Bob's Travels

purpleivan · June 10, 2019

Trip 1 (part 1) - Decent of Doom.

With the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation completed, Bob felt like he still had things he needed to accomplish on Kerbin, before heading off for other planets. So to help Bob resolve that (and pull in those big tourism funds) he's been set up in the travel business, taking tourists on guided tours of far flung parts of Kerbin.

For this venture new equipment was needed. No puttering around in a boat at 30-40m/s, when a plane will get you places a lot quicker.

The new bird, named Flaming Flamingo (of Flam Flam to its friends) took to the skies with Val at the controls and Ribrick Kerman, a paying passenger, sitting next to her. Housed in the belly of the aircraft was a rover, in which sat Bob and Katsen Kerman, the other tourist, in search of distant adventure.

Takeoff of the the Flaming Flamingo is a little hairy, as it needs to get up to about 100m/s to get into the air, but starts to veer off course at about 60. So after a wiggly line down the runway, it made this rather unorthodox route into the air. On it's next trip the rear landing gear might get a little adjustment to try and get off the ground faster.

But once in the air, Flam Flam is a joy to fly and was soon banked round to give the tourists a fine view of the KSC as it headed West.

Well Ribrick had a fine view from the cockput, but from the rover, all Katsen could see was the interior of the cargo bay.

Well occasionally she could see the exterior of the rover flapping wildly around while the interior stayed motionless. She was a little concerned about this, but Bob assured her it was nothing to worry about.

"Happens all the time".

From the cockpit Ribrick got a fine view of the mountains to the West of the KSC, nicknamed The Shortstop. So named because if your de-orbiting spacecraft comes in short for a landing at the KSC, that's where you're gonna stop.

Flam Flam headed out over the sea with about half a load of fuel onboard. It wasn't fully fuelled before departure, as putting fuel in that big rear tank puts the CoM way too far back for a stable aircraft. But at least that thing gives the plane a shapely rear end.

What's that up ahead, must be the desert coast. Good thing, because that sandy realm is the destination the fleshy payload that's paying for this trip, stumped up the cash for.

Val's pretty excited, she's really enjoying being at the controls of something airbourne again.

The landing strip at the Dessert Airfield is in sight and Val lines up perfectly for a landing on it.

Flam Flam has great handing characteristic for a landing, it can come in really slow on those big wings, almost feels like it's hovering.

Once on the ground Val pulled the plane round to the pilot's club. Ribrick is a real plane buff and is looking forward to chilling out in there while Katsen heads off in the rover.

Well... here is that rover, a much upgraded version of the one which Bob took up many mountains in the K.S.C. It dangles from the end of a telecoping piston, which it undocks from..

... before heading off on its own travels.

This new rover (Bob likes to call it The Bear, but it's not official) is a lot heavier than the he was used to driving. Fortunately with an extra 4 wheels, it's got the grunt to move it.

So bob and Katsen left Flam Flam and the Dessert Airfield behind and headed South into the desert mountains.

After the smooth ride to the edge of the mountains, Bob took the rover up it's first proper slopes, nothing taxing though and well within the vehicle's capabilities.

Bob decided to take Katsen over to the West side of the mountain range (well he got lost and ended up there) to show her the vast dazzling expanse that it Dwight Sands.

The area is named after the famed explorer Dwight Kerman, who lost three fingers while exploring it, when his snack supplies ran out. It is now home to the Dwight Sands Test Grounds, the one place on Kerbin that you can test anything, even really smelly things. Something really nasty must have been tested recently, as both Bob and Katsen can't miss the wiff of something unpleasant as they stand on top of the rover.

To escape the pong, the pair quickly headed back inside and Bob deployed the array of solar panels. The rover has a capacity of 4900 units, way more than the piddling 300 of his previous ride.

With batteries filled, the pair headed off into the mountains and away from Dwight Sands.

There was not real mountain climbing planned for this trip (no real mountains here anyway... just big sandy rock piles), but a lot of the time travelling to their ultimate destination they're up above 2km.

Bob feels pretty stoked to be out rovering once more.

After some more trundling through the desert mountains, those batteries need feeding again. 4900 units is a lot, but when there's 10 hungry wheels to feed, the rover is going to need another refill before getting to their destination.

As the going is getting steeper and therefore slower, Bob decided to deploy the rear solar panels, as the speeds they will be going at won't put them in danger of turning into confetti.

Might be time to bring them back in though, as that long downwards slope is going to give them some serious speed.

Katsen was almost suspiciously calm durring the journey. After all the funds she spent on her trip you'd think she'd be more excited.

The going got decidedly angular at this point in the trip. Bob suggest that there must be some kind of chrystals buried here... real big ones.

After those spiky little peaks, Bob had the fun of throwing the rover off the top of ridges, into steep descents, as they closed in on their destination.

