This week's episode of the Wild Card Podcast is brought to you by last week's episode of the Wild Card Podcast. Previously on the Wild Card Podcast. While burrowing under the Himalay. While circumnavigating the globe.
Roy Harley. Amelia Earhart. And Roy. Motherfucking Harley.
And Fred Noonan. Crash land in the Arctic. No they don't. Where they have to eat their dead companions to stay alive.
That was a different story and it was the Andes. And then an avalanche buried them alive. That was the Paraguayan rugby team, Ron. Not Amelia Earhart.
And Amelia Earhart and Roy Harley rode his motorcycle into infinity out of that mountain. Not a single thing you just said happened. They jumped over a crevasse and into the sky. Well Amelia flew airplanes but Roy wasn't there.
When their motorcycle landed they were greeted by paragway and farmers and shepherds and whatnot. I have nothing to say. They were given soup and taken care of and nurtured. Until Roy Harley and Amelia Earhart fell in love.
Ron don't you remember anything less we said so? Amelia was an icon. You should, you know, apologize to Amelia Earhart. Roy Harley never apologizes.
Welcome to the Wild Card Podcast. I'm your host, Jared Eaton. And my co-pilot's on this journey to wherever are my good friends, Jeff Curtis. Hello.
And you're walking in the woods. There's no one around and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye you spine. Actual candle, Ron Blair.
It's true. I'd eat someone. I would kill them. But if they were served to me, I'd be present.
I believe that. Yeah. And they were processed by someone else. Kind of the stakes by somebody else.
I'd try it. Look, he isn't dead. Try surprise. All right, cool.
Yeah. You know that song and I'm referring to it. I love it. I love it.
I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.
I love it. I love it. It's awesome on that. Speaking of the resident actual candle Ron Blair.
Speaking of you awesome. Speaking of you awesome. Jose Caxsey and Dear John, to his Academy Award Domination for Ordinary People, and his Marriage to designer Bonnie Sue Chalkin. Jenna Hirsch, we salute you.
This being the first and only reference of Jenna Hirsch in any of our 59 podcasts . . . yes, that's what they are talking about.
Do you not respect her? It's a whackervish. I'm just saying, how can this podcast be about someone we've never once mentioned? Do you ever been watching a show and you make together and you're like, look it's Jenna Hirsch.
No. Jared, you're just, you're out of that generation. You're John that wasn't a thing for you. I have no idea of John letters other than that.
No. No, it was a fun show. No. Yeah, Sean Endeket, let us know if you're John was a fun show.
You're John and Taksi. Or if you even remember them. I was really, he was an Independence Day. There you go.
That's what I know. I'm from numbers that you don't get excited about. John, look, it's Jeff Goldblum's head, an Independence Day. You ever noticed that the TV show numbers?
No, I was pretty good. I was like, well, those detective shows, was all that like math and how math could be used. Yeah, I think we can. There's like me used to really do that.
Yeah, like Kenzie as well. So speaking of things, we have a favorite section. Every day, every day we come in, even when we're recording. We go with discussions, we have a special show.
All this every morning. But it's your favorite. We have meditation circles. Yeah.
To think about what our favorites are. So here's what I put a lot of the things. I don't know if this is something you guys have to do. I've honored one of you.
Yeah. You're pretty good. You're pretty good. You're pretty good.
You're pretty good. All right. We like to talk about movies and stories on here. So here's what I want to know.
All of us have done theater, all of us have done musicals. Right. What are your favorite movies or stories that you think would make a good musical? Well, I'm always thinking about those guys.
Yeah, that's just kind of milli-u. I thought this might be kind of real happy for us. Yeah. At one point I had pondered turning the muting on the bounty thing that I did the podcast on.
And I was going to a musical. Hey, it's a red fruit connection. Right. It was so huge the story that I didn't see how I could do it without having a trilogy of musicals.
I don't know that that would sell. Right now I'm seriously thinking about a milli-a-airheart quite frankly. It's a period for musicals that era. I'm going to make sure an entire song about a peach basket.
