capi3101

Second that - couple of years back with the Kerbal Dakar Challenge, I ultimately had to strap on a pair of LF boosters to my vehicle to get over the mountains in the second leg. Only thing that worked. If nothing else, the engine keeps your car from sliding down too far while the batts recharge. Worth considering.

I can honestly say that I've never tried to do something like this on purpose. It's probably worth an experiment.

I have observed this behavior - stuff gets cut off from your craft by the bubble, but then you wind up hauling the resultant debris along to your destination. I also wound up hauling a craft along that I'd just dropped off at Duna once. To get around this, I generally just make a pre-warp check when I want to use the drive. Goes like this: 1) Quicksave (because why not) and point to zenith. 2) Check to see if anything is in physics range by hitting one of the bracket keys. 3) Assuming there are no other craft nearby, activate the warp drive. 4) Check to see if anything is in physics range by hitting one of the bracket keys. If something is suddenly there, revert and fix the problem (my warp ship is generally a mothership, so fixing the problem usually just means finding a different docking port or reorienting something), starting over. 5) Assuming there's still nothing in range, throttle up.

'Splosions. Big ones. That's assuming you attempt to utilize both drives at the same time for propulsion, in fairness. If your intent is to use a single drive and have the second one there to give you extra ExM generation/storage capacity, there's no real reason why that shouldn't work. But if your intent is to try to extend the area effect of the bubble...well, no. Don't do that. It's like the postal service - it only ships if it fits.

If it makes you feel better, I haven't posted anything substantial on this thread since the 23rd of February. Just something to ponder. Not for lack of things to post, either...

Nothing about the plane's design jumps out at me, at least nothing related to limitations to the craft's speed (dynamic stability is another story, but it's not what you're going after so I won't go there). You might have a tad too much wing inducing just enough drag. What does it look like when you've got the debug voxels turned on? Two other things - what are the stats on the engine you're using, and have you tried putting it into a steep dive (you know, climb up to about 20,000, then put her 30-40 degrees towards the ground with the throttle all the way to the stops)?

Went back through my logs today and realized it'd been a solid month since I last posted anything substantial for y'all. I probably oughta get around to doing that...meantime, here's a screenie: Stress testing the undocking/landing systems of a Piper Alpha 7 refinery for delivery to Eve. I didn't necessarily want it to be a live test, but Phoming insisted; just another day at the office, really.

Ah, okay. Thanks again for the help.

Ah, much thanks. Traced it to a nested GameData folder within the main GameData folder. I'm actually more than slightly embarrassed to have committed such a novice mistake... Did notice that the lines in my output_log used "MiniAVC" as opposed to "KSP-AVC ->". Is this something I should be concerned about, or is it likely the result of a different mod install? Wound up tracing the issue by searching for the version number 0.0.11 within the file; turns out there were only three instances of it.

Uh....I guess that would be you, wouldn't it? You're managing both mods right now, unless I'm mistaken. It's related to the same issue I reported on this thread back on January 11th; the part where I was getting a Module Manager error has gone away, but the game is still reporting that there's a 'new version' of Patch Manager available - it's been doing this since 0.0.12 through 0.0.13 and now on to 0.0.14. At the time you suggested that there was an extra .version file somewhere; I've looked repeatedly and haven't found one. Doesn't affect my ability to play KSP, so I haven't considered it that big of a deal.

I agree; I was going to report an issue with the mod but since I don't ClickThroughBlocker have installed, I imagine that's the root cause of the issues I'm seeing... Symptom - no control over action groups in the VAB/SPH, a little black box in the upper left corner while in flight if you right click on the AGX button. Solution: Install ClickThroughBlocker.

First post in the thread. The specific link to the new version on GitHub is here. Still hoping the IFS folks update their stuff sometime soon; I'm still getting a new version alert from 0.0.11, when I've got 0.0.14 installed and working...

Unless one abruptly cuts the power to the treadmill, of course. Then it's hard not to do so. Not speaking from personal experience here. Nope. Totally no personal experience. Seriously.

