Kerbin Circumnavigation 1.0.4/1.0.5 - Aviator Challenge Continuation

[lemon1324]

Question: I'm new to mechjeb, I saw something like an "ascent path editor" in there. Is there a way to get your aircraft to automatically follow a pre-planned ascent route, like an autopilot?

The "Ascent path editor" is for rocket ascent trajectories. You might be able to hack it to work, but MechJeb isn't great at airplanes anyway, so you'd probably get poor results.

On my triple circumnavigation I used Pilot Assistant, which lets you tune the controller to match your aircraft, and with tweaking of the various output clamps you can get it to, for instance, ascend to 12000m at a climb rate of 0.1m/s, if that's the profile you want.

[Joshwoo70]

I used NO MECHJEB all done BY HAND.

Also minor corrction... it is Bob not bill.

During the flight he was screaming all the way...

I for- *ahem* pestered bob to enter my craft.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Joshwoo69

[MunGazer]

I used NO MECHJEB all done BY HAND.

Also minor corrction... it is Bob not bill.

During the flight he was screaming all the way...

I for- *ahem* pestered bob to benter my craft.

Oh no, sorry, it may have sounded like I was implying you used an autopilot, that wasn't my intent. It really is just a genuine question - I like flight testing like the pros, you know, analyzing the data and what not. I wish I could perform 3 different precisely controlled, pre-planned ascents in an aircraft and then be able to go and graph information about those 5 minute ascents. It would just be for testing purposes. I'd like to essentially develop flight manuals for my aircraft.

Edit: I'll be more specific, I was speaking quite vaguely there. I'd like to be able to completely automate the throttle and control surfaces for a preprogrammed takeoff sequence and ascent, and then have data on altitude and ground distance covered every, say, 15 seconds for 5 minutes. Can this be done with mech Jeb and other existing mods?

Edited August 21, 2015 by MunGazer

[Joshwoo70]

wahhhh.. CHA! -sniped-

There is pilot assistant and mechjeb

[lemon1324]

I'd like to be able to completely automate the throttle and control surfaces for a preprogrammed takeoff sequence and ascent, and then have data on altitude and ground distance covered every, say, 15 seconds for 5 minutes.

Ah, right. This is pretty much exactly what I needed for my expedition entry. Full post is on the previous page, but essentially I used Pilot Assistant for semiautomated piloting; to nail down my ascent trajectory I entered my desired parameters into Pilot Assistant, and then manually changed the target ascent rate at various altitude landmarks, then tried variations to optimize fuel use.

For data logging, kOS (again, the script I used available on my last entry post). You can use kOS to log data to a file, and more importantly for me, I could define my own measurements to log to a file (e.g. fuel efficiency). Here's one such data log showing my final ascent profile.

As far as I've seen, if you want truly automated autopilot that works for airplanes, you'll have to write your own in kOS. I'm working on a kOS script to do it, but it's not going to be done anytime soon.

[MunGazer]

Ah, right. This is pretty much exactly what I needed for my expedition entry. Full post is on the previous page, but essentially I used Pilot Assistant for semiautomated piloting; to nail down my ascent trajectory I entered my desired parameters into Pilot Assistant, and then manually changed the target ascent rate at various altitude landmarks, then tried variations to optimize fuel use.

For data logging, kOS (again, the script I used available on my last entry post). You can use kOS to log data to a file, and more importantly for me, I could define my own measurements to log to a file (e.g. fuel efficiency). Here's one such data log showing my final ascent profile.

As far as I've seen, if you want truly automated autopilot that works for airplanes, you'll have to write your own in kOS. I'm working on a kOS script to do it, but it's not going to be done anytime soon.

Thanks so much for the advice. Pilot assistant and kOS are definitely some tools I think I'd enjoy learning how to use.

[RuBisCO]

Bomber with fuel tanks in place of bombs does 3 circumnavigations (with barely any fuel to spare)

All stock parts.

MechJeb used for attitude control and distance tracking.

TACfuel transfer used to track fuel remaining.

I hope this counts.

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[Xannari Ferrows]

Bomber with fuel tanks in place of bombs does 3 circumnavigations (with barely any fuel to spare)

All stock parts.

MechJeb used for attitude control and distance tracking.

TACfuel transfer used to track fuel remaining.

I hope this counts.

http://imgur.com/a/vlm4b

No worry, it counts.

This thing is freaking majestic. I wonder if such a design would be stable as a dart... Certainly looks like it. Someone make this happen.

While I scrape the medicine off my taste buds, enjoy your reward.

http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/circumnavigator%20resized%20expedition.png

[Dunbaratu]

As far as I've seen, if you want truly automated autopilot that works for airplanes, you'll have to write your own in kOS. I'm working on a kOS script to do it, but it's not going to be done anytime soon.

I was under the impression that flying by a kOS script was disallowed by the rules of this challenge. That you could use it purely to spit out information, but are required to fly manually.