A peach basket hat. So obviously not someone who's taking a lot of real life stories. I don't write musicals. So mine are more like movies.
I know some of the ones I think of have been in talks. But the fact that there isn't a Princess Bride musical yet isn't a trussie. I don't know if it's an atrocity but it's surprising. It's an atrocity.
Every time they take a movie and make it into a musical, whether that musical is good or not, part of me goes, oh. Well, you know what I'm saying? In my musical, Billy Crystal makes special appearance no matter where it's being. I can swear this then.
I'm fully behind it. I'm not sure I want a Princess Bride. The movie's so perfect. Why mess with it?
Because I want a B&F. Because Jared wants to be. And they're going to be wiggly and learn it. And this one's already got music because of the amazing soundtrack.
That's over-the-road though. That would be a neat musical. I think so. And there's not too many fantastical elements that would be difficult to stage.
I would think it would just be the comedy and the great bluegrass music. You know, speaking of the Coen brothers, the Hutt Sucker proxy would make a great musical as well. That story really, oh, it's excellent. It would really lend itself to the whole.
Would you just like Hutt Sucker? I like saying the word Hutt Sucker but I'm sincere in my statement that it's a fine film. I also think when hearing about Sally would make an excellent musical. That probably would be the whole relationship.
That's the whole thing. If you kept the humor and added music, it would lend itself well to a musical. I've never thought of rom-coms before because I really think of rom-coms. Oh, rom-coms.
One of my favorites. And then I could see it possible working. It would take some interesting tech, I think. Have you ever seen what women want?
I know. Really? I've seen bits of me. Really?
I know. I know. I know. I know.
I know. I know. I know. I know.
I know. I know. I know. I know.
I know. I know. There's a implication I've decided not to have a musical. I love it.
I know. You don't get it. I know. Say it's so funny.
So it gives me laughter so much time? It makes me wishy so much. I've tried it and won't be a long. Alright.
He's saying you Raw. You show us this game. Then to be 26 next time, What's worse? Who Davis?
Who probablyRePE Franz? Amthening it fast. was one made in the 70s and then there's the Liam Neeson one. And then there's a new one.
BBC. Really is it. Actually, Liam is one of my favorite musicals. Phil is one of my least favorite musicals movie-wise.
What? I think that's an excellent. I'm sure that's good. It's good to go.
It's the reason I had to go this because it actually also has a lot of time, but I don't think it's a subject that lends itself to the musical. I think Forrest Gump, the book and the movie and every video copy that you heard. Okay, let's go listen to these. Not really.
I think people who enjoyed Forrest Gump should be able to own their copy of Forrest Gump and watch the privacy of their own home. I never got that. Wherever. Not talking about it.
Not bringing it up. Yeah, I didn't have one. I lost it. Do you see any Jukebox musicals you like?
I generally like Jukebox musicals. The only one that I've enjoyed is Mackenzie showed me a copy of The Carol King. That one is actually an amazing musical. They unlike many Jukebox musicals, they don't try to turn her songs into people singing to each other on the stage.
You've got the show, but then you've got all her songs. But it's the story about how these songs came to be. The music tells the story because it's the story about these songs and how she became the solo singer with the amazing tapestry album. It's a great Jukebox musical because it doesn't try to turn the songs into something else.
Did you guys see... I agree with that. I did. I actually really liked it.
I enjoyed it. It's fun. It's not deep. It's really fun.
I like the music on that album a lot too. I like American Idiot. They do the arrangement so much. I haven't seen it.
I really like it. It's like a three day fan before. Obviously we know that the track record of these isn't the best. Are there any artists you think would make a good one?
Well, I was going to say I've listened to the first number from Billy Joel's Moving Out and I was fairly appalled. My understanding of that show is that correct me if I'm wrong, because it's not exactly a musical. It's a dance show. Where Billy Joel music is played.
Basically they have a live band playing Billy Joel music and then Twilart has choreographed all these dance numbers so all of these songs. It's not really a story as much. I haven't seen it, but it's not really a story as much as it is. Performance.
Performance. It's like a Billy Goe ballet. Yeah, it's like Disney World Singers doing the first number. We're doing moving out.
