Spaceplane controlling question

[fireglo450]

Hi all, I'm brand new to KSP, and I've been trying endlessly to create a flyable spaceplane.

My main issue is that in all the tutorial videos I've watched, the planes people make seem to control very tightly and hold their angle steady even when the controls are not being pressed, making them very maneuverable. However, when I make a near-identical plane, it seems to drift and wobble, and will hardly ever actually steer (tried it with and without SAS).

Is there some setting I need to change to get this to work, or am I missing something crucial that nobody seems to have said in any tutorials? Help would be greatly appreciated; I really want to enjoy the game!

[Xannari Ferrows]

You can disable functions on your control surfaces. Try removing Yaw on your wing control surfaces, and Pitch on your tail fin.

[fireglo450]

You can disable functions on your control surfaces. Try removing Yaw on your wing control surfaces, and Pitch on your tail fin.

That did help a bit, so thank you. My turns still seem to be extremely wide compared with everything I've been seeing though.

[fireglo450]

You can disable functions on your control surfaces. Try removing Yaw on your wing control surfaces, and Pitch on your tail fin.

Thank you, that actually did help quite a bit. I made a 2-engine jet that is fairly maneuverable in large space. Now I just have to figure out how to land the damn thing

[GoSlash27]

That did help a bit, so thank you. My turns still seem to be extremely wide compared with everything I've been seeing though.

You can also try disabling the rudder entirely. I find that having an active rudder makes the plane fight my control.

Best,

-Slashy

[Vindaloo]

Just an FYI, landing planes is one of the harder things to learn in KSP, I am over 200 hours into the game and still have lots of problems landing. What I am doing is taking other people's craft files (either from the Craft Sharing Forum or the Challenges Forum) and dissecting them to learn how they work.

Keep trying, you'll get it eventually!

[capi3101]

Obligatory link to guidelines for spaceplane rookies. Keptin's guide is a must.

Now, for landing on the runway - landing on the runway pure stock is a tricky business. I myself recommend putting a flag (better yet, sending out a rover which you then reclassify as a base once it's in place) on either end of the runway as even with the centerline as you can manage, as close to the ends of the runway as possible without being on the "raised" runway section itself (if your flags are too close, the game will tell you about it when you try to launch a new aircraft and will clean it off the runway - making it disappear in the process). This is your "meatball"; you can use the distance to the flag to determine what your altimeter reading should be, and you can use both flags to check your alignment. For a roughly 5.7 degree glideslope, your altimeter should be (in meters) 100 times the distance to the meatball (in kilometers), plus 100 meters. For example, if you're 12.5 kilometers from the meatball, you want to be near ((12.5*100)+100) = 1350 meters. Much above that and you're too high, much below that and you're too low. You can extend this system out further on the landward side - markers at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 25 kilometers from the end of KSC 09 will help you with your alignment further out from KSC and give you more time to approach. The final landing needs to be gentle - you want your descent at touchdown to be no greater than about 5 m/s, or you'll crush your undercarriage. Preferably, you want SAS off on touchdown, but whether or not you can do that will be a matter of how stable the plane's design is.

If you don't want to build a stock ILS, there's always the NavUtilities mod, an integrated ILS which is designed to assist with landing on any runway on Kerbin (including the KSC helipads at the VAB and Admin building). I myself use a combination of the two systems - the flag approach also gives you a marker you can use for your de-orbit to KSC. If you're at 100x100, put your periapsis at 44k right above KSC and you should cruise right on in (or at least be close enough for jazz to fly in the rest of the way). If you're higher, go lower, and vice versa.

[Pecan]

Try the (space)planes in my 'Exploring' tutorial (link in signature). The first one, in Chapter 2, is specifically designed to be stable and easy to fly.

Also note that KSP 1.0 is going to completely change the way aerodynamics work so expect any planes you build in stock now not to work in the next version.

[Tex_NL]

Another thing to keep in mind are aerodynamic mods. The stock atmosphere is pretty unrealistic so many people prefer the much more realistic FAR or NEAR. And therein lies part of the problem. Planes that behave flawlessly in FAR/NEAR sometimes perform lousy in stock or vice versa.