iospace

So I tweaked the design of the Fire Rat, but it's largely the same (count this as a separate entry from my prior ones if that's ok with you): Minus the lights, the plane is entirely stock, including aero (the tug is not). I didn't bother with landing and not refueling, I decided to refuel and launch again . All refueling was done on the ground, nothing in orbit.

[quote name='leudaimon']Is there any estimate on when it will be available at CKAN?[/QUOTE] It's answered on the previous page. In short: the 1.0.5 release version isn't ready yet, and until it is, it won't be on CKAN.

[quote name='SuicidalInsanity']@iospace; Idling Firespitter engines will generate a tiny amount of thrust, presumably because regardless of engine thrust, it's still a spinning propeller.[/QUOTE] Figured that was the case!

For what it's worth, the Fire Rat does work in stock aerodynamics: ... until I tailstrike on landing and knock the engine and vertical stabilizer off Dx

I can verify the above. Did a runway test, set thrust to reverse, still moved forward. [s]Another bug is that the blades do not seem to stop spinning once the engine is shut down, and even[/s] at throttle zero (with the engine activated) I'm still getting 0.5 kN of thrust. Edit: didn't wait long enough for the blades to stop, it seems. I'm starting to figure the blades still going at "full" speed at throttle zero is intended operation.

[quote name='rudi1291']@iospace: To embed an imgur album, put your album id (last part of the url) in [imgur] BB-code[/QUOTE] Merci! Edit: Question, do parts from the Asteroid Day mod count as stock because they're Squad made?

Entry: X-87B Scientific Fire Rat. With FAR so not a real entry (but that gate looked so pretty I had to smash it). [imgur]l90aI/[/imgur] I could probably push the AP higher, but I wanted one that I knew I could return back from. Also, how does one embed imgur albums exactly?

[quote name='SuicidalInsanity']Yes. Any specific launch instructions that might cause weirdness if not followed?[/QUOTE] The plane is a challenge to orbit, the rocket is less so. Let me do one final test and I'll send it over with launch instructions.

Weird. Now one that was working isn't, and it's after I transferred crew over to a connected vessel, restarted the game, then suddenly it won't work again. Do you want me to send you the craft files over? I have two ways of launching it, piggybacked on an SSTO plane or two boosters strapped to the sides (also SSTO with deorbiting of the boosters possible).

[quote name='SuicidalInsanity']@iospace; The reactor has an engineer efficiency bonus like the ISRUs and drills, but doesn't require one to be onboard. Does the Alt-F12 debug log say anything when trying to activate the reactor? Also, could I have a full mod list?[/QUOTE] The debug log says nothing. I tried without TAC fuel balancer and got the same result. Mods: FAR Modular Flight Integrator Mk2 Expansion Firespitter Interstellar Fuel Switch KM Gimbal Modular Fuel Tanks Precise Node Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Docking Port Alignment Indicator Kerbal Alarm Clock B9 Procedural Wings Cross Feed Enabler Asteroid Day Community Resource Pack Kerbal Engineer TAC Fuel Balancer

Update #5 for the reactor bug: docked and transferred an engineer, still refuses to start up.

[quote name='SuicidalInsanity']@iospace; Are there reproducible steps to getting the reactor to not work, or is it random? The reactor uses the same code as the stock ISRU - are you seeing similar behavior from that? Edit: Do you have NFE installed?[/QUOTE] Sadly random. I haven't used any of the ISRUs, so no comment on that regard. I don't have NFE installed though, but I do have modular fuel tanks (so I can stick xenon tanks in the Mk1->Mk2 converters). The only difference between this ship and one that works is placement of parts, and even then, the placement differences are so slight it shouldn't affect anything (RCS, panels, and radiators are the only parts that would be placed differently). I tested the craft on its launcher to see if the reactor will start on the ground, which it did, oddly enough. Edit: so I tested it some more: sub-orbital (worked), orbital (worked), and detached from the lifter (worked). Don't know why two identical craft have different results. Edit 2: I managed to somehow reproduce it. I deorbited my lifter, recovered it, and suddenly it stops working on the new one. Edit 3: The ship is entirely unmanned, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it. Edit 4: Docked a ship with a pilot and a scientist on it. It failed to start up. I'm going to suspect that it needs an engineer in order to run, which would explain why it would stop once the parent vessel's crew is recovered. The fact it worked though while unmanned and not connected to any other craft though is puzzling to me. I'll test with an engineer tomorrow.