When I saw that in the rules of the first post, I didn't bother reading the rest of this thread in detail to see if the rules may have changed. (The way SQUAD organized these forums it's a bit of a pain to keep following all the threads where a bug might get reported for kOS since they added a few generic "post any bug about any mod here" threads. Therefore I resorted to setting up an Advanced search on mentions of kOS which I check on once every couple of days, thus why I noticed the talk starting to appear in this thread.)

Edited August 21, 2015 by Steven Mading

[MunGazer]

I was under the impression that flying by a kOS script was disallowed by the rules of this challenge. That you could use it purely to spit out information, but are required to fly manually.

When I saw that in the rules of the first post, I didn't bother reading the rest of this thread in detail to see if the rules may have changed. (The way SQUAD organized these forums it's a bit of a pain to keep following all the threads where a bug might get reported for kOS since they added a few generic "post any bug about any mod here" threads. Therefore I resorted to setting up an Advanced search on mentions of kOS which I check on once every couple of days, thus why I noticed the talk starting to appear in this thread.)

Yeah I didn't plan to use it for entries in this challenge; only for precise flight testing. I've also been thinking about engineering InterKerbinental Ballistic Missiles (IKBM) so this type of automation would help there.

[RuBisCO]

No worry, it counts.

This thing is freaking majestic. I wonder if such a design would be stable as a dart... Certainly looks like it. Someone make this happen.

While I scrape the medicine off my taste buds, enjoy your reward.

http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/circumnavigator%20resized%20expedition.png

Well I thank you, but I'm not much for badges, here is the craft file: http://www./download/whdrro3jks184a8/Xylonite.zip

[WinkAllKerb'']

Grats Rubisco, cool looking plane love it ; )

[RuBisCO]

Not sure I know what the "dart" is, I guess I will start reading the thread.

It's pretty stable, center of gravity moves only a little from fully loaded and fully empty.

Takes awhile to reach top speed though, but it is pretty maneuverable at slow speeds, especially if all flaps are used for roll, but roll will oscillate at high speeds if the wing flaps are set to roll. At high speeds be careful in a turn as you can rip it to pieces. With bombs it is best to have fuel tanks half empty (and pump fuel into forward tanks) before dropping them or else the center of gravity shifts too far for stable flight. It can circumnavigate kerbin once with 15 tons of ordnance instead of fuel tanks in the bomb bay.

Edited August 21, 2015 by RuBisCO

[Xannari Ferrows]

Just because it looked very neutrally stable, like a dart.

[ExaltedDuck]

Good flying, Rubisco. Whenever I've built anything with the airliner wings, they explode. I think it has something to do with my throttle lever supplier marking them with "off" on one end of the travel and "not enough" on the other.

[Alphasus]

Is the mech job autopilot fine?I have a plane that KER says can do 3 circumnavigation with a bit more at Mach 3, but flying for 2.5 hours is difficult. If mech jet isn't allowed, any tips?

[GDJ]

Not sure about MechJeb but Pilot Assistant works reasonably well. Xanarri will have the final word on that one.

[Sharkman Briton]

I'm not one to talk, giving up on a test run of my elcano challenge car not a quarter of the way to the deserts on the other side of KSC's continent, but what I suggest you do is fly from KSC, land in the big desert, keep flying, find somewhere flat, land, rinse and repeat, and when you land take a break, save your game, and then turn it off if you wanna and fly again! An aeris 3A took me about 45 mins to fly to the big deserts. For my second ever plane landing.

[Alphasus]

Continuously moving planes though, so I can't stop.

[GDJ]

I'm not one to talk, giving up on a test run of my elcano challenge car not a quarter of the way to the deserts on the other side of KSC's continent, but what I suggest you do is fly from KSC, land in the big desert, keep flying, find somewhere flat, land, rinse and repeat, and when you land take a break, save your game, and then turn it off if you wanna and fly again! An aeris 3A took me about 45 mins to fly to the big deserts. For my second ever plane landing.

Interesting strategy and with the landing, reasonably difficult!

Unfortunately the challenge is for a non-stop no landing flight. If we land before we end up at the KSC again, we're disqualified.

[Sharkman Briton]

Oh, but if you're not doing it for the challenge it would be fun, I would love to circumnavigate Kerbin if I trusted my landing & piloting skills, that second ever landing was one of my very few successful plane landings, probably because the desert it rather flat.

[Alphasus]

I only trust my landing skills with drogue chutes and full chutes when I touch down.

[Sharkman Briton]

I don't even trust my landing skills on the runway, all you do is go down to the runway and then point your prograde above the navball horizon before you touchdown, right?

[Alphasus]

I flare as much as I can(pull up really hard), go up a bit, activate drogue chutes, pull up less, touchdown, and deploy full chutes. I can't land big things without parachutes.

[Sharkman Briton]

I can't land anything without a parachute, well, I haven't landed a plane with a parachute yet because I haven't landed a plane for ages and the times I did I had no clue of the whole parachute landing thing.