gilflo

Here is my OPT K76 LF Seaplane tanker (LF for liquid fuel only) Can take off from ground, max take off weight is 532T with 75500L of liquid fuel, running on 2 OPT J61 Starwaster, 2.6m. Cruise altitude 18-20km at Mach 4.4 The OPT drop tank MK1 at 380%, full of liquidfuel, are the best floating tanks i know. Their limitation is 1200° and that's why mach and cruise altitude are limited. Landing is easy, 120m/s V/S around 3-5m/s The tanker is equipped with fuel pipes and winches to deliver fuel to my "Gliding Cheetah" Catamaran during my Maritime Elcano Challenge. You can see some pics here during refueling mission, there's a short vid , later in the story.

Is Pilot Assistant which a kind of autopilot like Mechjeb allowed?

To take in account the total time or the total distance of the mission in the scoring, which is take in account the boat efficiency or the total time of the mission, i suggest to multiply the score by the total time of the mission in hour. (divide total time of the mission in second by 3600). Here in the first Seanth exemple, suppose we go twice farther at the same average speed, with the actual scoring there's no change because the distance is multiply by 2 and the mission time also. Ship Name: The SkutaliepooperStart location: KSC (-0.0435, -74.39)Named location: Lobrat Songnal Island (-4.07611, -72.185278)Mission time: 59min 27 sec (3567sec)Distance: 99,213mTotal crew: 10Number flags placed: 1Level 1 Score: (99,213m / 3567s)*(1 flag / 10 crew) = 2.78 But if you take my rules it becomes: Same length score 2.78*3567/3600= 2.75 Twice the length, same average speed, time and distance are doubled, score is 2.78*2*3567/3600= 5.5

By the way, is it forbidden to add some small gears just to land on the beach to plant a flag and then go back to sea ? And about the scoring: it's a matter of average speed and not a matter of range: suppose i got a high speed boat , average speed 100m/s, : I plant 1 flag with 1 crew and come back, whatever is the distance, 10, 100 or 200 kms if i come back, i score 100! With my boat, suppose i go to one of the island in front of Kerbin base, to get the best score, I just have to dump 80% to 90% of my fuel, to get maximum possible speed to go there with one crew, plant a flag, and come back. There's no matter of engine and boat efficiency....... Calculation is (m/s)*(Flag/crew) . Maybe be it could be interesting to add a matter of range or maximum distance done.....

Well at maximum speed estimated range is at least 1200kms, but i am not sure i will keep this big wings each side of the hulls, because at low weights, with less than 50% fuel it can take off. Not enough speed and there's oscillations on pitch axis that can be avoided with pitch trim, but to much pitch trim and it takes off....So I must study the best design and make a compromise between full weight and low weights when fuel is burnt Max speed at full weight is 70m/s with a 3H40mn range, that 's around 925 kms. I can also choose to keep this speed all the way long, reducing throttle when weight decreases, thus increasing range at least 50%. On my Kerbin "Gliding Cheetah", at low weight I was at 1/3 throttle, greater speed and thus very good range with the last 20% fuel...

Kerbin Maritime Elcano Challenge completed in less than 2 days All the story here, Pics and Vid

END OF THE KERBIN MARITIME TOUR Time to leave for the last leg. Gliding Cheetah will mainly head East to the Kerbin base peninsula. Time is DAY 3 03:32 Timewarp 4, speed over 140m/s Abeam the waypoint, the next goal is the end of Kerbin base peninsula We carefully avoid this island in the middle of nowhere in the night Approaching the peninsula, Mun is rising. 1/3 throttle as we become lighter we must reduce speed for stability and our range increases Sun is rising Earth in view as we pass along the shoreline, with less than 15% fuel we are sure to make it to Kerbin base Kerbin mountains in background 42 kms from base Beach in sight, ready to land On the sand, the catamaran steers right we don't know why and we need to apply nonstop left input We made it, stopping near our departure flag Jeb goes out to the flag. Time is Day 4, 00:33, we made it in less than 2 DAYS Leaving Jeb and his catamaran we ask our Tanker to come back home During cruise, overheating makes the OPT outer floating tanks explode and we lost them with some fuel, we are not sure to make it to the base Fortunately we comes out of fuel just in sight of Kerbin peninsula, as you can see no more floating tanks, the tanker glides in the sky Approaching ground with great vertical speed to keep speed The tanker is very light and the crew can flare it easily and land it safely Time is day 4 00:57 Small HD Vid - Return to Kerbin

