivet lines at the distance and glare from the patch and through the fuzz of the photo….. Despite TIGHAR declaring “mystery solved”, as they have done of late, hardly anyone believes that either…. so to try and concrete in one facet of the puzzle, Tighar is having another go with Artifact 2-2-V-1.
There is also the fact that none of the rivet hole lines on the Magic Scrap (five of them) line up with the 2 x Double Row rivet lines and the 1 x Single Row rivet line present in the aircraft structure as you would exect when the work is done by a Sheetmetsl guy imparting the original structural integrity by restoring and splicing the previously cut-out longeron and adding one spliced stringer over what would have been the middle of the window area. Instead, there appear to my eye to be no reinforcing channel or “L”sections behind the patch applied at MIami and therefore, no rivet lines there. In fact the DARWIN Hangar photo of the Electra clearly shows the patch to have a reasonable sized “ding” in it where it has oil-canned. This oil-canning can be also seen on the photo newly released by TIGHAR on their site. There is a sizeable crease visible which would not be there if the patch had been supported as it should have been. There was a huge discussion about this on one of the American Forums about five years ago and the conclusion was that the Magic Scrap that TIGHAR has in its original form is “Too Big” in one dimension to fit the aircraft dimensioning of the orginal cut aperture and the attachment rivet lines made for the application of the patch done in MIami. The Miami drilled attachment rivet holes would have to be used when applying the cover patch, you can’t just leave open holes behind a scab patch such as that which was applied. In the event on that forum, TIGHAR took exception to that forum thread and the owner pulled the thread….
Being as how Mr. Glickman has already said, some “10 years ago” that he can see rivets in the Miami photo; do not hold your breath expecting him to say there are no rivet lines in the latest photo acquisition. I am satisfied that I can’t see any….and I’m not expecting that there will be any said to be there…. What TIGHAR should do is get one report from Mr. G and another from an independent Photogrammetist.
RPM…
.
RPM, FF, TGT…The Jantz Report…
This then, is the headline grabbing blurb that J Boyle predicted in post #72 and which has been known to be forthcoming for nearly a couple of years.
First off it must be realised that some dimensions were supplied to Jantz by Gillespie and his photogrammetry expert Glickman, the man who can see rivets on a blindingly reflective aluminum sheet in a fuzzy photo taken from at least 50 feet away and who was supposed to deliver a report on how that is possible but never has delivered it. Glickman has featured several times in the TIGHAR propensity of magic tricks by supplying various other reports to TIGHaR of varying intensity… It is said that the same qualifications scroll that he has can be bought from the Board that issues them for a princely sum on graduation. Together, for one, they needed to fix a height dimension which was required to be different from the Earhart Pilot Licence statement and for two, they needed a change of gender from the original report on “the bones found on Gardner Island” (now Nikumaroo) in 1940 and which were examined and measured by a New Zealand Doctor named Hoodless at the Medical School in Fiji.
in all this, seemingly, no respect is given to the person who actually handled the 1940 bones or to the writings, measurements and sketches made by Doctor Hoodless at the time when he received the bones from Tarawa. Dr. Hoodless was responsible for the foundation of the Fiji Medical School and is respected to this day by Fijians. Hoodless gained his qualifications at Medical Schools in the U.K.
Dr. Hoodless dimensioned and sketched the remnant of the Pelvic Arch and from that sketch it can be seen that the remnant is of a Male. That gender decision by Dr. Hoodless cannot be changed by any report. It will be interesting to see what Professor Wright of Sydney has to say about the Jantz Report.
….Also, Dr. Jantz uses the term “more similar” to describe the propensity he sees that the bones lean towards Earhart’s bones as a degree of likeness.
What does “more similar” mean ?…. never heard that term before in the English language, for “similar” can never be “the same”.
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…Thanks for the advice…
Thanks for the advice J Boyle. Not my intention to hijack the thread J Boyle, it was my intention to show how TIGHAR will be extremely devious and muddy the waters for any other search entity as often as it can when it thinks any other search entity may take funding (ie: Money) away from it. TIGHAR disparages anybody that does not have the same view as itself. I didn’t know any other way to explain what happened.
