Jay Sata,
I've been just a fascinated reader of this Thread from the beginning (you couldn't make it up !), and do not know most of the details, but there is one point which so far seems to have escaped notice. I understand that the stated object of the US transcontinental flight was to retrace the route of the old mail pilots from Seattle to Boston.
<US 2016 - Tracey Curtis Taylor - Aviatrix, Adventurer, Inspirational ...
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has a diagram of the route. There is a leg Grand Rapids to Phoenix (Arizona). Can't find air distance, but must be around 250 mi, well in range of a PT-17 (on which I trained with the US Army Air Corps, at Carlstrom Field in Florida). So why go off-route to Winslow (4941 amsl) instead of to Phoenix (1160 amsl), when you're faced with a hot, high and heavy takeoff next day ? Doesn't make sense.
They were lucky the fuel didn't go up in the prang.
Danny42C.