KERBIN MARITIME ELCANO CHALLENGE (MODDED) Main mods used: OPT mod for the refuser, B9 mod on the Catamaran Engines: 2 J-X4 "Wishpash" turbo ramjet engines - Weight: 62T - Liquid fuel: 44236L or 8.847T - TWR: 0.43 (1.5 Empty) - DV: 49121 Sorry, no spoilers used for DAY 1 1st DAY Planting the flag for a Departure date DAY 2 at 01h45. The RoverCatamaran "Gliding Cheetah" is waiting departure time. Standing behind is the OPT Hydro tanker that will feed her at her first stop after around 1000kms Here is the track on which you can see the waypoints that are represented by numbers, 0 being departure. Flag will be planted only on ground track. We made the choice for sea refueling, just because it so easy to land on sea were we will be during most part of the challenge... It just take more time to approach the tanker and stop really near it.... We expect Refueling between WPT 2 and 3, WPT 8 and 9 and just before arrival around WPT 11 Gliding Cheetah will sail East and North East from Departure to reach a point as near as waypoint 3 which is the entrance to the only land track (WPT 3 to 5). The idea is to cross the land during day light. Leaving at 01:45, a great part of the maritime track will happen during night and WPT 1 and 2 are set to avoid reefs during night and check track. She should arrive at sunrise around WPT 3 with just enough fuel to maneuver to the tanker. Pulling up at 01:45 We are entering the sea I don't set full throttle, just taking time to take the right heading, check fuel is balanced for all tanks, except the 2 front wings B9 tanks that will be kept full until all fuel is used. During the attempts in the sea, we realized that Gliding Cheetah was better balanced at low weights, as fuel is used, with some weight staying in the front and using carefully the pitch trim to give a little lift at the front to speed up..... Last glance at the nearby islands Checking the Scansat Mapand the small Zooming map to the next waypoint, WPT 1, which is around 290 kms far At the beginning our Grossweight is 61T and speed between 120 and 130m/s (250 kts) at full throttle and as weight will decrease, speed will increase but at a certain limit we will have to throttle down to keep our stability. All settings allow max speed at TimeWarp 4! Approaching WPT 1, weight is 47T and speed 164m/s (near 300kts) still at full throttle and it's really nearly our maximum speed Passing WPT 1 at max speed To set course on WPT 2 at 630 kms I just play on the thrust of each engine, leaving 80% on the left one to change smoothly the heading from 99° to 54°. It's less dangerous than using the yaw, even with 50% deflection Speeding up to 170m/s, max speed after WPT 1 WPT 2 is at 272 Kms, speed only 141m/s and half throttle with pitch trim near up position. As weight is lowering, we must decrease speed to avoid crash, to much speed and the catamaran is shaking around yaw axis. Too much shake and I must throttle down and pitch down immediately or use SAS which pitch down also....to avoid crash Approaching WPT 2 Passing WPT 2, day is rising, maybe we should have left Kerbin base 15 or 30 mins earlier.... Sun is rising, max speed is falling, throttle 1/3 and we get still nearly enough range to reach WPT 3 at 300 kms Our 1st stop is at 76 kms from WPT 3, time 04:35, gear down and speed brakes up to stop as quickly as possible and stay stopped... It's time to call for refueling and we set Gliding Cheetah position as waypoint for the tanker. REFUELLING It's night at Kerbin Airport and the OPT Hydro Tanker is ready for take off with its 75000L of liquid fuel. Taking of from the runway, the tanker will follow the heading to the Gliding Cheetah, distance to target is 990km After take off, left turn and climb to 18000m We are limited by the temperature of floating tanks that cannot exceed 1200°. Max mach is 4.4 and we use pilots assistant to cruise and warp 4. Flight enveloppe is thin, not far from stall speed and limited by M4.4. Leaving continent at rising sun over mountains We begin descent 200kms from target using Pilot assistant and here we are at 44 kms from the target Passing over the Gliding Cheetah (under right wing) we need to touch sea with a vertical speed not over 5m/s speed around 110, still using PA for vertical control Flare and landing The tanker is set as waypoint and Gliding Cheetah begins her approach