Likewise, you didn’t have to read and absorb what I wrote either. No offence intended. If you didn’t read it, I’ll bet a lot of people were actually interested in how devious he can be.
I was not aware there was a thread which I could peruse about my theory. Any idea where it is ?
I think Mr. Gillespie’s headline grabbing days are about over, I’ll be surprised if there is a Major headline grabbing scientific methodology murky blob idea emanating out of Oxford Pa. This thread alone has been bad enough publicity for Dear Leader.
So what do you reckon his next trick will be then ? Any idea ? The Glenn Miller fundraiser seems to have gone into a Cul-de Sac. The point is, he has not recovered a single Historic Aircraft, he is not going to recover an Historic Aircraft and he never will recover an Historic Aircraft and until the members of that organisation pack up and leave he will continue in the same vein.
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…All very interesting…
Well, after near 7050 views of this thread in nearly one whole month shows that there is still some interest “out there” regarding quite a few mystery incidents that happened many, many years ago which still interest many people around the world. I speak of the oldest mystery which involved “Un avion Francais”… the fabled White Bird which may have crossed the Atlantic before Lindbergh. I speak of another lost aircraft for which I also have spent time in searching over the past 23 years… The Electra. There are also many aircraft missing from WWII where many airmen were lost and remain lost seemingly, forever.
Who will go looking ?
TIGHAR set itself up as an organisation dedicated as an International body for recovering “Historic Aircraft”… Yet as we have read in a Critique by an ex-Member of TIGHAR it has not recovered one single solitary Historic Aircraft in its’ existence over the last nearly 33 years and yet around a reported US$12 Million in total has been received and been distributed…. strangely enough, this TIGHAR Organisation is set up as a non-profit organisation but the critique says that there is no way to see where the money has been spent on various projects, as there should be, because of the way the record keeping is done and that records of actual spending on projects has not been made public.
Accounts keeping seems to be blatantly ignored.
TIGHAR has failed. It has failed its’ members. It has failed in its’ purpose and it now seems to be solely a money-grubbing organisation for the benefit of the Management Team as described in the critique.
Nothing is going to happen to TIGHAR until it ceases to exist by consensus of the Members of TIGHAR themselves. If TIGHAR Members have any sense, they now all need to depart the organisation and have nothing more to do with it.
I propose that this thread has run its’ course and should be shut down.
RPM…
David Billings
http://www.earhartsearchpng.com
RPM, FF, TGT…Monty Fowler….
Check PM’s
RPM…
RPM, FF, TGT…“Scenes we would like to see…”
In the questionable matters arising in this thread, the talk of IRS Audits could be said to come under the heading of “Scenes we would like to see…” or could be depicted in the line of cartoons called “Insanity Streak…”
RPM, FF, TGT…For Beermat:
Re: the T.O. power rating…. Yes, I dug a bit deeper after the visit to the P & W Office in 1997 and found the 600 H.P Rating and then it was confirmed again when I obtained a copy of Lockheed Report 487 which deals with the two Long Range version of the L10, C/N 1055 and it could be taken to deal with C/N 1065 also (“The Daily Express”). I knew the Construction Number (C/N) of Earhart’s Electra from reading “The Sound of Wings” by Mary Lovell and when i received a faxed copy of the WWII map from Don Angwin in early 1994 I saw “C/N 1055” coming though out of the Fax machine and had a ‘hair on the back if the neck’ moment ! Altogether the cryptic “Ref: 600 H.P. S3H1 C/N1055” are of course all indicators for the missing Electra with the S3H1 designation being for “Civil” or “Commercial” engines and the “AN-1” designation being the “Military” code for the same 550 H.P. Wasp…. which is most probably why the USAAF said, “Not one of ours”. Just to confuse everybody, the various arms if the U.S. Forces had their own designations for the 550 H.P. Wasp…. in the same vein as the various designations for the same aircraft in the USAAF, USN, USMC…..
