NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2026 Nov 9, 16:00 -0800
Ross Henderson, you wrote:
"I somehow feel that my figures are wrong as these suggest that are these planes really flying at 400kts at 30000ft at less than 100m apart?, but then I suppose they also do carry out mid-air refuelling at zero range!!"
Yes. I'm fairly sure that this is part of the game, and 80m separation is considered safe. This position says "we own you" but it also says "we do not threaten you". The trouble starts when some hotshot pilot, of any nation, decides to close the distance to 10m or even less.
Here's my analysis, based first on the angular diameter of the Moon, but eventually on other details in the photo such as the relative apparent positions of the giant propellers on the outer port and starboard turboprop enginesof the Bear. I really want to trust the distances to +/-5% but probably I should only trust them to +/-10%. :)
Frank Reed
