Amelia

[Bob Parks]

Originally Posted by Bob Parks

I just finished watching the discussion about Earhart's last flight and disappearance. Excellent and laid it on the line about her lack of preparation and "female intuition" that led her to disregard Noonan's directions in navigation.
Switches

My dear mom used to take us kids down to the old Hoover Airport to watch airplanes. She would park that big Huppmobile Straight Eight at the fence and were we could see everything coming and going...Condors, Ford Tri Motors, Stinsons, etc. One day when we had to stop at the runway that crossed the road we saw an amazing sight. A Kellet Autogyro landed and stopped almost in front of us. I remember the slate blue color of the machine and seeing the pilot get out. When the leather helmet came off my mother exclaimed, " My God! That's Amelia Earhart !" So, I think that I actually saw her in 1932 at the airport where the Pentagon now sits.
Switches

[Bob Parks]

Originally Posted by Bob Parks

My dear mom used to take us kids down to the old Hoover Airport to watch airplanes. She would park that big Huppmobile Straight Eight at the fence and were we could see everything coming and going...Condors, Ford Tri Motors, Stinsons, etc. One day when we had to stop at the runway that crossed the road we saw an amazing sight. A Kellet Autogyro landed and stopped almost in front of us. I remember the slate blue color of the machine and seeing the pilot get out. When the leather helmet came off my mother exclaimed, " My God! That's Amelia Earhart !" So, I think that I actually saw her in 1932 at the airport where the Pentagon now sits.
Switches

I saw the film yesterday and I thought that it was a ho-hum slow moving rather flat attempt to portray her life. My 24 year old grandson felt the same and he isn't an aviation buff. Her failure to properly prepare for the last leg across the Pacific was glossed over, nothing was mentioned about her disconnect from Noonan's expert advice and nothing was mentioned about her technical advisor, Paul Mantz.
Switches

[sparky p-51]

Got to know Frank Tallman fairly well in the mid 70s. I was building a P-40 at the time and he had one of those with some spares that I needed. Told me that Amelia had indeed survived whatever crash she was involved in and that the Japanese held her captive until the end of the war. They traded her to the US for Hirohitos life and she was alive and well somewhere on the upper east coast. Swore up and down that it was a true story.