NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: UNK
Date: 2015 Jan 27, 06:38 -0000
Thanks Frank,
Yes I apologised for the Noonan mistake to Rommel,
The correct version is as you describe and cite. The point I was trying to make was that sextants and cel nav were very important for aviation navigation then.
Best wishes
Francis
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Frank Reed
Sent: 27 January 2015 00:37
To: francisupchurch@gmail.com
Subject: [NavList] Re: Charles Lindbergh, dead reckoning and Amelia Earhart
What a shame. It's genuinely sad to see a NavList post that so misses the mark. Earhart and Noonan used the best celestial navigation methods available at the time. Lindbergh was correct regarding the first transatlantic "record" flights since their goals were generally very broad: hit Europe, anywhere. That's all Lindbergh aimed to do -- hit the broad side of a continent... But Lingbergh got very lucky and made it to Paris by following the Seine, a feat which sealed his reputation as a popular hero, an expert aviator, and an expert navigator. By contrast, later aviators (and yes, some early aviators) had places to go. They had to get from point A to point B reliably and repeatably, whether point B was as obvious as Paris or as insignificant as Howland Island. Celestial navigation became an essential tool of long-range aviation. Understanding celestial navigation is critical to understanding what went wrong on the Earhart-Noonan circumnavigation attempt. You can read a bit more about NavList's connection with Earhart in a recently published article in Connecticut magazine (scroll to the end for the NavList connection).
Frank Reed
ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA
PS: Rommel, your comments in this message about the recent Air Asia crash are irrelevant to your post and off-topic (not related in any way to navigation, traditional or otherwise).
