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[TheBeardyMan]

Just made my first successful orbital flight. The secret is to give your stages the manoeuvring systems appropriate to the environment which they'll be operating, and to learn to read the navigation ball.

By the way, Bill and Bob are wusses. They were screaming for the whole flight, but the only part that they had an excuse to complain about was the 11g parachute deployment.

[LoSboccacc]

Interesting updates, i'll think about getting this now, now while i'm here i've been reading about orbital physics and stuff an i think i can now sucussfully perform a holman transfer to the moon, once i get to grips with Pitch/yaw/roll.
Is there some way of recentering teh camera so the pitch/yaw controls once again line up with the direction of the screen; or something similar?
Also i've been trying to make the largest most unstable rockets i can, most of the time they require very precise adjustments during launch to prevent losing control, oddly enough SAS seems to lose control fairly often.

camera control is still an unloved feature; but it is not that bad as it is better to use the navball and relative control - learning to have no reference in space helps a lot when planning maneuvers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit

the transfer is easy, it's to catch up the target that's hard. luckily 0.15 now shows catch ups graphically

[LoSboccacc]

now that there are three bodies we can actually slingshot from one another.

[Kanil]

Anyone else find the spaceplane cockpits to be absurdly durable? I just plowed one into the side of Minmus and it bounced off and instantly accelerated to 3,000m/s and flew out of Kerbin's gravity well.

Twas hilarious. I think I'll leave it up there for a while.

[MarcAFK]

No idea how to use the navball, i'll go look it up.

[LoSboccacc]

No idea how to use the navball, i'll go look it up.

the horizont is aligned with the current body of reference horizon; the -v- in the center should help you keep your up and down meaningful and represent the direction to which your rocket is facing

there are two yellow gliph. -( )- this is the direction you are going (your rocket may or may not face another way)
the other (x) represent the opposite, is the backward direction of your path

some interesting thing: when -( )- and (x) are on the horizont line, you're either at apoapsis or periapsis.  those are the time you should burn for your orbital changes

to halt horizontal velocity when you're landing, you should make the (x) to move until it's aligned with the 90° pole of your navball (this means you're moving straight down) - to do so, keep your ship in line in the direction you are correcting


-v- (x)  °

where -v- is the direction your nose is, (x) is the backward velocity vector and ° is the navball top center - when you burn in this configuration, the (x) will move toward the °

a nice strategy to land is to keep the -v- aligned with the (x), following it around, so you automatically kill your horizontal velocity and slow for landing.

[sluissa]

I feel somewhat ridiculous. After all my previous success, I can't seem to get a simple plane off the ground.

[LoSboccacc]

more wings!! also, you can put them at an angle now. try a slight donward tilt on the trailing edge

like:

Code: [Select]

________
/

but very lightly angled, just a few degrees (this works if the wings are middle mounted, result in very fun result if the wing are rear mounted)

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yes, and you can even make constructed wings from bits and pieces.

Here's my demi-successful intercontinental ballistic missile jet:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Demi-successful because it didn't quite land. I never got around to testing the braking chute, and realized too late that perhaps just one was a little insufficient. My previous model could land successfully, but it was tested with four. As such, I left a very pretty furrow in the eastern continent's shore. The design with those downward pointing stabilizers didn't help in the circumstances at all. I've since revised it.

[Aqizzar]

Goddamnit, why doesn't anything I build get off the runway?  Pitch up and down do diddly squat, no matter how many control surfaces I put on this plane, let alone that you can't even use the "control flaps" that came with the update because the models don't snap-to correctly.  There has to be something going wrong here.

[Rex_Nex]

Same here. I cant get off the runway!

[Aqizzar]

Spoiler: CLIMB DAMN YOU (click to show/hide)

Apparently, it's harder to get a wing to stay in the air than it is to get a rocket around the moon.  When it comes to aircraft, the smaller the better.  That thing there is my failed third experiment.  It actually worked better with two engines, except it wouldn't keep its fucking nose down.  I actually managed to land it (pretty much by accident), but then it wouldn't stop.

The quad-engine there?  Flies like a brick, can't climb without RCS assistance, and goes all wibbly when I let off the pull.

Spoiler: Fuck planes, I'm sticking to rockets. (click to show/hide)

I think I've figured out, that part of the problem is that planes spawn in the world on the "space center" ground, not on the runway itself.  I'm building planes that fly like bottlerockets, but then won't actually take off until they reach the end of the runway.  The wheels are stuck inside the tarmac object.

[Sordid]

Goddamnit, why doesn't anything I build get off the runway?  Pitch up and down do diddly squat, no matter how many control surfaces I put on this plane, let alone that you can't even use the "control flaps" that came with the update because the models don't snap-to correctly.  There has to be something going wrong here.

Use WASDQE to rotate parts and make them fit. Shift+WASDQE rotates at 5° increments. Getting off the runway is tricky, I usually push the stick forward until the rear wheels leave the ground, then pull back hard.

Also, I'm having such a blast with fighter jets that I haven't even been to space in 0.15 yet.

Spoiler: My Mach 2 jet fighetr (click to show/hide)

[Rex_Nex]

Ah, I started getting spaceplanes off the ground. Things I didnt know: Wings alone dont generate enough lift, regardless if your going 200mps down the runway. You need frontal lift too; those little wing flaps work wonders if you put them on the front of the plane, usually around the command module.

Secondly, you need those control flaps. Yea, just rotate them on. But again, just having wings + control flaps usually wont do the trick. You need frontal lift! Once you have frontal lift... DANG. Pulling up will make your plane do a back flip over the runway. Be careful of that; ASAS will keep your movements gradual for takeoff.

Third... things get tough to control once the atmosphere gets thin. ASAS wont keep you flying straight forever.

Fourth, a single small fuel tank will keep a atmospheric engine running for ample time. Usually will last 2x the time you need to get out of the lower atmosphere.

My current basic plane, capable of minor high-atmosphere travel (but lasts a long time over land as a Jet)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sirus]

I was under the impression that spaceplanes were supposed to, you know, get into space. Why does it sound like these can't these go very high? :|