Mission Parameter: "Flying"

[Jacmac]

I have two assigned missions in career mode that appear to be impossible due to the parameter "Flying". Both missions involve testing a component above 41K meters at speeds greater than 600 M/S. When I pass approximately 38K meters, I shift from Surface to Orbit. I don't know whether Surface means "Flying" but I am at about 650 M/S when this happens. When I get to 41K at 650 M/S all parameters show a green check, except for "Flying". Is this a bug or am I missing something?

[Snark]

Hello, and welcome to the forums! 

Moving this question about how to play the game to Gameplay Questions.

10 minutes ago, Jacmac said:

I have two assigned missions in career mode that appear to be impossible due to the parameter "Flying". Both missions involve testing a component above 41K meters at speeds greater than 600 M/S. When I pass approximately 38K meters, I shift from Surface to Orbit. I don't know whether Surface means "Flying" but I am at about 650 M/S when this happens. When I get to 41K at 650 M/S all parameters show a green check, except for "Flying". Is this a bug or am I missing something?

That sounds odd to me.  I'm pretty sure I've seen contracts for "flying" that are high enough in the atmosphere that the navball automatically shifts to "orbit" mode, but that doesn't affect contract completion.  My understanding of "flying" is that as long as you're in atmosphere, and not on an escape trajectory, and your periapsis is below ground, then you're "flying".

I'm not sure what the exact boundaries of "flying" are, though, since I don't tend to do a lot of flying contracts myself.  It's possible I've gotten some of the criteria mixed up in the above statement.

By any chance, when you get to 41K and >650, is your projected Ap out of atmosphere?  Maybe that's it?  A screenshot showing the contract criteria (with "flying" unchecked), and your trajectory, might be educational.

Or, maybe it's a bug.  It's been known to happen.  If it turns out to be a bug, there's no dishonor in using the Alt+F12 cheat menu to force contract completion. 

Would love to dig into it a little to find out what the problem is, though.

[bewing]

Stock contracts do not ever generate "in flight above" about 21 km. So for your scenario, it's gotta be a modded contract. Which means that the mod may be buggy.

I think snark's definition of "flight" is exactly correct. In any case, almost all the time I'm below 70km, "in flight" is always checked on my contracts.

So basically what you're seeing should be impossible. Which means either a bug or a corrupted game. If you got your game from steam, you can easily check for a corrupted game by doing a "file verification".

 

[Jacmac]

15 minutes ago, Snark said:

 when you get to 41K and >650, is your projected Ap out of atmosphere?  Maybe that's it?  A screenshot showing the contract criteria (with "flying" unchecked), and your trajectory, might be educational.

No doubt that I'm heading out of the atmosphere, with my angle of attack, I'm going to hit at least 80K. I'll try a vehicle designed to plow through horizontally, I wan't really using thrust vectoring, just going straight up.

[paulprogart]

25 minutes ago, Jacmac said:

No doubt that I'm heading out of the atmosphere, with my angle of attack, I'm going to hit at least 80K. I'll try a vehicle designed to plow through horizontally, I wan't really using thrust vectoring, just going straight up.

Yeah you need to use a sideways rocket or (if you're able) a spaceplane.  I had at least one of these in stock career and was able to complete it fine with no "workarounds".  Taking a quick look, I see one at 44-47km going 930-1010 m/s.  I forget how I did it but I think I just lobbed a rocket with an Ap at about 50km or so.

You are looking for the info applet (the little 'i' in map mode) to say Situation: FLYING.  I forget the exact criteria but I think it's as long as you are in the atmosphere and not heading for orbit, so I believe you can even do it on reentry.

[Jacmac]

I figured it out. It wasn't "Flying", it was the speed when it shifts into Orbital. I was slowing down and missing the surface speed range.

[Hotaru]

52 minutes ago, Snark said:

By any chance, when you get to 41K and >650, is your projected Ap out of atmosphere?  Maybe that's it?

I suspect this is it: when apoapsis goes over 70 kilometers you go from "flying" to "suborbital." Certainly that fits with the minimum definition of "suborbital" required for things like tourist flights--apoapsis out of atmo, periapsis in atmo (or below ground).

[Spricigo]

18 hours ago, bewing said:

Stock contracts do not ever generate "in flight above" about 21 km. So for your scenario, it's gotta be a modded contract. Which means that the mod may be buggy.

This is true for performing science contracts , part test contracts sometimes may require "between min and max altitude"  where min and max can be anything.

Also I'm pretty sure I had done in flight part tests while suborbital, so Ap out of atmosphere should not be a problem. But been awhile ago, so don’t quote me.

 

BTW depending on typical design and launch profile, conditions like "speed between 1240m/s and 1320m/s" &"altitude between 61800m and 62400m"  lead to some, if not difficult, very inconvenient contracts. So attention to the details of the contracts before accepting is advised.

[ForScience6686]

Flying just means you are in the air and your trajectory does not leave the atmosphere, that would be sub orbital.

[bewing]

@Spricigo: You are correct. Between my eyes and my brain the words "test a component" became "do an experiment", which led to my misstatement. Component test contracts at those altitudes are very common in stock games.

But as the OP found out, it's the surface speed that the contract refers to in part test contracts, not the orbital speed. (I find it's easiest to keep the contract app open, and just watch for checkmarks -- rather than try to judge by the speed indicator.)