How do carrier-based planes find the ship after a mission ?

John,

north of the arctic circle.

A place where the wet compass is worse than its usual useless.

--
Mike Kanze

"Do witches run spell-checkers?"

- Old word processing joke


"John Carrier" wrote in message
...
We had a Tacan

Or not. A certain Adm Jerry Tuttle had an aversion to radiating from his
ships. EMCON night recoveries north of the arctic circle. Pitching deck,
70 knots of wind over the deck, and the most memorable night trap in my
life (yes, you CAN experience the 3 ultimate physical pleasures
simultaneously).

The E-2 would set up the recovery (which typically included a misdirection
penatration followed by a 25-50 mile vector at 1200 feet). Pulse
single-scan could really help on the run in. Figure out the BRC/FB on
flyover, turn downwind and dirty up, time 30 seconds while descending to
600 feet. Level turn to FB, fiddle with lineup and descend when the ball
looked centered. Cut lights (hopefully just once) and fly the ball. Not
bad when the weather was reasonable. Not fun when it was not.

R / John