Yes, you’re right Southern Air99…

I have spent many visits over 20 years looking for an aircraft on New Britain which I sincerely believe, on the evidence, is the Electra 10E and here you are ‘menrtioning no names’ but saying the plural of the searchers in your :

“…the way many are going about it…” and: “…it is proving to be…arguably disrespectful….”

Since you obviously believe that everyone who is searching should pack up and go home and leave the “disrespectful” task alone despite many people saying to me that the find would bring eternal rest to Earhart and Noonan, I reject what you have said because I am not being disrespectful in the least. Do not lump me in with the mob in Pennsylvania that used to reside in Delaware, I am not them and I have not wasted ten million dollars and then ask for more. I DO make a modest request for donations in my website because I have used my own money but am now retired with no means to replenish what I have spent and do not wish to spend too much more.

Others say that it will never be found. They don’t look for it but say it will never be found ! How can they say that, for it will be found… one day. I ask any of you to answer me this: If you were handed certain information which might possibly solve the world’s biggest aviation mystery, what would you do ? Sit on it or do something about it ?

Disrespectful Moi ! Moi !

RPM, FF, TGT…
http://www.eatrhartsearchpng.com

Response to Anson:

Fortunately I have a good memory and I can recall where I was on the particular ridgeline when we saw the patch of bare earth where it was obvious that the bulldozer had been working. It is only since we now have heard that the Baining fella buried it that that patch of bare earth has a huge significance. The bare patch had a slope off the ridgeline to the north and the bulldozer track we were on turned to the left after that bare patch and we descended down into a creek bed. I will be able to retrace our steps with this knowledge and locate the bulldozer track again. If we had the money then I would be able to take a GPR Unit with us. We do not have that luxury and I am now dependent on funding. Being retired does not give you the opportunity to recoup any money spent by topping up with wages so the matter rests until I get some funding. That’s the sad fact.

The bare patch is definitely in the right area from the information from the Veterans because the ridgeline at that point is narrow and Lt. Backhouse climbed to the ridgeline and looked out to the south and saw hills in the distance which is exactly what you do see. The ridgeline ends there and a descent to the valley starts right after the bare patch location which is another clue and matches with what the Vets said, “After we saw it, we descended into the Valley towards the river.”

Yes, there will be trees on the site now, they will be a maximum of 20 years old. We should be able to get definite readings from Metal Detectors and if it is there the pings will give us a localised area. We do get soundings all over these hills but sometimes they are weak but with a definite object underfoot they should be extremely positive.

Media knocking on the door…. Just of late, I have written to the Wichita Eagle newspaper and I have mailed a Radio Station in Salina Kansas, I have also emailed a Country Music singer and writer who recently declared that she has been interested in Earhart since being a little girl. None have responded as yet. I have lost count of the contacts I have sent the website to over the 20 years I have been following up on this, by putting boots on the ground. I sometimes feel I am wasting my time and money but the evidence is the driver, it is the only evidence that anybody has and it is imperative that this is continued. The whole thing is like a jigsaw and pieces have been fitting for years.

I was once down into trees in a helicopter in Sabah in 1968 just after “Confrontation” had finished. I could have been deceased then and hidden by the jungle and just after that experience I had the thought of: “Who would have come looking for me ?”

RPM, FF, TGT…
David Billings

Earhart Search PNG

For all those interested in the ongoing project in Papua New Guinea to re-locate an all-metal unpainted, twin-engine aircraft without military insignia seen by an Australian Army Patrol in April 1945, the latest item in the project is Part 9 of the story which has now been posted on:

http://earhartsearchpng.wordpress.com

We will shortly be moving to a new domain (a www.) to increase readership and I will notify when this has been done.

For Anson:

No… strangely, there has been no mention of our latest effort at publicity. Now this is not a normal occurrence for one so sharp at the flintlock practice that the “Executive Director” of that organisation so often normally does carry out. I recall I did receive a Fax from him back in 1996 or 1997 where he enquired under the auspices of his high office as to the origin of our evidence, that he had heard by a break in a confidence; but when I replied in a “cannot confirm or deny” mode, I heard no more from that worthy enterprise. Years later after ‘USA Today’ ran the story in 2004, his office had to admit to the faithful Forum brethren there, that he had known about it but had not informed them. Since then there were a few remarks, some of them quite sneering in fact, from members there…. but nothing for the last few years I think.