I didn't like that at all. I feel like he's got such a catalog of music. You could find things, but it's just about if you pick all your favorites of his and then try to cram him and it could be tough. Yeah, I think Queen music could become a great music.
I heard it was interesting, but I think it's called Killer Queen, but it's about like techno future as a dictatorship. I buy that. I think I had a friend of mine that saw it in Vegas, but I've never seen it. There's one sunny afternoon about Ray Davies, and it has not left the West End.
Ray Davies is the king. I believe certainly because him and his brother Dave. Dave Davies? Dave Davies, yeah.
Yeah, and a literary name. And I would love to hear or see any of that. I love the kings, but from what I understand, it'll never leave the West End. Well, then, here's the thing.
The problem with most Duke of the Box musicals is that the songs weren't written to tell the story of the musical. They're written to the rock song. They could be other songs, but the songs were written as these independent standalone songs that have their own thing going on. When you try to string them together and add a story into them, they don't function that way because they were never crafted that way.
The best songs, and the reason that most musical songs don't become radio hits is because they weren't crafted to stand alone. They're crafted as part of this entire story. And that's what I love about musicals. As you go to this musical, it's got this fantastic music that's telling the story.
And it's intertwined with that story in a way that you can't separate it. Because it's all necessary as part of this greater whole. And where you have the music and the story all telling the same story. And it's all pushing in the same direction, whether it's dramatic or comedic or anything else.
It's the unity. And the way that it kind of saturates your entire being. Because instead of just watching it, the music kind of seeps into you and moves you along with it. So it's visceral experience where you don't get that from a joke box musical.
Because the songs, even when you break them up well, such as in Mamma Mia, you can't function as well as part of the musical as they do on their own. I agree with that, except that with the right technology, I think you can make Pink Floyd's The Wall an amazing stage musical as long as you maintain the spirit of that. Well, they made it into a movie. Yeah, it was a great movie.
The movie got sucked. You think? No. Oh, no.
Way in decades. No, absolutely not. So I was a fine film. Ellen Parker?
No. I would say. I'm going to deviate from this because I don't think it says any agreement coming between you two. No, you won't.
And I would even argue that with a good writer, they could take a catalog and make a good musical. But I would say most often you get somebody trying to profit off of the name of the artist. Well, that's what they're doing. Yeah.
Now, have you seen it across the universe? I have not. Oh, the movie I have. Oh my god, that sucked.
What else across the universe? Oh, OK. Again, if you could take the songs and rewrite the lyrics so that they fit exactly what's going on, they would work better. But they're trying to write this dialogue and they're trying to create scenes so that this song kind naturally fits into it.
But it doesn't. And so maybe if you're not familiar with the Beatles music or maybe if you're not familiar with Green Day music or maybe if you're not familiar with album music and you're only experiencing it for the first time, in that experience, maybe it works for you. For someone who knows these songs outside of it, it doesn't blend in a way that I find enjoyable. Yeah.
I think it just depends on what your expectations are. Because it's obviously not going to be the most comprehensive or cohesive story between the scenes and the music. It's going to be like, we're doing this. So let's kind of detour into this song, because it kind of fits here.
It's not as cohesively narrative as a regular musical should be. But I think with Mamma Mia, a lot of people just want to hear the songs they love. And they'll care a little bit about the story and they'll care a little bit about the characters, because if you have good performers, you'll care a little bit. It's not that.
They're not buying the ticket for a good story. I need to take it for our evidence. That's my question. But there are artists that I would do that for.
I really actually do enjoy the story in all show. I think it's fun. It's not dramatic. It's fun.
And I think there are things that can be done with that. By the way, I looked it up. We will rock you as a new but queen. Oh, for goodness.
One, Jubak musical that I will say that I really enjoy. It's a movie. It's the Moulin Rouge one, where they've got all these different. Oh, I love it.
But they don't. Oh, it's so stylish. And they're not trapped by doing whole songs. They do parts of songs.
They make songs together. And so they use the songs. And they kind of craft the parts of the songs that they're using as they're crafting the story. And so it feels more cohesive whether or not you like the story.
