[ARC5] Video discussing the loss of the Lady Be Good

[Michael A. Bittner]

If the needle is pointing backwards and the signal volume is decreasing, then how can you not know that you have overflown the station?
1. Station is is turned off.
2. Equipment in aircraft is damaged or otherwise not working.
3. Crew wounded or for some other reason, not paying attention.
Mike, W6MAB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Francesco Ledda 
  To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 6:36 PM
  Subject: Re: [ARC5] Video discussing the loss of the Lady Be Good


  I don't know what they used during WW2, but with a regular NDB, the arrow in
  the indicator tells you if are going toward or away the station. A decent
  instrument pilot will know very quickly if there is crosswind, and how to
  correct.  I loved to do NDB approaches.....  yes, they can be dangerous if
  left to the inexpert, deadly if mistakes are made (American Airlines Flight
  965 Cali) but are great to improve piloting skills.
   
  BR,

  Frank 
  KF5RXB

  -----Original Message-----
  From: ARC5 [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Michael A.
  Bittner
  Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 8:09 PM
  To: Robert Eleazer; arc5 at mailman.qth.net
  Subject: Re: [ARC5] Video discussing the loss of the Lady Be Good

  Nobody seems to have mentioned that the method for determining whether you
  are going toward or away from the station (both non-directional beacon and
  4-course range station) is to note the increase in volume going toward the
  station and decrease in volume going away.  Also the cone-of-silence when
  passing over the station.  I used both systems back in the 1950s during
  training and actual cross country trips in the Navy SNJ, SNB, PBM and T-28B.

  Mike, W6MAB
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Robert Eleazer
    To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
    Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 5:48 PM
    Subject: Re: [ARC5] Video discussing the loss of the Lady Be Good


    The ADF indicators used in WWII as well as some time thereafter had a
  needle that covered the dial from one side to the other.  When crossing the
  station it did a quick 180- deg flip.  Theoretically you could track
  outbound from the station as well as inbound, although that was fraught with
  difficulties if there were significant crosswinds involved.

    If you missed the needle doing the flip and did not note the different
  colors at each end of the needle you kept right on tracking, thinking you
  were inbound but instead getting further away.  In this case the NDB station
  was at the airfield, so no triangulation was required.

    They were flying at night and had a tailwind that apparently the navigator
  did not know about.  He probably thought they had a headwind given that they
  seemed to be taking much longer to get to the airfield.  Looking down in the
  moonlight, they say that the sand dunes look like waves and so they thought
  they were over the ocean.  Unlike the B-17, the B-24 does not ditch or belly
  land very well, due to the high wing.  So with the airplane going down
  eventually (out of fuel, I guess), they decided to bail out and took their
  life raft with them, to find themselves in a trackless desert rather than
  the ocean.  

    I don't think the remains of most of the crew have ever been found.  There
  was drinkable water and coffee found on board as well as working radios and
  loaded, live .50 cal machine guns.       

    Wayne