Not easy to lead the catamaran near the tanker, because the tanker is waving non stop on its pitch axis (we never found the trick to stop that) and it could damage the catamaran. There's fuel lines on the front of each floating tanks and also near each door of the tanker. ladders are extended on each crafts and Jeb swim to the tanker to take the fuel line and brings it to connect it on Gliding Cheetah The line is long enough and the refueling can start Unpluging line after refueling is completed and the line will retract automatically. Once everything is finish we realized that we forgot to fill the 2 front B9 wing tanks, so final fuel will be 91%, but it's not a big deal to cross the land.... On calendar Time is 05:25 on day 2, it looks 50 mins to make the flight and refuel. SECOND PART: Crossing continent before south east ocean Departure heading to beach to cross the continent part. Entering the mouth Approaching a small sand inlet to cross before a small lake to cross Planting 1st flag on the inlet, it looks like the sun is going to leave before we finish to cross the continental part....Bad calculation at departure!! In water again for a short time Now we are going to head North East to the next lake. I put a lot of way points on this track that need to be very accurate to avoid accident, because Gliding cheetah is not so easy to drive on land.. Night is falling and we will have to cross with the help of headlight only and we get the GPS map we can zoom... Max speed will be 70m/s. Driving here request a lot of concentration to avoid accident..... Mountains in the background... New lake with an isthmus to cross ahead Slowing down when approaching isthmus Still in water approaching the end of the lake Out on the beach of the lake which is the last one before sea, Jeb plants a new flag Still in 1stDay Calendar DAY 3 Time 0:25, starting for the last land crossing, 45Kms to reach the sea Really dark here: Jeb wanted to do it at daylight....that's not really a success!!! Jumping at 7m in the dark night, mountains in background Last slope to sea We can hardly see the Ocean Here is the Ocean, we stop to plant the last flag before Kerbin base....Now it's sea navigation until the base...We did the most dangerous part in the night..!!! Right engine at 3/4 throttle to take the heading to the next waypoint which is 413 km ahead...It's a small island we must avoid before crossing a large Ismuth to the next Ocean Abeam the island, the isthmus is now 391 kms ahead of us, heading 126° 2nd DAY: We have Passed Day 3 01:45 Approaching the isthmus, sun is rising Crossing the isthmus, the shoreline is on background, we have enough range to continue a little far before the next refuel... DAY 3 Time 02:49 , Time since departure: 1DAY 1H 04mns Stop for the next refuel with 5mns range....we are 1018 kms from our tanker... 2ND REFUELING Departure of OPT hydrotanker from his last refuel place,near WPT 3, where we refueled Gliding Cheetah last time , before land crossing, and our goal is near WPT 8 in the south east. The catamaran stopped at time 02:49 Take off from sea, it's night here. The pilots know the procedure: Take off then take 25 to 30° pitch until reaching a vertical speed of 100-130m/s, then keep this vertical speed until altitude18 km. Reaching cruise altitude reduce throttle to keep Mach <4.4 to avoid overheating. Climb to 18000m Cruise around 18000m at M4.4 maximum Sunrise during cruise Descent just 200kms from goal, here we pass west of WPT 7. Procedure is to keep 100m/s to 8000m then 50m/s 20 kms from gliding Cheetah, the crew is preparing the Tanker for sea landing Reducing speed and VS just before landing, we have passed Gliding Cheetah. landing speed around 120m/s VS<5m/s Landed, the catamaran is behind us....We are going to turn by the left, reducing left engine to help Approaching the Catamaran We stopped at distance and the Catamaran made his way to the tanker Jeb is swimming in the water toward Gliding Cheetah with the fuel line he sized on the nose after climbing the ladder.. There's 1 line each side of the nose and 1 on each OPT floating tank Refueling in progress Refueling completed, nose fuel line is retracting Day 3 03:32:17, refueling is finished, the Catamaran is ready for departure. The refueling mission took less than 45mns Here is a short HD Vid from the refueling mission

