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KSP Challenge: Crosswise the Sea!


Darth Badie

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My brute force attempt. Stuck 2 whiplashes on a long skinny tube of fuel. Also three kerbals were sacrificed volunteered to be passengers.

Spoiler

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Overheating was a bit of an issue. May still need to fix it to prevent hair raising thermals

Edited by qzgy
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Super busy this week so I don't mind a bit of a mulligan.

Pulled the ol' trusty (and by "trusty" I mean "she'll kill you the second you blink") Flying Pig Mk III out of moth balls...then decided "landing safely" required some upgrades (yeah, she could land safely with chutes, but c'mon!).

Instead, the Flying Pig Mk VII made the trip, averaging around Mach 4.5. She is soooo much more stable than the Mk III (which was built only to fly very quickly in a straight line), and landed gently as a down feather on the next continent over.

Jeb did nearly fry himself by exiting the cockpit before she cooled down, though!

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Unfortunately, the Flying Pig Mk VIIb will have to feature longer ladders...Jeb and Bill couldn't get back aboard...:/

 

-Jn-

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12 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

Don't want to P anybody off but how is flying a stock aircraft across a stretch of sea a challenge? Has the definition of the word challenge changed recently

The idea is to do it in a creative way. For example, I'm going to 'accidentally' jettison my wheels and then dock a second pair in the atmosphere

Edit: I'm going to try, anyway

Edited by Skylon
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Nice challenge! I've never flown a plane further than the island landing strip before. My first attempt worked perfectly! I wanted to do something different so I decided to go south in stead of east or west. Flew all the way to the south pole! Hope it counts as technically I didn't land on a continent, but an ice shelf, but I definitely crossed an ocean!

 

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Did it! With my new craft: the Albatross III
At first my engineers suggested using my already proven Firebird V, until the lads at R&D found a little blueprint dated 1936 while cleaning up the storage.
However, floatplanes proved to be too difficult to rush, so the engineers just removed the floats. Simple!

 

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Nowhere it is said that the sea has to be on Kerbin. So, to make the challenge more... challenging, I'll do it on Laythe on my standard "Tiny Tot" Laythe lander plane. Island hopping time! I'll post the screenshots when I'll get myself some free time to actually do this, but the idea to do it on Laythe is mine.

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16 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

Don't want to P anybody off but how is flying a stock aircraft across a stretch of sea a challenge? Has the definition of the word challenge changed recently

In the very first or second challenge (I forgot which), I suggested they rename the thread series to something more appropriate because I knew the connotations the word "challenge" triggers in the KSP community. (Or anyone who understands competition. A challenge is a type of competition in the end.)

I still find it a bit irksome, but it's minor since beyond the use of that word for whatever reason they have, they explain the actual point behind the "challenges": having fun in KSP. Sometimes just having someone else define a goal for you in a open-sandbox game like KSP makes it easier to have fun because you're not limited by what your mind can come up with. (Or lack of motivation; I get lazy after a while trying to achieve goals I set for myself in KSP.) 

I imagine the term is used to garner more attention to these threads. It may backfire if players associate a "SQUAD Challenge" as "meh" compare to their expectation when seeing the word, however. Even so, turn out for these seem to be decent, so it not a lost cause. If anything, it's a good way to get newer players involve with the community. There's a more typical challenge section here if players are up for it. Otherwise, just ignore these threads if the interest isn't there for you. Hell, it's what I've been doing. (I've been out of KSP for a couple of months now.)

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THE KERBAL X-15 - A tale of lunacy and lunch breaks

With tension between staff reaching critical levels, the KSP bigwigs decided a break was in order. They tasked Jeb with designing and building a swanky, speedy airliner to take them to a sunny resort over the ocean. Well Jeb took the whole 'airplanes only' thing a little personally... he'd been working on the Kerbal X when this crossed his desk, and rather than waste a perfectly good rocket he decided re-using it wouldn't be so difficult...

EmuK10C.jpgThe Kerbal X-15! 

JjW4CeQ.jpgBoosters weren't the best idea, not because they left the craft starved of thrust but because they seemed to have a magnetic attraction to the tail fin...

lhSsGCN.jpgAborting to a nearby island as speed drops rapidly. Stage 2 engines lit to provide an extra kick

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No turning back now, this nose-heavy pod is only going one way...

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Well, any landing you can walk away from, eh?

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With hindsight, perhaps rocketry should stay in it's own field...

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'Soooo... heh heh... any chance of a plane ride out of here?'

 

Conclusion - Rockets are rockets, planes are planes.

Edited by ryan234abc
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36 minutes ago, Firemetal said:

Guys building a plane is a challenge to some and so is flying one. So yes this is a challenge.

I have to agree. We're picking up new players all the time, and for many this might be the first time they've attempted building a plane, let alone flying and landing one.  And like some have suggested, the more advanced players can add all sorts of twists to ramp up the difficulty and creativity factors if they want.

The other thing one needs to consider is @Badie having to think up these challenges week after week. Now granted, there's a submission thread for anyone that has ideas for future challenges, and I've helped her on a couple past ones, and I'm more than happy to do so anytime she needs. But still, it's difficult enough having to think up something unique week after week, without the added complication of making them harder each time.

