Wati a minute, what do you use to judege closure if not the Gogs? Are we talking small boy pattern or any pattern? I use the gogs to get closure rate going to the LPDs (smallest baot Ive done thusfar). A good vigilant scan can pick up closure and realtive motion so lang as you scan the entire ship not just a point. Sometime you can get nice alt and closure refrences from seas with some chop to them, the glassy calm seas are the most dangerous.
I am of the goggle on almost no matter what school of thought, there ae times as mentioned in really bright urban areas and taxiing at some really bright fileds (we are still flying when taxiing) and flying inst in the clag that I am in favor of Goggle removal I will usually have one pilot leave them on though.
Have another beer, Skid...
The problem, on goggles or otherwise, there is zero reference except a point of light, maybe two if you're on goggles. We use the groundspeed (doppler) to judge closure. At about 1/2 mile, you change from groundspeed calls to closure calls, so you want to be at a 50 knot or so closure at .5 DME, 40 knots at .4, etc. Inside/about a 1/4 mile, you switch over to a visual approach like you're saying. If the ship is going faster, the approach is actually easier because you don't have to slow down as much.
The typical standard approach for a small boy is a little different (if memory serves) from the LHA/LHD approaches. There's still three different directions, but they're more oriented for the 45 degree approaches to the back of the ship w/ a third that goes up the gut, which what we use for any ship w/ a RSD (trap) on the deck. Otherwise we use the 45 degree approach (for example, on a Flight I DDG).