It's what I do. I will post this image as a cautionary tale with this method, though - Make sure your wings fit inside your bubble, or you might have some slight difficulty with retrieving your planes...landing without a vertical stabilizer is tricky, trying to land without a wing is suicidal...

Yes, I did, and yes it was. It was a procedural fairing, though; not one of the stock ones. I remember because the stupid things blew the outboard docking ports off of MSV Fat Man's pylons when they decoupled (Fat Man being my main warp ship - it's equipped with a 2.5 meter drive; the Procedural Fairing mod releases fairings in anywhere from 2-8 individual parts). Now that you mention it, though, I did try to launch a probe with one of the 0.625 meter drives on it a few weeks ago to zip out to Eve and back. Launched it inside a two meter fairing with no issues, but then when I tried to go deorbit the thing the craft didn't want to generate any drag and blew up a half-dozen times before I threw in the towel - even with a ten meter heat shield attached to it on the last try (damndest thing - it slowed down up to a certain point and then began to speed up again). I don't remember if I reported it or not; I want to say I did.

I use FAR and Alcubierre Drive; unfortunately, I've never tried sticking a warp drive on a spaceplane. I figured the warp drive modules would unquestionably mess up any area ruling I'd tried to build into a spaceplane design. I'm not sure how FAR goes about voxelizing objects; I do know that it when it encounters something it doesn't like, the patterns can be quite lovely (and will unquestionably prevent any craft from successfully taking off, let alone get to space). Even has that issue with a few stock parts, such as Sr. Docking Ports. Can't offer any suggestions, unfortunately; a solution would probably involve a rather lengthy and only slightly condescending discussion between @ferram4 and @RoverDude as likely as not.

Was trying to come up with a word for a group of Nyan cats. Went with 'murder'. It seemed like the best description of what's going on in this image... Weather is still bad here; wound up with another day off, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to keep my log up to date. Or, I would've but the forum seems to have eaten the rest of my post...

