A one way flight to a new world (GPP) Updated w/ lots of pics

[Racescort666]

Background if you want to read it, otherwise, just look at the pictures:

So I'm playing through my career save of Galileo's Planet Pack and decided to share some of a mission that I've been planning for a while. I had been naming all of my landers and probes after characters from Hamlet but unfortunately, this is named the incredibly unoriginal: Tellumo Plane 2_1. Maybe I'll change the name to Bernardo, who knows. The original version 1 was intended to have an air launched return probe but I couldn't get it to work. I made it to about the 5th iteration when I decided that I didn't want to spend any more time on it because in order to get it to orbit would have taken a complete overhaul. Version 2 was intended to be a one way trip with good low and high speed performance. While I was testing 2_1 I realized that I could zoom climb into a suborbital trajectory so there is a 2_2 wit a Panther instead of a Whiplash that was still in orbit of Tellumo while 2_1 was flying around.

Without further ado, the beautiful scenery of Galileo's Planet Pack: 

This is clearly the best way to travel.

Just cruising at Mach 3, 20% throttle, nbd.

Finally able to see the mountain range, signifying the next biome.

Oooh, pretty... gotta pick out a spot to land...

Bam! Landed with some cliffs and some beautiful cirrus clouds in the background.

Back in the air, heading for that inland lake to collect its science.

I wanted to do a nice close flyby of the cliff side with the Tellumo's rings behind them.

Landed on the Northern Range. Unfortunately, I was almost out of fuel and the brakes weren't holding too well on the 15 degree slope.

Flying dead stick, I wanted to keep the remainder of the fuel for the fuel cells so I could transmit more science.

Just skimming the edge of the cliff face with some mountains and the rings peaking around the cliff side.

Well, I'm not going to make it to land again, I guess I will have to ditch it in the water.

This is the end of the road for this probe/plane.

Big thanks to  @OhioBob @JadeOfMaar @Poodmund @Nhawks17 @Galileo for such an amazing mod.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Racescort666

[JadeOfMaar]

Fabulous.  

[Racescort666]

Well, it took a little while to get an update together. Partly because there was considerably more flight time for Bernardo 2_2 but mostly because of the power outages around Detroit. :-/ 

Anyway, I figured I'd include a bit of how I actually got these things to Tellumo. 

Top view of the whole stack ready to go to Tellumo. 2 of these stacks 2_1 and 2_2 were sent to Tellumo.

I needed a communication network to fly the planes around when I got there so 2 commsats went with each plane.

The lower portion of the stack. Nothing too special for the booster, no asparagus staging, just a bunch of Twin Boars. Upper stage is powered by 7 Nervs.

And this is how it looks in orbit.

Loving the look here.

Lili tending the rings. I had a dog named Lily at one time.

Approaching for a flyby.

Zinged in close. Not much gravity to speak of.

Hitting the atmosphere at Mach [a lot].

Upper stage already burning up.

Brakes deployed, this thing was really unstable without the air brakes.

Finally slow enough to ditch the fairing.

Ditching the braking system.

Breaking loose of the heat shield and the fairing adapter.

Kick the tires and light the fires, this is still the best way to travel on Tellumo.

Now, to head toward that glacier.

Crusing at mach 2, pretty good considering.

Finally a peek at the glacier.

Time to land and get some science. Trying to get a 2-for by landing next to the inland water.

So the plan was to get up onto the shores for the shores science but it was a little harder that I was expecting.

Fortunately, I made it but it was very hard to stay on the shores.

Ah, the Gulf of Pood. So serene. Nice little glide into the water.

Coming in low and slow. I forgot to take a screen shot after landing.

Time for some science from the Southern range.

Heading to the highlands.

Landed for more science, nice to see Lili transiting.

Landing in the lowlands.

Well, the oxidizer was out so no more fuel cells. I ended up just tooling around in this valley with the engine running to get enough power to transmit the science I've collected.

After the lowlands, the last biome to explore was the mountains. I didn't land near any cliffs but the rings are nice to see in the background.

From the air, the mountains look quite nice.

Hmmm, a river, lets see where it goes.

Nice leisurely cruise through the canyon.

Not much fuel left. I need to get as much power as possible.

A quick jump over the peninsula.

Out of fuel, time to land.

The end of the road for Bernardo 2_2.

Science transmitted, this mission is over.

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed! I highly, HIGHLY recommend flying a plane on Tellumo if you are playing GPP. Spend a little time on Gael to make sure it flies all right, strap a huge booster to it, and send it into space.