It flows together in a way that I don't feel like they're shoving things together that don't go together. And they weren't limited by only using one artist. No, they will. I think we're stuck through.
They thought they're not fit at that moment. There's some really beautiful music. One question. Were you a Pink Floyd fan before?
I liked the wall. Okay. That's all I wanted to know. If you weren't already a Pink Floyd fan, I would understand.
Let's take the wild cards, three wild cards. And we're going to take an artist and make it to musical. Who are we choosing? Pink Floyd.
No, we're not. Obviously, we go with the first musical act that made an entire episode. Psych? That's not a musical.
I just went totally lost. There's only one. We've only done one. We've just had the Eagles.
Obviously, it has the Eagles because that's a wild card episode. I've always felt like Meatloaf's Mad Out of Hell could easily be made into a rock opera. That could easily be made into a rock opera. There's a straight.
I have seen them. I saw it in previews and I saw it in after previews. What about the stage version? Did you like the stage version better than the film?
Well, the stage version is so much better than film. Film is a mess. Film is a good thing. I saw it in high school.
I saw it in high school because there was a high school that did it. I didn't know much of the music. I didn't like the high school that was doing it because there were a rival of artists. The timing was created to have a theme throughout the album.
It was written as a rock opera album but without any idea of ever staging it. They were just connecting these songs in a sort. It works better listening to it than it does when you're trying to film these scenes. That's where they got in the problem.
When they did the musical on Broadway, they really worked with the story a lot to shape it so that they could use these songs and not have the same problems of missing parts of the story that they have in the movie. That part of the movie problem is they've got these missing chunks of holes in it. Well, it's like this hit by music where it's like, let's fuck with you. It's not necessary.
And it's also more like a giant video, song video as opposed to a movie. It's not really a film as much as it is a music video. Have you guys seen or heard anything from Rocket Ages? Yeah, I didn't see the movie when it came out.
I've never seen it on stage. I've seen some of the records range from the lot. I would have to see how they connect the dots to see if the story kind of flows. But again, they didn't choose just one artist that shows an era of music.
Yeah, the 80s here, man, which was good. It's like it needs to be fun to watch. Alright, Deck Edge would love to hear your thoughts on if there are movies or stories from real-life or fiction. If you have a book that you should be in a musical, let me know.
I'm looking for ideas. Right, right. What was the musical Abraham Lincoln band? Every time you said World War Z, I think of the law city of Z and it messes up my head.
I think Abraham Lincoln, Abraham, Abraham, would be like a good musical. Except that Ben, who ate in the movie, I don't think I could get the rights. Yeah, I don't think he could. But that was a fun film.
It was more fun than I thought it would be. I like the movie. It was a hoot. It was a lot.
It was a hit-track guy to the galaxy. Do you read that one? I never read it. I never read it.
I never read it. I never read it. I never read it. I never read it.
That's when I was in junior high. That's when I read it. What were your thoughts on things you think would be great musicals or bands and artists you think would be great? The law city of Z would make a fine musical.
But where we left off last week on the One Card podcast? Roy Harley flying over the trans-Atlantic ocean. We've been reading about hearing some of her amazing quotes and what an icon she deservedly is. Yeah.
She had a lot of great things where she moved feminism forward. She was a great voice for feminism. She was more of an example than she lived long enough to move things forward. She died at 39.
That's what said. The last time we were talking about Amelia Earhart, she was crisscrossing her way across Africa. She had left Asab on June 15th before daybreak. To get to Asab, she had the day before had flown down the Red Sea.
She was the first person to fly across the Red Sea. This is Amelia Earhart quote. Flying by foreigners over Arabia is not welcome. In the early stages of planning, our trip was eliminating the straight trans-Arabian hop between Mid-Africa and Karachi.
For a time, it seemed I might have to go around North by Cairo and Baghdad and down through Persia on the normal Europe, Australia, Ehrroot. That detour would have added perhaps another 2,000 miles of flying and made a considerable jog north of the approximate equatorial route. We've been talking about how... You want to take this simple path to planning, but especially this time you're still limited by where can I land and refuel?
