The Grand Parachute Discussion Thread

[MaverickSawyer]

1.4 has arrived, and with it came personal parachutes...

I've been toying around with them ever since I got 1.4 installed, and have found the following bits of interest:

- hands-off glide ratio seems to be a respectable 6:1. THis gives you enough range to punch out over the KSC at 5km and fly over to the Airfield Island. You'll just barely make it, but it can be done. (Possible challenge, perhaps?) This is also enough of a glide ratio to BASE Jump off the top of the VAB and glide to the launchpad.

- Aerobatics are somewhat limited (steep dives and high-G pullouts), but the chutes are very agile if handled with some care.

- With a well-executed final flare, you can almost get a Kerbal to stick the landing without stumbling. Almost.

-Top speed is somewhere around 75 m/s at the upper end of the deployment range in a full dive, and can be safely controlled in pitch down to around 4-5 m/s. Any attempts to bank close to the ground WILL result in a loss of altitude, though.

- At present, the chute seems to lock your RCS pack in whatever mode it was in when you deployed the chute. Not sure if the pack operated normally while under parachute and with the RCS enabled, though.... something to investigate, perhaps.

[Dizzle]

These things are the most fun new mechanic in a very long time.

[Vanamonde]

Whee! 

 

[Kerbalstar]

I'm planning to do a study on how the parachutes work on different planets, and post a thread tomorrow. Now that I think about it I guess I'll post it here. This should be enough to keep me occupied until MH comes out. Thanks for the fast facts @MaverickSawyer!

[fourfa]

Just putting this here in case anyone else is really dumb and missed it in the changelog...  The chute option only appears on Level 3+ kerbals.

And I forsee a lot of Making History challenge missions that involve precision parachuting...

Edited March 7, 2018 by fourfa

[MaverickSawyer]

22 minutes ago, fourfa said:

Just putting this here in case anyone else is really dumb and missed it in the changelog...  The chute option only appears on Level 3+ kerbals.

And I forsee a lot of Making History challenge missions that involve precision parachuting...

Excellent point.

And yep. Either that, or long-range jumps with precision landings. You've got a nearly 30 km crossrange if you open the parachute at 5 km altitude...

 

Hmm. I wonder if you can deploy the parachute while in a rover seat? I forgot to check that...

[magnemoe]

If you eva you kerbal you can arm the parashute so it open automatically if leave vessel and not holding on to it.
This can be useful for stunt flying and other dangerous low attitude activities. 

25 minutes ago, fourfa said:

Just putting this here in case anyone else is really dumb and missed it in the changelog...  The chute option only appears on Level 3+ kerbals.

And I forsee a lot of Making History challenge missions that involve precision parachuting...

Ty for information, one obvious use for me would be to bail out if mountain landing, mostly an issue for rescued kerbals and does not work here. 
Else its an parachute you can not forget. 

[MaverickSawyer]

41 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Hmm. I wonder if you can deploy the parachute while in a rover seat? I forgot to check that...

Field report: Nope. It also seems to bug out the parachute if you try to do so...

[KerikBalm]

I'm guessing these don't work so well on Duna, but work fine on Laythe and Eve?

[theJesuit]

3 hours ago, kerbalstar said:

I'm planning to do a study on how the parachutes work on different planets, and post a thread tomorrow. Now that I think about it I guess I'll post it here. This should be enough to keep me occupied until MH comes out. Thanks for the fast facts @MaverickSawyer!

 

1 hour ago, KerikBalm said:

I'm guessing these don't work so well on Duna, but work fine on Laythe and Eve?

I'm waiting for the first person to complain the parachutes didn't work (or won't deploy) on the Mün.

Peace.

[DAL59]

9 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

ever since I got 1.4 installed

Are you a time traveler?  Where did you get it?

[razark]

8 hours ago, fourfa said:

The chute option only appears on Level 3+ kerbals.

This is disappointing.  I was hoping to be able to use it for early aircraft testing.

[Temeter]

So, gliding at kerbin with neutral attitude is 30m/s, not bad. 

As for Duna, you can get pretty fast, managed 50m/s. Stall speed seems to be like 12m/s, so pretty rough landing, but easily possible. You just have to decelerate just before touchdown. 6m/s are nuthin' to a Kerbal!

edit: Actually, you can also land at 50m/s and survive. Just don't expect physics to play nice

edit2: Oh my, Eve aerodynamics are buggy as usuall^^ Should work if you don't go vertical or so, though.

Edited March 7, 2018 by Temeter

[LameLefty]

4 hours ago, DAL59 said:

Are you a time traveler?  Where did you get it?

Version 1.4 was released early last evening US time. 

[NSEP]

Now i don't have to crack the Kerbal's skull when freefalling! Great feature!

[DAL59]

1 hour ago, LameLefty said:

Version 1.4 was released early last evening US time. 

!

Edited March 7, 2018 by DAL59

[purpleivan]

Liking the new personal chutes.

 

[Yargnit]

With manual piloting you can get sick range out of these. I launched straight up from the launchpad, and deployed at 5km directly above it falling straight down, this crossing over the island.

I easily made it another 15+km after this. Splashdown was 48.1km from the launchpad. Also There is enough control to fly under, over, then under again the R&D facility bridge. You can also fly backwards, or drop straight down to your death. Havent been able to get infi-glide out of the chutes yet, but havent 100% given up on it.

[purpleivan]

All sorts of possibilities now.

The name's Kerman... Jeb Kerman.

Edited March 8, 2018 by purpleivan

[MaverickSawyer]

16 hours ago, Yargnit said:

With manual piloting you can get sick range out of these. I launched straight up from the launchpad, and deployed at 5km directly above it falling straight down, this crossing over the island.

I easily made it another 15+km after this. Splashdown was 48.1km from the launchpad. Also There is enough control to fly under, over, then under again the R&D facility bridge. You can also fly backwards, or drop straight down to your death. Havent been able to get infi-glide out of the chutes yet, but havent 100% given up on it.

How did you get that much range out of your chute? I couldn't get that far. 

[Jarin]

2 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

How did you get that much range out of your chute? I couldn't get that far. 

Gonna hazard a guess that picking up speed in dives and then climbing can play !!Fun!! with aerodynamics and you're getting limited infiniglide effects.

[Frozen_Heart]

Love chutes already. Botched the aerobrake with my mothership on Kerbin return and it fell into the atmo. Jeb stole the lander so Val and Bill had to bail out. Their chutes allowed them to land right on top of the lander which had glided down.

 

I can tell kerbal fatality rates will be way down due to these.

[Cydonian Monk]

These things are great. I can finally retire “RearGuard”, my janky and kraken-riddled fork of Vanguard Parachutes. (It wasn’t a particularly healthy fork either, as it would occasionally eject parachuting kerbals out of the solar system.... Just not often enough to warrant development time.)

I’m impressed with the new model for the parachutes, and how they moved the two tanks from the EVA pack underneath them (since the two parts clip together and those tanks get covered). Now if the rest of the EVA suit could get a model and texture pass (and if somebody would fix those floating flags on the EVA pack....) that’d be right nice.

Solid new addition to the stock game. 

Edited March 8, 2018 by Cydonian Monk

[KerikBalm]

Just tried it out on Duna, landed at 626 meters elevation, wasn't tricky, I think my touchdown velocity was <15 m/s, more like around 10 (I did flare it).

So, these chutes work fine for at least the lowlands of Duna.

[Dark Lion]

Anybody else want the chutes to be deployable while in a command seat? Don't ask me why I think this is a good idea.