How to turn on afterburners in career mode

[numerobis]

I'm in career mode, recently unlocked the Panther.

If I make a twin-engine plane, how do I toggle the afterburners simultaneously? In sandbox I just make an action group, but I haven't unlocked that yet. Is there a key combo to toggle the afterburners?

[FullMetalMachinist]

I'm afraid that the only two ways to toggle wet/dry mode on the Panthers are either the right click menu while in flight, or by action groups. Since you've already said that you don't have action groups yet, then you're left with the right click.  If your plane is stable enough, you could maybe get away with throttling down, then changing the mode of each engine individually quickly enough to not go into a spin.

[Snark]

Do you have no action groups at all, or do you have basic action groups available?

If you just upgrade your SPH to the first level, you don't get all the "custom" action groups, but you do get "basic" ones like gear, lights, brakes, etc.  Just pick one of those that you're not using for anything else (I like to use "Abort"), and use that.  Then you can use that hotkey to toggle 'em.

[Temstar]

You could take the career save file, open it up in a sandbox and add the custom action group, save it then import it back into the career save.

[FungusForge]

Even in sandbox, if the craft in question doesn't actually need to stage anything, then I like to use the staging action group for engine mode switching.

Now if you are asking because you have a twin-Panther plane with the T0 SPH then I feel you're priorities must be questioned.

[Snark]

Another option, if you're routinely in the habit of always setting the same actions for the same action groups (e.g. "I always toggle afterburners via Custom0" or whatever), and are not averse to writing a bit of ModuleManager config:  the DefaultActionGroups mod.

All you'd need to do would be to add a ModuleManager config snippet somewhere that specifies which part(s) it applies to, and what action group you want to put the given action in.  Once that's in place, then whenever you build a craft with such parts, they automatically get added to the specified action group by default.

Here's an example snippet that causes all solar panels to put their "toggle" action in Custom1 by default.

[juanml82]

There is a mod called "Part Commander" which lists every part, in symmetry and lets you access a copy of their contextual menu. Since it acts in symmetry, it will let you toggle the afterburners without the need for action groups

[numerobis]

OK, I guess it's worth the 300k to finally get around to upgrading the SPH. I was doing just fine with the lvl0 building up to now. Then I can "abort" my flight, meaning make it go fast!

It seems odd that you need to upgrade the SPH in order to add a lever to the cockpit. Makes more sense in my mind to make it dependent on the pod.

[Snark]

22 minutes ago, numerobis said:

It seems odd that you need to upgrade the SPH in order to add a lever to the cockpit. Makes more sense in my mind to make it dependent on the pod.

Yah, I've always felt that the way action groups are limited by VAB level feels kinda broken.

Here's a discussion over in the "suggestions" forum on the topic, feel free to jump on board.  Enough people talk about it, maybe Squad will take notice.