You have to really take those into consideration. And what countries will allow me to land and refuel? I don't think you're getting into the Middle East at this moment what relationship like at the time with these countries. Well Britain ruled a lot of them, but there were still internal problems.
So continuing with her quote, finally the authorities relented. They concluded, I believe, that my plane was capable of making the 2,000 mile nonstop flight necessary to carry it from the Red Sea to India without undue likelihood of forced landing on Arabia's forbidden sands. It was stipulated that we were not to fly over Arabia itself, but along the edge of the sea. That's a hell of a flight to India.
Oh yeah, it's 1,920 miles. They arrived in Karachi at 7.05 pm and it took them 13 hours and 10 minutes to get there. 13 hours straight flight now. I've been on a longer flight, but we're talking like 2001.
It's not even comparable. And there's no bathroom on this airplane. I don't know what they do when they need to go to the bathroom, but... There's a jar?
There's a little panel on the floor. There's a little panel on the floor. Let it rip. They spent three days in Karachi doing repairs on the airplane.
And she had been smart enough to know that she would probably need repairs in Karachi and they had mailed spare parts to her. I love the more thought. So that she went to the post office while in Karachi and retrieved her spare parts. That was one dust.
When's the last time you went to a post office? I've been to the post office here probably three months ago. It's probably been 10 years since I've been to the post office. I know stamps sometimes.
You can buy stamps at Walgreens, but sometimes I need to mail a package or something at the post office. I'm just a listener where Ron has rallies now, so we're eating rallies. I have rallies and if Rada's a peanut with sausage in it, then I'm the only one not chopping away. You know my mushrooms was good.
Ron, I need my mouth open and not chewing while I'm talking. Remember I'm the civilized one. You let me know and I'll say something. If you need a break, I'll just start talking.
Do I civilized one? Ron's the one who eats and I'm the one who doesn't work hands. Everyone knows us. I'm fairly good at talking and eating.
Okay. Here's what we know. Well, you can do both whether it's delicious. Did anybody else know?
No matter. Okay. So when you got to Karachi, this is a quote. So on June 17th, they flew from Karachi to Kolkata.
That was only 390 miles. They're in India. We have been unable to navigate by railroads here to four because none were available when they're looking down and watching the railroads to see where they're at and where they should go. But after reaching central India, there were many.
There were also rivers and mountains perfectly mapped and easily identified which stand out if the visibility is good. Because when they're flying over Africa, they didn't have the roads. They didn't have the railroads. They didn't have the roads.
They didn't have the roads. They didn't have to see the mountains. It was often just sand. And so when you're looking down on this desert, how can you tell one spot of desert from another spot of desert?
No, stop of desert. I just want to imagine at this time, how long an aviation better thing? Do you have the idea? One year.
1890s. Well, during World War I, when they started having flying aces, the White Brothers had invented it. No, who was doing it? I don't know exactly that time.
Yeah, imagine that. We're flying around the world. We're flying around the world. Then I get it's been done.
But how many civilizations are there? They're looking up at this and just astounding. Exactly. And wondering what this is that's crossing over the top of them.
Exactly. Well, now for some of these, people, it's going to be the first time they ever saw a plane. Some of them hadn't even seen a car yet. Right.
Or heard of a plane. Right. I don't know if it's like a mythical creature is passing over you. I just don't want to think about it because it seems so fascinating.
Oh, very interesting. Yeah, in her book she actually talks about that in a number of places. I skipped a lot of those quotes because we've only got so much time and I don't want this to be a three-parter. Right.
So continuing on with her quote, but on the day we chose to fly, heavy haze curtailed of you after the sand had blown away. Black Eagles came flying out of the sky at 5,000 feet. They soared about as lazily oblivious to the electorate and giving its pilot some very bad moments. How they managed to miss the plane, I do not know.
I had never had such an experience and only hope the birds along the rest of the route would be more cautious in evading the faster moving machine. I was going into another quote. Green Mountains piled up beyond Alaha Badd and severe rainstorms over them blocked our way. As I tried going between the two, air currents shot us up 1,000 feet while I mainly pushed the plane's nose down.
