The14th

I've been doing some tests since installing 0.23.5, and I think the instability comes from the way the fuel currently drains. By the time the Cage's orange tank is empty and the lower T800's are about half full, the Cage's CoM is right down near the Canary's Center of Lift (which is perpendicular to it's thrust) and it's too much for the non-gimbal T30's to compensate for, making it want to tip over. (In this pic I drained the tanks to those levels with the tweakables to illustrate) As a test, I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow... ahem... I meant reverse the fuel flow by switching round the fuel ducts hidden beneath the tail connectors, and ran additional fuel ducts from the orange tank to the T30s. This way the orange tank drains last (except for the Canary's internal fuel supply which again is switched off with tweakables as I suggested a few posts ago) and the Center of Mass stays much higher. It's not as clean looking as before with six long fuel ducts (I'm not very good at hiding them over long distances). I personally found this configuration much more stable going to orbit. EDIT OR you could ignore ALL of that. As a second test I replaced the T30's with the T45's you used to have, but supplemented their thrust with six Rockomax 24-77s placed on the orange tank between the bars of the cage. This second test only added 6 to the part count, and I didn't need to redirect the fuel flow. The 22-77's obviously flame-out when the orange tank is dry, but by that time the cage has climbed through most of the dense air and the six T45s can handle the rest of the assent with ease. Until you've released the next official version, I'll probably use this modification. I don't know if this is any help to you, but I thought I'd share in case you find it useful is some way!

Oh I've used the Mk3 plenty, just not the most recently tweaked version Cupcake posted.

No problem - I think they're great designs and I enjoy using them in my own game, so I'm very happy to help. Since you're re-installing anyway, it sounds like the release of 0.23.5 may have come at a perfect time!

An update to one of my favourite craft! yay! I'm a little on the fence about the change to the non-gimbal T30s. The cage seems a lot more susceptible to rolling over during accent if you're not super careful with the throttle and it takes a lot of the fun out of it. It's not enough to sour me on the Canary, but I'm not convinced it's better as a result. I'm also having some action group issues - but I've listed that in more detail in the Spider topic. On the plus side, I've got a tip for any fellow Canary pilots out there! As an alternative to this, right-click on the Canary's T400 fuel tank and lock the LF and OX: The orange tank will still feed the Canary's engine during ascent, and when the orange tank is empty the engine will safely flame-out leaving the internal supply untouched. Re-enable the Canary's T400 when you undock from the cage and things have calmed down. This saves having to monitor the level of the orange tank during the launch. Still love the Canary!

As a loyal HHI customer, I hope you don't mind some feedback on your Mark2s! I don't have a lot to say about the O.O.P.S Mk2 so I'm starting with it. The booster is much improved, thanks for this. You also improved the staging so the final separation doesn't fire all six engines wasting fuel. This is a minor thing, but I'd sometimes forget to correct it manually so thanks! The little nose cones were kind of cool, but it was just more annoying debris so yes - we're much better off without them! I have some problems with your action-groups, see the Spider topic for more details. All in all, a worthy Mk2!

I was able to rendezvous with the Yuki-Onna en-route to Eeloo, which is pretty amazing in of itself. But it was also a good stress test for Narcosis' K-Drive as I had to activate and deactivate the drive a lot of times. It past the reliability test with flying colours - both legs are still in perfect working order. In fact I may use the ship now for reverse thrust when entering Eeloo's SOI as the last course correction broke one of the legs in the Yuki-Onna's primary drive, and I now have the option of saving the secondary drive for the trip home.

It might be a good design, but I can barely see it! For anyone taking screenshots at night, I'd like to heartily recommend blizzy78's Ambient Light Adjustment mod, which allows you to adjust the amount of ambient light at any time.

Hmmm... I was just thinking something. While I'm reluctant to make any more large vessels that themselves are driven by K-Drives, has anyone ever considered K-Drive powered escape pods? Lighter than fuel tanks, don't skew fuel level statistics (or clutter my TAC Fuel Balancer screens), and can return to Kerbin unassisted. The downside would be a spike in the ships part count, which is usually a big deal on large builds already. Still, I find the idea intriguing!