RPM, FF, TGT…How far do you mean ?
J Boyle: It depends in how far you mean by “that far”. You are not defining what you mean. If you read the website you will see various possible ranges shown and with differing fuel loads that we know from records. There is also the guarantee from Lockheed in range and LR 487 to look at and there is also the ADEN-DAKAR FP of 4307 Statute Miles in 28 Hours 40 minutes “nil wind” made by Comdr C. Williams which is in the set of FP’s he produced for Earhart. The generally accepted fuel load of 1100 USG cannot be counted on either as Mr. R. Iredale in LAE assured people he topped off the tanks before they left.
In effect, I am not so concerned with the range due to what we do not know, ie: How far it got and where it ended up at the extreme point of distance from LAE. I only offer a ‘Hypothesis’. For sure we know that they did not find Howland and again the HF S5 counted by TIGHAR and others as meaning they were on top of Howland does not count as Radio Gurus repeatedly say that S5 could be attained from hundreds of miles away, yet that “furphy” persists.
What concerns me most is locating the wreck again and hopefully we can find the pile with LiDAR where bulldozer tracks indicate the movements.
What I do think is that the speeds outbound that we can work with given the times and distances were very slow. The pointer there is that from the S.S. ONTARIO Position given from the ships log at 1030 GMT 2 July and after 1352 Sm on reaching the ship through the dog leg of CHOISEUL (according to me), the Average Groundspeed is only 127 Smph (111 Knots).
Regards,
RPM, FF, TGT…The Key is Evidence
J Boyle: The key to solving the mystery is evidence and as far as I know and visualise, only the ENB Project has documentary evidence and that evidence is the indelible pencilled writing in a WWII Map. If any other Earhart Search Project can show me any physical evidence that is convincing I will take back my words.
What we do know is that Veteran Keith Nurse looked over the engine in the jungle and removed a small metal tag hanging by wire from the mount tubing and what he said to me was, “It had a string of letters and numbers on it which did not mean anything to me so I put the tag in my shirt pocket intending to hand it in with the patrol report.” Which he did. “600 H/P S3H1 C/N 1055” is a string of letters and numbers.
It goes without saying that a ditching in the sea is a possibility, right enough, but that ditching may have occurred hundreds of miles away from Howland…. a search in the sea could take hundreds of years. At this present time out of all the theories only one Project has some evidence and a sighting which must be followed.
We continue to search for more documents for we do know of the interest shown by members of the U.S. Army 594th EB&SR detachment who were stationed at Jaquinot Bay 90 miles from the fighting zone at Wide Bay ENB. Paper from archives still eludes us but College Park has been visited and Maxwell AFB is to be visited. The U.S. has several depositories of records spread across the nation and finding documents is quite trying. For U.S. Based research I depend on volunteers who visit these places.
As to how the Electra would get back to ENB, that is contained in the hypothesis side of the Project and explained on the website. The hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis. Many years ago, a TIGHAR member, Alan Caldwell an ex-B-47 USAF Pilot, said to me, “David, no-one knows where the aircraft got to or how far it went…”.
That is correct. No-one on this Earth knows exactly where the Electra got to and how many miles it covered in getting to the furthest point from LAE…. No-one. No-one knows what the actual wind value was and what the exact wind direction was on 2nd and 3rd July 1937… No-one. No-one knows for sure (100%) what the exact route was and whether corners were cut… no-one. No-one knows for sure when the cloud cover started that would limit the Navigation… No-one. No-one knows for sure, where on the trackline between TABITUEA Is. and HOWLAND Is. the Electra started the “Line of position” search…No.one.
What I am trying to do is to locate that wreck which we now know is buried for it MUST be found to be able to say one way or the other, whether it is the Electra or not.
I believe it is the Electra and therefore I endeavour to persevere.
After the derision and sneers from TIGHAR, your remarks are but feathers in the wind…. No offence taken.
Regards,
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