Sun, rain and gulp this. After that I gave the squalls more distance. The air was very rough for miles around. I hate driving in the rain.
I hate driving in the rain. I hate it. We have obviously different stories. In air you're being thrown around the way.
It's less effective, but you also have a wet road. You're trying to knock on it. It's not going to suck, but I can't have it being pushed up 1,000 feet. Right.
They flew from Calcutta, India to Akyab Burma. When we reached the airport at dawn and they flew through a monsoon. When we reached the airport at dawn nocturnal rain had soaked it. The ground was thoroughly wet.
Precarious for takeoff, but meteorologists advised that more rain was coming and that likely we could dodge through the intermittent deluges of the day. But that if we remained at the field we might become waterlog beyond us. Or beyond us. It might become waterlog beyond us.
That takeoff was precarious. Perhaps as risky as any we had. The plane clung for what seemed like ages to the heavy sticky soil before the wheels finally lifted. And we cleared with nothing at all to spare the fringe of trees at the Airdarom's edge.
Once in the air the elements grew progressively hostile. The wind, dead ahead, began to whip furiously. Relentless rain pelted us. The monsoon I had, I find, let's down more liquid per second than I thought could come out of the skies.
Everything was obliterated in the deluges. So savage that it beat off patches of paint along the leading edge of my plain wings. Only a flying submarine could have prospered. It was wetter even than it had been in the deluges of the Mid-South Atlantic.
The heavens, unused and almost unbroken whale of water, or unbroken wall of water which would have drowned us had our cockpit not been secured. I just want to reiterate how well she writes. So she had intended to continue on to Rangoon, but because the monsoon she was driven back. So, in the end of getting to Rangoon, they, um, Rangoon, they had to fly back to Acuem.
I was taking a period of time. I know. I know. I only thought that one once.
Backtracking we headed out to see flying just off the surface of the water. We were afraid to come low over land on the count of the hills. When it's possible to see a few hundred yards ahead through the driving moisture, the prospect of suddenly encountering hilltops is not a pleasant one. I mean, honestly, the prospect of suddenly going to hilltops is never a pleasant one.
No, no matter where you walk in the street or the stop the hilltop they care. By uncanny powers, Red Noonan managed to navigate us back to the airport without being able to see anything but the waves beneath our plain. His comment was, two hours and six minutes of going nowhere. For my part, I was glad that our landing gear was retractable.
Less to be scraped on the trees or waves. So, um, so Fred Noonan is a million air hearts Roy Harley. Yes, okay. I don't think that makes any sense.
It makes no sense, but we finally connected Roy Harley. It's time to go, my love. On June 19th, they were both married to other people. There was love.
There was respect. They're romantic in Kundoon. No, they're not. On June 19th, they flew to Rangoon 400 miles.
They went no further because of the monsoon again. They were holding hands. All the next stage in Twynia. They flew back to Bangkok's I.M.
Or they flew to Bangkok's I.M. And then to Singapore. Do they have one night in Bangkok? No.
They didn't even stay in Bangkok one night. So no, they didn't. Or it's my chance while they were there. Aww.
Singapore were talking like Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, like the islands southeast of Asia. Like they're heading back down towards the Australia islands. The next day they left Singapore for Java. They got some coffee.
Okay. Our course first lay over the open sea, then along the westernly shores of Sumatra. Finally cutting deep across its southeast portion. In the first hour of flying, we crossed the equator for the third time on our air voyage.
And definitely passed down under to the netherworld of Australasia. The landscapes of the southern hemisphere were beautiful to look upon, but for a pilot's standpoint, the dense jungles in mangrove swamps, fringing the sea were not reassuring as emergency landing places. The birds will kill you. I'll say that.
They landed in... They landed in Van Doeg, B-A-N-D-O-E-G. I never kind of egged, by the way. Australian cities, sir.
I mean, Australia in general is just the most ridiculous land in the world. They took a sightseeing trip while there. They took a sightseeing trip to a volcano. Alright.