Sure, will do. You were right on the money! In fact, the struts are disconnected every time I use the sub-assembly. You might want to update the download link as you suggested. Good catch. Damn, now there's an idea Once of us will eventually!

I'd say that if someone as bad at VTOL as me can do this, then this is a very good trainer indeed!

I was jamming table legs through dustbin lids all weekend, and so far nothing!

Sure, will do. Sounds good, I'll add another cubit strut and see how it goes - I'll be more than satisfied with this little ship if I can break 10g! That's a nice round number. Looks about right. With so few parts it's pretty easy to replicate. Aesthetically what do you think? A little voice in my head keeps telling me to strap a command chair to your drive and see how fast that goes... but I'd rather have something that looks a little cooler. (My kerbals sigh with relief... except for Jeb and Danger... they're well up for it) Glad you liked the cage, it seemed fitting somehow and by far the quickest way to get to orbit without hyperedit (which I don't have), but at only 2 tons I have plenty of options!

Awesome, thank you Cupcake! I'm glad it was just an oversight and not a conscious decision - one is much easier to change than the other! I'm probably the only one who looked at the Tadpole in that awesome painting (I still have it as my wallpaper) and thought "Why is the docking port all wonky?" Frankly, I ought to be more concerned by the missing parachute!

Thanks Narcosis. I'm having fun with the Horizon Heavy Industries Mk7 K-Drive. From our previous conversation it seemed obvious small is the way to go, so I've fitted your drive to a new line of as-yet-unnamed ultra-light kraken riders I'm developing. This is the S version (S for Stock), which weights just 2 tons. It has no chemical rockets of it's own, and is brought to orbit in homage to a certain Canary... Performance seems to vary from flight to flight with no obvious pattern. One test the drive refused to pull anything more than 4.5G, but the majority of tests so far have been over 8G. My record so far has been 9.8G! That test run took 12 minutes (including the journey from the surface via the lifter - I forgot to make a note of the time I actually started the drive *facepalm*) and reached a whopping 40Km/s!!! I'm also testing an M-Type (modded) version: This version is slightly heavier at 2.9 tons, but can carry two Kerbals so it could be used for rescuing solo pilots stranded in solar orbit depending on the practicality of trying to do a rendezvous with only two speed settings: RCS and Ludicrous Speed. It also has it's RCS and batteries hidden away in a service compartment - although the little bulb tail of the S-Type is actually starting to grow on me! What do you think so far? I really like your K Drive - both version of my craft run incredibly smoothly without any of the shaking or lurching that I've seen with other drives - and I've done 10 test flights so far, and although the speed has varied slightly from flight to flight there have been no breakages or failures (touch wood). All in all, a very impressive drive!

I like the new trainer, but I'm sad that you've started putting all your docking ports upside-down/back-to-front. I'm a long way from being a skilled VTOL pilot, so I often enjoy the option you give of "You can also use the top docking port if you'd rather fly the X like a regular rocket." Except that both on this dropship and the SCARAB before it, you've placed the top docking port back-to-front reversing the controls. I pull back on the stick, the dropship pitches forwards and vice versa. Also the top docking port is usually integral to your design - attached to many parts, so it's not usually a simple matter of altering it in the hanger myself. I know it's not how you intend your dropships to be flown, but I'll be sad if that's the standard design now for the future.

Ah, but where's the fun in that? Rescue missions are fun! I think you should. It sounds like a really effective design. Actually despite what I said earlier I'd quite fancy trying it out too! (On a much smaller craft this time! )