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8 hours ago, Skylon said:

The idea is to do it in a creative way. For example, I'm going to 'accidentally' jettison my wheels and then dock a second pair in the atmosphere

Edit: I'm going to try, anyway

Then the 'challenge' should be to do it as original and creative as possible. But it isn't. It's just 'fly a plane across the sea.'

3 hours ago, StahnAileron said:

I imagine the term is used to garner more attention to these threads. It may backfire if players associate a "SQUAD Challenge" as "meh" compare to their expectation when seeing the word, however.

It doesn't even rate as high as 'meh'.
It's a bout the same as an adult doing their shoe laces. Or pulling up your pants and not forgetting to wipe after taking a dump.

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1 minute ago, Tex_NL said:

Then the 'challenge' should be to do it as original and creative as possible. But it isn't. It's just 'fly a plane across the sea.'

Quote

The most original airplane and landing will receive a special official badge, you need to vote for your favorite ( the one with more likes will win) 

Close enough

Anyway, if you don't think it is challenging enough, don't do it.

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Not a very complex pane or complex flight. I extended the challenge with some stunts, so it may could be a bit harder.
Anyway, enjoy the flight with the Box-plane! :)

 

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Edited by TheYellowMan
Badges forgot... :)
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14 hours ago, qzgy said:

My brute force attempt. Stuck 2 whiplashes on a long skinny tube of fuel. Also three kerbals were sacrificed volunteered to be passengers.

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Overheating was a bit of an issue. May still need to fix it to prevent hair raising thermals

Looks a bit like the Tupolev Tu-22 Soviet spyplane.

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9 minutes ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

Looks a bit like the Tupolev Tu-22 Soviet spyplane.

Yeah, a bit. Engines are in the wrong place though.

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Well... Let's begin the Long Story of the Laythe Sea Flight, Part One: Reaching the Beginning of the Way

 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Tiny Tot! It's a completely stock little SSTO spaceplane which uses two Panthers and one Rapier. It can reach low Kerbin orbit, dock there with any mothership having a standard size docking port, and... little else. It isn't big on delta-V. But we won't need very much now, because a mothership will carry us to Laythe, and we'll fly there the plane way! Later, a refueling rover will be paradropped on Laythe for the Tiny Tot to hop back on Laythe orbit and dock with the mothership.

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This is the mothership, the Cruiser Jool. Yes, it is modded, but the rules only say that the plane has to be stock, and stock it is. The mothership can contain all mods I want. This is an old mothballed Orion Drive ship that was previously used for Jool expeditions. Two landers are docked to it: the medium lander for Vall and the light lander for Bop and Pol. There is no Tylo lander, I'm still struggling in attempts to design one. And one docking port is free, it's waiting for Tiny Tot. Valentina Kerman will fly the ship.

 

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Ready to begin reentry at Laythe! It's the middle of a night, and it's dark as Kerbal hell three thousand years before the Kerbal Devil lit up the fires there.

 

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The nose-up, belly-front reentry style never gets old...

 

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Reentry complete. Where is the surface?

 

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Ah, there it is. Water, water, loads of water, and not an island in sight...

 

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Let's fly somewhere. There must be an island.

 

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Dawn's breaking, and still no land...

 

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Let's fly higher... dam clouds!

 

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Sunrise. Still no land.

 

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Wait. What is it? Is it land?

 

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Yes, definitely land! Well, let's land.

 

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That was one HARD landing. I crashed, like, 30 times before I did it right. The island isn't even remotely level, and to land on it, I had to approach at near zero constant altitude and after that, pitch up drastically to avoid crashing into the slope. And Tiny Tot doesn't have much pitch authority.

 

That's the view on the island from afar...

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Well, now we have our starting point for crossing the sea. Now let's select the destination and mark it on our map...

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I think I'll choose the big round island. It appears pretty level to me.

 

To be continued...

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Several versions ago I built a plane and flew it north east until I saw land. Then I flew low through the mountains and down into the snaking river valley. It was quite fun. Since then I have seldom flown planes. I tinkered with spaceplanes a few times until I could do it then went back to rockets. Today I remember why.

I am not very creative or competent and building or flying planes. I am even worse at landing. I am okay with that. The bigger issue is the fps hogging mods that make space launches beautiful. My laptop does not like them as much as I.

Once I left the runway, I watched an old movie and the first half of a football (soccer) game. I kept am eye on the plane to make sure it was flying straight and true. Basically it flew itself - no MJ or other auto pilot stuff was used. The in game time shows 23+ minutes. In the same real time I could have flown a complete Minmus run and return.  

It's all good as I had fun today. I built this using the MK3 command pod and 4 Goliath engines. I have never used either before. 

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I was very impressed when I took off at less than 60 m/s. It flies really well - basically hands off with SAS enabled.

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I kept it below 8k mid flight and tried to maintain around 275 m/s. When I would go much higher or faster it would either start a flat spin or roll hard.

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I had drifted just a little south of my intended landing site. A small turn north as I approached land. We're going in.

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Notice when the plane stopped it was facing nearly west. I forgot to turn off SAS as I landed and that as I learned (but obviously didn't retain) causes the plane to refuse to come to a complete stop. Once I hit T it stopped quickly. By the way, yes the other wing is still on the plane. You can see the partial shadow beneath the plan.

 

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