Low Altitude Mountain Race

[Klapaucius]

Low Altitude Mountain Race.

The challenge:

Go to: 8 degrees, 9’ 12” S, 179 degrees, 6’ 14” W

Fly the route outlined on the map below (and demonstrated in the video) at the altitudes indicated as fast as you possibly can.  

Scroll down for the rules and details. 

This is almost due west of the Desert Runway.  Start anywhere behind the ridge shown in the video.

The course runs in a sort of loop inwards into the mountains.  You begin with an altitude restriction of 2700 meters. That gives you a bit of leeway at the start.  That restriction continues until the 3600 marker on the map (shown on the video as well) where you have a ridge to cross. Keep at 3600 until you make a 90 degree right turn and then you can ascend to 3800.  Stay at 3800 until you after you cross the penultimate ridge and need to make a nearly 180 degree turn. Fly over the last ridgeline and then fly back to your starting point by whatever route you wish.

The altitude restriction changes all occur in level areas between ridgelines, so you can adjust anywhere between the ridgelines.  

I threw together this video which I hope clarifies the route. It is a combination of flights since I did not have the best camera perspective all the way through one flight. I also had a few crashes.  If anything is not clear, please ask in the comments below and I will try to clarify anything you are unsure of.

 

The Rules:

Run this route in as fast as you possibly can, keeping below the altitude restrictions.

1. There will be two classes: Modded, and Stock Craft .  Kerbal Engineer is fine for either class as of course are any mods that do not affect flight (environmental, etc.). 

2. No VTOL, angled engines, reverse placed engines, reaction wheels or inline stabilizers (aside from what is already contained in the cockpits).  Reverse thrust is fine (eg Wheesleys) as are any quantity of airbrakes.  Drag chutes may be used for landing, as long as you are not actually landing vertically with a chute.  The spirit of this is about good flying and good aerodynamic design.

3. Style points for flying the whole thing with stability off.

4. Even more style points for flying this whole route as low as you possible can.  Except for the last ridge in the 2700 section, every ridge can be crossed at least 100 meters lower than the stated restrictions.

4. If you break an altitude restriction, add 15 seconds to your time. (this might need changing, it is an arbitrary number I came up with. I am open to suggestions).  If you do break it, you must get down below as soon as possible. If you are above the restriction for more than 5 seconds, you are disqualified.  There is no way to police this. Really, just do this in good faith.  No taking a 15 second penalty and then just flying at 5000 meters the whole way.

5. You must begin the race landed at a complete stop, takeoff horizontally, and must land horizontally and come to a complete stop.

6. Time will be determined by subtracting your start time from your end time. Therefore, take a screenshot just before you power up and just after you have landed and come to a complete stop.

7. You may make as many attempts as you like.  If you have the Mission Builder, you may launch from that and save yourself having to fly all the way.  It is also not too far from the Desert Runway (due west). Once you have arrived, save the game, so you can quickly reset if need be.

8. If you do not have the Mission Builder and have to fly, you can bring drop tanks, carry your plane under a larger craft to save fuel, edit scripts or do any other background cheats to shorten the trip, whatever. This is about the race, not about how you got there.  Infinite fuel is fine for either class as well.

9. If you can, post a video of your run. It would be fun to see some good flying.

10. This race works on the honor system. Fly fast and fair.

11. No prizes. Just do it for the glory.

 

 

 MORE PHOTOS under the hidden tab.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by Klapaucius
clarity

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Hey! Saw you post this in that other "challenges" thread looking to revive it; looked fun so I figured I'd be your first (hopefully not only) submission!

I made another video for this one, dialed up the quality a bit from 480 to 720; still not as nice as I would'ave liked but my upload speed sucks. (Took like an hour or 2 to upload and it's only 9 minutes long.)

A few things; I may have taken a few "liberties" with the course, I wasn't entirely sure where to go at points, but I think I was pretty close? I also didn't realize Bandicam was gonna leave a watermark right over the Altimeter! I'll understand if you don't accept the video as proof, but I think it's pretty obvious from how close to the ground I am at most points that I was well within the limits. Anyways, I had fun with this one, thanks again @Klapaucius!

Spoiler

(Check out around the 4:20 mark for a pretty funny moment when my drop tanks go whizzing by me after dropping for some reason and it takes me a few seconds to realize they are above me and I'm like..."What? Wasn't expecting that..." Lol.)

Recommended listening: Highway to the danger zone, on repeat...forever. Even after the video stops. It get's better every time, trust me. (The plane is my super generic "Kerbofighter1" which is sort of an amalgamation of American fighter jets from the "Top Gun" era so this is what I was listening to lol. I would'ave just put it in the video but I wasn't sure about YouTube copyright BS?)

Since my start time was roughly 1:50 and my end time was roughly 10:50 I'm gonna call it a clean 9 minutes "run". So who's next? I'm sure it can be done WAY faster than that.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Klapaucius]

2 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Hey! Saw you post this in that other "challenges" thread looking to revive it; looked fun so I figured I'd be your first (hopefully not only) submission!

I made another video for this one, dialed up the quality a bit from 480 to 720; still not as nice as I would'ave liked but my upload speed sucks. (Took like an hour or 2 to upload and it's only 9 minutes long.)

A few things; I may have taken a few "liberties" with the course, I wasn't entirely sure where to go at points, but I think I was pretty close? I also didn't realize Bandicam was gonna leave a watermark right over the Altimeter! I'll understand if you don't accept the video as proof, but I think it's pretty obvious from how close to the ground I am at most points that I was well within the limits. Anyways, I had fun with this one, thanks again @Klapaucius!

Wow, I did not expect to see this in my inbox this morning.  Thanks for bringing it back!  You got the route just fine, and you hugged the ground more than you needed to, which it made it really fun to watch--some really nice flying.  If you can can control those twitchy planes, they are just the most fun to fly.  

You did not need to circle the very last basin, but it made it much more exciting, so maybe we'll leave that in....

I thought of creating a downloadable file of the course with flags, but that might restrict some participants if they are using an older version.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

20 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

Wow, I did not expect to see this in my inbox this morning.  Thanks for bringing it back!  You got the route just fine, and you hugged the ground more than you needed to, which it made it really fun to watch--some really nice flying.  If you can can control those twitchy planes, they are just the most fun to fly.  

You did not need to circle the very last basin, but it made it much more exciting, so maybe we'll leave that in....

I thought of creating a downloadable file of the course with flags, but that might restrict some participants if they are using an older version.

Thanks, glad you liked it!

Yeah I started making waypoints for it in way point manager but it was a real hassle so, I just decided to do a few practice runs to get the course down instead.

I didn't take any vids sadly, but my first few attempts were with a 747 style jumbo liner, lol. I thought it would be funny, but well... yeah; It was damn near impossible. I should'ave made a blooper reel of all the mountain impacts lol.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket