WindRider challenge - build an unusual aircraft!

[Kasyan]

LORE!
Windriding is a highly popular, and extremely dangerous sport on Kerbin. Kerbals try to show their piloting mastery by flying special aircraft (called Windriders) very close to the ground, while construction bureaus compete by trying to create the best Windrider. Doing races with Windriders is also common.

CHALLENGE!
Build a Windrider and fly it as close to the ground as you can (remember, you can't just hover above the ground, horizontal velocity is required to qualify)! Record a video of your flight and post it here! (You can post screenshots if you cannot record, but videos are preferable) Windriders are no ordinary aircraft, though. You'll need to follow specific rules when constructing a Windrider.

RULES:

1. The only command module you can use is the EAS-1 External Command Seat. Build anything you want around it, but you need to have an open cockpit. For extra coolness, crank the Ejection Force on the seat to the max, so you can eject your kerbal from the craft.
2. You can only use the Wheesley and Juno engines for propulsion. Propellers are allowed, too, if you really want to go this way.
3. The Windrider mustn't have permanent landing gear. Detachable landing gear for takeoff is allowed, but it needs to be decoupled once in flight.
4. RCS is not allowed.
5. Using mod parts is allowed, except mod engines (see rule 2).
6. Kraken Drives are not allowed (see rule 2).
7. You can add a docking port to use "Control from here" if you want to.
8. The HUD showing the altitude, vertical speed and horizontal speed needs to be visible in your screenshots and/or videos.

Q/A:

1. Q: Using non-part mods?
A: Any mods are allowed, as long as they don't break the rules. If you're using FAR or a ground effect mod, please note it somewhere in your post.

2. Q: Can I fly on Laythe?
A: Of course! That would be cool!

3. Q: Is this podracing?
A: No, but Star Wars-inspired designs are allowed.

4. Q: Any design notes?
A: Asymmetric designs are interesting! But do whatever you want to do!

5. Q: Can I have more than one kerbal?
A: That would look a bit weird on a racing craft, but if you want to, yes! They all need to be in External Seats, however.

REWARD!

If you participate in this challenge, you can take this badge I drew!

Good luck, and have fun!

PARTICIPANTS (in arbitrary order):

@QF9E with Unnamed - 0 m ASL
@swjr-swis with Kerman Flyer - 74 m (69 m?) (10 m?) AND with SWiS WindGlider 2 - 0 m ASL
@Admiral Fluffy TBA
@swillerford with Quadcopter - 1 m ASL
@chadgaskerman with UL-1 Windrider - 2 m ASL
@Watermel00n with Humbug - 1 m ASL AND with WindLiner - 1-2m ASL
@Rutabaga22 with Jacobs Windrider I - 7-8m ASL
@AllenLi with Unnamed - 5 m ASL
@LookingLost with Unnamed 1 ("Landspeeder") AND Unnamed 2 ("WHALE") AND Unnamed 3 ("Star Destroyer")

If you're stuck, here are some handy tips about low flying by @swjr-swis!

Edited May 21, 2022 by Kasyan

[Admiral Fluffy]

This is a cool idea! I'll do it when i get home.

[Kasyan]

Just now, Admiral Fluffy said:

This is a cool idea! I'll do it when i get home.

Great! I'm excited to see what you'll make!

[QF9E]

Fun little challenge! My submission:

Lowest altitude reached: 0 meters above the water.

[swjr-swis]

Two questions:

2 hours ago, Kasyan said:

3. The craft needs to have at least 2 rudders: one pointing upwards, one downwards.

I don't really know what this means. With rudders you mean the control surfaces that affect yaw, yes? Are those not by definition already vertical? To work correctly, they have to be pointing (mostly) aft/backwards. If you point them literally up or down, they are no longer (and will not work as) rudders.

And:

2 hours ago, Kasyan said:

Take a screenshot with the HUD visible (F1 or Fn+F1) at the closest point to the ground during flight and post it here!

Assuming people go to the trouble of making their entry capable of landing (or splashing down), one can post a screenshot showing any arbitrarily low number for altitude, right up to zero. In fact, it wouldn't even need to be able to land at all... the screenshot doesn't show what happens right after.

