Matrazuchi

Yeah, it says it depends on Space TuxLibrary, which is not compatible with the latest game version...

Oh wow, I didn't expect the difference between KSP model and FAR to be so drastic... but yep, what you're saying makes sense. I guess I was too used to the crude controls of stock KSP .

For a plane to be controllable, it needs to be slightly nose-heavy; not much, just enough to prevent it from tipping over. When building it, check the center of mass (yellow sphere) and center of lift (blue sphere); The blue sphere should be slightly behind the center of the yellow sphere, but not too much. I'd say either just inside the yellow sphere, or maybe half in and half out. Also, check what happens when your fuel tanks go empty, you don't want the center of mass to shift back too much. If that's the case, move the center of lift further back, even if that means your plane will be a bit too nose heavy when it starts flying... - If the blue sphere is too much behind, your airplane will be very nose-heavy and you'll have a hard time to prevent it from going nose-down. - If the blue and yellow spheres centers coincide, your aircraft will fly, but it will be incredibly uncontrollable, the slightest control surface correction will send it into uncontrollable spin ... and we all know where that ends - Finally, if your center of lift is in front of center of mass, then your aircraft will behave exactly as you described it: it will flip over the moment it loses contact with ground.

EDIT: Just in case anyone gets completely confused with FAR's lack of wiki/manuals, I found it on the github page... yes, it was in plain sight, but also hidden. I mean, documentation should be a bit more obvious to find. Anyway, I found it, and it clarified some of my confusions. Here is for whoever didn't know there is one: https://github.com/ferram4/Ferram-Aerospace-Research/wiki/An-Example-SSTO-Design-Process --- Although this question involves a mod, I'm not asking it in mod's topic, because it's more about user experience and gameplay, I hope this will land well with moderators or conservative forum members, thank you. Not long after I started to enjoy KSP I decided to experiment with all those wonderful extensions and mods. One of them was KSP GroundEffect and I noticed some changes in how aircrafts behaved. But then I found this Ferram Aerospace Research Continued that promises a completely new aerodynamic model, so I decided to try it... I think I wasn't prepared for it. - First thing I noticed the controls for my aircrafts were messed-up, they weren't moving the way I expected. - Then, when i wanted to reconfigure them, assuming it was a glitch, I noticed the configuration options were completely different and there is when it started to become confusing... - Lastly, as you can see in the screenshot below, my aircraft blew to pieces at the slightest pitch adjustment... So, I decided it's time to ask the experts. And here I am, asking: How should one "do stuff" in KSP with this mod installed? Please guide me, help me understand what's going on, how you do things and basically take my hand and walk me through. At this point I'm so lost and frustrated that my other alternative is just to uninstall the mod... which would be a pity, considering what it advertises...

I confirm it behaves similarly at my end, with the mention that when using symmetry, sometimes one of the symmetrical parts gets modified, and then i can use that one to reapply. However, upon launching, it won't work and when returning back to hangar, the part looks weird (nozzle and cone detached from the body)

Let's hope this gets a bit more attention and involvement ... and who knows, it may become a reality.

Correct, even the "Wheelsey" I don't have it yet. It was temporarily available for the contract, So I had to improvise. It could work, if the rocket had a very low ascension rate, so its speed would be under 250m/s until it goes past 4000m, for the engine test contract. But then, if I did that, I wouldn't have anything to share with you guys

