Contact! What now?

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by sixcoins

Thanks for this info.... I tried to find the original Kylania site but was unsuccessful finding anything SH3 related...

When I found the link to that image (after a dreadfull search in Google Images) I noticed from it (s)he had her own domain www.kylania.com So I figured she had a site. But you are right, seems only to be poetry.

I finally had the chance to try this out, and on a convoy! Woo Hoo! Unfortunately, I came up short because I don't know what a scaling factor refers to, and couldn't find a definition....

So, I'm just using basic numbers and hoping to find the convoy....

I was hoping you might fill me in on what 'scaling factor' means?

Thanks in advance!

Six.

The scaling factor isn't really important. It's just a thing to help it make visually clear. You could just draw it 1 km for 1 knot, and it would work correct all the time. It's just that the speed triangle could look really small compared to a far contact distance.

For example, if the distance to the contact is 150 km. And you plot the drawing with 1km to 1 knot. When zoomed out you have this jumbled bunch of navmap tools making up that speed triangle (blue line, red circle to point B, yellow angle). All confined in a region about 10 - 20 km in size, in the corner of the black and blue line. You can't make sense of the shape because it is so small.

If you draw the speeds 10 km to 1 knot then the speed triangle becomes larger. Comparable in size to the actual range to the contact.

Small drawings have a tendency to become a bit inaccurate. But if the green angle matches the number of the yellow one then all is good. If you enlarge the speed of the contact (blue line), then you need to enlarge your speed (red circle) with the same factor. Automagically the leg of the yellow angle on top of the black line, becomes your closing speed enlarged by the same ratio.

Only consider factors of 1, 10 or in rare casses 100. Other numbers make it confusing. This way, all you need to do is shift the decimal point.