[Capn_Sinky]

I picked up planes before on radar an I use the TA feature and plot them like I plot ships and if they are far enough away I won't dive. Ill let them pass. If you click on the plane it will show a ring arould it. That is their visual search radius and your pretty safe if your just outside of it. Depending on sea conditions I've even clipped the edge of it and still wasn't spotted. If you've ever played flightsim you know flying over the ocean and trying to search for anything smaller than a DE is pretty hard. You've got to be really close like under 5 miles before u can pick out small targets like a DE. The fleet boats are even smaller than that, not much sticking up to see. The wake is what reall gives you away to aircarft. You have to be aware of the sea conditions. If the surface is is smooth like glass they can spot your wake from long distance. The rougher the surface the harder it is to find the wake. If the flies start swarming then dive and run at 3kts, till dark and then surface and run at standard until batteries are charged and then go to full or flank speed to make up distance.