Looking at a few options....
I am looking at a few options at the moment, "GoFundMe" is one of them.
When I wrote the new website and produced it in early 2016 it was not very long before I had people that read it and people on here, on this Forum saying, "Put a PayPal button on the website"... On this single very thread there were about five people who said that.
Of the three donations I have received since the PayPal button went on one is from an ex-R.A.F. Apprentice from the same Training establishment I went through in the years 56-59, one is from a mate who worked at Air Niugini and one is directly attributable to this thread. Was it worth putting a PayPal button in the website.
I have come to the conclusion that people just love to read about the project. They read the evidence, all the history, all the explanations, all the reasoning and all the answers to the questions I receive.... all the answers to the armchair critics which I consider reasonable... but all that does not translate into more donations than the two donations received since I reopened this zombie thread on February 4th almost one month ago.
The Project news first appeared in the "USA Today" newspaper in August 2004 and since then it has been on several websites in the U.S. and most people are surprised that there has been no one really wealthy person backing this to the hilt since those displays started 14 years ago. I too am surprised.
For a variety of reasons I am deferring the June trip to a later date.
The seasons are changing up in PNG. June used to be a good weather month. Indeed, in April 1945, the Patrol A1 report includes the words that tracks seen "are Jeepable in June weather"... The good weather has slipped back to "August to October". I had hoped to conclude the June trip around July 4th....
You will have read that we cannot secure a LiDAR survey due to the enormous cost contained in a quote issued by an Australian Company in Sydney.
You will have read that we were funded last year. I am unsure of that funding continuing this year either for June or for later.
The airline up there is in a heap of trouble and the schedule is disrupted on a daily basis. I would prefer to wait until that disruption stabilises. No one desires to be stuck in Port Moresby anymore going "in" or "out".
Funding this Project has always been a problem, it is a case of "believe the evidence and the reasoning" or "do not believe the evidence and the reasoning". Seemingly it is the latter.
I will continue but it will be a little later.
David Billings
www.earhartsearchpng.com