seplanes at the middle of the sea

[LCQ_SH]

hi everyone!

I have a quick one. If I ever catch up with an enemy seaplane, does that mean that an enemy fleet or ship with seaplanes launcher is within my patrol area? :ping:

If yes, how would you start searching? :arrgh!:

[A Hidden Soul]

Sometimes planes fly from island to island. However, no aircraft carrier will be alone. They're almost always in a fleet. I'd go in the direction the aircraft came from.

[Warren Peace]

From my experience, the majority of sea planes come from some sort of carrier, although I've had a few that obviously launched from coastal bases. I don't head off right away, I'll keep submerged with my radar antennae raised until he comes back, then follow his course back to whatever spawned the vile-thing. If it leads back to a carrier, awesome, but if he leads me back to some harbor area I'll just throw some fish into moored ships as punishment for getting my hopes up.

[TorpX]

I have a quick one. If I ever catch up with an enemy seaplane, does that mean that an enemy fleet or ship with seaplanes launcher is within my patrol area? :ping:



If it is one of those large multi-engine flying boats, it could be from a land base far away. I would just try to avoid those.

[LCQ_SH]

My mistake.....by seaplanes, I meant those little ones launched from CL, CA, or BB's . :ping:

[Admiral Halsey]

My mistake.....by seaplanes, I meant those little ones launched from CL, CA, or BB's . :ping:

You might find something. I don't know how far those things fly though so you could be out of range for an attack.

[TorpX]

My mistake.....by seaplanes, I meant those little ones launched from CL, CA, or BB's . :ping:

OK, but you are assuming the game campaign is prim and proper. It could be using the same planes for land based and sea based activity. I especially wouldn't trust the stock campaign to do this.

[Fizwalker]

It would depend on the type, and given historical knowledge rather than that in game (I'm new), if it is multi-engined, it'll be from an island or atoll. Single engined seaplanes are more difficult to decipher, and I would expect deductions coming from observations on course as it entered your sphere of observation. To know if it's from a surface ship, you'd have to back track it's course to its origin, and as these were typically used as search planes, you'd also have to know where on the leg of its search pattern it is on. To determine where it is on its patrol, you need to know the type of seaplane, and its operational range.

Assuming that the seaplane was launched from a ship, that ship could range in size from a lowly Light Cruiser up to a mighty Battleship. However the seaplane will not be from an aircraft carrier, but it does not rule out the possibility of it coming from a task force that includes an aircraft carrier--The Japanese, especially early in the war relied on aircraft from cruisers like the Tone to conduct its aerial scouting missions, and thus saved more carrier aircraft for strike missions.

To summarize, you must know where in its search pattern the seaplane is. To know that, you must be able to identify the type and know the range of the seaplane in question. From there you can deduce where the possible basing that the aircraft has originated from. If there are no island bases as possible origin points, then it almost certainly came from a ship of Cruiser size or larger. Complicating matters is the knowledge that the IJN like the USN operated seaplane tenders (Like the Chitose) and so could operate from unimproved facilities. I suspect there is no completely accurate way to be certain of the origin of the aircraft. You take your guess and you proceed on that basis (You can cheat and look up which islands the Japanese used as bases during the war.... Which might help you determine if the seaplane is from a ship or island base.....Obviously, such a search will not develop ship movements and, as I understand it, there is an amount of procedural contact generation in this sim, which would negate much of what could be found about ship movements during the war.)

Hope this background helps (and if you've read to here, KUDOS!)

[merc4ulfate]

Could be land or sea based. I have seen them in harbours and coming from BB led task forces.