Q: Refueling planes on the ground.

[Triop]

So after I had to land a plane "in the middle of nowhere" I was wondering if there is a way to refuel a plane that is stranded.

Can it be done stock ?

Is there a mod for that ?

I did made a plane that can mine fuel, but that just takes forever...

 

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Make another plane with a Klaw on it, fly it over there and transfer the fuel?

I suppose it could be done.

Is it worth it?

[Triop]

29 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Make another plane with a Klaw on it, fly it over there and transfer the fuel?

I suppose it could be done.

Is it worth it?

 

If that will work it is to me, I'm in a period now where I play with planes (only stock), and want to get everything out of it, if you know what I mean.

I'm gonna give it a try.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Triop

[Tex]

Moved to Gameplay Questions due to gameplay question.

 

Also, yeah, it's possible if there are docking ports on the plane itself, or as RIMP said, the claw will enable you to just grab it and transfer the fuel. Then the problem becomes transporting the extra fuel and getting both crafts home.

[Triop]

1 hour ago, Maximus97 said:

Moved to Gameplay Questions due to gameplay question.

 

Also, yeah, it's possible if there are docking ports on the plane itself, or as RIMP said, the claw will enable you to just grab it and transfer the fuel. Then the problem becomes transporting the extra fuel and getting both crafts home.

Thank you, sorry for posting this in the wrong categorie, gets confusing sometimes.

[bewing]

I've used klaws to refuel planes on the ground many times, but there is a difficulty. The klaw on the tanker plane must be lined up very closely with the centerline of the other plane. This is especially true when the stranded plane is built with an MK2 fuselage. If the two planes use different height landing gear, it's basically hopeless -- unless you can get very lucky while retracting one set of landing gear.

[Docsprock]

I use aircraft with rover wheels and docking ports. Then drop refuelling stations all over the planet.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Docsprock

[Geschosskopf]

15 hours ago, Triop said:

So after I had to land a plane "in the middle of nowhere" I was wondering if there is a way to refuel a plane that is stranded.

Can it be done stock ?

Is there a mod for that ?

I did made a plane that can mine fuel, but that just takes forever...

Well, if you're trying to rescue a plane that wasn't designed for refueling originally, you can't do docking ports because the plane doesn't have one.  If in the future you want to use docking ports, just be careful.  Docking vehicles on the ground can be EXCEEDINGLY frustrating.  While it's no biggie getting it to work in tests on the smooth, level surface of the runway, the ground everywhere else isn't level.  Also, the suspensions in the wheels of the 2 vehicles will compress a variable amount depending on how much fuel is in them at the time.  All this can make it very difficult to get the ports to line up.

So, for the plane in question, your only stock option is to send out a tanker with the Klaw.  The tanker must be mobile and it must be the thing that moves to make the contact while the thirsty plane is sitting still.  If you move the plane into the waiting Klaw of a stationary tanker, Bad Things can happen.

There is, however a mod for this called Kerbal Attachment System (KAS).  This mod adds small pipe end pieces.  An engineer (equipped with a screwdriver or wrench) can attach an end piece to each vehicle, then link them together with a pipe (up to about 50m).  The game treats this as docking the vehicles so now you can pump fuel from 1 to the other.