Has Anyone Suggested Polarization? |
Summary: | Two ECOs and a deckie discuss how to find a misisng raptor. |
Date: | 03/Oct/2013 |
Related Logs: | Control Sticks and Foam Parties and other 'how do we find Sheperd?' logs. |
Flight Simulators - Deck 2 - Battlestar Orion |
The Air Wing has access to flight simulators to train pilots off the ground in combat maneuvers and situations that are hard to replicate with regular dogfight practicing and this is their home. A rectangular room, the hatch opens up beside the bank of computers that control the simulations and what is seen by the individuals when training sessions are in progress. The sims are actual cockpits cut out of old frames and installed here to function exactly as the real thing, right down to oxygen plugs for suits. In front of each cockpit, complete with armored glass, are LCD screens that cover most of the front view to the front and above. There are two Vipers, two Predators, and one full-cabin Raptor available. |
AWD #270 |
Toby has never been to the flight simulators before, he knows they exist and he's heard pilots talking about them, hell, he's even been involved in drunken conversations along the lines of 'we should show 'em, I mean, how hard can it be!', but he's never actually set foot in them. Feeling rather a lot like a fish out of water he's made his way up there though, injured hand resting on his chest and held there by a basic figure-of-eight foam sling. What notes and ideas he has already are tucked under his left arm and, perhaps faintly oddly, he's wearing his sweats, rather then greens or coveralls.
Devlin is already waiting for Toby to arrive, the ECO having rounded up Hekate and brought her to the Flight simulators for some additional training and going over the various instruments and the like within the simulators while waiting for Toby to arrive. He's dressed in his fatigues, though there's a duffle bag nearby that most likely contains a spare set of clothes for later, or possibly the man may be on deck should the need arise. He's looking tired, such as it is that he's already doing twelve hour shifts, or more when he needs to stay out longer, especially with the ever increasing sweeps across the lands below.
When Toby arrives, Devlin's head is still within one of the Raptor simulators, his body sticking out so as the Crewman knows where the are.
Stuck inside on the pilot seat, Hekate looks somewhat uncertain at the controls, "Why not go over something with the ECM, I really don't want to try my hand at flying and this is all so…" over her head. She eyes the stick and then reaches out to take it, letting her hands adjust to the fake set up before she sighs and follows what he points out for systems checks. This is all pre-flight gibberish that has her head spinning, a hand lifting from the controls to rub at her temple. She chews at her lip and then nods, trying to follow along despite the looming uncertainty in her dark eyes. Her foot taps lightly at the flooring, causing her to shift a little in her seat.
Toby notes that one of the simulators is busy and pauses just inside the hatch until he's certain that the aircrew inside are the ones he's supposed to be meeting. Once he recognises Devlin though he steps further into the room, finding a spot of wall to lean against until they're done with whatever it is they're working on.
Devlin chuckles and Hekate's question, "Because the cockpit is the most fragile spot. So I'll let you think about that for a little bit," he tells her with a gentle pat of her shoulder before pointing at a few other dials and monitors. "So these are what you're going to go through when you sit down in the middle of a flight, make sure these all read green. If they don't you've got bigger issues, but we can go over those when we get to that part of the training. Still it's fairly basic, it doesn't take much to fly these things, I figured I'd get the simple stuff out of the way before we get to the really complex stuff, like what you're going to be doing in the back seat." Devlin chuckles again, apparently thinking himself rather funny as he leans out of the Raptor on the off chance that Hekate will start swinging fists. His head turns and he catches sight of Toby in his peripheral vision. "Alright, Kate, that'll be enough for now, our company has arrived, and it's your time to shine."
Devlin steps out and turns to look at Toby more squarely, "Crewman Shackleton, a pleasure, I do hope that there's enough room on that table there?" Devlin offers, his hand waving towards a rather sparse looking metal slab that's clearly bolted to the floor, already a note pad and a few pens lay in pristine and precise order, aka totally like he threw them there on his way to the simulator, perhaps from a distance.
"Oh ho ho ho, funny," comes the accented voice from within, something thick and rather slick sounding, "Well enough, I bet I could show you around that backseat better than anyone else," she intones though as he announces their company, Hekate has the nerve enough to slightly color at her cheeks. Pushing herself out of the pilot seat, right from the front - unlike in a real Raptor, she smiles and is thankful for the voicing of Toby's rank. "Hello," she says brightly and steps out, smoothing her braid back over her shoulder. There is a faint bruise fading rather quickly from her forehead already, her hand lifting in a wave before she starts for the table.
"Sirs," Toby answers with a quick nod as he stands up off the all and makes his way over to the table. What he sets down appears to be a CSAR manual and some raptor schematics, so no prizes for guessing what angles he's been approaching this problem from. Producing a pen from behind his ear he removes the top with the aid of his teeth then graps it rather awkwardly in his left hand as he sits, glancing quickly to the other two to see who's going to start.
