Thanks everybody for the help to what I thought was a simple question. As John has stated, I do know a bit about deck landings having done about 1200 including teaching day and night. I was just playing with the dalton and could not remember how to do the calculation but have figured it out.
Some of the advice and comments, although meant in the best interests was quite surprising. The relative wind is actually very important when carrying out deck landings for a number of reasons.
Firstly, this will be the actual wind over the deck when you make your approach to land/take off. It may actually put you outside the limitations of your aircraft if significantly crosswind or from the rear. It will affect your control inputs and power requirements.
Secondly, any turbulence over the deck will be caused by the relative wind. Therefore it may be preferable to change the relative wind (by manoeuvering the ship) to reduce turbulence caused by the flow of the air. This can include eddies and significant downdraughts.
Thirdly, in the event of an engine failure during T/O or landing, the flyaway would be better flown into the relative wind to give better performance. In fact, the only way you may be able to land is with a relative wind landing thus reducing your power requirements.
There are other bits and pieces but that is a snapshot. Hope this helps and the drift (no pun intended) was hilarious to watch...............
Last edited by comedyjock; 18th September 2012 at 05:42.