goldenpsp

First attempt with your second iteration Took off, all good until around 25000m started getting a bit squirrelly. Hit 30k lost air, fired up rockets got into 80km orbit without trouble. Did some science (science around kerbin contract). Landed at KSC (well next to KSC) Drove up onto runway, recovered for 100%

Keyboard as well. Before this ship pretty much my only other real experience has been with the stock Aeris a4 that I have modified for various uses. I found that to fly that one successfully was to do a slower (less than 45 deg) climb up to 20km and then pick up speed etc. Trying to do that I end up losing control in the thin atmosphere. I will try a faster ascent I did tone down the canards and reinstalled NEAR and had success again.

So it is probably my lack of piloting skills but I decided to try loading up FAR. For some reason I totally can't fly this plane with FAR. I left it as is (removed the cargo) and I just find it terribly hard to control.

Yea I may try that. It really laughed at the load, taking off and being able to easily accelerate off the runway at at least a 45%+ angle. The control surfaces are just a bit twitchy. I may try installing far at least temporarily to see how it handles with the designed mod. This is the options I have in the SPH. Would it be best to try toning down the control max a little? I have never played with tweaking the actual control surfaces. ​

They are equipment storage tanks from the USI Kolonization mod. This run was basically delivering the necessary parts to keep everything running. Patch Kits, Repair kits, Replacment parts and Basic machinery The tanks are 2.5m but i tweakscaled them to fit. It obviously doesn't carry as much as a heavy lifting rocket but its way more fun and in career mode more cost efficient. [edit] I had to offset one tank as jamming them in was kinda wonky. I offset the one to keep the COT in line with the COM

I will take a look once I'm done flying By the way, first successful docking at my station for restocking

I'm guessing this would also have an effect using NEAR instead of far? It is mostly stable but the control surfaces are a bit twitchy.

Ah, so connect with a decoupler or something instead?

I have tried the new one, albeit with NEAR (haven't graduated to FAR yet). It's like a hot knife through butter. I will have to try the extensions. And yes that is kind of what I did. I had plans to carry docking segments to my orbital station. Thought it would be fun to mount on an infernal robotics hinge so it can swing out and I can dock it in place in one shot. Put the hinge and docking port on the plane. Built the cargo, docking port first and saved as a sub. When i try to get them to mate it's like trying to push 2 magnets together with the same poles. Hmm maybe I need to do like you mention and put both docking ports together on the plane and build the sub without the docking port...

HAHA. I couldn't really tell from the picture that there was even a turbojet on the back so mine is missing and it still performs well... Hardest part at this point is getting the darn cargo loaded sometimes.

Good advice. I'm going to go see if I can copy that setup from your picture now Update- I'm not even sure I got everything right from the picture but it flies like a freakin dream. You def have the plan development skillz

Because I can (or more appropriately should be able to). I can land more reliably on the runway for 100% recovery with a plane. And I just find them way more fun to fly at the moment. Yea I have been building the fuselage and then wings before anything else. I figure if I can't get the wings sorted why continue. Yea I have that one bookmarked. Nice looking! Is this something that would have enough lift for a 10T payload? If so I am totally overengineering how much wing I need. It is hard to know starting out. Yes you helped me greatly in my other thread. I'm certainly not going to say I'm an expert but the planes I have that do fly I can get into orbit and land reliably now.

So my first post in here about planes was more about flying. I had found an example of a rescue SSTO for all those kerbal in orbit missions, copied the plane from the screenshots and failed horribly. You were all extremely helpful in that regard. I then took the stock Aeris-4A, and modified it for my rescue SSTO. It has flown to great success and I feel far more confident at flying. I can get in orbit, snag the kerbal and land on the runway every time now. I have also added some mods, notably: NEAR (not ready for FAR quite yet but wanted something better than stock) Splaceplane+ MKS/OKS So in building my OKS station, and playing career, I am trying to save costs where I can. I have also been enamoured with the parts from spaceplane+. So I have wanted to build 2 new SSTO's. A Kerbal shuttle (using the SP+ crew module) and a light cargo shuttle, using the cargo bay. My first question is in building. I have found the SPH to be utterly maddening so far. Getting wings to snap on just so and line up takes far more effort than it seems like it should. It seems like i can spend upwards of 30-60 seconds sometimes getting a wing section to "go green" only to then try and adjust forward or back a little and screw it up. So I didn't know if there are any tips/tricks/helpful mods I am missing or it is just a clunky interface. Similarly, with these larger planes the issue is compounded. If while building up the wing I realize it should really be shifted a little, there is no way to grab all the wing sections as a unit. So it seems I have to end up tearing it all down and starting over. As for the actual ships, my main question is the viability of a horizontal takeoff SSTO cargo hauler. Using tweakscale I can shrink 2 of the MKS cargo cans so that 2 fit perfectly in the spaceplane+ cargo bay. completely full they come in at just around 10 tons. Is it possible to build a SSTO to handle that kind of weight without being some huge monstrocity? Or should I consider a more shuttle style rocket assist takeoff/plane landing type of setup? Also, is there any way to get an idea of wing loading/lift characteristics, or is designing the wing a pure trial and error experience? I have also had a hard time with these larger planes figuring out how much wing I actually need. Thanks

