Midway observations

[jonnymacbrown]

I figure now your bearing is the direction your carrier is steaming when you decide your mission. Then you ok the mission and turn into the wind and launch, then get back on your original bearing. It seems to me though, there must be an easier method of determining direction of search/attack missions. What if you are going into the wind to launch and an enemy TF is spotted in the other direction? Jonny

[Volcano Man]

Not sure what you mean. Are you talking about assigning bearings to launching search planes? The simple thing about it is that it is simply the degrees on a compass with north being 0, east 90, south 180, west 270. So, regardless of which direction you are heading, if you tell the search planes to search from 0 to 90, they are always flying out in an arc from north to east. Maybe I am misunderstanding the issue though.

What I generally do is assign about 40 degrees to the search arc, and then over lap with other carriers in the group. Now the headache comes when you assign the minimum degree to the maximum by accident and they fly out on a 320 degree search arc instead. ;) Of course then can be easily corrected by assigning them another new search mission quickly.

[jonnymacbrown]

"Maybe I am misunderstanding the issue though."
It was me who didn't understand the issue. I get the picture now. Thanks for trying to help me.

"Now the headache comes when you assign the minimum degree to the maximum by accident and they fly out on a 320 degree search arc instead."

Maybe you might explain this more thoroughly. I still don't get the min & max arc. Thanks jonnymac :smoke:

[Volcano Man]

No problem. The minimum point defines the start point in the arc and the maximum point describes the ending point in the arc. So, if a minimum point is 0 degrees and the maximum point is 90, then the planes will go out on a 90 degree angle to the northeast (maybe it is better to think of the minimum as the "start" point and the maximum as the "end" point in the arc).

If you specify the above example backwards, with the minimum point being 90 degrees and the maximum being 0, then you are essentially saying that the arc will be 270 degrees, so that the planes will all go out starting at the 90 degrees and ending at 0 degrees (so that they go out to the east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest and north).

[jonnymacbrown]

No problem. The minimum point defines the start point in the arc and the maximum point describes the ending point in the arc. So, if a minimum point is 0 degrees and the maximum point is 90, then the planes will go out on a 90 degree angle to the northeast (maybe it is better to think of the minimum as the "start" point and the maximum as the "end" point in the arc).

If you specify the above example backwards, with the minimum point being 90 degrees and the maximum being 0, then you are essentially saying that the arc will be 270 degrees, so that the planes will all go out starting at the 90 degrees and ending at 0 degrees (so that they go out to the east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest and north).

Got it, thank you! jonny