Some raider skippers used their aircraft as much as possible: Orion used their planes (German He-114 and Ar-196, and a Japanese E8N "Dave" ) on 85 flights. Kormoran's Arado only flew seven times. Rogge on Atlantis used his aircraft whenever possible, but when both of his He-114s were lost in accidents, he had to wait until a supply ship brought out a couple of Arados. In fact, the need for maintenance on an Ar-196 (the other was still crated) led to Atlantis' loss: the floatplane was being worked on when the raider had a rendezvous with a U-Boat. Which was crashed by HMS Devonshire.....On Thor's second deployment and Michel's cruise, they used the planes whenever possible.
Some have said that if Kormoran's Skipper, Detmers, had been more aggressive in using his Arado, the scout plane might have spotted HMAS Sydney in time for the raider to change course and likely avoid detection (the Aussie cruiser did not have surface-search radar).