Devlin chuckles at something he sees inside the Raptor before he turns away and allows whatever he sees to deal with itself as he arches the turned eyebrow towards Hekate then about-faces and heads for the table. A nod to Toby's arm and Devlin makes the comment, "Gonna be alright? I can take notes, not a big deal, since I'll just be offering a couple ideas at this conjecture, I think we're going beyond what they teach us in ground school, and moving into a more electrical and analytical realm. So I'll need to make notes for myself anyways," the ECO offers in a way that's less invasive. He swings a chair around for Hekate, and then drops himself into his own, leaning way over the table to slide his notepad close by and grab the scattered pens.
"Well, I had some time to think about how best to adjust the Raptor ECM to get exactly what we are looking for so that we do not have to deal with readouts from the landmasses and so forth…this will also help even if the Raptor is not on or in use.." she says, not taking a seat but rather placing a hand on the table to look over what is displayed on the file. "Has anyone suggested polarization?" A brow lost, a brief glance of her features towards Toby before she pulls some of the info towards her to give it a look over.
Toby considers Devlin's offer for a moment before he gives the faintest of upnods in accpetance and puts his own pen down. It's a prick on his pride, but he would quite like something that's readable at the end. Turning to listen to Hekate he keeps his mouth shut and his ears open as it becomes quickly apparent that she knows what she's talking about and then shakes his head at the direct question. "No Sir," he replies, unsure of exactly wat else to call the Nugget, before expanding, "I've mostly been looking at transponders and such, but then there's a good chance they'd all have been deactivated."
Devlin nods to Hekate and already is starting to jot down notes. A quick Dradis symbol goes on the left corner, while a page number, after war date, and initials 'DED' go in the top right, old habits apparently die hard. He starts writing down what Hekate is saying, paraphrasing, but making notes about ECM, landmass, and detecting readouts etc. There's a quick jot of the word 'Polarization,' and he underlines it a few times before looking up, "You thinking that'd work? Wouldn't we have to boost the signal from the DRADIS though? Especially if we're going through heavy foilage? How were you planning on dealing with the dispersion?" For those who read this in the future, it should be noted that the player is totally making this shit up so that Devlin can sound smart.
Glancing over towards Toby, Devlin smiles, "Hekate Redgrove, Nugget brought up from Picon, she's going to learn to be a Bear, but she's got some serious head smarts, as you can already tell. I told you she'd be the one for the job."
"Just call me Hekate, not even sure I am qualified to start full training yet," she offers, as if knowing but then goes quiet as Devlin produces her credentials..aka fullname. A faint smirk and she shakes her head, "You don't understand, there are different polarizations that systems can be set with. What we need to make sure is if the ECM can be programmed to output two different electric field vectors, both outward in front and downward to better catch the Raptor. My guess is they have hidden it but with linear polarization and some careful tuning, it will return with the signal of any metal objects. Since we can safely assume Piraeus is not abundantly filled with cars, planes and so forth, spotting the missing Raptor should be easy. It should not be that hard and I can offer the mathematical equations for said polarization. We just need to outfit a Raptor with two ECM consoles if we want it to cut our time in half. Currently ecm is sent out in a circular pattern for combat, but with it sent out in a concentrated linear line, it will be more precise, but also limits us on its scope in a given area."
Toby considers briefly, that it's rathet a good thing that Devlin is taking notes, because he's struggling to follow pretty much any of that. Most, but by no means all, of teh words make sense individually, but he can't make head nor tail of what was just said to him. By either of them. There's a brief pause as his brain realises that it's now his turn to speak and he nods slowly before finding a question he can ask and hopefully not sound too stupid in doing so. "You say it limits the scope, how much by? I mean, theoretically, how long would it take us to cover teh planet's surface?"
Devlin nods as he follows alongside Hekate's logic and then arches a brow, "But, two ECM on the same Raptor makes your opposing vectors fairly narrow, meaning we have to low fly, or risk losing some of the accuracy, no? Would it be easier to tandem the systems of two Raptors and fly a distance apart that can also be interpreted? This would allow you a higher degree of accuracy with less calculations, no? Or am I missing something?" Devlin asks Hekate, turning to see if Toby's getting everything as Devlin's pen flies across the note-pad already giving a triangle designation for the Raptor in question and then drawing a second a little ways across the page and signals between with vectors. Toby's question has Devlin looking up from his page and then pointing at Hekate with the back of his pen, "I think that would depend, though I am sure that Hekate can give us at least a little idea, depends on the program, I would think?"
Considering Devlin's remark about two Raptor's she considers and gives a nod, "Well in truth, it could take a little longer. The ECM, or rather the DRADIS width of feedback that would be correct would be the width of the bird or perhaps a little more otherwise things will be skewed. But if you have two set out and doing a sweep, I wouldn't think overly long. Once a target is found, the DRADIS will ping it," she chews on the inside of her cheek in thought. We can set it at an angle down from the Raptor, which means it will lose SOME of its accuracy rather than an up and down read, but a vertical from beneath the Raptor will also take longer when you think about it, less time to react. The angle will allow for a sweep which is good…the polarization is going to be the only way to cut out interference of the local vegetation.
Toby has absolutely no idea what Hekate just said, it's like she's talking Old Virgon or something. Resting his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand he glances between her and Devlin's notes a few times, trying not to look quite as stupid and as lost as he feels. "Would we need to talk with Captain St. Clair about trialing the system?" he asks, knowing that interesting and different loadouts generally have to go through the squadron CO, "and how much would the standard setup need to be changed to get this to work."
