Advice on how to deal with airplanes?
 

Need some help on how to combat airplanes. I will be heading to a destination when planes appear. Should I dive for awhile and then come back up or try to take them on? One thing is for sure, I find it difficult to shoot them down! Just needed some advice from the pros! Thanks!

I never duke it out with planes. A submarine's job is to sink ships. It' s a fighter pilot's job to shoot down planes. The AA guns on US subs were there for an emergency defense when you can't dive in time or you're too damaged to avoid aircraft. If my radar gives me ample warning, I pull the plug no matter how annoying or time-consuming it is. In the actual conflict those US skippers who stayed on the surface even to take on those slow, lumbering Japanese flying boats when they didn't have to often got reprimanded.

You might get lucky and knock down the odd plane, but if they put a dent in your pressure hull and you have to go home for weeks of repairs---or not home at all, then Tojo got the better deal.

I always dive. I's not worth the risk. I usually go to 200 feet and remain there for 1.5 hours.

I guess just dive for an hour or to and do a little time compression and come back up before the batteries get too low?

Sounds good. Just be sure to scan the skies with your radar mast and periscope before surfacing completely. :)

On receiving a radar contact on an airplane, I watch it for a moment. If it's going to pass rather far away, I simply ignore it, or change course away from it.

If it looks like it is going to be close, I take her down to periscope depth with the radar mast up, and watch for a bit longer. If it is still coming towards me, then I take her deep.

I hate having to go deep for airplanes, so I try to avoid it if possible. But I'd rather go deep instead of trying to dodge falling bombs.

When coming back up, pause at periscope depth for a bit, and use the radar. It's not good to surface right in front of an airplane. It's a lesson you only need to learn once.

In addition to all of the advices above, you can stay submerged during the day and cruise during the night.

But this becomes unnecessary once you get radar.

I'm playing TMO with RSRD overlay (underlay?).

Planes always come back half an hour later, so no point popping up magain till its second coming - unless I'm in a hurry when I'll surface and full speed away fromm its return path.

But they'll not see you from beyond 5 miles.

Well with TMO yeah planes = death. So 160+ it is. :o
Still new at SHIV, hoping that those pin-point depth charging planes wear down and run out of elite pilots as the war goes on.