The great thing about having those extra wheels is all that extra traction allows the rover park motionless on pretty steep inclines. In Bob's old rover they would have been slowing sliding downhill, which is not what you want if you're trying to recharge at the time.

One steep drop was puntuate by a ramp that put the rover into the air... high into the air. Fortunately the rover and all inside survived this.

Ooo look... more skateboard park type environment for Bob to throw the rover into.

Finally their destination is in sight. It might be one of the most visited destinations on Kerbin (I think there's even a gift shop round here somewhere) but it's katsen's first time, so she must be pretty excited to be he...

... not exactly excited, mildly curious perhaps.

Well here we are at the famous Tully Temple, named after its equally famous discoverer, Tully Kerman. Another kerbal with the incorrect number of digits (toes this time) due to a snack deficiency related crisis.

In Part Two, Bob and Katsen do stuff at the temple, then return home. For all that excitement, join us next time on Bob's Travels.

Edited June 10, 2019 by purpleivan

Barzon · June 10, 2019

Very good.

May I ask what your KS3P config is?

purpleivan · June 10, 2019

2 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

Very good.

May I ask what your KS3P config is?

I've got a handful of config files, each with different depth of field settings, to allow various tightness of focus shots.

Here's a link to them.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t292haqivrghezd/KS3P_configs.rar?dl=0

BTW... I do give my screenshots a slight tweak in Photoshop too, as KS3P, even using the Neutral colour profile, renders a little dark and washed out. Not much but it's noticeable.

Barzon · June 10, 2019

Thanks!

purpleivan · June 11, 2019

Trip 1 (part 2) - Deadline with Destiny.

Having arrrived at the temple in the early evening Bob wasted no time in taking the rover round to the thing every visitor wants to see the most.

Accepted theory is that the temple was made by a hat obsessed tribe of ancient kerbals.

Bob and Katsen left the rover and made their way over the the enormous statue, erected by by hand, by their ancient ancestors in the middle of this blistering desert.

"Neat"

"But why the hat.... whyyyyy? Kerbals don't wear hats".

With immediate (and varying) reactions to the statue done with, the pair set about placing an array of scientific gear around it. With the experiment control station in place Bob ran back to the rover for the next unit, then realised he'd gone to the wrong end of it, so sprinted round to the front.

"I know you paid for this trip, but I could do with a hand here Katsen... so quit staring at that hat".

With Katsen now aiding him, the suite of scientific equipment was soon in place, buzzing and whiring, as all fine scientific equipment should.

"Ok Katsen, now calibrate the weather station."

"But I'm a furniture designer, what do I know about this stuff".

"Just press that big green button... those other things are just Krakenmas tree lights and stickers".

With the green button pressed their work was done and the transmitter started sending valuable data back to the KSC. Then with the sun heading for the horizon, the pair headed back to the rover for a pre-dinner snack.

In the morning the light streamed through the rover's windows, as a gentle reminder that Bob and Katsen had places to go.

So the pair took off, with a slow driveby of the scientific equipment, to make sure that it was still there.

"Ancient statues... can't trust 'em Katsen. Might have woken up in the night, thought it was an offering and scoffed the lot."

With the knowledge that the various scientific dohickeys had not been consumed, Bob turned the rover to the West and headed for the steep slope at the edge of the temple site.

As the rover sped up the slope, Katsen took a look over her shoulder out of the rear hatch window, to see the ancient temple complex recede into the distance.

"Arrrrr... we forgot to go to the gift shop".

A shot time later (they left the temple with only about 300 units of juice) Bob deployed the solar panels in the early morning sun. As one of them was not supplying quite the amount of power expected, he went out to inspect it, to find it wasn#t properly aligned. But one swift kick with his boot and it swung round to the correct angle.

With full batteries once more, Bob hit the throttle and careened the rover ip the last of the slope out of the basin the temple is located in.

Much trundling through the desert mountains (and some recharging) followed until finally the blistering white sands around the Dessert Airfield came into view.

For the last part of the journey Bob gave up the drivers seat to Katsen, who was keen to try out the machine.

"Keep it under 30... watch out for that rock... ok, ok, I think that's enough, time to swap places again."

Bob guided the rover towards the waiting Flamingo.

"So you ready to winch us onboard Val."

"Not quite... just finishing of this scrabble game. Do you know a good word that has a Q, Z, T and a V in it?"

As Val was going to need some time to work this out (or admit defeat), Bob slowed the rover to a crawl as they approached the aircraft.

"Ok Bob... bring her in, nice and slow... don't hit those undercarriage."

Once positioned squarely under the center of the cargo bay, Val deployed telescoping piston to hook up with the rover and bring it onboard.

