Kerbal Charter Challenge!

[Van Disaster]

@Pine  better shot:

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The aircraft isn't good enough yet though.

@GDJLook what you made me do!

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I may have to try the VIP charter again.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Van Disaster

[GDJ]

Cool! Looks like a stretched out DC-6!

[Van Disaster]

41 minutes ago, GDJ said:

Cool! Looks like a stretched out DC-6!

Like a DC-7 then? well it's a bit of a mix of DC-x and Hermes and something Soviet which I can't find, but it does look period. Unfortunately it doesn't look efficient enough, I think my first VIP run was too good...
 

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[Mycroft]

Would the Mk2 and Mk3 Stockalike Extensions be okay mods, @Pine?

[HazelPine]

OP updated! @GDJ, you're in 5th and last place in the polar passenger and rescue leaderboards, respectively! Not a bad entry, especially with such a classic remake of a great plane! Hope you had fun!

 

@Mycroft, that mod should be alright to use, provided you don't abuse any OP engines, if there are even any. It's been a long time since I played with that mod, so I don't actually know if there are OP engines.

 

Also, still working on the setting up of the mountain mission thingy.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Pine

[GDJ]

Yeah, it was fun. I still carried too much fuel, but it all worked out in the end. It certainly wasn't the fastest, but it flew well enough to be respectable.

As for the other charters......well, I have another smaller plane in the works. It's my personal fastest yet running twin Juno's.

308 m/s.

I'll make those celebrities puke.

Edited September 20, 2016 by GDJ

[Van Disaster]

@Pinefound something of a loophole with electric engines ( again? ) - what happens if I have a hybrid with fuel cells *and* solar panels? technically it's powered by fuel, but it quite possibly isn't going to use any of it.

[Koolkei]

27 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

@Pinefound something of a loophole with electric engines ( again? ) - what happens if I have a hybrid with fuel cells *and* solar panels? technically it's powered by fuel, but it quite possibly isn't going to use any of it.

uhhhh..... i did that like last week????

it's completely OP. if you can figure out how to take off with such little power. but after that. any plane could reach mach 2 at 18k altitude.

solar panels is just free fuel, so i considered it cheating. it's already super feasible with fuel cells alone

[Van Disaster]

I didn't see enough solar panels on your craft to power it completely, it looked like you were just being super-efficient with fuel cells. I have this thing with the wings covered in solar cells with one fuel cell to keep it topped up. By the rules that's probably a fuelled craft but I could make the entire trip without using any fuel at all if I didn't bank away from the sun, I think. I'm not going to do it because the electric engine itself is madly OP, but there are other electric aircraft engines around & doing that is technically legal at the moment, just rather outside the spirit of the event

[Koolkei]

yeah. the pic i posted didn't have the solar panels. but originally it had them, but when it's noon, i didn't even need the fuel cells to power the electric engine, so that feels like cheating to me, so took them off to look how feasible it was with pure fuel cells. it's very feasible alright...

i also found out that the big fuel cell pack is more efficient than the small single ones.

 

though it may be OP in the existing category. a whole different category for hybrid planes are quite possible don't you think?

[GDJ]

Just my 2¢..

If electric propulsion is to be used I would stick to a LF/Oxidizer fuel source and fuel cells. The plane will literally sip the fuel and you would get more power out of a single large fuel cell than a wing covered with solar cells. I would consider the solar cells to be a "cheat" simply because they could generate enough electrical power to reduce the fuel cell expenditure to a minuscule amount in full sunlight.

A new category might be in order as Koolkei already suggested.

[Van Disaster]

I think the best contest for a solar plane would involve circumnavigation, which is a completely new contest the only non-OP electric prop I've seen is the little ducted fan from I think SXT, which weighs 1/4 of a ton for almost no thrust. There are good reasons we're not all flying around in electric planes...

[DoctorDavinci]

@Pine - You said that I should have put wheels and a rocket engine on the 2 jumbo 64's I delivered to the Polar Airport and although this time around I didn't use the oranges, I think you're gonna like what I cooked up .......

2 Rocket Cars were delivered to each airport along with 1 kerbal in each car

Made from 276 of the finest parts, I now present for your approval the CANUKWorks Big Bertha ... Weighing in at 164.798t and with a payload of 10 x 8.86t Rocket Cars ready for air drop

Round trip from launch to (crash) landing was just over 30 minutes (30:38 I think) ... Started with 1880 fuel and I had around 250 fuel left before the wings exploded on me during landing at the KSC (1880 - 250 = 1630 fuel used)

8.86 x 10 = 88.6
1630 / 88.6 = 18.397

I know it isn't a winning score but at least you got 2 rocket cars at each airport now (minus the Polar airport)

Save file can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5iri6upf9s7ir6u/For Pine.sfs?dl=0

 

[HazelPine]

Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated the boards yet, but I was kinda busy these last couple days! it'll be updated in a couple minutes, but for now, we finally have the long-ish awaited mountain mission(s)!

 

All the details are in the bush charter section of the OP, but for everyone to take a quick look, here's the new place:

 

Look at how short that place is! This small set of mountain related missions should keep the most experienced challengers busy for a while, and should call for some Jeb-worthy ideas! There's a basic 2 kerbal transport mission and a special rescue for it, so good luck!

 

The save file download should be working already, and I'll be updating the OP shortly! Good luck everyone!

 

EDIT: Updated the OP! Also, @DoctorDavinci, I can't believe you did this! The rocket car thing was really just a joke, but I am amazed at what you accomplished! I'll be definitely downloading the save and toying around with the cars!

