[Munchausen]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Actually I WAS set up for a Dick O'Kane, because the speed of those puppies really was zero. My Shooting Gallery Test Mission has them anchored out there so the only error can come from the inherent geometry of the torpedo course itself. My own submarine was also stationary.

Ah ha ... okay, I guess that accounts for the odd display on your TDC. I tested the "long shot" using your Cromwell zero-gyro setup instead ... adjusting my range so that I was 5,000 yards from the tanker when I fired. My results were as follows:

• Calculated lead angle was 21 degrees. Neither the scope nor the TBT is calibrated to one degree ... and, as distance increases, errors in just half a degree can make a bigger difference in hitting or missing your target.
• I left TDC range set to the 500 yard default. Didn't seem to make much difference.
• Set my torpedoes to run slow at a depth of 17 feet ... keel depth minus 11 feet. Perhaps if you leave them set to default, they broach, then sink. Or, if you set them to the full keel depth, they go too deep, then sink. All four of mine made it to the target.

The O'Kane method can be combined with the Cromwell method ... the above test was made at very close to a 90-degree setup. The O'Kane method gives you the optimum AOA (broadside) and the Cromwell method gives you an exact lead angle.

But, the greater the range to target, the greater the need for exact accuracy in sighting your aiming device (TBT or scope).

The biggest surprise for me: Awhile ago, someone asked why they could not set their TDC to range zero. He was all upset about it. So in my tests I tried some 8000 yard shots at the zero bearing with the TDC set to zero range. All the shots missed right. Any other range hit the target if the tropedoes got there. Anybody have any idea why that should be so?

I'm surprised the torpedoes even headed in the correct direction. Try an attack in the "auto" mode and watch what happens to the TDC when a locked target gets really close to your sub. The "torpedo track" arrows go nuts ... almost like the old computer error of dividing by zero. If, in manual mode, the TDC thinks the target is at zero range, that might be enough for it to do what it does in auto mode.