After a quick check to see that rover was securely fasted in place, Val closed the bay doors and headed for the landing strip.

After a rapid takeoff Val cut the afterburners, then swung the plane round on a route over the mountains and the Tully Temple complex, so Ribrick could get a good look at it.

"So what do you think Ribrick?"

"Does it fly?"

"Er... nooo, it doesn't fly."

"Not even a bit."

"Nope."

"So pretty boring then."

Each to their own I suppose.

But at least Val's guest in the cockpit is enjoying the flight, even if the scenery is a bit underwhelming for him.

Once again they headed out across the vast blue expanse between the desert and the landmass on which the KSC is located.

Hmmm... don't like the look of that fuel level, better start cutting the consumption. Killing two of the engines should help.

The Flam Flam flew on into the evening in economy mode. The plane will do about 2/3 the speed with 2 engines that it does with 4, so a decent saving.

A little after nightfall the familar sight (to Val, and Bob too, if he could actually see it) of the lights of the KSC came into view.

Val slowly descended towards the level of the runway and finally made a nice smooth landing. Didn't even spill a drop from Katsen's cocktail from where it sat in the cup holder.

With the first trip of the Flaming Flamingo and its rover cargo over, it was time to assess the fuel situation. Still 784 units of it onboard, so probably could have kept going with all four engines. But at least Val's got a good idea of the efficiency of economy mode now.

KerballingSmasher · June 11, 2019

THIS IS AMAZING! And I love the hat reference!

Zhetaan · June 12, 2019

Quartz. Val's on her own for the V.

I enjoyed this report quite a lot. You've got a good eye for screenshots--and I particularly liked the map/satellite view at the beginning.

I am a bit curious to know whether you experimented with putting the Mk3-Mk2 adaptor on your cargo plane the other way round; i.e. with the cockpit high instead of low.

purpleivan · June 12, 2019

3 hours ago, Zhetaan said:

I am a bit curious to know whether you experimented with putting the Mk3-Mk2 adaptor on your cargo plane the other way round; i.e. with the cockpit high instead of low.

Short answer... no.

It didn't occur to me, probably that's the they way up it came when I took it out of the box

purpleivan · June 16, 2019

Trip 2 (part 1) - Battle at Klovis Point

It's was an early start for Bob and Jeb, who would yet again be taking a pair of well heeled travellers to one of Kerbin's fine geographical features.

On this trip those paying passenger were Tedberry and Kamlin, both of whom are residents of the desert region of Kerbin, so the dawn takeoff was made from the Dessert Airfield.

After cruising across the sun bleached and largely featurless desert, the first sighting of water and some greenery betond it was a welcome sight.

Talking of water, this trip took the Flaming Flamingo past the famous River Stux, so named as it goes nowhere, with it being totally landlocked. Some theorise that it is in fact a canal, built by ancient kerbals, who handn't quite mastered the concept of straight lines.

Jeb decided to give Kamlin, who accompanied him in the cockpit, a close up view of the river.

As in real close... Kamlin had a fine view of the high river banks as they whooshed past, while in the cargo bay, Tedberry was unaware of how close Jeb was skirting with fiery death.

Done with some low level flying, Jeb's next target along the route was "threading the needle"... something most pilots heading North from the desert get up to at some point in their training,

These mountains were a little further from the Fam Flam's wing tips, something Kamlin's nerves were thankful for.

FInally this trip's destination came into sight, the "Lefty Mountains", or just "The Lefties". These are named after the explorer Fensil Kerman, who became known as "lefty" after losing his right eye in a canned syrup pudding explosion.

The mountains sit on the edge of the northern icecap, with part of the range permanently covered in the cold white stuff and the rest by grass.

After finding a reasonably flat bit of terrain to land on, he swung the plane round to give Kamlin a good view of the mountains.

Meanwhile down in the cargo bay, Bob was busy deploying the rover.

The first view Bob and his passenger Tedberry had of the trip... and it was blinding.

With the rover detached from the Flam Flam, it was time to head towards the mountains.

From this angle, scaling that peak going to be a challenge, even for someone with Bob's experience.

Thankfully the sun was bright, slowing the depletion of the batteries as the rover raced towards higher ground.

At about 1500m, they encountered a strange phenomenon. Bob parked the rover at the top of a slope, only to find that it rolled up the steep hill, while drawing power at a high rate.

It rolled uphill a few metres, drawing 52 units of electricity.

He made a note of this, but did not deploy the scientific gear the rover carried.

Time for this trip's first recharge after the mystery of the uphill rolling (fixed with F5/F9).

Having climbed the foothills and made it into the mountains proper, the division between Arctic and not Arctic came into sight. Such a huge change in climate, such a small area it happens in.

