“The change from vertical flight to great circle flight is always unmistakable”
Really, Mr. Expert? Really? “unmistakable”, you say?
One thing, hotshot, missiles don’t follow great circles. It is obvious you don’t even know what a great circle is.
‘Tis you that apparently lacks understanding of what a great circle is.
Any time that you are using a calculated course from one set of coordinates to another, whether you realize it or not, you are traversing a great circle, i.e. an arc on the surface of the Earth formed by a plane that passes through its center.