Nav and planes ...

[Roblex]

Of course, various factors could complicate things. Your mission profile might take you outside the beacon's reception range, you might drift off course because of a dogfight, etc, but by combining visual navigation with ADF navigation you will be able to cope just fine.
For example, let's say i drift away from the target area due to a dogfight and to top it off, the target was already out of the beacon reception range. Apparently, my entire carefully constructed plan has gone down the tubes since i need to be flying directly to/from the beacon to be able to fly a course and not just headings, which i can't receive. Or has it?

The solution would be to combine visual navigation (check the map against the ground below) with the repeater compass and the ADF. Instead of having to blindly estimate a heading to fly all the way back to base, i would just need to estimate an approximate heading to take me back to the target area.
From that point on, i could once again fly the reverse of my ingress route by using the desired heading indicator on my repeater compass until i picked up a signal from the beacon, then fly directly to it by ADF and finally back to base as i overfly the beacon by the course keeping method we already outlined.

A simpler solution, especially if you got into that dogfight way out at sea and cant use visual nav to find the target, is to just fly roughly towards where you think the 150/330 line is (in our case maybe 60 or 240) then when your ADF says 330 turn to 150 and you will be back on your original track.

It also occurs to me that if two or more bombers were aiming for a target in range of two beacons then you can plot the bearings from both beacons to the IP point for the bomb run. The lead bomber tunes to one beacon and flies using it as you have described but the second bomber tunes to the second beacon, follows the lead bomber and when his RDF shows the predefined bearing has been reached you know you are at the IP even if it is obscured by cloud and you can turn on to the targets bearing and drop to the bombadiers position.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Roblex

A simpler solution, especially if you got into that dogfight way out at sea and cant use visual nav to find the target, is to just fly roughly towards where you think the 150/330 line is (in our case maybe 60 or 240) then when your ADF says 330 turn to 150 and you will be back on your original track.

It also occurs to me that if two or more bombers were aiming for a target in range of two beacons then you can plot the bearings from both beacons to the IP point for the bomb run. The lead bomber tunes to one beacon and flies using it as you have described but the second bomber tunes to the second beacon, follows the lead bomber and when his RDF shows the predefined bearing has been reached you know you are at the IP even if it is obscured by cloud and you can turn on to the targets bearing and drop to the bombadiers position.

Exactly!
See, it's simple once people start thinking about is as simple lines drawn on the map

In fact, tuning two beacons at the same time and plotting their bearing intersection on the map can give you your exact position.

[Roblex]

Actually I have changed my mind

All the RDF can tell you is what bearing the beacon is from your aircraft. It cannot tell you what radial you are on. Sure if you set out from the beacon heading 150 by your compass then you will be on the 150 radial and the RDF will show the beacon dead astern at 180 (relative to your aircraft). The problem is that if you stray off course then pointing your tail back at the beacon will just make your error worse. The RDF will show the beacon is 180 relative to your aircraft but you are now heading 160. You are on the 160 radial now but without delving into maths you don't know how far along it. The only way you can find the target now is to use the compass and landmarks. If your deviation was actually caused by a crosswind then your required heading will not be along any of the radials!

Before anyone leaps in, Yes a good navigator would be able to use the relative bearing of the beacon in conjunction with the compass heading to work out how to get back on course but it involves plotting and maths which is what this method was supposed to be avoiding.

[Azimech]

Another one for the list: the Finnish B-239.