Piece of pi, anybody?
Richard, the Moon's diameter is 3475km, so the circumference right the way round is 3.14 x 3475km = 10911km. Assuming the Eagles are flying pretty close to the surface, and if Plato was exactly opposite NWA2 on the other side, the maximum distance an Eagle would have to travel (in a straight line) would be about 5500km.
That's still like flying across the USA from one side to the other but, as the Eagles were pretty fast, I don't suppose it would take them too long to cover that distance. Alpha would impose all sorts of safe cruising speeds and height regulations but, you can bet your bottom dollar, when that nice Mr Carter got round the far side he'd put his foot down and muck about a bit (well, perks of the job, surely??)
Hope this helps,
Patrick