Take a look at the first MSPaint picture and note the enroute leg to target (the green arrow).
Bearing to the NDB is 180 degrees. Doing as you suggest, NDB bearing-180=180-180=0, so we should be on the 0/180 radial. However the bomber in the example is flying on the 120/300 radial.
The thing with radials is that they are relative to the beacon's position. A 90/270 radial relative to one beacon is a totally different course than the same radial relative to another beacon.
There still is a way to fly radials without use of a VOR beacon and the required gauges.You can still follow the ADF on a direct course to the beacon, but the reason radials are useful is because you can fly along a narrow corridor. So, let's say we want to fly the 300 TO/120 FROM radial to a beacon.
In order to be on the 300 TO radial, the ADF should read zero bearing to beacon when the compass reads a heading of 300. That is, if when flying the radial's heading (300) the station is straight ahead (ADF shows zero bearing) we are on the correct radial. If the ADF drifts to one side then we know we are moving away from the radial and we can turn into it to intercept and track it again. It's just a bit harder to do with an NDB beacon than it is with a VOR, but it's certainly possible.
I've done it on a friend's PC in FSX. We flew from Greece to London in a 1950s airliner that didn't have modern instruments. When all you have is ADF gauges, even if you tune a VOR station the extra information can't be displayed, so it was like flying exclusively on NDBs. Now i'm not very experienced in civilian flying. I only fly FSX on my buddy's PC every now and then, we schedule a trip of a few hours on an evening, order some pizzas and beers and take turns flying the route while watching a movie. What i mean is that if i can do it via ADF alone, then i'm sure everyone can.
It will be real nice to be able to schedule missions online with some precision thanks to the NDBs. For example people will be able to fly indirect routes in their bombers and come in from unexpected directions, without having to rely on visual cues all the time. You could fly out over the sea for longer distances without fear of getting lost.
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