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Awesome read. Can anyone explain the quote below? I don't really understand how the minesweeper understood the signal. --- The Coast Guard amphibian gained a
by econnors 9y ago
Awesome read.
Can anyone explain the quote below? I don't really understand how the minesweeper understood the signal.
---
The Coast Guard amphibian gained altitude and flew off. (I learned later that he headed for a squadron of minesweepers that was returning to the United States from a tour of the Western Pacific. He was unable to tune to their radio frequency for communications. But this ingenious pilot lowered a wire from his aircraft and dragged it across the bow of the minesweeper, the USS Embattle. The minesweeper captain understood the plea, and veered off at top speed in my direction.)
- graeme 9y agoMy guess was that the signal was an inprovised “hey! follow me”. But, I have precisely zero expertise.
- justin66 9y agoI think it was mostly a matter of people asking "what is that Coast Guard amphibian rescue plane trying so hard to tell us?" and that question having a very short list of likely answers.
- djsumdog 9y agoMakes me think of Lassy. "What are you trying to tell us? Is Timmy stuck in the well?"
- an_account 9y agoMaybe the minesweepers decided it was a good idea to switch radio frequencies, so that they could chat.
- raldi 9y agoI don't think the tech was there at the time to make communications possible.
- kpil 9y agoI'm not sure if it's granted that the military can talk to other forces and civilian radio. In general I'm don't think aviation have marine VHF and vice versa, except maybe the coastguard and other special cases.
- gvb 9y agoI interpreted it that the plane dragged the wire in the sea in front of the minesweeper in the heading of the pilot. This would have drawn a line in the sea, as it were. That would be a totally unexpected behavior, which would give the minesweeper's captain the clue that it was a signal to change course to the given heading. The plane would have headed back to the pilot and circled, giving the minesweeper's captain assurance he had understood the signal.
- themodelplumber 9y agoI'm not a pilot, but I've often read in rescue histories that an airplane's circling and then flying-over in a given direction is meant to be taken as a vector, like "go that way". In this case I'm guessing the wire was more like the second, confirming clue.
- rangibaby 9y agoOK, you're a captain of a boat. A friendly plane is circling above your boat. What's up with him? Radio him. Nope, that didn't work. He dragged a rope across our deck and flew off in a straight line. Let's follow him and find out what the fuss is all about.
- rdl 9y agoThe minesweeper probably had already been informed over the radio by the rest of 7th Fleet that a plane had gone down, so it didn't take a whole lot to put "aircraft which can't communicate is signaling" followed by the heading.
- Cacti 9y agoThey were dragging it perpendicular across the front of the ship, so, the wire is like a hand waving "this way, follow the line", which was pointed towards the location of the guy. It is not a standard or anything, so abnormal enough to get the drift.
- pizza 9y agoif your experience (memory of error-correcting inter-ship communication procedures) is perplexed/high entropy, something unexplainable/miraculous/it is like a flare
- sdfjkl 9y agoIt's an unusual method. There is now a standard method for this, which is printed on the SOLAS (Safety Of Lifes At Sea) cards we sailors are required to carry, although the direction ones are not on all versions of the card I've seen. Here's one that has them (section "Air to Surface Direction Signals): http://www.marinelite.gr/images/detailed/1/221518a.jpg http://www.marinelite.gr/images/detailed/1/221518a.jpg
- EADGBE 9y agoIt's like Lassie.