Deactivate all control surfaces in vacuum

[THX1138]

I like my airbrakes on my rocket to have active pitch and yaw to keep my heatshield at the front when aerobraking. I don't like them wiggling around when I'm not in the atmosphere and I figure they're more vulnerable to being damaged during docking when they're extending out unnecessarily.

[AlamoVampire]

if memory serves you can manually shut them down once you exit the atmosphere, the only catch is remembering that you did so before going to reenter

[THX1138]

1 minute ago, AlamoVampire said:

if memory serves you can manually shut them down once you exit the atmosphere, the only catch is remembering that you did so before going to reenter

I have 20 airbreaks on my fuel tanker and after clicking each one I'd have to disable the pitch and yaw separately. I don't want to click 20 x 3 x 2 = 120 times for every round trip I make to the Mun for fuel! All control surface movements should be disabled in vacuum without laborious clicking.

[AlamoVampire]

@THX1138 im with ya there. too much clickage drives a man bonkers. Maybe theres a mod for that then? maybe in the interim you could action group it? not sure how well or IF that works even. best of luck tho

[cfds]

The obvious solution is to attach them all to a service bay, that you keep open in atmosphere and close in vacuum. I am sure the "disable while stowed mechanic" deactivates stowed control surfaces (and I _am_ keeping a straight face at the moment).

[sebi.zzr]

Yes,there is a mod for that:

+ ModuleControlSurfacePlus (Plus)
Description: Currently contains the following Plus options (no StockFixes required)
  - (Plus) Adds tweakable authority range
  - (Plus) Disables flight controls in space, so they aren't moving around when maneuvering
  - (Plus) Adds tweakable to toggle deploy direction of individual flight control surfaces (by part)
 

[THX1138]

1 hour ago, AlamoVampire said:

@THX1138 im with ya there. too much clickage drives a man bonkers. Maybe theres a mod for that then? maybe in the interim you could action group it? not sure how well or IF that works even. best of luck tho

I can't find a mod for it and the yaw and pitch controls can't be changed in action groups - the action group only allows extend/retract/toggle which I already use (toggle) and has no effect on the pitch and yaw. Edit: Nevermind, it is addressed in a mod linked above.

20 minutes ago, cfds said:

The obvious solution is to attach them all to a service bay, that you keep open in atmosphere and close in vacuum. I am sure the "disable while stowed mechanic" deactivates stowed control surfaces (and I _am_ keeping a straight face at the moment).

They don't fit inside service bays which are pretty unattractive dead weight.

Edited July 7, 2016 by THX1138

[Snark]

Just want to chime in that I'd love to have this, too.  Not for airbrakes (I don't care about those), but about everything else.  If I've got a ship with some AV-R8 winglets on the back, and it's in orbit, and I've told it to, say, "hold prograde".... it's really annoying to have the darn things wiggling all the time.

[klgraham1013]

Amazing how much is in stock bug fix that still isn't stock.  Especially considering current employment of certain persons. 

[Jovus]

Can we also disable engine gimbal when those engines are disabled, throttled down, or out of fuel? It looks silly to have my rocket plane's butt wiggle all over the place.