[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

5 hours ago, panzer1b said:

Paralax mod is epic, makes the surfaces actually uneven and challenging to traverse by vehicles

It's awesome, but makes the ground a bit too dark and melts my GPU. Hope they optimize the shader or release a performance version.

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

2 hours ago, SkyRender said:

Looks like you underestimated the need to slow down before deploying the chutes by quite a margin!  Laythe's atmosphere isn't nearly as forgiving as Duna's or even Kerbin's...

Yes I remember Laythe's atmosphere being quite a bit thicker. But after some fuel pumping (so all engines could slow it down) and a dozen attempts she stayed upright and intact. KSC reports that landing in shallow water helps clean the engines and was definitely not the result of poor piloting.

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

Successfully landed on Laythe and all 100 Kerbals onboard the grand tour ship are in good health. Picture taken moments before graceful touchdown.

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

Landed 100 kerbals on Minmus and Mun. Next stop: everywhere else.

[(CLOSED) The Solar Trip Challenge]

Guess I'll have a go at this. Are camera / visual / audio mods allowed?

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

Roleplayed a Kerbal with tunnel vision and visited the Mun.

 

[Challenge: use only IVA to the Mun]

A bit late to the party but here's my "tunnel vision mode" attempt:

• IVA only
• Hidden UI (F2)
• Zoomed in at all times
• No saving or loading
• Craft is the stock Kerbal X

 

[Kerbin Helicopter Circumnavigation]

25 minutes ago, KerrMü said:

Edit: Don´t park on the tracking stations. Bad idea!

Haha I was just wondering if I made a mistake by avoiding that nice flat surface. But yeah, collision detection on these structures don't seem to work in map view, so the craft falls through (learned that on KSC 2 roof).

[Kerbin Helicopter Circumnavigation]

Flight update #2

Leg 3 Departed: Crashed Saucer (81.95, -128.51) @ 1d 4h30m Arrival: Strange Helipad - antipode of Desert Temple (6.5, 38.3) @ 2d 4h12m Leg 4 Departed: Strange Helipad (6.5, 38.3) @ 3d 0h52m Arrival: CommNet Station (-11.95, 33.73) @ 3d 2h16m

Crossed the polar cap and ocean during the day, ending with a landing pad. Misjudged the distance of this long flight and had to land in pitch dark as a result.

Had a few close calls with gorgeous mountain tips and tipped over after landing on a slope.  I guess these prop bearings also work as safety bumpers - the blades remained intact.

Third and final update will be a video of compiled flight footage.

[When did you start playing KSP?]

2011. Good times watching Scott Manley. One of my own earliest videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZpoG5K5nQU.

 

[Kerbin Helicopter Circumnavigation]

Great looking craft, @KerrMü.  What's the top speed of that bad boy? Judging by the duration of your first leg, I'm guessing around 75 m/s.

Flight update #1

Leg 1 Departed: Desert Temple(-6.5, -141.7) @ 0d 4h20m Arrival: Inland Space Center (20.67, -146.42) @ 1d 0h11m Leg 2 Departed: Inland Space Center (20.67, -146.42) @ 1d 0h22m Arrival: Crashed Saucer (81.95, -128.51) @ 1d 4h23m

Short and peaceful flight over the desert and picturesque mountains - until it's time to slow down and land. This contraption is so hard to maneuver and likes to flip over, at which point it's game over.
Managed to finally touch down successfully and let out a sigh of relief.

Climbed up to 4500m at the start to dodge taller mountains. Thought it would be fine to fly this leg in the night, since most of the way was just plain and boring grasslands.
Flipped over and crashed once but luckily had no troubles landing this time.

Next destinations: Strange Helipad (located at the opposite side of the globe to Desert Temple) and CommNet Station.

[Kerbin Helicopter Circumnavigation]

After hours and hours of testing I managed to get cruising speed up to 50 m/s. Can't do any better so I'm done building and will officially enter the challenge.

4 rookie pilots and 16 volunteers signed the paperwork and will risk their lives for a dangerous challenge - to fly around Kerbin in an experimental helicopter.
Our chubby quad copter weighs exactly 24 tons and cruises at 50 m/s.

During this grand voyage we will visit 6 points of interest, starting from the Desert Temple. Total flight time is estimated to be around 24 hours.

Spoiler

And I have to redo the first flight. Got a bit too ballsy and tried precision landing with this floating brick.

 

[Kerbin Helicopter Circumnavigation]

Are outdated / old-fashioned / nostalgia-inducing rotors allowed? And can I use Mechjeb's Smart A.S.S to hold heading, pitch & roll?
Here's a sneak peek  of my quadcopter abomination.

 

[The Eve to Tylo Challenge]

A whole month and no entries? Well here's mine.

Starting mass without the platform is 88.56 tons. Could shave off another 5-10 tons if you get rid of the extra xenon tank. Did it with 2 tanks just to be safe. [Craft download]

 

[Fly a stock plane with only engine thrust]

Missed the runway completely but landed in one piece. Thank you for a fun challenge @ErinBensen.