So they spent a couple of days there doing plane repairs. They sacrificed really hardly into the volcano. And on June 24th, they flew to Sarabaya only to return the following day because of mechanical problems. God damn, mechanical problems.
I know mechanical problems are... They're unable at that... Well, you know, you're taking this plane around the world, you're gonna have mechanical problems. Now we have mechanical problems.
Right. Decades later. Now that we know what we're doing. Do we?
No. At 3.45am, we were warming up the engines at Van Doeg, planning it all went well... or planning if all went well to fly to Australia. When one instrument refused to function, everyone present turned mechanic and said to work to help.
Now quick question. The instrument was it Piccolo or French horn? I know fly without my French horn. It was a heart functioning perfectly.
Well, let's see if she says what it was in her boat. That'd be great. But it was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that the... this stepper was sufficiently cured to warrant proceeding.
I've had this... Now the stepper is on board. No, no. I've had this stepper.
After that... Back scene for that. Well, after that late start we reached Sorovea when the dissenting son marked the declining day. In the air and afterward we found that our mechanical troubles had not been cured.
Certain further adjustments of faulty long-distance flying instruments were necessary. And so I had to do one of the most difficult things I had ever done in aviation. Instead of keeping on, I turned back the next day to Van Doing. Aww.
That would be tough for someone who's set on their way. So they stayed in Van Doing until June 27th, doing repairs and then they left and flew to Copang. The field surrounded by a stout stone fence to keep out roaming wild pigs. We found to be a very good natural landing place.
There were no facilities except a little shed for storing fuel. Consequently, we had to stay down our electro and bundle it up for the night with engine and propeller covers. That is an all-important job carefully done. No pilot could sleep peacefully without knowing that his plane was well cared for.
Our work was much amused... Our work much amused the natives from the nearby village. When we had to turn the craft's nose into the wind, all them in willingly and noisily helped us push it as desired. Then they flew to Port Darwin, Australia.
That was on the 28th. They left where they left the parachutes to be shipped home because the parachutes would be useless at that point. You can bail out over the ocean. If something's wrong with airplane, you're not going to parachute into the ocean.
Maybe you aren't. I'll follow down here. And then on June 30th, they flew to Lei, New Guinea. Or Lao, is it LAE?
How would you pronounce that? Lei, I'm sure you might. This landing field at Lei is one long strip cut out of the jungle, ending abruptly on a cliff at the water's edge. It is 3,000 feet long and firm under all conditions.
At this point, they had traveled 22,000 miles. They still had 7,000 miles to go before getting back to Oakland. On July 1st, they were grounded because the wind was blowing in the wrong direction for them to take off. I know I said first.
I know you meant. I know. I just really enjoyed it. I like watching the paint on my faces.
I don't say anything. July, George, first. Yes. So on July 1st, they were grounded because the wind was blowing in the wrong direction for them to be able to take off.
And I forgot to mention that while they were stuck in Sarvayo, Art had dysentery. Oh, my oxen died for it. Never mind. That, my friends, is an Oregon trail joke.
You're welcome. Alright. The Monoplane is weighted with gasoline and oil capacity. So this is while she's in LA, which is the last place that she sent correspondence back.
From here, she's heading to Holland Island, which is halfway between LA and Honolulu. So the Monoplane is weighted with gasoline and oil capacity. However, a wind blowing the wrong way and threatening clouds conspired to keep her on the ground today. In addition, Fred Noonan has been unable because of radio difficulties to set his chronometers.
Any lack of knowledge of their fastness and slowness would defeat the accuracy of the celestial navigation. Holland is such a small spot in the Pacific that every aid to locating it must be available. Fred and I have worked very hard in the last two days, repacking the plane and eliminating everything unessential. We have even discarded as much personal property as we can decently get along with and henceforth proposed to travel light lighter than ever.
All Fred has is a small tin case in which he picked up in Africa. I noticed it still rattles so it cannot be packed very full. So at 10am on July 22nd they left LAU and headed to Holland Island, which was 2,556 miles away. This was the last thing she said before leaving.