Had the day off of my paying job today due to an ice storm (sleet, freezing rain, general conditions that make driving crappy), so I figured I'd take this opportunity to catch up on my log. Only got activities for the last week... This past week started with the flight of an Auk Ia 2-passenger spaceplane to the Kerbinport space station, ferrying tourists Gernand and Kerley Kerman to the station. The plane then departed with tourists Mardorf and Gempond Kerman aboard, landing safely at KSC 09 and clearing Gempond's contract. Meanwhile, the Spamcan 7a lander that had ferried the two tourists to Kerbinport from the warp ship MSV Fat Man departed the station to return to the Minmusport space station for an eleven day transit. At that point, my attention turned towards getting a new consist together for Fat Man to deliver to Ike for monetary contracts and to set up the initial infrastructure at Eve. With a contract to put a station over Ike with a capacity of 20 Kerbals, 6000 units of liquid fuel and 5000 ore, my thought was to make several modules to expand on my standard space station design. To that end, I designed an ore storage module, which was dubbed No, It's 2 Food and 3 Ore 7: It's not every day I get to make a Catan reference with my rockets... I also designed a module based on a very large IFS Liquid Xenon tank, which was specifically for Fat Man to extend the ship's operational range (her Alcubierre Drive consumes Xenon, and the LX converts to Xenon at a steady rate). Since this craft looked like a big suppository and was designed to attach to the craft's aft docking port, I though it fitting to dub the module Preparation H 7... With these two modules designed, I decided to go ahead and get the crew of the Eve expedition together. An Auk II 8-passenger plane was launched to Kerbinport with Val, Bill, pilot Nelny Kerman, scientists Bobkin, Paley and Catny Kerman and engineers Dezor and Halzer aboard. Upon arrival at Kerbinport, Nelny resumed command of Necessary Evil and Catny relieved Bob as acting capsule commander of Kerbinport, with Bob boarding Strange Cargo. Bill, Bobkin, Paley, Dezor and Halzer joined Bob aboard as well as tourists Gernand and Kerley, with Val taking the helm of the ship as her new capsule commander (replacing Jeb, who has assumed command of Fat Man). With everybody aboard, Strange Cargo departed Kerbinport and burned for a rendezvous with Fat Man. Preparation H 7 and No, It's 2 Food and 3 Ore 7 were then launched. Preparation H 7 at launch. And yes, I still think the payload looks like a big suppository... The three craft reached Fat Man successfully and affected individual docking maneuvers with the warp ship, with Strange Cargo docking at Amidships 2, Preparation H 7 docking at the aft port as planned, and No, It's etc. 7 docking at Amidships 3. Next on the consist was a pair of Faux News 7 satellite delivery modules, and then I launched a Hellhound 7 rover with its skycrane modified specifically to help the craft survive atmospheric entry at Eve. Finally, I launched a space station core, which was dubbed Eveport upon arriving in orbit. Eveport, having made its rendezvous burn for Fat Man. Eveport gave me the most consternation - first, I had never tried to deliver a space station to its destination via warp drive before. Second, and more critically, and something I realized about five minutes from rendezvous, was that the design included exactly no RCS thrusters... I wound up improvising, docking the Faux News modules to the opposite sides of the station and using them to steer the station onto one of Fat Man's pylon docking ports. Care was taken to make sure the station would stay within the ship's warp bubble. It took a little finagling to finally get everything docked up, but ultimately, I was successful. MSV Fat Man, hauling waaaaaaay to much crap at once. For reference, the ship's prow is the cupola module up at the top of the screenie. This shot was taken before I moved the Faux News module on the left hand side. The ship's consist came in at 500 tonnes. With 120 kN worth of SAS wheels plus the cupola. Her steering characteristics during the trip out to Ike (Ike first) were pretty abysmal, and the journey took the better part of the day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Old Bessie 7a fueling lander assigned to the Dunaport space station arrived, delivering fuel to a station that had been bled completely dry by the last expedition that had visited the station. The lander delivered just enough fuel to be acceptable; the next expedition will undoubtedly require another fueling run. I also began landings of an ongoing expedition to the Ikeport space station, with the crew of Laggin' Dragon conducting flag-planting training in the vicinity of the refinery Scan Queen on Ike's surface. The expedition included the assigned nominal crews of the refineries Piper Alpha on Mün and Deepwater Horizon on Minmus and the orbiting Munport and Minmusport space stations. Three runs were made to Scan Queen, with the refinery refueling the crew lander used each time. After Fat Man arrived over Ike, an attempt was made to fulfill the requirements of the space station contract. Eveport was cut loose as was Preparation H 7, which was then docked to the station. Strange Cargo was then docked up as well in an attempt to fulfill the other requirements: Eveport (top) and Fat Man (bottom). I can only ask y'all to trust that this is over Ike... Unfortunately, since Strange Cargo is a relatively old craft, it killed the portion of the contract that required it to be a new space station. So, the decision was made to leave the station over Ike to retrieve later. Deciding to rename the station Gillyport, burns were affected to circularize the craft's orbit and align it with Ikeport, in the process opening up the range between it and Fat Man to the point where the latter could activate its warp drive safely. Strange Cargo returned to dock at Fat Man, and Laggin' Dragon departed Ikeport to rendezvous with Fat Man along with a Spamcan 7 lander also docked to the station. Both have their rendezvous with Fat Man set; the plan is to haul everybody out to Eve for now, drop off what all needs to be dropped off over the purple planet, and then haul Strange Cargo and Laggin' Dragon back to Kerbin. I'm hoping that the mere act of orbiting Eve will be sufficient to get both crews up to 5-star status; it'd be nice to have 5-star engineers running the refineries at Mün and Minmus. Nothing I can't investigate via the wiki, of course. I have to get another space station out to Eve; next time I'll include the RCS thrusters. I also still need to retrofit a Piper Alpha refinery design for Eve; I have a refinery contract for the purple planet, so ultimately I'll need one. I already know the refineries can be hauled aboard Fat Man but I'll need to add the necessary equipment to ensure safe atmospheric entry. Finally, I'm still hoping to get engineer Suus Kerman and pilot Helming Kerman down to the surface of Minmus. The closest crew lander is still two days out... I've also begun thinking about the design of the next warp ship, which is planned to be a larger ship than Fat Man, carrying a 3.5 meter warp drive. GSV Tsar Bomba is intended to be larger and more capable than Fat Man. More expensive too - I'm expecting a √45M budget for the craft. Actually need to sit down and design the thing at some point; then I'd have a hard fiscal target...

