This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer
I think that under the circumstances, Ryan did not find any suitable holes in the
cloud by the time he got down adjacent to Glenthorne Station (in a position over
Harper River). He has then given up on trying to fly into Glenthorne and resigned
himself to try for West Melton. At this point he has pressed the “GO TO” button
for West Melton (which he definitely would have had previously programmed into the
GPS).
Below is the views from Harper River towards Glenthorne Station with, and without,
cloud.
And here is the view towards West Melton with the cloud reaching to the edge of the
mountain range. The pink line is the direct GPS track to West Melton and all these
images are still taken at an ‘eye’ level of 10,200 ft / cloud 7100 ft.
Now if this course is the correct one, then is there an explanation for the people
at Ryton Bay, Lake Coleridge, to be able to hear it seeing as it would have been
over 8 n.miles away from their position?
I believe there is....
To understand how the observers at Lake Coleridge could hear this aircraft motor
from so far away, I took note of a Cessna 185 traveling south from where we live,
and knowing that he was traveling at a speed of about two miles a minute, I timed
it. I was able to hear it for about 2 minutes where the noise of the motor distinctly
stopped (out of range of my hearing ability) and then I was astonished to hear that
I could hear the echoing off the valley walls much louder for much longer. The valley
hills in this area are not very high, nor steep, so according to the many good articles
on the web on “How Echoes Work”, an echo in the high, steep rock faced mountains
in the Lake Coleridge area would travel much further, especially if there was cloud
above them and a wind blowing in the direction of the observers. The noise from the
echoes also make it sound low.
