Finding home

[pmangelos]

I was wondering if someone could give me an explination on haw a WWII Naval aviator was able to find his way back to his aircraft carrier after a mission. I understand that plotting boards were used by pilots, I have seen numerous photos of pilots with these boards and read where they have been mentioned, but I have no idea on how these were used to make it back to a moving ship while the pilot was away and possible engaged with the enemy. If anyone can shed some light on how this was done, I am very interested in listening. Thanks in advance.
Paul

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by pmangelos

I was wondering if someone could give me an explination on haw a WWII Naval aviator was able to find his way back to his aircraft carrier after a mission. I understand that plotting boards were used by pilots, I have seen numerous photos of pilots with these boards and read where they have been mentioned, but I have no idea on how these were used to make it back to a moving ship while the pilot was away and possible engaged with the enemy. If anyone can shed some light on how this was done, I am very interested in listening. Thanks in advance.
Paul

There were low frequency nav aids used that enabled the pilot to home in on his carrier.

[pmangelos]

Thanks for the reply. What prevented the enemy from using these signals to find the ships?

[pbfoot]

there were tons of frequencies to monitor and once you determined the freq dispersing the info would have been a lengthy process to get the info to the closest resource so he could action it (co-ordination) the carrier group would be moving and the navaids would have more then likely been used only when needed