KERBIN MARITIME ELCANO CHALLENGE (MODDED) 2ND REFUELING Departure of OPT hydrotanker from his last refuel place, we near WPT 3, where we refuel Gliding Cheetah, before land crossing, and our goal is near WPT 8 in the south east. The catamaran stopped at time 02:49 Take off from sea, it's night here Climb to 18000m Cruise around 18000m at M4.4 maximum Sunrise during cruise Descent just 200kms from goal, here we pass west of WPT 7 20 kms from gliding Cheetah, the crew is preparing the Tanker for sea landing Reducing speed and VS just before landing, we have passed Gliding Cheetah Landed, the catamaran is behind us....We are going to turn by the left, reducing left engine to help Approaching the Catamaran We stopped at distance and the Catamaran made his way to the tanker Jeb is swimming in the water toward Gliding Cheetah with the fuel line. He climbed to the tanker nose to size it. There's 2 lines each side of the nose and on each OPT floating tank Refueling in progress Refueling completed, nose fuel line is retracting Day 3 03:32:17, refueling is finished, the Catamaran is ready for departure. The refueling mission took less than 45mns

Here is the kind of ship I would design for the contest, no foil, just wing to help lifting the boat. It's stock parts, but the nose cones have been tweakscaled to 1.25m as I did not find 1.25m nosecone. Is it considered OK for the contest?

KERBIN MARITIME ELCANO CHALLENGE (MODDED) SECOND PART: Crossing continent and sea again Departure DAY 2 Time 05:30 heading to beach to cross the continent part. Entering the mouth Approaching a small sand inlet to cross before a small lake to cross Planting 1st flag on the inlet, it looks like the sun is going to leave before we finish to cross the continental part....Bad calculation at departure!! In water again for a short time Now we are going to head North East to the next lake. I put a lot of way points on this track that need to be very accurate to avoid accident, because Gliding cheetah is not so easy to drive on land.. Night is falling and we will have to cross with the help of headlight only and we get the GPS map we can zoom... Max speed will be 70m/s Mountains in the background... New lake with an isthmus to cross ahead Slowing down when approaching isthmus Still in water approaching the end of the lake Out on the beach of the lake which is the last one before sea, Jeb plants a new flag DAY 3 Time 0:25, starting for the last land crossing, 45Kms to reach the sea Really dark here: Jeb wanted to do it at daylight....that's not really a success!!! Jumping at 7m in the dark night, mountains in background Last slope to sea We can hardly see the Ocean Here is the Ocean, we stop to plant the last flag before Kerbin base....Now it's sea navigation until the base...We did the most dangerous part in the night..!!! Right engine at 3/4 throttle to take the heading to the next waypoint which is 413 km ahead...It's a small island we must avoid before crossing a large Ismuth to the next Ocean Abeam the island, the isthmus is now 391 kms ahead of us, heading 126° Approaching the isthmus, sun is rising Crossing the isthmus, the shoreline is on background, we have enough range to continue a little far before the next refuel... DAY 3 Time 02:49 , Time since departure: 1DAY 1H 04mns Stop for the next refuel with 5mns range....we are 1018 kms from our tanker...

You're just so patient!!! I could not!!