Not much more than a month ago, I was on the other shore of the Pacific looking westward. This evening I looked eastward over the Pacific. In those fast moving days which have intervened, the whole width of the world has passed behind us, except this broad ocean. I shall be glad when we have the hazards of its navigation behind us.
So now we're switching over into what happened during that last flight. So on July 2nd 1937, Earhart and Noonan took off at midnight from LA with their plane and they intended to land at Holland Island, which is a flat sliver of land 6,500 feet long and 1,600 feet wide and only 10 feet high. I mean I got about the length of the landing strip. I was like twice the landing strip.
Exactly. And it's 2,556 miles away. Around 3 PM late on, Earhart reported her altitude as 10,000 feet, but that they would reduce altitude due to thick clouds. Around 5 PM, Earhart reported her altitude at 7,000 feet in speed as 150 knots.
Their last known position report was near the Nooku Manu Islands about 800 miles into the flight. During the flight, the plane crossed the international date line and if they failed to account for the date line that could have caused an error of 1% or 1 degree or 60 mile position error on their navigation. Just 1% is pretty. Now the Electra had radio equipment for both communication and navigation, but they failed to establish a two-way communication with the Etasca, which was a ship that the Navy had stationed on Holland Island to send directional finding signals so that they could find the island.
And they failed to radio locate Etasca. The plane had a modified Western Electric 13C transmitter, which was a 50-watt transmitter crystal controlled, meaning it could be turned to other frequencies. Meaning it could not be turned to other frequencies. It only had three frequencies that it could broadcast on or transmit on.
Specifically for flight. So there's high frequencies, there's low frequencies, and depending on the frequency, it has a different range. And the Navy has their frequency. So if you're not on the same frequencies, you're not going to hear each other.
It's intended specifically for SOS and whatnots. Well, it's for communication too. But it's not for listening to Ben and Goodman. No.
So the plane also had a Western Electric 20B receiver, which ordinarily the receiver covered four high frequency bands, but it was modified so that it could hear frequencies in the second band that allowed it to receive 500 kilowatt signals such as, and that was the band that SOSs were sent. It is unknown whether the receiver had a beat frequency oscillator that would enable the detection of continuous wave transmissions such as Morse code and radio location beacons. But neither Airheart nor Noonan was capable of using Morse code. They didn't know how to do it.
They relied on voice communication. A separate automatic radio directionfinder receiver had been installed in the plane in October 1936, but it was removed before the flight to save weight. And now there were problems with the radio detection, the detection frequent, the RDF equipment during the world flight. So during the transatlantic lag of the flight from Brazil to Africa, the RDF equipment did not work.
The radio direction finding station at Darwin expected to be in contact with Airheart when she arrived there. But Airheart stated that the RDF was not functioning. The problem was a blown fuse. During a test flight at Lave, Airheart could hear radio signals, but she failed to obtain an RDF bearing.
That's what she was talking about earlier when she was talking about radio issues. While apparently near Howland Island Airheart reported receiving a signal from it, Tasca, but she was unable to obtain an RFD bearing. So she got the signal which she was going from? Exactly.
At Lave, problems with transmission quality were noticed. The first flight took off from Lave. Lave did not receive radio messages until four hours later. Lave's last reception was at 5-18pm and it was a strong signal.
Lave received nothing after that. Presumably the plane switched to a different frequency. It Tasca heard Airheart but did not hear her on the same frequency that Lave had been hearing her on. The Tasca was at Howland Island to communicate with Airheart and guide her to the island.
The final approach to Howland Island using radio navigation was not successful, obviously. One cause of the possible confusion was that Tasca and Airheart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half hour apart. With Airheart using Greenwich Civil Time and Tasca under a naval time zone designation, so if their planned communication is a half hour on the wrong time, they're not listening to each other. The Electra expected to transmit signals that the Electra could use as an RFD.
Near Howland Airheart could hear the transmission from it, but she was unable to determine a minimum so she could not determine the direction to fly. She was unable to... One theory is that the equipment did not work at the 7500 kilohertz frequency. They operated above their design frequency, which is what this radio had, lose their directionality.