Commissioned in June 1942 with a namesake after a city in Ohio, this ship was the lead of 27 Cleveland class light cruisers which become the most produced cruiser class. Her class served in US Navy mainly as part of Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific.

Wikipedia

Controls

Ship controls
VTOL: Throttle forward/backward
Yaw: Steer port/starboard
Ag1, Roll/Pitch: Forward guns traverse/elevations
Ag2, Roll/Pitch: Aft guns traverse/elevations
Ag3/4: Arm secondary guns on port/starboard side
Ag7: Navigation light (ship & plane)
-Ag8: Disable ship rudder

Seaplane controls
Ag5: Activate seaplane controls
Ag6: Seaplane gyro & detach seaplane
Ag6 + landing gear + yaw: Yaw seaplane gyro

Crane controls
Ag6: crane magnet
Landing gear: Activate crane controls & slide hangar hatch
Landing gear + pitch: Crane winch
Landing gear + trim: Extend crane
Landing gear + roll: Traverse crane

A button inside seaplane cockpit.

And 2 extra buttons on portside catapult which i'll explain in next section.

Instructions

The whole ship controls is simple. But if you want to use the seaplane, follow these steps.

Putting seaplane into catapult

1. Turn on the crane (landing gear), adjust crane extension (trim) until the top view camera is above the aircraft canopy (the glass parts).
2. Pull down the winch (pitch) until the magnet touch center of the canopy.
3. Now, stick the magnet (ag6) then pull up the seaplane
4. Press the catapult rotate button then rotate the crane (roll) until the seaplane above the launch platform. Remember ONLY port side catapult works.
5. You can notice there's a bar protruding below the floater. Now lower the winch until the bar is slight in front of launch platform. Also, keep the seaplane aligned with the catapult (yaw).
   
   
6. Drop the seaplane (ag6) and it will stick to the launch platform.

(i) This is pretty complex but possible. Or a simpler method without catapult, just throw the seaplane into water and take off as usual.
(i) I suggest to do it when ship speed is constant. de/acceleration will move the winch cable.
(i) Also turn off ship yaw (ag8) so the ship stay stable.

Catapult take off

1. Balance the plane (turn on ag6 again), click the button inside the cockpit to unfold wings.
2. Turn on plane (ag5), max throttle.
3. After the engine warmed up, click the launch catapult button.
4. Done. Turn off the buttons on catapult.

(i) Useful tips: During flight, turn on gyro (ag6), hold yaw & roll to direction you want, then disable plane controls (-ag5). The plane will stay level while flying in circle. This is useful for leading guns trajectory or just air patrol.

Recovery

1. Turn & extend crane to portside.
2. Pull down the magnet about slightly above sea level.
3. Go back to plane camera. Land on water as usual but maintain distance behind the ship.
4. Once on water, throttle slowly and use gyro (keep landing gear & ag6 on) for better plane yaw.
5. Touch the magnet. You may need to adjust the winch (pitch).
6. Once the magnet stick, pull up, fold wings, and store the plane to hangar.

(i) For realism, early cruisers have arresting net attached to a boom when recovering seaplane but i didn't see such thing in the reference model. So in this case just manually fish it with crane i think.

Credits

• This build was intended as experimental to catapult launcher, unlimited ag with button and i plan to use the hull for next aircraft carrier project with these new techs.
• As usual WoWS for model reference and for all downloaders, thank you & upvote if you like it.

Additional notes

• The AA and secondary guns will auto aim when selected target is at <5km range.
• A bug rarely happen when spawning, immediately a message that some part is damaged. It's because the wings folding hit a wall but that's okay just ignore it.
• 3 days ago since this post is posted was Cleveland commissioning day (15 June 1942)

Hey, Commander! You seem to be in a good mood today!