REFUELLING It's night at Kerbin Airport and the OPT Hydro Tanker is ready for take off with its 75000L of liquid fuel. Taking of from the runway, the tanker will follow the heading to the Gliding Cheetah, distance to target is 990km After take off, left turn and climb to 18000m We are limited by the temperature of floating tanks that cannot exceed 1200°. Max mach is 4.4 and we use pilots assistant to cruise and warp 4. Flight enveloppe is thin, not far from stall speed and limited by M4.4. Leaving continent at rising sun over mountains We begin descent 200kms from target using Pilot assistant and here we are at 44 kms from the target Passing over the Gliding Cheetah (under right wing) we need to touch sea with a vertical speed not over 5m/s speed around 110, still using PA for vertical control Flare and landing The tanker is set as waypoint and Gliding Cheetah begins her approach Not easy to lead the catamaran near the tanker, because the tanker is waving non stop on its pitch axis (we never found the trick to stop that) and it could damage the catamaran. There's fuel lines on the front of each floating tanks and also near each door of the tanker. ladders are extended on each crafts and Jeb swim to the tanker to take the fuel line and brings it to connect it on Gliding Cheetah The line is long enough and the refueling can start Unpluging line after refueling is completed and the line will retract automatically. Once everything is finish we realized that we forgot to fill the 2 front B9 wing tanks, so final fuel will be 91%, but it's not a big deal to cross the land.... Time is 05:25 on day 2, it looks 50 mins to make the flight and refuel.

KERBIN MARITIME ELCANO CHALLENGE (MODDED) Engines: 2 J-X4 "Wishpash" turbo ramjet engines - Weight: 62T - Liquid fuel: 44236L or 8.847T - TWR: 0.43 (1.5 Empty) - DV: 49121 DAY 1 Planting the flag for a Departure date DAY 2 at 01h45. The RoverCatamaran "Gliding Cheetah" is waiting departure time. Standing behind is the OPT Hydro tanker that will feed her at her first stop after around 1000kms Here is the track on which you can see the waypoints that are represented by numbers, 0 being departure. Flag will be planted only on ground track. We made the choice for sea refueling, just because it so easy to land on sea were we will be during most part of the challenge... It just take more time to approach the tanker and stop really near it.... Gliding Cheetah will sail East and North East from Departure to reach a point as near as waypoint 3 which is the entrance to the only land track (WPT 3 to 5). The idea is to cross the land during day light. Leaving at 01:45, a great part of the maritime track will happen during night and WPT 1 and 2 are set to avoid reefs during night and check track. She should arrive at sunrise around WPT 3 with just enough fuel to maneuver to the tanker. Pulling up at 01:45 We are entering the sea I don't set full throttle, just taking time to take the right heading, check fuel is balanced for all tanks, except the 2 front wings B9 tanks that will be kept full until all fuel is used. During the attempts in the sea, we realized that Gliding Cheetah was better balanced at low weights, as fuel is used, with some weight staying in the front and using carefully the pitch trim to give a little lift at the front to speed up..... Last glance at the nearby islands Checking the Scansat Mapand the small Zooming map to the next waypoint, WPT 1, which is around 290 kms far At the beginning our Grossweight is 61T and speed between 120 and 130m/s (250 kts) at full throttle and as weight will decrease, speed will increase but at a certain limit we will have to throttle down to keep our stability. All settings allow max speed at TimeWarp 4! Approaching WPT 1, weight is 47T and speed 164m/s (near 300kts) still at full throttle and it's really nearly our maximum speed Passing WPT 1 at max speed To set course on WPT 2 at 630 kms I just play on the thrust of each engine, leaving 80% on the left one to change smoothly the heading from 99° to 54°. It's less dangerous than using the yaw, even with 50% deflection Speeding up to 170m/s, max speed after WPT 1 WPT 2 is at 272 Kms, speed only 141m/s and half throttle with pitch trim near up position. As weight is lowering, we must decrease speed to avoid crash, to much speed and the catamaran is shaking around yaw axis. Too much shake and I must throttle down and pitch down immediately or use SAS which pitch down also....to avoid crash Approaching WPT 2 Passing WPT 2, day is rising, maybe we should have left Kerbin base 15 or 30 mins earlier.... Sun is rising, max speed is falling, throttle 1/3 and we get still nearly enough range to reach WPT 3 at 300 kms Our 1st stop is at 76 kms from WPT 3, time 04:35, gear down and speed brakes up to stop as quickly as possible and stay stopped... It's time to call for refueling and we set Gliding Cheetah position as waypoint for the tanker. TO FOLLOW

I mean if you use already J fore another mod or whatever, it could explain that. That happened to me

Are you using J key for another mod or for some other reason?