So perhaps changing this to asking for a video that shows the low flying was actually during flight?

 

That said, here's a craft I made once that seems to comply with every one of the listed requirements:

1. Open cockpit (or rather, none at all), with two EAS-1 seats.
2. Using pure stock non-DLC electric propellers.
3. 2 rudders, placed vertically (how else?). If it helps: the left one is 'pointing up', the right one is 'pointing down'. or something.
4. Landing gear is used only for take off and is then dropped. Landing is done without landing gear.
5. No RCS (the linear ports in the build are only used as bearings for the stock propeller). Resource panel shows no monoprop is carried.
6. No mod (or DLC) parts.
7. No Kraken Drives.
8. No docking port.

Video showcases the craft design, the propellers, taking off, close to ground flying, and a safe landing (even though that is not a listed requirement). Lowest altitude shown during flight (disregarding take off and landing) is 79 m ASL. (8m56, right before flying over the monolith). Radar altitude gets down to less than 10 meters several times, but since it isn't showing anywhere I can't use that.

Word of warning: I have odd music tastes. If you don't want to subject yourself to that, you can leave it muted - the craft itself makes no sounds at all (electric props are soundless in KSP).

 

Craft is my Kerman Flyer. Cave at: in current versions of KSP, sometimes the antenna break due to dynamic pressure. Other than that still performs as shown.

 

[Kasyan]

13 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

I don't really know what this means. With rudders you mean the control surfaces that affect yaw, yes? Are those not by definition already vertical? 

Yes, these rudders. What I was trying to mean was that I wanted people to put the rudders above each other (you can see an example in the badge). When I get access to desktop, I will probably remove this rule altogether, as it seems rather arbitrary.

14 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

So perhaps changing this to asking for a video that shows the low flying was actually during flight?

I wrote it like this, because I thought not everyone has access to screen recorders. I will probably change it so that videos are preferable to screenshots. By the way, AFAIK you can determine if the craft is crashing or not in the screenshot by looking at the vertical speedometer, if it shows <0, it’s probably crashing.

I noted your submission, it’s awesome! I’ll write a proper response post later this day, when I get to desktop. As a thank you for contributing to the rules, I will also draw the Kerman Flyer in the style of the badge for you.

[Kasyan]

17 hours ago, QF9E said:

Fun little challenge! My submission:

Lowest altitude reached: 0 meters above the water.

Nice craft! Reminds me of the Convair Pogo. I actually never thought of VTOLs while making this challenge. And your flying skills are ridiculously good! Here, have a badge for your collection:

17 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Video showcases the craft design, the propellers, taking off, close to ground flying, and a safe landing (even though that is not a listed requirement). Lowest altitude shown during flight (disregarding take off and landing) is 79 m ASL. (8m56, right before flying over the monolith). Radar altitude gets down to less than 10 meters several times, but since it isn't showing anywhere I can't use that.

Great, high-quality replica, surprisingly stable stock props, and nice altitude resuts for such a large plane (I actually noticed <79 m at some pint in the video)! Overall, an awesome submission! Here, have a standard badge:

Your custom badge for help with the rules will probably be ready tomorrow, as I don't have access to my drawing tablet right now.

[QF9E]

11 minutes ago, Kasyan said:

Nice craft! Reminds me of the Convair Pogo. I actually never thought of VTOLs while making this challenge. And your flying skills are ridiculously good! Here, have a badge for your collection:

Thanks! To be fair I was a bit lucky with this run - earlier test runs had shown that 0 meters altitude was virtually impossible without damaging the bottom fins. The VTOL idea came about because after designing the craft I had no idea where and how to attach the landing gear; doing a vertical takeoff took care of the problem quite effectively.

[Kasyan]

Just now, QF9E said:

Thanks! To be fair I was a bit lucky with this run...

Luck is quite important in this challenge! Thanks again for participating!

[Admiral Fluffy]

I'm trying this, but this is harder than i thought it would be!

