Jebediah Kerman's Flight School Challenge

[Samniss Arandeen]

Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Co.

In Conjunction with Arandeen Aerospace Corporation

Presents...

Jebediah Kerman's Flight School

We as KSPers have taken Jeb on many a wonderful adventure across the Kerbol system. But Jeb is older now, and his eyes turn to the horizon and to the future of Kerbal Space Program. Seeing a need for trained and confident pilots to follow in his footsteps, he partnered up with AAC to design and build a two-seater training craft.

The Fearow! Capable of single-stage-to-orbit flight, prospective Kerbals must prove superior control and precision to prove themselves worthy of the BadS=true flag. Will you set down gracefully back on Kerba Firma? Or will you crash and burn?

VIEW AND DOWNLOAD .CRAFT HERE

Challenge Rules:

1.) The physical design and properties of the Fearow may NOT be altered. Fly the craft as provided above.

1.1.) The fuel in the fuel tanks, however, may be adjusted as desired.

1.2.) The Action Group settings, while a basic set are provided, may be rebound as desired.

2.) Using whatever flight path suits you, get the Fearow into a stable (75x75km or greater) orbit and land it completely intact upon KSC terrain. You may make as many orbits as you wish. Ap/Pe altitudes will be noted in the gradebook. Extra credit if you put down on the runway.

3.) All who successfully complete the challenge will be noted; however, the highest grades go to those who consume the least amounts of fuel and oxidizer.

4.) NO autopilots! (I'm looking at you, MechJeb...) Informational mods (KER, RPM) are fine as long as you're flying the craft manually/with the aid of stock SAS. Yes, you can use a joystick.

5.) FAR/NEAR and DRE flights are a different class, and are found in the Test Pilot Academy gradebook. FAR/NEAR flight assistance is permitted.

6.) All required screenshots must be provided for a given flight to be graded.

7.) Jebediah Kerman must backseat the flight to a non-Orange-Suit Pilot.

8.) If you find a flight path that works especially well, by all means share it with your classmates and with Jeb! We're all learning from each other.

Required Screenshots:

- Crew Roster proving Jeb backseating another Pilot.

- Craft on the runway before launch, Resources tab open.

- Map Screen of the craft's achieved orbit, Ap and Pe visible.

- Craft in orbit.

- Craft on approach for landing.

- Craft landed and stopped, Resources tab open. If not on the runway, KSC must be clearly visible in this shot.

- Anything else you deem necessary!

- You may substitute video for the screenshots if you wish.

Jeb tells me the man who taught him how to fly had a saying. "Fly Safe!"

- - - Updated - - -

Passed the test: The lower the fuel consumption, the higher the grade.

Starhawk Phore Kerman now has her spaceflight qualifications. Extra credit for the runway landing. Consumed 898 Liquid Fuel and 573 Oxidizer to achieve and return from a 75,935x75,649 m orbit.

GoSlash27 Tanbal Kerman now has his spaceflight qualifications. Extra credit for the EVA mission and deadstick runway landing. Consumed 987 Liquid Fuel and 619 Oxidizer to achieve and return from a 75,320x75,141 m orbit.

Scarecrow88 Kalpond Kerman now has his spaceflight qualifications. Extra credit for the deadstick runway landing. Consumed approximately 1078 Liquid Fuel and 772 Oxidizer to achieve and return from a 100,283x100,547 m orbit.

Passed the test (Test Pilot Academy): Used FAR/NEAR and/or DRE

Detention: Broke a rule, incomplete entry, etcetera.

Thankfully no one.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Samniss Arandeen

[GoSlash27]

Samniss,

That looks like more than enough spaceplane to do the job from my house. I'll give it a whirl.

Best,

-Slashy

[Scarecrow88]

I liked the look of this challenge and thought I would have a go.

Kalpond Kerman reports that the plane was very nice to fly, with no vices and gave him no problems on his test flight with Jebediah. He's very thankful for that, as he is more than aware of Jebediah's reputation, and he didn't want to screw up in his presence.

A stable orbit of 100x100km was achieved with enough fuel on board to make a higher orbit had they so wished, but Jeb pointed out that the view didn't get that much better by going higher. Orbital inclination was 0.6 degrees, measured against the orbit of Mun.