So, I'm a n00b, that's a given... and my KSP exporation is at the beginning, but that's no reason to have it dull. So, here's what I try to do: I'm selecting contracts that could be somehow done together in the same flight. Is not always efficient, but it's a challenge. I would like to share with you one of those combo-contracts and the craft which made it possible: My latest challenge was composed of two contracts: - get two tourists on a suborbital trip (their faces when the craft took off, just priceless ) - test J-33 "Wheelsey" turbofan at 2000-4000m altitude, and a speed between 170 to 250m/s ... Anyway, the two seemed somehow contradictory at a first look, as one required a rocket, the other one an airplane. Why not do a rocketplane then, and solve them both? And as long as we're there, why not add some extra scientists and a bunch of instruments, and collect some science and crew reports while at it? Suffices to say that it took me a bit of experimentation, as I went from cheap and simple to complex and expensive... and at first i barely reached 16000m, then somehow I made to 20000, and then, when I reached 60000, I though that was the limit and I won't be able to pass 70000, but that was just my self-doubting. Eventually I got there, landed the scared passengers safely and without making them sick (yep, it was among the requirements)... but, not the entire plane landed. As you'll see in the images below, the craft is meant to lose its parts as it goes, it's loaded with decouplers, the first ones to go being the landing gears (who needs landing gear anyway? ). And descending from suborbital, on a very steep trajectory wasn't too much fun either, as I had a very narrow window for deploying the Drogue chutes, good thing I got redundant on those (had 4, two of which were blown away by the overheating and speed, but they slowed the craft just enough for the other two to deploy and do their job... from there, it was all routine). The way it happened: 1 - took off using the wing jet engines (all engines had 10% fuel only) 2 - short after taking off, lose landing gear (was fitted on decouplers, like most parts) 3 - get temperature measurements, as accelerating towards the first contract, with all those nipples under the belly (turns out one can get all measurements one wants, in a place, as long as enough instruments are brought along, and they all count equally) 4 - kick in the "Wheelsey" engines, those surely made a difference, despite the small air intake fitted on. 5 - get the liquid fuel rocket on (preset at 70% thrust), this happened at around 10000m, as the vertical speed was dropping under 100m/s, and that made the jet engine viable until just under 20000m, when they flameout. 6 - not long after, I dropped the wings, as they would only cause drag 7 - once the jet engines flamed out, I dropped them all and boosted the rocket engine to 100% (still keeping the canards, will need them later). From here, is just a rocket with canards... 8 - for the descent, I still happened to have a bit of fuel, which I used to slightly reduce the descent speed just before hitting thicker atmosphere, it didn't do much, but it helped to open the chutes before getting all fried. 9 - dropped the rocket engine and tanks and now it's only a glorified capsule (poor tourists, only if they knew how little was standing between being crushed to death and living to tell) 10 - deployed the drogue chutes, which didn't pop until the atmospheric thickness became viable (just at the same time when air friction was starting to cause plasma), the first two failed immediately, but they allowed the other two to just make it... 11 - dropped the canards, as now they had no purpose, dropped the heat shield at the back of passengers compartment (yes, i had one, where the liquid fuel was attached) 12 - deployed the main parachutes and landed safely, taking those poor stand-up guys money... plus a lot of science that I got to collect. Would you have it done differently?

After a bit of experience with contracts and mods that add new contracts, I thought of something that may bring some diversity: Community Contracts .. this would be a great mod and it could be made of this Community Forum. Idea is simple: - Have a (web) interface where users can make their own contracts, with challenge and reward decided by whoever writes the contract (yep, that may lead to some really random and crazy stuff) - KSP to have a new contracts tab, where the player could browse in-game contracts written by other users (this obviously requires internet connection) - To make it a bit more interesting, the one who wrote the contract (the client), could benefit of contract's results (eg. science) and pay for the contract. What would accomplish: An extremely diverse pool of contracts, filled with creative ideas, that would keep players engaged and the community interactive.

I removed the small canard and the manoeuvrability of the airplane improved considerably. Before, turning was a real pain, hence my difficulties to align with the landing strip...

I added the canards (and the secondary one) to shift the center of lift forward, because the rudder is producing too much lift for such a small craft. Yes, the landing gear seems to be incredibly weak, only one in perhaps 10 landings happens withoug incidents :))

@18Watt My first successful landing! ... After moving the landing gear to the body and then shifting it manually in the desired position. To answer your previous question: no, the body under the wings is a passenger section. The only fuel the craft carries is in the engines tanks.

@18Watt Indeed my landing gear is attached to the engine pylons... that may be indeed the issue. I'll move them on the body and then manually offset them in the desired position. Also, I will adjust the damping of landing gear springs. Should I increase or lower (or leave as is) the spring value? My landing angles were very shallow, almost horizontal, which baffled me even more when I saw the thing blowing to pieces... I'll keep you updated if the above changes will help. Thank you for the quick and valuable feedback.

Hi all, I just got drawn into playing KSP and it wasn't long until I built my first aircraft, trying to stick by whatever basic knowledge about winged flight I had... not much, if you're wondering. So, here it is, my first flying craft, that seems to take off well (at about 60m/s), but I can't seem to be able to land it, no matter how slow I'm trying to put it down. I still don't master the skills to align it with the runway, so the landing is just on grasslands, but still... i can't understand why it's always blowing to pieces, even at very shallow descent angles and low speed (i tried speeds between 50m/s to 100m/s). It's not stalling and it's not going too fast... I must be doing something wrong. Any "piloting" advice is more than welcome. Also, I was wondering if is possible to share a model, for whoever would like to try and fly it and give some feedback. Thanks.