I might suggest JATO. Plop a set of Hammers or Kickbacks on the underside of that sucker, light 'em at takeoff, get up to 15,000 as quickly as you can. Once you're there you've got the same atmospheric pressure as the Dunan surface. If thrust is an issue at that point, maybe carry a second set of SRBs for the ramp up to orbit.

Same here. I'm glad I kept going.

Everybody who tries SSTOs gets to this point sooner or later (my own self very much included - couldn't tell you the page numbers on this very thread where I about rage quit all over everybody; couple of years back). Mean's that you're almost there, and you'll get there if you don't rage quit now. What specific issues are you having? Can you post a screenshot of what you're flying?

Yep. EDIT: Well, kinda. bac9 and Crzyrndm are no longer actively maintaining the mod, with the thread regarding Crzyrndm's involvement posted here. That thread contains a version of B9 Procedural Wings that does work in 1.3.x. I use those wings in pretty much every design I actively fly. Makes me a little concerned about what's going to happen when 1.4 rolls out... Mods, it might not hurt to lock down the thread with the link to the new thread in the final post.

I might mention that 95% of the problems I have these days with any new plane design have to do with the landing gear than anything else (especially ones that steer). Getting the damn things on straight is always a headache (even with a mod for that), and then I tend to have no luck with landing gear that steer at all. A setup I used on the Auk XIII that worked well was Spring 1, Damper 1, Friction 0.5, steering on, no brakes on the forward gear; Spring 1.25, Damper 1, Friction 1, no steering, 200 brakes on the main gear - the XIII is a single passenger SSTO with docking capabilities. Another one I've seen is 200 brakes for all wheels, 5.0 friction for non-steering wheels and 2.5 friction for steering wheels, otherwise the same - I've got that on on the Auk VIII, a heavy SSTO tanker (an obligatory 'orange tank to orbit' craft). I guess the takeaway here is that you always want to override the friction controls on landing gear and set them a higher for heavier craft. Don't use the little bush plane gear for anything you want to get airborne. Just don't. Best use I've had for them was to get markers out to use on either end of the Runway to setup a rudimentary (but quite functional) visual ILS.

Planes take a while. They make you angry. Then they make you obsessed. Then, before you know it, you've got no fewer than two dozen mods installed all intended to make yourself capable of plane-ing... You've probably done it already, but start with @keptin's Basic Aircraft Design - Explained Simply, With Pictures. It's where a lot of us spaceplane jockeys started, myself included. One of the few "old posts" that's still quite applicable even in today's KSP world.

Slow day yesterday. The Old Bessie 7a craft conducted a refueling operation at the Scan Queen refinery on Ike and burned to return to the Dunaport space station, and in the meantime tourists Mardorf and Gempond Kerman returned from MSV Fat Man in orbit of Kerbin to the Kerbinport space station aboard a Spamcan 7a lander. That was pretty much it for the operational game. I actually spent most of my day fiddling around with Firespitter. I'd been thinking about how I was going to go about with the exploration of Eve and I'd read somewhere that electric prop engines (ala Firespitter) were actually a very good choice (if you could get them there, naturally). So, I mainly was doing that. Val testing the Bad Idea 6, a prop plane powered solely by RTGs. For not knowing what I was doing, the plane handled pretty well - though next time I'll be sure to include airbrakes in the design... Later on, I built a Fokker D.VII replica and let Val try it out. How the hell anybody tried to fight a war with a WWI plane is beyond me. And yes, the noise from her buzzing the tower was still enough to make the chief controller spill hot coffee all over himself...... I still haven't decided if I'll actually go this route with Eve. I'm sure the planes would fly beautifully, but the notion of being limited to the lower trans-sonic regime at best sounds...unnecessarily time-consuming.....