Devlin's listening to Hekate and also realizing that his assumptions are being overruled by the one who has a degree in this stuff, "Right, well that sounds like it's doable, and like you've already got most of the prepwork in place, how long do you think it would take you to get a working system going? Do we need to change much in the birds themselves, or can we do most of the programming off ship and then just piggyback onto the sensors? I think the biggest thing is clearing the use of one or two birds for such a mission. Once we get that, then we should be golden, but I think our Kaag, is going to want all able bodies and birds over Crandall right now, the chances of getting this off the ground so to speak, are slim, but if you could get the programming and other stuff ready to jump on the raptors once we got them cleared, then that could give you something to focus on while we're out hunting more Cylons, and if we sell it in such a way that we can double this idea as a way to search fo hidden cylons and ambushes, then I think we may have a strong case to put forward, what do you think?" The last for Hekate, but also towards Toby.
"Yes, we will need to go through the Chief as well, likely…" she's met him, this one. Hekate smiles at them both and then lets out a sharp breath, "We need to test it first and from what I hear, Crandall has quite the graveyard to pull from. Besides, we are going to 'find another bird' that could be used in action," she points out to Devlin. "Look, I will get you all the info you need and help to set this up once it's cleared, but for now I don't have any prepwork done, I have to do some calculations to see how far off the ground its best to run this and likewise how far out we want to angle this before it pings back. Its not going to be broad, but its your best shot..at least that I know of," she offers, giving them both a faint apologetic smile.
Toby nods to the comment about the Chief, letting his hand drop back down to the table as he does so. "Most likely yeah, and I doubt there's any way we'll get any serious air time before things have settled here a bit, even if only bacause the pilots are all required out on combat missions." And the tech are working flat out too to turn the birds they have round. He considers for a moment then nods once more to Hekate, "I think we'd best wait for those calculations of yours, get a firmer idea of just what exactly it is we're prosposing." And of course, give him time to go hit the library and try and work out just what is being proposed himself.
Devlin nods to Hekate, "Indeed, alright ,so you've got your work ahead of you, this is your mission should you choose to accept it, and all that, also…" Devlin is quiet for a moment as he studies Hekate, "You should know, this mission, is to find a powered down raptor and to bring a man in for justice, just so we're all in the know," he explains then watches her for a moment longer before turning to nod to Toby. He pushes his chair back and rises, adding a slash and a one behind the one at the top of the page and tears it from the note pad to slide the paper his way, "There, that should do, and if there's anything else, I am sure that the smart one can be at hand for questions you may have. She's sometimes on the deck as well," he explains then leans back, stretching slightly, "Will be good to get another bird, for sure, we're also pulling lots of them out of Crandall as well…How is that going?" The question for Toby.
"I see, and yes of course. More time the better, I suppose that means I should probably get some notes together and do some research," Hekate begins and smiles across at the crewman, "And here I thought I was done with school, always seems to creep back in on you when you least expect it." She rises as well, slowly pushing her seat back before she looks to the paper slid across the table, already thoughtful with the knitting of her brow. "If you want, when I come up with some rough calculations I will go over them with you. Just so you have a good handle on the basics, in case the deck needs to change something," she offers.
Toby takes the sheet of paper and slips it between the schematics and the manual that he'd brought along. Rising to stand as well he scoops the stack up with his good arm and nods once to Devlin, "good, last I heard. They're sorting the raptors first so hopefully that'll take some of the pressue off you guys, although I've not heard if it'll be vipers or predators after that." There's a few moments silence where he weighs up the benifits of having the expert go through it with him against the risks of just how little of that he followed being found out, but eventually he gives a short nod, "yeah, thats likely a good idea, once things are more sorted." AKA once he's had time to cram a bit. "Thank you for your time Sirs," he finishes with, before he turning to head for the hatch.
Devlin gives Toby a nod of his head, "Thanks for the idea, I think there's a way we can all benefit from this," he tells the crewman while tossing his pen towards his notepad, watching as it bounces off the corner and rolls towards Hekate. "Sounds like there's a plan anyways, which is good, I hope." He's talking mainly for himself now and as Toby begins to leave he nods again, "Thank you, enjoy the rest of your downtime Shackleton, we'll keep in touch." He watches the man for a brief moment, letting him get a few paces away before shifting his attentions to Hekate, letting Toby hear him on the way out, "Well it's a good thing we found you, what other sort of smarts you got hiding upon you?" He asks with a playful lilt.
"Sure, just let me know," Hekate intones as she watches Toby take his leave, only caught off-guard by the pen for a moment. A slender hand pins it to the table with a brow arching before she laughs, "Right, I am sure it would have been figured out. Just a tough thing to solve with everyone always gone. You should say you are lucky that one of the many people who could have solved this is not running patrols or away from the ship," she points out before setting his pen down on the pad of paper. She then crosses her arms and glances at the Raptor. "I could tell you what more I have up there," her eyes lift upwards, "If I was given some lessons on the console.." She points out.