When do you begin your gravity turn?

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

For rockets, how far straight up do go before you start to pitch over? (or yaw over)

Edited February 24, 2015 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Umlüx]

10km for stock.

8 or even earlier if i have extreme T/W

[Starhawk]

At about 12 km on Kerbin. About 30 km on Eve. About 10 km on Laythe. I usually treat Duna as an airless body and start the turn right away.

All this will completely change come 1.0.

Happy landings!

[bigyihsuan]

I usually just have Mechjeb go to orbit for me, but manually i go to 10km

[Bill Phil]

I usually plan for around 10 km, but I get distracted and it flies to 15 or so.

[Renegrade]

Pretty much off the pad. Depends on TWR of course, but I'm usually a little aggressive on TWR Generally though for FAR I pitch over just faintly as I'm lifting off (so I'm on the correct side of the 90 mark), and then pitch over about five degrees by the time I'm going 80-ish m/s and let gravity do the rest from there. In stock, it's about the same, although I keep the turn shallower as it progresses. Damn stock air!

Note that since Kerbin is a sphere, and that KSC is flat, a rocket will try to pitch over to the west if it's perfectly balanced (or if it's off-balance to the west of course ), so that's why I pitch almost immediately upon moving to correct for that.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

oh, my answer:

When the SRBs burn out. (+- 7km) or about 4-5 km on LF.

[hellblazer]

When gravity pulls me back.

[magnemoe]

oh, my answer:

When the SRBs burn out. (+- 7km) or about 4-5 km on LF.

Yes, use the large SRB a lot so tend to adjust mechjeb to start at 7.5 km not 6.7 as I don't want them to separate during the start of the turn.

[Panzerbeard]

Depends on the TWR I'm working with, but in stock I'll usually start the fake-gravity-turn at about 8-10km or so, unless I'm close to a staging event, in which case I'll wait a little longer.

In NEAR/FAR it's closer to an actual gravity turn, so I'll slightly lean over pretty much straight off the pad and just let gravity do the rest of the work.

[Johnny Wishbone]

Generally, as soon as I launch, I yaw right (east) by 10 degrees. Burn at 90 deg heading/80 deg AoA until 10k. At 10km, yaw east to 45 deg AoA until I hit 1000m/s orbital velocity then throttle down to 66% and yaw east to the prograde marker. Once apoapsis reaches 60k (regardless of current altitude) I yaw east again to 0 deg AoA (full right, flat horizontal) and continue burning until apoapsis reaches about 75km. Cut engines and coast to apoapsis. Re-ignite engines on the 90 and circularize into a nice 75km x 75km orbit.

Just like Billy Dee and Colt 45: it works every time. (Yes, I'm that old and so are you if you get the reference)

[eddiew]

I play with spaceplanes mostly

But when I build a rocket, it's on a slant on the launchpad so I can hold prograde from the start without introducing roll

*edit* Dammit! I picked < 5km because I didn't see the bottom option

[cantab]

When I reach 100 m/s, which is almost always below 5 km. FAR Master Race.

I've done turns like that in stock too. They work, and they even seem efficient. But a true gravity turn is very sensitive to the size of the initial pitchover. Get it right and you can click hold prograde and watch it fly. Get it wrong and you can click hold prograde and watch it fail.

[Jovus]

I generally shoot for a liquid-fuel starting TWR of around 1.4 and turn 5 degrees at 100m/s or so. Sometimes if my TWR is low, it'll be around 125m/s. I don't pay attention to the altitude, except that if I'm tilting over more than 40 degrees or so by 10km I'm going to end up too shallow.

However, I've noticed that my turns have a tendency to be inefficient - they're slightly too steep. I'm okay with this, since the reason for it is almost always that I'm using SRBs for my first 1km/s or so, and their thrust isn't anywhere near as controllable. I lose ~200m/s delta-V, but I make that up in drastically reduced funds/dV.

[Majorjim!]

My gravity turns are always based on speed and TWR. I usually turn @ 200m/s and vary my path based on the TWR. That seems to give me the most efficient ascent.

Also its important to turn slowly. If you turn too quick you are wasting dv.

MJ

[zarakon]

Note that since Kerbin is a sphere, and that KSC is flat, a rocket will try to pitch over to the west if it's perfectly balanced (or if it's off-balance to the west of course ), so that's why I pitch almost immediately upon moving to correct for that.

[ddenis]

the poll should have two sets of options, One for FAR, another for stock.

I'm using FAR and start turning at 0-1 km on 1-5 degrees depending on the rocket.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Note that since Kerbin is a sphere, and that KSC is flat, a rocket will try to pitch over to the west if it's perfectly balanced (or if it's off-balance to the west of course ), so that's why I pitch almost immediately upon moving to correct for that.

wait, isn't that effect overwhelmed by the rotational speed of the Kerbin? If I launch straight up, high enough, I always come down to the east.

- - - Updated - - -

the poll should have two sets of options, One for FAR, another for stock.

I'm using FAR and start turning at 0-1 km on 1-5 degrees depending on the rocket.

Didn't think if that. I play stock.

[Daze]

When I reach 100 m/s, which is almost always below 5 km. FAR Master Race.

This, 100m/s is perfect to start gravity turn. Sometimes i use even higher velocity for interplanetary probe

[DunaRocketeer]

It'll be interesting to see how these figures change with the new aero coming up.

[Wabbit]

If I'm using side boosters, I usually wait at least until those burn out so there's less of a chance of them twisting around and clipping the central core.

[Taki117]

I use FAR so it's usually about 1-2Km, or when my speed reaches 100m/s, whichever comes first.

[Yukon0009]

When my first stage breaks apart and explodes.

[jarmund]

~8k when stock.

Since i started using FAR, i turn slightly right after clearing the gantry, and then try to keep a stable RoT so that i eventually get to 45 degrees at around 40k, and flat at around 90k. Turning early allows for an efficient turn with FAR, as you get to properly take advantage of the lifting body effect.

[Random Tank]

Because FAR (= Master Race), I start at 500m.... 700m if my TWR is lower, and then keep going till I'm flat at about 30-35km. Stock air sucks, so I don't use it, so I don't have a gravity turn for it.