Many attemptss to look for the best settings at high speed when weight decreases. Here 219m/s (390kts) with SAS on, but the directional trim trims right to keep stability and the Catamaran being no centered anymore when trims reaches 2° right, the speed decreases... So i went to SPH to try to align all components at the best before new attempt.

My main problem with the OPT hydro Tanker is the following: Once at stop on the mater or at slow speed with no thrust, the plane wave up and down around pitch axis and it never stops. I tried a lot of settings with center of lift behind the COG and whatever is the position of COL it will always wave....and it stops as soon as there enough speed.. I tried bigger floating tanks, I moved the floating tanks, but it 's still there. Maybe I should try other tanks but this particular kind of OPT tanks are very useful for floating... But anyway, even if it's waving and even if it's uncomfortable, the kerbals can plug the fuel line to the Gliding Cheetah

Some news of my team My RoverCatamaran named "GlidingCheetah" has been modified with a 3rd directional fin in the middle for a better yaw stability at high speed on water. When being lighter and lighter due to liquid fuel consumption during water run, the speed increase dramatically and i tested it on a half run. I must set the pitch trim to negative value to to avoid lifting from water. So nose being down the Gliding Cheetah stay stable around 160m/s at warp 4. I am afraid i will have to slow down on engine on lighter weights to avoid unwilling take off, i will test it later. It becomes uncontrollable at this speed!!! on this Pic SAS was on and pitched up for stability making the catamaran take off and crash Here in SPH For refueling I equipped with floating tanks an OPT Tanker spaceplane re designed with 2 J61 Starwaster Ramjet engines Here is the baby: 535T on take of and 76000L Jet fuel. Filling Gliding Cheetah requires around 8000L. The purpose is to refuel in water, not on ground, because it's much easier to land on calm sea even in dark... 2 KAS Fuel lines on each floating tank can be extended and plugged to connectors on each side of the catamaran hull. And my Kerbals swim very well. In the water, the first take at full load can be tricky and a RCS vernor engine can help lift off. At lighter weight, no problem. Landing is easy: up to 8m/s vertical speed is possible provided the plane get a nose up attitude on splashdown. here is a landing The Tanker is like a duck on the ground, not very confortable to run. I must be very careful, enter water on low slope and low speed as there not to much clearance between floating tanks and ground. It's very difficult to turn in water, nearly impossible, so Gliding Cheetah will have to come to the tanker to suck the fuel. There is 4 big speed brakes and extending gear underwater is very helpfull to decrease water speed. Entering water: there's no more speed brakes below and on each side of tanks. They all broke under water force..; The tanker can easily climb to 20000m or more to cruise, but it is limited by the floating temperature which is 1200°. It can't fly over Mach 3.5 Next test to see the range of the GlidingCheetah, her max speed on light weight. I know where I will be crossing on ground and i'll have to slow down on speed on this part to avoid accidental break. Challenge is to perform the maritime tour in 2 days....

Hello Here is my RoverCatamaran for the Elcano Maritime Challenge tested from 130m/s to 170m/s in ocean

on KSP 1.2.2 I can't apply all the setting of one chute to the symmetric parts.... I have an Eve lander with 6 ejectable parts on which are 12 MK2 radial mount parachutes, total is 72 parachutes. When I set the settings of a parachute on one part and when I apply to symmetry counterpart, they do not take the settings

I am having issue with the big blue and white landing leg, gliding on very light slope 12 landing legs to support 250T on Eve ground and it skids on any light slope

Is there any way to set up the gravity turn ? Beginning the gravity turn just after lift off from Eve sea level is not a good option? Is it?

Thank's for the update ! What about the B9 procedural wings ? do we still use the Crzyrndm/B9-PWings-Fork ? https://github.com/Crzyrndm/B9-PWings-Fork/releases

Thank's for update, but it's still impossible to add tank, cargo or whatever behind the vulture cockpit