Re-entry was straight forward, with no overheating issues, and with a slight cough from the back seat as to when he should make his burn, they came in nicely over KSC and were able to land on the runway dead stick.

Jebediah and Kalpond are selected for the mission

Final checks on the runway before setting off

100x100km orbit established

Admiring the view

Final stages of re-entry with KSC in sight

Lined up on the runway

Parachutes were useful, but not entirely essential

Back in time for breakfast. Jeb reckons you could fry your eggs on the still glowing wings

[GoSlash27]

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/Tanbal

Tanbal gets his shuttle wings! BadSS mode engaged!

This trainer makes it easy. Steady handling throughout. The only gripe is the downward- facing tailplanes. They give a weird yaw reaction.

It's slow and draggy on the way up, so use a conservative launch profile.

It's clean on the way down, so I set Ap at 47 km.

Best,

-Slashy

[Starhawk]

I found the Fearow was a bit twitchy due to the downward angled tailplanes as well. It generally handled well other than that.

Like Slashy, I disabled yaw authority on the rudder.

I found the drag profile to be enormous. I often try for higher speeds lower in my ascent profile, but this baby heats up real fast.

Made a 75x75 orbit with lots of fuel in the tanks.

Slows down nicely on reentry with all that drag and the brakes deployed. I had no problem with a dead-stick landing on the runway.

Phore Kerman is now a fully qualified pilot!

Thanks for the challenge.

Happy landings!

Edited August 5, 2015 by Starhawk

[Samniss Arandeen]

Congratulations to:

Scarecrow88 getting Kalpond Kerman his spaceflight qualifications. Extra credit for runway landing. Consumed approximately 1078 Liquid Fuel and 772 Oxidizer to achieve and return from a 100,283x100,547 m orbit.

GoSlash27 getting Tanbal Kerman his shuttle qualifications. Extra credit for the EVA mission and deadstick runway landing. Consumed 987 Liquid Fuel and 619 Oxidizer to achieve and return from a 75,320x75,141 m orbit.

Starhawk, do you have a screenshot of the orbit achieved?

[Starhawk]

Starhawk, do you have a screenshot of the orbit achieved?

Sorry about that. I thought for sure I had posted that one. I've updated my entry post above to include the required screenshot.

Happy landings!

[Samniss Arandeen]

Sorry about that. I thought for sure I had posted that one. I've updated my entry post above to include the required screenshot.

Happy landings!

Updated the OP, you're no longer in detention. In fact, you hold the record for least fuel consumed in flight (so far).

[Nich]

Cant wait to try this one I have been getting pretty good at dead stick landings (well grass field and coasting to the runway)

[Starhawk]

Updated the OP, you're no longer in detention. In fact, you hold the record for least fuel consumed in flight (so far).

Woo hoo!

I don't expect to hold that record very long.

Happy landings!

[Nich]

632 LF

383 OX

Quite a bit of fuel left over and I actually hit the runway this time

pm if you want the flight profile I don't ruin the challenge for others

77x75

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited August 6, 2015 by Nich

[GoSlash27]

Nich,

I see what you did there

This is why I always build my SSTOs just barely big enough to do the job.

Best,

-Slashy

[Starhawk]

Yeah, well, a little margin on a trainer is probably a good idea.

Nonetheless, I have to say: Good job, Nich!

Happy landings!

[Nich]

Ha ha I just realized you guys all did it with full tanks. Based off rule 1.1 I assumed everyone would be taking fuel out. My first test run of the craft yelled about 680 LF and 440 OX used. I did climb to 15 km with the landing gear dowm <facepalm>

Also I laughed my a** off when I went to the astronaut complex and Jerbart was there. First thing that popped in my head was "Hey its Jebs cousin Jerbart" Nepotism is rampant in the KSA.

[GoSlash27]

Nich,

There's no reason why you shouldn't make the run with less fuel, particularly if you're going for lowest possible consumption. Not gonna do that carrying dead weight.

Also, congrats on the landing!

