ghost ships
 

on patrol off the philipine coast and recieve a message from radio guy
"contact bearing 77 deg long range". When i go to lcheck it out i get
nothing on any of the range scales. The weather isgood so that is not anissue. Am I chasing ghost ships?

If you see nothing on the scopes the contact is an aircraft picked up by the SD set it is omnidirectional though in the game they will report its location.If you have map contacts on aircraft will show up as very fast moving objects.If you have map contacts off you must look at your screens for one sweep if you see nothing you know it is an aircraft or if you nothing in the reported direction you could have a surface contact and an air contact at the same time.

There is a ghost ship that sails in the area of the Luzon Straights though the "Flying Dutchman" she will show up on your radar screens and your sonar and she can be seen visually.

I'm pretty sure I've picked up low flying aircraft on the SJ set a couple of times. Fast mover without a sonar signature. I didn't stay on the surface long enough to confirm and I had my map contacts off. Is this possible?

Also is the Dutchman confined to the Luzon Straits then? I've never encountered her, I always assumed she wandered around at random

Only in the Luzon Straights for the Flying Dutchman yes.I have seen the sound guys pick up the Flaying Dutchman but at the station my self I can hear nothing that makes sense as it is a sailing ship and has no screws.

I play with contacts on its too much of a pain to have to try and visualize all that data and a real skipper had his crew to help in such matters and he also had many years experience for that reason I choose to have contacts on.

Yeah - I've turned contacts on now too - RR's points about how it's a difficulty modifier, rather than a realism one, convinced me, and boy, does it make a difference!

Currently chasing a merchant and two escorts at night in heavy rain without radar, so right at this moment it's not helping so much......