Holding a pitch and heading? (Spaceplanes)

[A_name]

I've been spending some time developing and testing SSTO designs. I would like to have the craft automatically hold a certain pitch and heading, to avoid having to tap the 'W' key constantly during my initial ascent. I saw one of Scott Manley's older videos and his version of Mech Jeb's SMART ASS had this feature, but I can't find it. Is it gone? There's an option to hold a certain altitude, but that's not really useful for my purposes. Any help is much appreciated!

[Vanamonde]

There is nothing in stock that will do this. So I will move your thread to add-on affairs, where someone can recommend a mod for you.

[Master Tao]

Pilot Assistant works well.

[Red Iron Crown]

If you already have MechJeb, open the smartASS window and select "Surface" for those options.

[A_name]

If you already have MechJeb, open the smartASS window and select "Surface" for those options.

I think I'm missing something. Under the surface options of the SMART ASS I get options to point prograde and retrograde, up and down, and a couple others which I can't remember now (I'll try to send a screenshot later), but none of them are for holding a pitch and heading. What could I be doing wrong?

- - - Updated - - -

Pilot Assistant works well.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Red Iron Crown]

I beg your pardon, heading hold is in the Spaceplane guidance window. I recall seeing a pitch setting in SmartASS, perhaps it's in the ADV tab instead? (Sorry for my imprecision here, been a while since I used MJ for a plane.)

[ratchet freak]

Trim settings work decently just tap alt+w or alt+s until the little pitch indicator in the bottom left is at the correct spot.

You can clear all trim with alt+x

[Van Disaster]

I beg your pardon, heading hold is in the Spaceplane guidance window. I recall seeing a pitch setting in SmartASS, perhaps it's in the ADV tab instead? (Sorry for my imprecision here, been a while since I used MJ for a plane.)

SmartASS SURF has pitch/heading/roll ( SURF button in the SURF section ). I'd use Pilot Assistant for atmospheric sections of the mission though.

[Wanderfound]

As everyone has said above, plus one more point...design your ships right and they should be able to hold pitch and heading themselves, with no control input apart from SAS.

If you have to actively hold the nose up, you could probably use more pitch control authority; if you have to actively hold it down, you probably need to shift your CoL back a touch.