Spaceplane Guys

[grant977]

What are you guys using for landing gear? I am trying to do a sandbox with one rule you must fly back from space but I need good landing gear.

[Gaarst]

1.1 is not the version for spaceplanes... or planes... or anything that has wheels really. The wheels colliders (or whatever describes their behaviour) are broken, and will not be fixed before 1.2 as that requires a Unity update.

Now there are probably some neat landing gears out there (you might need to give more information about what you are searching for) but know that some unexpected behaviours are expected.

 

Edit: might be sensible to add that even though wheels are broken, you might do perfectly well with some designs, so don't let that put you off from (at least) trying.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Gaarst

[Jimbo Jangles]

1 hour ago, Gaarst said:

...know that some unexpected behaviours are expected.

Edit: might be sensible to add that even though wheels are broken, you might do perfectly well with some designs, so don't let that put you off from (at least) trying.

Good advice on both counts. Do give it a try with the stock gear. I usually have more trouble taking off than landing. A lot of people are saying to use bigger gear than the stress tolerance data indicates, but I've found that using gear with 2/1 or greater stress tolerance/ship mass ratio is usually a bad idea in terms of stability on landing.

I get a lot more bouncing and swerving when my gear aren't at least a little flattened out, and not from adjusting the springs lower either. I try to dial in the total gear tolerances to be slightly, maybe 10-20% over the weight of the plane. Obviously there is no tweakable setting for stress tolerance.

I will mix and match from small to large (rarely extra large) retractable gears, varying the total number, placement, and friction settings to get a good match. The key reason I try to get it that close is that a 30t spaceplane might only mass 5-10t on landing. 

Hope that helps! 

[Alshain]

Once some progress is made on fixing the landing gear and the mod gets updated, you will definitely want to look at Adjustable Landing Gear.  It's just between a rock and a hard place because of the bugs in 1.1.

Honestly, I'd say try the stock gear and when it begins to frustrate you to no end that you can't find a good mounting spot for them so that they are wide enough not to flip the plane and level enough to not to hold the plane correctly and straight enough to not have the wheels crooked (this will inevitably happen if you like to build a variety of designs), then it's time for Adjustable Landing Gear.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Alshain

[Van Disaster]

Baha is on indefinite leave due to life so I'd not hold your breath for ALG - the dll source is there but not the model source. Never know, something similar might end up stock in 1.2.

Until then I'm making stock wheels work - unless I have a particularily stable craft I use parachute brakes. Realchute can be set up to autodeploy on touchdown.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Van Disaster

[grant977]

I mainly and trying to make landing only space planes like shuttle for now. I miss adjustable gear badly. I guess its try and make stock work for now.