Rudder/Tail/Flap Authority and Gear Spring/Damper Settings

[ansaman]

I have spent a couple of hundred hours designing different types of aircraft. I have found that limiting authority on control surfaces can be VERY helpful especially when trying to use Mechjeb. I have further found that if your craft are jumping around, tweaking spring and damper settings can be helpful. I am interested in any other tips people might have and in particular dealing with aircraft doing a groundloop when braking on landing.

[dafidge9898]

Disable the brakes on the nosewheel. That and increase the friction of the main landing gear and decrease the friction of the nosewheel to 0 or 0.1.

Real world aircraft don't have brakes on their nosewheel

Edited July 27, 2016 by dafidge9898
Addition

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I'd assume for most people playing KSP this goes without saying but...

Assigning your control surfaces to the appropriate directions (Yaw,Pitch,Roll) is essential to making an aircraft that is stable and goes where you direct it. This applies as much on the runway as it does in the air. As stated above by @ansaman tweaking control authority after test flying the plane can really help "fine tune" the experience. Personally I find that pitch authority should be low to avoid roll overs and stall outs, roll is usually fine on default; heck it can even be turned up! No harm in rolling, Yaw can be tricky as larger planes may need more authority where as smaller planes will probably want less.

Fantastic image that explains proper control settings for a standard plane under spoiler:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[ansaman]

2 hours ago, dafidge9898 said:

Disable the brakes on the nosewheel. That and increase the friction of the main landing gear and decrease the friction of the nosewheel to 0 or 0.1.

Real world aircraft don't have brakes on their nosewheel

Wow. THANKS!

[dafidge9898]

On 7/27/2016 at 4:30 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Yaw can be tricky as larger planes may need more authority where as smaller planes will probably want less.

A trick with assigning yaw controls on the rudder: put whatever desired number above zero for yaw, 0 for pitch (unless it's a V tail), and a small negative number for roll to combat the effects of adverse yaw! 

Edit: it's a bit more tricky than that. Refer to comment below. 

Edited July 29, 2016 by dafidge9898

[fourfa]

On 7/27/2016 at 7:36 PM, dafidge9898 said:

A trick with assigning yaw controls on the rudder: put whatever desired number above zero for yaw, 0 for pitch (unless it's a V tail), and a small negative number for roll to combat the effects of adverse yaw! 

Are you using some aero mod?  Stock KSP does not have separate control authority for different axes

[SSgt Baloo]

5 minutes ago, fourfa said:

Are you using some aero mod?  Stock KSP does not have separate control authority for different axes

He must be. I have some parts that are like that. I think they're from the Firespitter mod.

[dafidge9898]

3 hours ago, fourfa said:

Are you using some aero mod?  Stock KSP does not have separate control authority for different axes

Huh, you're right. I could have sworn that was in stock, but I just checked. It's been a while. 

I actually don't know what mod adds that. But, you still could get this to work by adding one small extra vertical stabilizer, turn off yaw and pitch (leaving roll on), and put the control authority to negative. 

Edited July 29, 2016 by dafidge9898
more information