Seem to have encountered a bug with the reactor: it sometimes just outright fails to start. I've put two practically identical vessels in orbit, and one's reactor just does not want to generate any power, or heat for that matter. I've tried restarting the reactor, time warping, switching craft, and restarting the game. It does not seem to want to function. [img]http://i.imgur.com/Fbgjt3q.png[/img] (Yes, the basic design is pretty much lifted from the examples album. I felt it was a good design and made some modifications to it)

[quote name='Zwer.ch']Yeah, 1.0.5 update would be highly appreciated :D[/QUOTE] Asking won't make it come out quicker. These are people with lives outside of KSP, are probably aware of reported bugs, and are probably putting as much time as they can into it. It'll be out when it will be out.

Found yet another bug with flap/spoilers: default deflection is 15, but if you change it, it's next to impossible to set it to 15 again, or well, I have yet to reset it to that.

Here's the thing though, I had never gotten that specific SSTO into that high of an orbit with that much dV left, even in 1.0.4's heat mechanics. It had always been around 80x80km, if not lower. That SSTO isn't even designed to carry things or visit other worlds, it's a challenge to see how little fuel I need to get into orbit and how high of an orbit. Then again, FAR aerodynamics are different from stock, so take what I say with a grain of salt if you don't use FAR.

Honestly, the more I play with it, the more I understand what needs to be done to counter-act the changes. I got one of my single-engine SSTOs with 800 LF and 440 LOX into a 96x96km orbit with more than enough LOX to deorbit, and it's a 1.0.4 design only using stock parts and FAR. No fuel or LOX additions. All I changed? The throttle. Still followed my old flight path, just adjusted the throttle at key points. Somehow managed to get it back through the atmosphere in one piece on the return trip, only to bungle the landing. Going to test it some more tomorrow.

I figured it may have been something like that (I'm going to suspect KER given it doesn't have a 1.0.5 update yet), but eh. It's a minor annoyance at worst (I tested with the newest version). It's not breaking anything, so no big deal. Ah... ok, the slow deploy makes sense then. Two questions: does the newest version have the fix for that issue? And would adjusting the setting involve action groups then? Guessing it's fixed with the deploy more/less buttons now.

Put a plane on the runway (the stock Aeris 3A), made sure FAR window was out, moved the window, recovered the plane, quit normally (as in going through the menus), loaded up same save, loaded up the same plane, and the window position reset. Another bug I found, but I'm not sure if this is a FAR bug or a MFI bug: when a control surface is deployed as a flap via right clicking on it in flight, opening up the "flp/splr" submenu, and clicking flap, it doesn't visually deploy until the gear is dropped (I think). However, when it's taken off flap mode it doesn't visually go back to normal, even if the gear is pulled up. I've flown from the southern ice cap to the KSC without it resetting properly, at least visually. I've seen this behavior on the Elevon 1 and Big-S Elevon 1 and 2 parts.

From what I can tell, if they change the tech tree, your prior saves will keep their unlocked parts in their prior tier. They moved the Big-S parts from Aerospace Tech to Experimental Aerodynamics, and on a pre-1.0.5 save, it's still in the old spot as well as the new.

Minor annoyance rather than major bug: The FAR window doesn't remember its location after game closure. If you got bigger fish to fry, don't worry about it right now.

Put the Panthers on wet mode in the SPH and forget about it until you're back in the atmosphere making your way home. The Isp is the same as the Whiplash. Got an sandbox SSTO into orbit with four Panthers and two LV-T30s (would also work in Science mode. Career mode is "Your results may vary"). Have yet to de-orbit it, so no word on how it performs in that case. On that note, I'm still having !!!FUN!!! trying to figure out proper descents without blowing the nose off if it's not tipped by a shielded clamp-o-tron (one of my planes is like this). I am using FAR, so I didn't have the whole atmosphere change like most of you did, but it seems to want to pitch down suddenly from a high AoA (could possibly be due to loss of reaction wheel control due to loss of EC, will test more).

At first I thought this was a FAR issue, but I guess not. I've found that lowering the throttle on ascent helps with the heat. It does take longer to get to orbit, but my old ascent paths are still possible. That being said, re-entry is now next to impossible with Mk1 parts (I have yet to do it), and I've only done it with Mk2 parts and four airbrakes. At 53 km up my nose on a Mk2 based plane is already glowing. What makes it really weird to me is that the shielded clamp-o-tron, which has the same skin heat tolerance of the Mk1 Cockpit, shows absolutely no sign of any excessive heating when flying at a similar speed and altitude. Edit: double checked the tolerances, they're different. It doesn't explain why the Mk1 cockpit heated up like it did and the clamp-o-tron didn't.

Hey Ferram, question: did you change how heat will effect planes at all, or is this a symptom of the new thermal system? On my ascent and descent for space planes, the nose gets extremely hot, hot enough to the point the gauge is almost completely full on ascent and explodes on descent. Even on Mk2 based plane (all stock), the I hit the atmosphere with an AoA above 30 degrees and even above 50 km the nose instantly started glowing. It's more understandable for ascents since the nose takes the brunt of the force, but on descents it seems the heating effect is way too quick.