The camera works for me. The Science crates seem largely decorative. I was however to store science in them (ie did eva report, right clicked the crate and store experiments)

Out of curiosity, what is the part in the video showing the assembly via KAS below the capsule that is holding the KAS containers?

definitely 2 parallel beams at each side for the wheels. But heck I'd be happy getting the beams to connect. I have been mostly using the rocket hangar tho so I will try the SPH (I just thought of that as I had typed the post)

Hello fellow kerbonauts. I am still pretty new to this game but it has been more addictive than crack (so I've heard). Recently however I have found myself for the first time wanting to rage quit. This is over my attempts to build my first manned rover. I have built some small unmanned rovers fine. Now this isn't necessarily about designing the rover. I mean literally building it. For example I was considering starting with one of the 2x2 flat panels as a floor. Use I beams underneath as an attachment point for the wheels. The thing is I cannot for the life of me get this stuff to snap together properly to even get a decent rover base started. So any hints or tips would be appreciated. First, should I be building Rovers in the Spaceplane hangar (since rovers are built "horizontally" like a plane) or in the rocket hangar?

easy answer? Because Squad didn't include the functionality of mods such as Debrefund in as stock. They should have IMO.

Drools. I'd even be happy having them in their white model forms just to be able to use them.

Just curious, but will any new extraction/conversion/storage parts make it into the initial release? The addition of new engines and the like are cool and all, but the options for drills, and conversion/storage tanks is still extremely limited. Of course I ask knowing full well I lack the knowledge of how to make these things so I am unable to help. I was just curious.

I would guess the other balance on it would be that at least in non-sandbox mode, it comes at the end of the tech tree. So it's not like you get to use them out of the gate.

Everyone. Thanks for your input. I did some additional playing around with the plane last night. But it was too late to respond until I got some sleep. Overall I agree with most that it is just an unstable design. 1. I'm gonna go more with "It's the plane" than "It's the pilot". I have built some other test planes that flew much better. 2. The short fuselage makes it very difficult to get it properly balanced. Even then you end up with a situation where your COM and COL are pretty close to each other. 3. The control surfaces up front make it overly controllable. For example in other designs I can pull off a hard turn, aka banking hard (70+deg) then pull up the nose. With this setup trying that procedure at any speed causes an uncontrollable tuimble. I replaced the front surfaces with smaller non-moving winglets it was more controllable. Overall the whole thing was a good exercise. While I have enjoyed and prefer to try and figure out designs on my own, trying to copy someone's helped a bit vs starting from scratch. By utilzing the design and technique from the video I gained tons of understanding about getting a spaceplane into orbit (not just point up like a rocket) Rather than completely trying to figure out what it takes to get a plane out of the atmosphere I started with something that can. From there I am now working on something easier for me to fly as well.

Lethal, Stock KSP. The plane is a replica from the post i linked in the OP. In this video of the same plane At about 3:55 he spins out. Its pretty much identical to what I have encountered. In fact it happens about the same distance from the runway as well.Keep in mind this isn't while actually landing. I'm usually still about 8000m up, going around 180-200m/s and still a good ways from the KSC. Like just after coming over the mountains if you were approaching from the west. I have built several non-space planes just to tool around and have had far better success. I'm guessing this plane design is fairly squirrelly to begin with.

It may be close to stall speed. And to be fair in the video he does a nice spin out at about the same place I do. I do get the concept TG626, I fly alot in both simulation and R/C. In this case I couldn't really slow down any further so I was trying different things, namely to dive down a little to gain speed at the same time. bottom line is it flies fine if i don't touch anything Wander, I appreciate the offer. While I am new and mildly annoyed at the moment, I'd still rather muddle through and learn through trial and error.

Hey gang. I'm still pretty new to KSP. Although I have gotten quite good at getting on and off the Mun and Minmus, docking etc. I totally suck at planes however. I'm not sure if it is my build or piloting skill. I have had a little success with some early planes that just flew within Kerbin's atmo. But I came across this post and I was intrigued by the simple "rescue SSTO" design. So I tried to replicate it based of the picture and video. I am pretty sure I got it right, albeit unsure if I have the balance setup correctly. I can fly it into orbit using a similar amount of fuel and so forth. What gets me every time is this. I can take off, orbit, de-orbit, and come into sight of the runway fine. Then, while going maybe around 180 m/s I will run into the following. "I'm coming in a little high" ever so slightly nose down, BAM spin out "I'm a little to the left/right" ever so slightly bank and BAM spin out. Its getting highly annoying to be able to go up, orbit and come back only to splatter in the last few minutes. I thought maybe the burning of the fuel was messing up the COM, but I have tested just by taking off, circling around and trying to land again. Any hint/tips etc would be greatly appreciated. Also let me know if any particular pics/files would help.