Craig, I'm no pilot, but it would seem a substantial portion of the trip would be by dead reckoning in the dark, especially at the outset, if condx were cloudy, with no way to determine if side winds were blowing them off course. Pilots could determine side wind drift by viewing ocean wave patterns which would not be visible at night. Also, even finding a signal from HI at the beginning of the trip would have been a given based upon distance. Based on my experience 30 years ago with a marine RDFin a 25' boat, I was glad to replace it with a maunal Loran A even though it was the size of wall safe, and I only had to contend with 80-100 miles of ocean to cross. There are fewer and fewer of these WWII era pilots left to even ask. I have a neighbor who navigated a B-24 for the Mighty Eighth during WWII. I'll see what he says, although they flew during the day. W2DU, the author of the article in QST, is 85 years old.
73, Gil NN4CW _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