Twin Otter 23:

Keep that Argosy C.Mk.1 cockpit in good nick at the NAM….. I may come back and fire it up again one day… I enjoyed the last time about fifteen years ago… I might have difficulty remembering some of the checks but I will never ever forget to remove the FPS Lever and check for 5 Lights after landing……

Regards,

RPM…

The Cult of Tighar and a Group Objective

J Boyle is correct and the North Korean analogy fits, people disappear without trace after posting views contrary to the Tighar Doctrine. Mark P (in the post above) refers to the banning of dissidents which follows the groove of the DPRNK….. The recent denial of service to non-members posting (pay to post) has robbed TIGHAR of the independent and intellectual thought processes which did produce ideas which TIGHAR ran with….

I say that as a reader of TIGHAR since 1994.

So too, and because of this, the TIGHAR membership so frequently claimed to be worldwide is obviously not so large as “the Management of Two” would like. A claim recently made that TIGHAR was the “biggest” aviation forum site were absolutely astounding compared to this one which TiGHAR obviously does not know exists….. TIGHAR only racks up with on average, 30 people visiting daily on “that” site. Even that number of 30 odd, mysteriously is double what it used to be a few weeks ago. Members seem to come and go at TIGHAR like ships in the night.

The Group Objective remains as NIKU…. NIKU 9 being scheduled for the 80th anniversary year. “The Management” painted itself into a corner with the Nikumaroro Hypothesis and there is nowhere to go now except down into the deep briny offshore with manned submersibles for which TiGHAR looks to be in need of US$3-5 Million. That (if possible to be raised) will mean that if it is raised and spent, some $12 million will have gone down the lagoon ….

In re-reading this entire thread, I have remembered a question J Boyle asked and that was: “Where did the Sextant Box possibly come from ?”. At the time I myself answered that it could have come from an Officer on the S.S. Norwich City grabbing this piece of equipment while dashing for a lifeboat. There is a possible other source and that is from a Surveyor on the USN Vessel “Bushnell” which visited Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) when the survey was done prior to the LORAN station being set up…. not to forget about the Bevington and New Zealand surveys either…. Recently in one of my trips to New Britain, I borrowed a bicycle (the only one in the village) and went to the coast to be in line of sight to the new phone tower across the bay. I hid the bike in the coastal bush off the track and tried the phone on the beach. When I went back for the bike, I could not find it. It took a complete walk through of a half hour before I found it. If a Bushnell Surveyor left the box and moved to a more advantageous position for a sextant sighting the same thing might well have happened.

RPM
http://earhartsearchpng.wordpress.com

@ J Boyle

…yes, you missed out “Truth is often stranger than fiction”

RPM, FF, TGT…

…I might add…

Malcolm,

….especially the one from Liverpool….

RPM

Daniel,

Where did the news come from please. I was in comms with him about two weeks ago.

RPM…

Turtle Bones and Freckle Cream…

The analysis of the shard of bone was not conclusive. That’s O.K., because it keeps people wondering. That is Tighar’s way….

The Freckle Cream usage by Earhart has never been proven. That’s O.K., because it keeps people wondering. That is Tighar’s way….

The ragged piece of aluminum skin was never “proven” to have come from the Electra, That’s O.K., because it keeps people wondering. That is Tighar’s way….

Bronze bushes retreived from the old Carpenter’s hut on Nikumaroro were said to “possibly” have come from the engines. My son asked me if a P&W R-1340 could be dis-assembled with Coconut Wrenches…. It’s just Tighar’s way of keeping the interest you see… Nobody has said (except me) that the bushes could have been intended for the carts needed to carry coconuts for the Copra scheme….

The shoe sole when produced and shown to her, “This is Earhart’s shoe sole…!!!…”, was described to me by the lady author of a very good book about the Earhart saga as being: “…a Man’s size ten…” to which El Stripo immediately replied to her, using his famous scientific methodology, “Must be Noonan’s then…. “

Need I go further ?

Everything about the Tighar Hypothesis, is just that: “A Hypothesis”, there is no evidence. Granted there is circumstantial evidence but that as always, is not conclusive.

Such is this “smoke and mirrors” of the P-38. It is not a notable WWII wreck, it was a gunnery range hack. It never saw combat and the ditching saw the unfortunate pilot “wade” away. There is nothing special about it.

To say that an aluminum aircraft immersed in a salt water environment for 70 years bears “little corrosion” is a ludicrous statement in the extreme.

It is junk. Not worthy of any effort to retrieve it. All the well-wishers who involve their time are wasting it. To give it some sort of notoriety, Tighar named it “The Maid of Harlech”….anticipating that this would stir people’s interest. A more ridiculous appelation never was spoken afore…. Did you see the US$100 Heraldic Scrolls…..my Goodness…

But that is Tighar’s way of generating publicity and dollars, if they can…. The Old Shellgame…

Stepwilk, I can hear you putting your armour on now, from thousands of miles away from Cornwall-on-Hudson…..even though Darts made me deaf ! Will your lance reach as far as Singapore ?

RPM…