Oooo... that's actually very quick and smooth - I like that one. It looks like small is the way to go. I'll look forward to seeing the SSTO you come up with! Thank you! Sadly, I'm only getting a little over 1m/s per second acceleration from the Yuki-Onna's Primary drive, where as the test ships were much lighter and much quicker (and more shaky!). She'll get the job done (ETA on Eeloo 60 days), but she's not the fastest Kraken Rider. I built the modules, but I pretty much used the same parts as FCISuperGuy did for the Archer Mk.IV (since that's the drive I pulled apart to see how it worked), so I consider them a personal modification of his drive rather than my own unique K-Drive design. The only twist on mine is that I'm using the clever Interstage Adapter from Procedural Fairings to attach the drive to the rest of the ship. It also means I can eject a failed drive simply by jettisoning it's fairings. TBH, I didn't have time to try out my own ground-up design. My fourth test ship was my first successful proof that I even understood the concepts involved, after which I immediately started planning the rescue. When Kickback IV stopped decelerating and started to spin, that was my first thought. But at the time it still had a hyperbolic course back out of Eeloo's SOI and was travelling way over 700m/s relative to Eeloo. Strangely, despite there being nothing in the Kickback IV's flight log about the any part collisions, or broken links between parts, when I went to the tracking station later I was surprised to find a single lander leg on solar escape trajectory! So I'm not sure what strangeness happened there. I'm sort of reminded of a faster than light drive in Red Dwarf that shot off by itself leaving Starbug behind!

Nice and clean, and I can never have too many lifter choices! Thanks Narcosis!

My fourth K-Drive test ship (previous three didn't make it out of Kerbin orbit) was supposed to do a fly-by around Eeloo and back to Kerbin. Unfortunately the drive broke while decelerating near Eeloo's, and it took all of it's conventional fuel just to slow down enough to crash-land on the surface. Anyway, I love a good rescue mission me, so I went about building something that could rescue my stranded test pilot before he dies of old age. The Yuki-Onna has two K-Drives to prevent a repeat of the test flight. If the Primary drive fails, it can be jettisoned and the Secondary can take over. If the Secondary also fails, the vessel has enough conventional fuel to return to civilisation the slow way. Additional parts can be jettisoned should the crew need to shed mass. She rocks gently while the K-Drive is engaged, as if she were on an ocean which I find strangely fitting for Kraken power. Of course, it's still a dangerous risk. If both drives fail while the ship is still travelling at 20Km/s I'm not sure there's enough delta-v to prevent solar escape. This will probably be my last K-Drive powered craft. It was fun to try out, but the technology is still a bit... temperamental.

Welcome to the forum, Peebothuhlu! I agree that Cupcake's designs are awesome! The short answer to your question is: press 0 once before you start the engines for the first time. The long answer to the question is: Cupcake has designed the action-groups so that pilots don't have to worry about closing or opening air intakes in-flight by toggling the air intakes whenever you toggle the jet engines. When you press 0, you close the air intakes. Then when you press 1 - you start the engines and open the intakes. Then when you're done with air-breathing engines, pressing 1 again does both jobs - shutting down the jet engines and closing the air intakes. And again when you come back to Kerbin, pressing 1 starts the jet engines and opens the intakes. You need to press 0 before you take off to synchronise the state of the intakes with the engines, because when you first load up the engines are off, but the intakes are open. Pressing 1 at this point starts the engines but closes the air intakes, which results in the flame out. Someone better than me could probably explain all that with fewer words, but I hope that helps!

I love it! So what you're saying is that you sent up a highly advanced, super sophisticated space plane using an experimental, top-secret new drive system... to deliver two chairs that your station crew can strap themselves into for an unprotected re-entry! That's the most Kerbal thing I've read all week! Good job they don't seem to mind! Anyway good job - it's been interesting watching the progress of this design taking shape!

I like the lines on that, very nice. If you release it I'd love to try it out. I remain a RAPIER sceptic, but I'm always looking for the design that will change my mind (haven't found one yet!) OK, I have got to re-create that from your screenshots now! I have a daredevil kerbal (His name is Danger, how could he not be?) who would look awesome riding that around.

I like it - Definitely downloaded to try out, but re-docking looks like it might be a bit scary... it's a tight fit in there! Never leave a Kerbal behind, KissSh0t! - Not that I can talk, my K-Drive test resulted in the test pilot being stranded in the vicinity of Eeloo, but I'd take that rescue mission over one on Eve any day!

Seriously though, I'm loving these bikes (And trying out Levelord's Duna Chaser on Duna was the most the fun I've had on the red planet).