 

[Fly a stock plane with only engine thrust]

Have you tried quickloading this plane while flying? The wings disintegrate.

Crashed twice so far but will try again later.

[Design and Fly Planes that are Hard to Fly]

On 5/9/2019 at 12:09 AM, PhazeKL said:

Here it is boys. Give it a shot. As for airworthiness, I shall leave it up to you do decide. Personally, i think this little thing is actually VERY fun to fly. idk why 

Flying the wing felt super fun, so I wanted to also land it. Tried switching off reaction wheels, disabling steering and bouncing on the shore before the runway to slow down. But still kept on crashing, hoping for a lucky bounce.

Then I decided to fly around to lessen the weight and accidentally forgot to lower the front landing gear. Forgetfulness usually leads to failures but not this time!

Successful landing ends at 45s, continued by a 3 minute montage of however many crashes I experienced:

 

[Design and Fly Planes that are Hard to Fly]

Oops, I completely forgot about reverse thrust. Might have stopped on the runway then.

Thanks for trying out my craft - good to hear that it's challenging. 

Yes, those low tech wheels don't seem to tolerate planes this heavy. So landing and takeoff has to be really gentle. This might spoil the challenge, but here's what helps me land the plane:

Spoiler

I recommend using pitch trim (alt + S, W for windows) on takeoff and when leveling out. Slightly pulling up on takeoff reduces stress on the front wheel and should result in less crashes. Having the control surfaces in a fixed position, thanks to pitch trim, gives you slightly more lift and less drag, which lets you loop around instead of falling into the water.

 

[Design and Fly Planes that are Hard to Fly]

Part 1

All my planes fly just too well, so here's my low tech Caveman Spaceplane (CMSP), with a twist. Due to a malfunction in electronics, reaction wheels do not work and neither does the main engine! Fully fueled, it has barely enough thrust to gain altitude.

Instructions: Accelerate to around 80m/s and pull up hard. Press space and pretend to be surprised that the liquid fuel engine has no thrust. Now try to stabilize, loop around and land back on the runway. Do not use SAS (because its broken).

Craft file here (KSP 1.7.0): https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ih7oqwiv9234us/CMSP.craft?dl=0

Part 2

Oscar sure is one hell of a challenge to fly. Nearly impossible without SAS. Managed to land it in one piece but not quite on the runway. All it took was dozens of attempts and almost all of my willpower.

[The 2018 Kerbal Dakar]

15 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

I'm 99.99999999999% sure that's not allowed. 

Aw shucks. It was a thrilling experience nevertheless. Perhaps edit the rules and state how much lifting value (if at all) can be added. Guess Ill switch the prop to a jet and try again some day (might even be faster).

[The 2018 Kerbal Dakar]

No clue if propellers are allowed and how much lift generating parts can be added, but here's my entry and craft file. To honor the 'no-thrust-while-in-air' rule I toggled the propeller off before almost every hill. I used Mechjeb to assist in holding heading while doing the speed control and panicking myself. Average speed was about 63m/s and max G-forces... probably in the hundreds. But even though its fast and sturdy the appearance leaves much to be desired.

[2018 Kerbal Dakar Results Thread]

"The Jiggler" is a strange looking Propeller-Boat-Car thingy that gets its name from a habit of starting to shake after long periods of driving(some weird bug). It can reconnect the propeller with a claw, so it doesn't fly away when time is warped. A slight variation of this beast has been driven around Eve, but it has never experienced Kerbin mountains, until now. Some very sharp mountains caused an adrenaline rush but Jeb didn't even need to touch the brakes - turning rotor torque off before jumps was enough to slow down and not crash on landing.

Top speed: ~100m/s(land), ~50m/s(water), Weight: ~7.7t (propeller: ~1.3t), Parts: 56 (propeller: 17), Crew capacity: 5

Spoiler

Stage 1

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:07:09

Stage 2

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:07:59

Stage 3

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:08:14

Stage 4

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:08:40

Stage 5

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:09:02

Stage 6

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:07:33

Stage 7

Start:

Finish:

Time = 00:06:21

Everyone survived

None of the crew have spagettified but G-forces left them  with a dazed look. Jeb notes that propellers sure are crazy fun and maybe they should research those instead of boring old R.A.P.I.E.R. engines.

Total time: = 00.54.58 (54 minutes and 58 seconds)

Total time = 00:54:58

[Stock Propeller Challenge]

Messed up the landing though, so broke the rules had to quickload. Used mechjeb for altitude control and top speed was about 220 m/s - divide Kerbin's radius with that to get the trip time. Not sure if I have the craft file anymore, pm me if interested.

[Launching Escape Systems...]

Kerbin launch might be possible with the use of Launch Stability Enhancers. Not sure how stable it is though, and if it's considered cheating. 

 

[The Elkano challenge (all versions accepted!)]

I had some trouble last attempt when I had a way heavier rover and terrain detail setting was on lowest. No problems this time, except for the  strange shake.