Best,

-Slashy

[Streetwind]

I rarely fly spaceplanes, chiefly because I'm awful and uninspired at building them. Since there's a prebuilt one here, and its a "trainer" to boot, I thought to myself "sure, let's get some training for myself".

However... I opted to attempt this challenge under FAR, because that's what I generally play with. And my results... well.

I've chronicled my short foray in the following album (view on imgur for descriptions).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I've made about 10 takeoff attempts, and each one ended pretty much like this. It's surprising how little influence any of my steering attempts actually had - the plane seemed to largely ignore all my feeble flailings during the short 2-3 seconds it remained airborne. There's only one in two possible results: if I countersteer, the plane flips forward, pancakes into the airstream and stalls; if I don't countersteer, the plane flips upright, pancakes into the airstream and stalls. It wants to point any direction except forward, like a rocket with a giant fairing and no fins. And I didn't even get anywhere near transsonic yet...

So yeah - I think your leaderboard for the pilot academy will be remaining empty. The Fearow is not airworthy under FAR

[Nich]

Have you tried removing fuel in the front to move the COM back? The COL COM was pretty tight on this craft and i believe FAR moves the lift even further up vs stock

[Streetwind]

Have you tried removing fuel in the front to move the COM back? The COL COM was pretty tight on this craft and i believe FAR moves the lift even further up vs stock

Doing that makes it worse.

By comparison, moving the CoM forward actually helps noticably - but not enough, even when draining the entire large central tank. It still tries to pancake.

Similarly, I tried moving the canards back, to reduce the amount of lift and drag in the front, and eventually removed them entirely; this also helped a little, but again not enough to get rid of the inherent pitch instability. It also makes the area ruling slightly worse than it already was.

Overall, I'd have to change the plane too much to make it work - probably involving removing both the canards and the tailplanes, moving the main delta wing and intake assembly way back and fitting it with elevons, and then smoothing out the curve with some wing strakes further forward. It would no longer be the plane Samniss provided for the challenge, and thus it's pointless to try.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Streetwind

[Thomas H.]

An excuse to bring a space plane to orbit. I am so doing the challange.

The second try worked (the first had a rather hard landing in the wrong place).

I put 1050 LF and 770 Ox in the plane and came home with 107 Ox after reaching a 76.8x 75.4 km orbit.

The flight path is not optimised yet.

The crew roster is missing the proof that jeb is back seating is when he exits the plane.

[MadChris48]

Here is my entry. I had a couple better attempts (fuel wise) but this was the only one that I hit the runway with.

Managed a 83km x 77km orbit using 631 LF / 396 LOX.

Punching through the super-sonic barrier can be tricky to do it efficiently.

I did get 1557m/s out of the Rapier before having to switch to closed cycle mode, so that's sweet.

Edited August 7, 2015 by MadChris48

[norup]

Lesa made it too!

She was the third pupil since the local instance of the flight school opened, and the first one to perform according to the briefing.

A 75.1 x 76.1 orbit was achieved, and the plane was landed dead-stick after a rather aggressive split-S maneuver over KSC.

Consumed 1055 LF and 722 LOX, starting with full tanks.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105600781576952248354/KSPFlightSchoolLesa?authuser=0&feat=directlink

[Streetwind]

@Samniss Arandeen:

I'm able to complete the challenge under FAR if I'm allowed to move parts around. I don't need to add any, I don't need to remove any; just putting the same parts you used in a different configuration. Would that be an acceptable extra rule for the "Test Pilot Academy" tier? You could consider it added difficulty - instead of just flying the plane to orbit, you have to make the plane flightworthy and then fly it to orbit

[norup]

Watching a few other trainees get out and back with better fuel economy, Lesa got a second attempt:

After getting to an orbit of 75.5x76.1km, there was only fuel left for a very shallow reentry. KSC was passed at a height of more than 30km, but after yet another split-S, the Fearow landed dead-stick on the runway.

Consumed 671.14 LF and 495 LOX.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105600781576952248354/JebSFlightSchoolLesa2?authuser=0&feat=directlink

[Bioman222]

But first (zoom in)

[Cool791]

I made a badge if you want to edit it in so people who pass can put it in their signature.