No Amelia Earhart Missions for FSX?

[Goatman24]

Was kind of surprised there were no missions for flying Amelia Earhart's last flight to Howland Island in FSX.

Watched the movie with my grand daughter the other night and was surprised that in the movie they make it look like the navy was to blame for leaving a piece of equipment plugged into a battery overnight so that it had no charge when she was approaching. I haven't been able to find out if this actually happened. I'm guessing it's the typical Hollywood slant against the military.

Would be nice to have the island accurately placed and looking as it did back then with the Itasca near by.

Mitch

[ScatterbrainKid]

There are no Earhart missions anywhere as far as I know, but some guys were discussing re-creating it last month in this thread-
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showth...hlight=earhart

As regards the drained battery, I recently mailed the author and Earhart expert Carol Dow and asked her this-

"In the 2009 film 'Amelia' (Hilary Swank/Richard Gere), a young radioman on the Itasca accidentally left a 'direction finder' on all night, draining the batteries so it was no use..
Was that hollywood hokum or did it really happen?
And what sort of direction finder would it have been; one that sent out a beam to guide Amelia in?"


This is her reply-

"Thanks for ypur email. All radios on board the Itsaca were manned 24/7 around the clock. So, part of what you wrote is indeed "hokum." However, there was a high frequency battery operated direction finder that was taken ashore at Howland Island. The batteries, they discovered, were too low to operate the system, so it was useless.
The Itasca's direction finding equipment could have given Earhart a bearing to-from Howland Island or the Itasca, either one. What Earhart was doing trying to take bearings on the Itasca with a loop antenna at 7500 Kcs. is a mystery that will never be solved. We can only guess that something must have happened inside the airplane. Her system would only indicate a signal at 1200 Kcs. (max.) where as 500 Kcs. would have been more like it. If you haven't ordered a copy of Lost Flight you should.
Carol Dow
Author: The Lost Flight of Amelia Earhart"

[ScatterbrainKid]

Here's a post of mine earlier this year-
If any hotshots want to try replicating Amelia Earharts last flight in FSX, 2555 miles from Lae to Howland Island, here's the background-

It was mostly a night flight, taking off at midnight July 2nd 1937 (GMT) with ETA over Howland Island around 0730, The US Navy Vessel 'Itasca' was near the island sending out a radio beacon signal for her but apparently her radio direction-finding gadget was playing up and she simply couldn't see the mile-wide island. Later the Itasca put up smoke to help her but apparently she never saw it.
WIKI- "The many scattered clouds in the area around Howland Island have also been cited as a problem: their dark shadows on the ocean surface may have been almost indistinguishable from the island's subdued and very flat profile"
Howland Island co-ordinates- 0°48′07″N 176°38′3″W

[simmerdr]

Hi Folks:

It appears a few of you have already seen the following news articles over the last day or two (about the mystery of Earhart's flight). If you haven't, please take a look below. The 2nd and 3rd articles are particularly curious and interesting (and thoughts for the mission-maker).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47653021...ience-science/

http://news.discovery.com/history/am...ar-120530.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ppearance.html

[Goatman24]

ScatterbrainKid, good information about the direction finder and battery.

I had read on another post somewhere that Howland Island in FSX is not located in the correct coordinates. Are those posted above actual or in FSX?

Mitch

[ScatterbrainKid]

..I had read on another post somewhere that Howland Island in FSX is not located in the correct coordinates. Are those posted above actual or in FSX?..

The co-ords seem to vary slightly in the FSX 3D world and in the ingame map and in Google Earth but I'm not a navigator and don't know if it's just a few hundred yards difference or more.
I just posted a 'FINDING HOWLAND IN FSX' set of maps in the thread below-

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showth...hlight=earhart

[shalako]

Ya know,
I have the Abacus addon that was done for I believe fs5 or fs2000. The bgls are useless, but it came with a great book and charts and flight plans. I believe they are still trying to get rid of it on sale cheap. Be nice if some one could talk Jim into up grading it. As much as I enjoyed the old one I would buy a set of missions with old time scenery for fsx. Maybe Golden Age Simulations would be interested they already have the plane ed

[LCole]

Shalako - I too, still have the Abacus release, "Around The World". It was written to be used on FS 5.1, FS 95 and FS 98.
Was an extremely good release. As you say, came with lots of docs, charts, & flightplans on hard-copy (ahhh, the good old days), which I'm holding in my hand right now.
Sure wish someone could create some "Amelia" FSX missions using the documentation that came with the program. I don't have the skills, but am wondering if Abacus would allow it. If so, I'd be happy to provide all these docs to some enterprising mission creator/programmer.

[kingnorris]

There was a mission some time ago, but it "mysteriously vanished without a trace"...

(oh Lord...... He had to go there...).

[aircav1970]

Mitch,if you wanted to you can go to fs-freeware.net and d/l the Lockheed L10-A from Arik Homeyer iirc it is done up in the same livery as Earhart's bird then use google earth to plot the course to Howland from Lae,Papua New Guinea using the "line tool" on GE and that will give you a direct to course.Might be interesting to see if it works! The Plane is in the "Propeller" catagory over there.