NavList:

John -

Thanks for a definitve word on long range RDF. 

As I recall from the Long's book, (Amelia Earhart, the Mystery Solved) Amelia and Fred unloaded a fair amount of equipment to save weight - including a raft, and smoke bombs.

NavList went into this extensively a few years ago and my conclusion then was that Fred did not get an early morning sun sight as he ran out his DR approach. Had he, his LOP would have shown whether he was east or west of Howland. 

I'm a retired offshore sailor and celestial navigator. My experience with aircraft sextants is solely landborne, but several in the forum have done it aloft. Bubble sextants seem to give about the same results from a small plane as plastic marine ones do from small sailboats.

Hewitt