When do you begin your gravity turn?

[regex]

In a stock-sized solar system I use 75~80m/s, in RSS I use 100m/s. I rarely just let the craft "fall into the turn", making adjustments the entire way. If I use LOLAERO, I start turning the craft at 8km.

[LABHOUSE]

I begin whenever the solid rocket burns out and end at 15,000 m (at least I do usually).

[WWEdeadman]

9 km for stock, but since I'm currently playing in FAR I start pretty much right away.

[Hannu]

I use FAR and Mechjeb. I start turn at 1 km and use 55 % profile. It works very well for most rockets.

[Robotengineer]

I follow Ferram4's optimal ascent tut on the RSS/RO wiki. IRL rockets don't do it by altitude, they do it by speed and launch TWR.

[Superfluous J]

Stock:

I go when my Apoapsis is at 12km, which for most rockets is somewhere between 9000 and 10,000km altitude.

But that turn is not the 45 degree puke-inducing turn they teach you on the YouTubes. I don't see 45 until my apoapsis is at 20km.

FAR:

If my TWR is about 1.5-1.8, I turn at anywhere from 60-80m/s. I don't think I've ever paid attention to the height but it's pretty quick.

If my TWR is about 1.3-1.4 (most common for me) I turn at 70-80m/s.

If my TWR is lower than 1.3, I add moar boosters

I answered "5-10km" because the question obviously intended to ask about stock.

Edited February 24, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[Renegrade]

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.

My balanced units always fall to the west - they start turning that way almost immediately after launch. If you don't have any control input, you typically have to ballast them on the east side a bit to get them to head east.

You can test it out in a stock game by making a craft that's basically a mk1 pod and RT-10...

That's assuming you launch from the pad, of course. They'll probably turn to the east from the launching end of the runway..

[michaelhester07]

My last career i've been building rockets with TWR as close to 1 as possible. This is to get as much work out of an engine as i can. My gravity turn ends up being based on the current apoapsis rather than my current altitude. Kerbal Engineer reads this out to me in realtime though I could use the map just as easily.

0-40km: fly generally straight up. Bias the gravity turn around 10km (80 degrees bubble)

40-60 km: angled toward 45 degrees east.

60-75km: Angled near the horizon until I get the desired orbit altitude reading. The lower I angle the slower my apo climbs. My ship is usually around 40 km altitude when I get there.

75-80km: Cut the engines and coast to apo, then do orbit insertion burn

It might not be fast but it's amazing how much you can lift with one LV-T30 when you build near a 1.1TWR and use boosters to clear the thickest part of the atmosphere.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

My balanced units always fall to the west - they start turning that way almost immediately after launch. If you don't have any control input, you typically have to ballast them on the east side a bit to get them to head east.

You can test it out in a stock game by making a craft that's basically a mk1 pod and RT-10...

That's assuming you launch from the pad, of course. They'll probably turn to the east from the launching end of the runway..

yeah, your right.

I was looking at the course projection, which goes east, but the planet rotates under it (duh!) and just a hair faster.

[NecroBones]

I pitch over a couple of degrees almost immediately off the pad, and then gradually continue to pitch over, all the way up. So I voted "< 5km", though the pitching from vertical is usually pretty slight until I get up to around 8-9km.

I use stock aero, but I don't do the "hard 45 degree turn" thing that a lot of people do. Gradual, all the way.

[Chezburgar7300]

Stock aero? Around 5km. FAR? Around 200 metres XD

[nearlyNon]

In FAR I keep straight until I reach 2300 meters, then I pitch to 5 degrees and disable SAS. By this point I've reached 100 m/s without getting too fast to turn.

[OhioBob]

I usually start right at 5 km (using stock aero).

[nightingale]

Since most of my time in KSP is testing stuff related to mods... Alt-H => Set Orbit => 1,000,000 => Go!

[Brotoro]

I fly in stock KSP, and I drop my boosters onto KSP property for recovery (in theory...but the game de-spawns them...how rude), so I turnover right after booster separation. That can occur anywhere from 8 to 18 km, depending on the rocket and payload configuration. Yes, it's inefficient with fuel, but it's my contention that fuel is cheap compared to hardware.

[Owen5595]

5-10km depending on body and rocket acceleration

[Wabbit]

I fly in stock KSP, and I drop my boosters onto KSP property for recovery (in theory...but the game de-spawns them...how rude), so I turnover right after booster separation. That can occur anywhere from 8 to 18 km, depending on the rocket and payload configuration. Yes, it's inefficient with fuel, but it's my contention that fuel is cheap compared to hardware.

Oh, it's Brotoro with his crazy "reusable rockets"...

[SorryDave]

For most rockets, i turn 10-12K to 35-45 degrees depending on thrust. I then turn fairly slowly, so that about 30K I am usually pointing at the horizon.

I am usually coasting engines off from 55-70k before I burn the last 300m/s into a 70K circular orbit.

[keeper]

Anywhere between 8 - 15 depending on SRBs, payload & orbit height.

On teh mun i tend to go sideways immediately on launch

[NovaSilisko]

I don't pitch at a specific altitude, I usually start pitching once my velocity reaches 100 m/s. This usually happens under 5 km.

[mythbusters844]

I don't use stock aero at all, but in FAR I pitch over 5 degrees or so a 10-15 seconds after launch then continue to follow the prograde marker as closely as possible until I reach orbit. I also try to maintain at least 40 seconds to apoapsis during the later parts of ascent.

[Van Disaster]

Just off the gantry/~80m/s, whichever is last, I usually attempt to do an actual gravity turn. Unless it's a winged rocket, then it's a bit flatter to actually make use of wings.

FAR ofc.

[TinfoilChef]

Flying with FAR I've learned to start gravity turn as soon as I either hit 100 m/s or 1km altitude, whichever comes first. I've also found that to work reasonably in stock as well,

[eddiew]

Does this answer the question?

SAS on, turn it to prograde hold at about 100m/s, glides up comfortably at a sensible rate of turn to stop FAR complaining. Avoids the nasty rolling you can get if you start manually adjusting your flight.

[boxman]

There really is no straight correct answer for this one since it depends on the rocket. Some rockets do better with a later gravity turn.