Biohaz Buoy Spacing Chart

[Beer 0]

OK guys and gals here is a tool one can use for buoy spacing when the game is released!

Its a chart for use for those P-3 DW TACCO's concerned with buoy spacing.

 

180 Knots groundspeed is easy to remember, its a 100 yards a second.

 

 

For Line Patterns use the chart to get the desired spacing on your buoys.

 

 

Example

In the above, I have a Fly to Point in the direction I wish to lay line pattern down the subs course.

Providing I have the plane at 180 knots, once the Projected Splash Point passes over the contact, I count off 5 seconds, drop the next buoy, count off another 5 seconds drop buoy, etc. In this case you would know the spacing between the buoys is 500 yards and will be able to estimate contact ranges and which buoys are likely to have contact and lose contact for better buoy management and coordination with your acoustic operators.

 

Right Click the Chart, then "Save Picture As..." Then print for your Kneeboard.

 

Cheers

Beer

[zzzspace 2]

Thanks, bought a stopwatch last month for use in Sub Command but that looks like its going to get lot of use in DW.

 

Q:

 

1. Is there any sort of handy seconds counter in the sim on the sonobuoy launch screen?

 

2. Can you dial-in an auto-deploy run that starts at a waypoint with x number of buoy type x, to be launch in that leg, at x seconds intervals? Or is that done manually?

[Beer 0]

Hi zzzspace

 

Note that this is not the final build, this information is based on the build given to use for a preview.

 

1. No there is no seconds counter; the time displayed in the lower right has hours and minutes only.

2. Well sort of; yes to a automatic drop based on waypoints, no to autodrop based on time. Here is how the buoy deployment works:

 

TACCO station is modeled in two screens, this one is what we would consider the TACCO Sonobuoy Console, the other is the Weapon Console. The green arrow just under the hand grab handle is how you would move to the Weapons page.

 

The P-Chutes (three pressurized tubes that someone inside the plane would load from racks storing buoys in the plane, these are shot out of that plane with a small shotgun type charge).

1. Click the "Tube Select" light, it will turn white.

2. Click the mouse in the Type: Box, it will cycle through the available stores with each mouseclick, stop on the buoy you wish to be loaded.

3. The buoy type text flashes to simulate loading time and goes solid when loaded.

4. Hit E to Equalize the pressure or enable the Tube, The E will stay Lit and the tube is ready to deploy.

5. Hit the Drop Button to shoot the buoy out.

 

Freefall chute is not modeled in the game

 

External Stores

1. Highlight the buoy you want to use.

2. Hit the the "Drop" button, you get the nice thump sound of the bouy being punched out and the buoy deploys.

 

Automatic deployment using Sonobuoy drop points

1. At the Fly To Waypoints Hit Sonobuoy it gives you a waypoint marked with a B, when the plane gets there, the buoy highlighted when the waypoint was created will automatically deploy. From the screenshot you can see I hit the Sonobuoy waypoint button three times. I have 14 DIFAR Buoys with the 3 for the waypoints autoselected. It seems the Buoy Waypoint is created directly in front of the aircraft by 4000 yards (guessing based on the scale in the screenshot), then the follow on buoys waypoints about 4000 yards ahead of the previous (perhaps this can be edited in a text file so you could have what ever default spacing you would want, not sure yet on that, but that could be a work around for not having a "Line" pattern available). Note that you can move any of the waypoints to any location at any time by clicking/hold and drag and release.

 

Manual Buoy Drops as described with the Spacing Chart post (First Post this Thread); I found one Potato, two potato... works for me :yes: .

 

Patterns

Unfortunately there are no patterns (in the build provided to us), flying a circle is not an option, you can use drawing tools and draw circles on the Nav Map (but not on the TACCO Scope), and manually place the waypoints around it, but the AI will not fly a circle for a containment pattern or a mad hunting circle, a 3000 yard (Radius)circle is very difficult and the AI has trouble hitting the waypoints put up as a circle and staying on a reasonable arc. I tryed low (High: 364 kts, Med: 263 kts or Low: 154 kts. ) and test containment circles again to see what the best waypoint configuration is for circles (if there is one).

 

FTP (Fly To Points) are

Waypoint-Point and click in the Nav View, click the Waypoint Button at the TACCO station and it will pop up in front of the airplane similiar to the Buoy waypoints.

Buoy-explained in this post.

Weapon-these are similiar to the Buoy Waypoints only Marked with a T, again it will pop up in front of the airplane and you will have to manually place the point where you want it; it does not auto compute for delivery of a target, but will auto release.

 

So far here is how I have seen the waypoints work. If you have no waypoint and click FTP (from the TACCO screen) it will give you a waypoint 4000 yards in front on the aircraft (other option is to point and click/or use insert as hotkey) from the Nav Map page. Lets say I have two FTP, I click a Sonobuoy Waypoint, it is added to the end of the last FTP. One type does not have "Priority" over the other. Seems they follow the order they were put in the system. This is workable, just a tad different for the "Priority System" that was used in the real plane.

 

There are no Normals or other WP's you may be familiar with.

 

Cheers

Beer

[zzzspace 2]

Muchos Gracias for that detailed reply, I reckon I could almost that screen after your explanation. Perhaps one could suggest inclusion of a second counter with reset button on that screen somewhere so timed manual drops are easier (not necessarily in the clock area)? I expect it's too late to make the final version, bug squashing time, but maybe something for a later patch. I also would like to plot, draw and measure on the screen for the torpedo's steering screen in Sub Command; looks like the nav map screen is still the only place for that. Well, have fun with the P3 and MH-60 Beer!

 

cheers

Edited October 31, 2004 by zzzspace