Kerbodyne Aerobatics Championships

[Wanderfound]

Time for a new contest.

Build yourself an aerobatics ship, head out to the mountains west of KSC, and start buzzing the ridgetops.

There are two aspects to the competition: artistic and aerobatic.

For the artistic contest, enter a screenshot with the flight info toggled off (F2). Make it a dramatically posed shot of your plane doing something insanely dangerous in the mountains to the west of KSC. This contest will be judged purely by public acclamation: when you put in your own entry, say which of the already-entered images is your favourite.

For the aerobatic contest, you also want a screenshot of your ship doing something insanely dangerous above the mountains to the west of KSC. You'll also need to install Kerbal Flight Data so that we can all see your radar altitude etc.

The aero contest will be scored on points, derived from three aspects:

1) G-forces. Every point of G visible on the navball at the time of the shot gives twenty points.

2) Altitude. Every meter below 200m on the radar altimeter gives one point. Entries above 1,000m radar altitude not permitted.

3) Speed. Ten points for Mach 1, twenty points for Mach 2, etc. Rounded down; Mach 0.9 gives no points.

Multiple entries are encouraged, as is the posting of screenshots from failed attempts. Post a link to the craft file of your ship with your entry. Separate leaderboards in the aero contest for stock vs NEAR/FAR, united leaderboard for the art contest. No non-stock parts, no hacks or cheats (including time or physics altering mods apart from FAR/NEAR). Ships must be winged, crewed, entirely jet powered (separate leaderboards if anyone really wants to fly rockets) and capable of HOTOL. Contestants must submit entries for both parts of the competition, and may not vote for their own earlier entries in the art prize.

I'll post a demonstration entry shortly, but just as illustrative inspiration for now:

Edited January 10, 2015 by Wanderfound

[SmartS=true]

Could we also use KER or MechJeb for the altitude readings?

[Wanderfound]

Should be fine, although it'd be nice if someone would check them side-by-side with Kerbal Flight Data to make sure they're consistent. Make sure that the navball is in Surface mode if you don't have a Mach number readout.

[chengong]

110G = 2200p

108m = 92p

Mach 2.0 = 20p

Total = 2312p

Edited January 10, 2015 by chengong

[Darren9]

^ With the navball showing 12.5G, does Flight Engineer show the same as the stock accelerometer? There's going to be issues on which must be used. Also TimeControl slow motion puts another twist into the physics engine - calculating smaller steps will show higher peek G's?.

Also with a screenshot there's not really a need to survive a maneuver, how will you know?

[Wanderfound]

Navball G's only. The various G meters give sharply varying results.

I suspect that we may need to ban rockets, or at least have a separate rocket division.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Captain Sierra]

Navball G's only. The various G meters give sharply varying results.

The navball G meter is sometimes inaccurate too (or at least it a) has lag and can only peak at 15Gs). May I suggest the F3 panel? Just my .02.

[Wanderfound]

F3 is no good, you could've done it at altitude. And the 15G cap is deliberate; this isn't a max-G contest, it's a mountain-scraping contest.

Everybody should be able to hit 15G if they know what they're doing, and everybody should be able to get within a few metres of the hillside. The trick is in doing both at the same time. I expect it to come down to a handful of entrants, all doing 15G within 50m of the mountain, with the speed acting as the tiebreaker.

Rockets on a separate leaderboard, navball G's, no time-altering mods.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Wanderfound

[chengong]

F3 is no good, you could've done it at altitude. And the 15G cap is deliberate; this isn't a max-G contest, it's a mountain-scraping contest.

Rockets on a separate leaderboard, navball G's, no time-altering mods.

ok, so it's like who can press F1 at the most opportunistic moment contest? BTW the Navball G isn't showing a different number, it's just lagging behind because of the smoothing algorithm.

Also this plane is partially jet powered.

^ With the navball showing 12.5G, does Flight Engineer show the same as the stock accelerometer? There's going to be issues on which must be used. Also TimeControl slow motion puts another twist into the physics engine - calculating smaller steps will show higher peek G's?.

Also with a screenshot there's not really a need to survive a maneuver, how will you know?

I got higher Gs without time control.

Edited January 10, 2015 by chengong

[Wanderfound]

As in the first post:

* G's must be measured by navball.

* No time slowing (new rule, although I would've thought "hacks and cheats" covered that).

* Must post craft file.

* Must enter both parts (not explicit before).

* Separate leaderboard for rocket-powered craft (new rule).

* Must have pilot, wings, HOTOL ability.

Pilot survival post-manoeuvre is going to have to depend on the honour system. If possible, post a few screenshots displaying the recovery to stable flight. Let us know it you're using FAR and have disabled aero failures.

As always, if you want to treat this as a minmaxing rule-stretching contest, go for it. Personally, however, I'll be zooming through the mountains in a sweet-handling sportsplane. Whoever has the most fun wins.

- - - Updated - - -

An initial entry from Team Kerbodyne Racing:

Cruise on in...

Up a teensy bit...

Then up a lot more. Oops.

Still, all good.

Calm and easy level flight, but might want to head back to the workshop for a bit.

14G, 166m, Mach <1.

314 points.

And an entry for the art prize:

And an early entry in the newly-declared "best crash sequence" contest (same rules as the art prize):

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jfcvimcq8p3ea5/Kerbodyne%20Aero%20SR.craft?dl=0

Edited January 10, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Wanderfound]

Another entry from Team Kerbodyne Racing.

Full flight with annotations at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Challenges/Kerbodyne%20Aerobatics%20Championship/Dragonfly%20Aero%201/story

Aero:

15G, Mach 1, 104m. 406 points.

Art competition entry:

Best crash:

Dive in.

It's got tough wings, pull up hard.

Oh.

See, the wings are still intact!

Until now.

Oops.

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/mtkp3asx6k2lx0l/Kerbodyne%20Dragonfly%20Aero.craft?dl=0