Race under the radar

[Pds314]

The goal of this challenge is to reach the polar icecap and land as quickly as possible from the KSC

However, you must stay over land, no flying over the ocean, and you must maintain a radar attitude above terrain of under:

Easy: 1000 meters.

Normal: 500 meters.

Hard: 200 meters.

Impossible: 50 meters.

Even briefly exceeding this altitude above terrain is disqualifying.

Any method of measuring radar altitude above terrain is acceptable. Including mods and the stock radar altitude at the top of the screen (press the blue button near the altitude to change it to altitude over terrain)

Unfortunately, screenshot entries are not permitted. Feel free to share screenshots of test runs, but video of the whole run with altitude above terrain showing is required for entries.

No exploits, overpowered mods, or cheats, but otherwise there are no restrictions on craft design.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Pds314

[ralanboyle]

I felt like this really needed a pace time. So here you go 17:10. Also, I ran this several times and found over heating to be a major issue. 

 

[ManEatingApe]

On 6/21/2020 at 2:39 AM, Pds314 said:

No exploits, overpowered mods, or cheats, but otherwise there are no restrictions on craft design.

Would you consider kOS overpowered for this challenge?

Manual control for a 50m altitude speed run would be nigh on impossible, but a suitably tuned PID controller may be able to do it...

Edited June 23, 2020 by ManEatingApe

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I decided to practice for this challenge with Bill's Car, the plane that kicked off the Around Kerbin in 80 Minutes challenge. However, by the looks of this picture below, you can tell that the results were less than favorable.

 

• Engines overheated mid-flight and exploded, making it clear that this plane is unworthy of the challenge.
  • Plus, I went above 1,500 m surface altitude after clearing some mountains three minutes prior to the engines blowing up.

 

Wish me luck in making a suitable replacement.

[Pds314]

On 6/22/2020 at 9:07 PM, ralanboyle said:

I felt like this really needed a pace time. So here you go 17:10. Also, I ran this several times and found over heating to be a major issue. 

 

That's an impressive run! And it looks like you stayed under 1 km ground altitude the entire race.

On 6/23/2020 at 12:03 PM, ManEatingApe said:

Would you consider kOS overpowered for this challenge?

Manual control for a 50m altitude speed run would be nigh on impossible, but a suitably tuned PID controller may be able to do it...

If you want to use kOS, you can. But, under the condition that you write the script and build the craft. No using off the shelf scripts that might be out there for automated cruise missile piloting or something.