[swjr-swis]

A tip for anyone trying this without piloting aid mods:

If you make the main wings from control surfaces (Big-S elevons are good for this), and set them 'deployed', you can adjust their AoA during flight through the deployment slider (pin it on screen). Combining this with SAS Prograde allows to lower it smoothly while flying until the wings provide just barely sufficient lift to skim over the surface, without needing to manually maintain altitude. Works with SAS off and trim too (even better actually).

Examples (not entries to this challenge):

 

(Uhm, yeah don't ask. Me and Junos and speed challenges... we have a history. )

Edited March 30, 2022 by swjr-swis

[swillerford]

Here's my submission! I decided to go with a quadcopter for ease of control and VTOL capabilities. 

The breaking ground fan blades let me control pitch and roll (albeit slowly) but didn't give me any yaw. Reaction wheel fixed that and made it a lot easier to control.

 

[chadgaskerman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length_launch

little hint of what I'm working on atm

[Kasyan]

18 hours ago, swillerford said:

Here's my submission! I decided to go with a quadcopter for ease of control and VTOL capabilities. 

Great job, nice hovercraft design! Which reminds me, I need to fix the rules, so that you can't just hover above the ground to complete the chalenge (don't worry, your craft still qualifies!). Also, is that RLA Reborn I'm seeing here? Anyways, have a badge of honor:

[Kasyan]

19 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

A tip for anyone trying this without piloting aid mods:

[insert crazy low-flying jets and helpful tips]

That's a nice tutorial! I added it to the OP. By the way, I got home now, so I'll try to draw the Flyer later.

16 hours ago, chadgaskerman said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length_launch

little hint of what I'm working on atm

Oh, that's fancy! I tried launching planes with SRBs before, but never succeeded, so it'll be interesting to see how you tackle this.

*******

Off-topic, does anyone here know how to prevent merging replies or separate them?

[Bej Kerman]

On 3/29/2022 at 3:57 PM, Kasyan said:

and pretty much necessary

I'd go with false. Extra points for 0 gear at all. Or 0 points for using any kind of wheel.

[Kasyan]

3 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

I'd go with false. Extra points for 0 gear at all. Or 0 points for using any kind of wheel.

Yeah, I wasn't thinking of VTOLs when writing this, I'll probably remove the "necessary" part. BTW, I haven't implemented a point system, I feel like it would overcomplicate an already difficult challenge.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Kasyan

[swjr-swis]

21 minutes ago, Kasyan said:

I haven't implemented a point system, I feel like it would overcomplicate an already difficult challenge.

Agreed. The altimeter is a pretty straightforward method and fits the challenge to a T.

[Watermel00n]

My Windrider submission

[chadgaskerman]

Not the happiest with how this turned out but it does the job.

[Kasyan]

12 hours ago, Watermel00n said:

My Windrider submission

Simple, but great!  I'll put 1m as your record altitude, because that's the lowest before the canards broke. Have a badge:

7 hours ago, chadgaskerman said:

Not the happiest with how this turned out but it does the job.

Wow, this turned out perfectly! That's honestly the fanciest plane launch sequence I've seen! Your flying (and the rather unorthodox use of paragliders) is also awesome! Have a badge, you very much deserve it:

[Kasyan]

Calling @swjr-swis:
I seem to have forgotten to put up this little picture of your Kerman Flyer I made as a thank-you fo your help. Grab it if you want to:

You can download it here: https://imgur.com/jvvgNpB 

By the way, if you want a smaller version or a version without text, message me, I'll do anything I can.

 

P.S. : is this thread dead? Last message was sent by me, the OP, like, 20 days ago.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Kasyan
spelling

[swjr-swis]

3 hours ago, Kasyan said:

P.S. : is this thread dead? Last message was sent by me, the OP, like, 20 days ago.

Let's revive it then.

 

[Kasyan]

On 4/24/2022 at 12:58 AM, swjr-swis said:

Let's revive it then.

That's great, awesome flying skills as usual! I've added the aircraft to the OP. BTW, the Kerbal's head poking out of the intake is comedy gold.

P.S: I've already replied to this post earlier this day, but it doesn't seem to show up. Weird. If anyone sees two very similar posts, please message me, I'll try to delete one.

[Rutabaga22]

My wind rider with an extreme wing span. Jeb died shortly after the picture over the ocean was taken.