 

I'll also be thinking about what to do for electric entries, but as a workaround for now, don't use solar panels of any sort. I'm thinking of making a cool circumnavigation with two airports to land at in the way for electric planes and normal planes, but I'm only going to have time to poke around with it in the weekend.

 

EDIT 2: Here's my horribly flying airplane so far I'm working on for the bush flights:

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It flies horribly, is very unstable and locks up at speeds above 80 m/s, so gonna have to redesign it from the ground up.

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by Pine
EDITZ

[GDJ]

2 hours ago, Pine said:

Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated the boards yet, but I was kinda busy these last couple days! it'll be updated in a couple minutes, but for now, we finally have the long-ish awaited mountain mission(s)!

 

All the details are in the bush charter section of the OP, but for everyone to take a quick look, here's the new place:

 

EDIT 2: Here's my horribly flying airplane so far I'm working on for the bush flights:

  Hide contents

It flies horribly, is very unstable and locks up at speeds above 80 m/s, so gonna have to redesign it from the ground up.

 

1) Done this in my career KSP. Had to rescue some stranded climbers off of that same mountain. Used a helicopter.
I have one I'll dig out of the mothballs.

2) I've built planes out the Bonnie cockpit. Stick with a single engine and use the .625 tail section that doubles as a fuel tank. Trust me, it works great.

[Van Disaster]

18 minutes ago, GDJ said:

2) I've built planes out the Bonnie cockpit. Stick with a single engine and use the .625 tail section that doubles as a fuel tank. Trust me, it works great.

Seconded, although that thing is only single seat, isn't it? the SXT parts do have some synergy though. I haven't got my own fuselage system far enough to be usable yet.

I hadn't realised how high that peak is, wow. Been circling for about 15 mins trying to drag this plane up enough, I think it may need some better engines... ( it's not the tiltengine version, just using the smallest engines ).

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by Van Disaster

[GDJ]

54 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

I hadn't realised how high that peak is, wow. Been circling for about 15 mins trying to drag this plane up enough, I think it may need some better engines... ( it's not the tiltengine version, just using the smallest engines ).

Yeah, the last time I went up there it was just shy of 5800 metres. A helicopter can do it, but it needed a large engine, 5 blades and each blade was quite long. It worked, but the steering response was sluggish.

[Van Disaster]

5 minutes ago, GDJ said:

Yeah, the last time I went up there it was just shy of 5800 metres. A helicopter can do it, but it needed a large engine, 5 blades and each blade was quite long. It worked, but the steering response was sluggish.

Building helicopters out of wings doesn't really work in FAR anymore - I could use a mod but I don't really like them much ( and it's much more fun to try & land an aircraft ).

Off to try and get up there again, such a proud steed.
 

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[GDJ]

3 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

Building helicopters out of wings doesn't really work in FAR anymore - I could use a mod but I don't really like them much ( and it's much more fun to try & land an aircraft ).

KAX has a good helicopter rotor, but my favourite is Firespitter. Very flexible, and it still works well.

[Van Disaster]

55 minutes ago, GDJ said:

KAX has a good helicopter rotor, but my favourite is Firespitter. Very flexible, and it still works well.

Yeah, I have both, I just don't really like either.

This is definitely fun to use an aircraft for, plenty of heart-in-mouth moments... and I really need to remind myself to quicksave more

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[Van Disaster]

OK, wow, this is a bit of a challenge! anyway, first FAR run.

Added a little more vertical tail, otherwise at slow speed if you banked too much it'd just rotate & never manage to get itself unbanked.

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Finals, and what finals:

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Takeoff extremely hairy, doesn't accelerate too fast...

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At this point I just turned the engine off again.
 

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Home again, pretty quick.

So:

Fuel: 24.62 - 19.2 = 5.42
Cost: 5.42 * 0.8 = 4.336

Score: 2.17

Pretty sure there's economies to be made somewhere still.

Edit: @Pinejust saw your post in the "what did you do today" thread - might suggest using B9-pWings instead? get them from Crzyrndm's github. Also perhaps use more wing too. I haven't used the original pWings since Bac9 first got his usable, can't tell you if they have issues or not - the B9 ones certainly seem ok right now.
 

Edited September 22, 2016 by Van Disaster

[Koolkei]

i just had to ask.

@Van Disaster what is that extra stuff on the ksc????? what mod?

 

also.... i already found 1 umm not really loophole in this as it doesn't really help that much. but it does help.

[Van Disaster]

Kerbinside mostly, the extra runway is my own unfinished model - I am working on a way to insert custom shaders into static models, it's not terribly simple, until then it's just a boring runway. It's also too short anyway.

[Mycroft]

11 hours ago, Van Disaster said:

@Pinejust saw your post in the "what did you do today" thread - might suggest using B9-pWings instead? get them from Crzyrndm's github. Also perhaps use more wing too. I haven't used the original pWings since Bac9 first got his usable, can't tell you if they have issues or not - the B9 ones certainly seem ok right now.

 

B9 P-wings doesn't work at ALL for me... 

[Adelaar]

 

Nice new challenges Pine! Unfortunately, your stations keep blowing up on me due to the 1.2 Pre-release version I'm running, so here's a completely stock Radio Tower Crew Change. Unfortunately, I forgot to load up two extra kerbals, so I switched the pilots. Not that it matters.

The aircraft used is the A6 Eagle VTOL. Which, as I found out, isn't VTOL at that altitude, but still worked out fine.

So, scoring:

LF used: 724 - 572 = 152 * 0,8 = 121,6

Mono used: 315 - 276 = 39 * 0,83 = 32,37

Total costs: 153,97

Total scoring: 153,97 / 2 = 76,99

And album: here

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At take-off

And landing

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by Adelaar
Editting in pictures