Bob took the rover onto the thin line dividing the realm of the frozen North and the green grasslands. Tedberry decided to leave the warm interior for the cold (but not as cold as a few metres over) exterior. He decided to take a close look at the tyres that would be taking them up the steep sided mountains that surrounded them.

Then he posed for a shot of him in from of the vehicle. Unfortunately Bob's still getting used to the new camera and didn't get the rover in focus, but at least he got a clear shot of Tedberry.

Once back in the rover, the pairheaded in the direction of one of the taller peaks.

Looks like some zig, followed by some zag is going o be called for.

Finally onto some smoother terrain, the rover was able to make more rapid progress.

Well that's the peak they're heading for... doesn't look too smoother up there though.

Ok... the best route is going to be to traverse this fairly steep slope. Not as steep a one as Bob has handled before, but it's the first time he's tried this in the new rover.

He needn't have been concerned, the rover made it with ease, just need to top up those batteries before making a break for the top.

Ah... not here they won't, if they want to juice up those batteries, they'll need to gain some altitude first.

Altitiude gained... not much, but enough to get the rover back into sunlight again.

However even with fully charged batteries there's no way this rover is going to be able to climb that. The wheels won't even transition onto it to make the attempt, but instead just bump into it.

Bob thinks it might be easier approaching this part of the climb from another angle, so he heads round the corner for a shallower ascent.

Hmmm, that stuff ahead looks... challenging.

Bob tells Tedberry that they're about as high as this rover is going to take them, but he'll get as high up this slope as he can.

2951m... shame that he couldn't make it up another 49, so Tedberry could brag to his pals about his trek to 3km ASL.

Bob heads down the slope to see if again a different route can take them further up the mountain, but finds it's just unscalably steep.

So he pulled the rover over so the pair could get out for a snapshot near the top of their climb, with Arctic ice in the distance.

Even if they didn't make it to the top of the mountain, Tedberry was happy with the stack of funds it had cost to make the trip.

Join us in the thrilling part 2, which will feature battery power... assisted by gravity, as the pair make their way back down to the Flaming Flamingo, before the trip home.

Edited June 16, 2019 by purpleivan

purpleivan · June 22, 2019

Trip 2 (part 2) - Shootout at Rattler Gulch

With the peak (almost) conquered and the obligatory photos taken, it was time fore Bob and Tedberry to head back down to the arctic ice. Tedberry wanted the "full explorer experience" including some kind of death defying decent.

"How about this one Ted?"

"Errr... maybe something a little less flaming wreckage and untimely death inducing".

"How about this?"

"That's is more like it... steady as you go Bob".

After a few minutes the pair had made it down to the lower slopes of the mountain range, but with 13km still to go, they were in its shadow, so no more yummy photons for those solar panels.

Almost 3km to go and the batteries are getting low and the sun has now set, so definitely no more power until dawn.

But at last, with a little power in batteries to spare, they made it back to the Flam Flam.

Bob guided the rover underneath the cargo bay and used the docking camera to get a good alignment with the piston and waited for Jeb to lower it to hook up and haul them onboard.

Well that wasn't supposed to happen. That'll be the profit margin for the trip blown.

Nothing for it but for Bob to go out onto the rear porch of the rover and work his magic on those wheels. But it's cold so why bother, let the guys back at the KSC fix 'em.

With everyone finally onboard, they settled down to a few games of cards, while admiring the view of arctic night from the cockpit.

In the morning Jeb wanted to inspect the plane for any damage that might occured in their slightly bumpy landing.

"Everything looking good up front, now lets take a look back..."

"... what the... Bob, why does the rover only have one working wheel?"

Kamlin was curious to take a look at the damage, and as one of Kerbin's finest limbo dancers (rated 2nd in the world) she decided to take a crack at the lowest rung on the ladder.

That might have been too low, even for Kamlin.

"I'm in terrible pain here."

But Jeb cheered her up by dancing a little jig, which also helped keep him warm out there on the ice.

Satisfied that the plane was in safe condition to fly, Jeb led the way back up the ladder, before preparing for takeoff.

Jeb hadn't had the chance to take one of the Juice Goose for a spin, but he was sure he could get the same kind of rapid takeoff from this bird. He lined it up with a large bump in the ground a short distance away and hit the afterburners.

No sweat... this plane takes off a little more slowly than it's smaller cousin, but it still gets into the air in an impressively short distance.

Once up to a couple of thousand metres, he decided to swing the plane to starboard so that Kamlin could take a closer look at where Bob and Tedberry had visited the day before.

Up over the mountain range Jeb wondered why Bob bothers taking a rover up these things... just fly there, much quicker.

With the sightseeing over the mountains done, Jeb swung Flam Flam to the South and headed for home.

On the way though, more mountains were encountered.

So Jeb went for a little barnstorming with this low pass.

No control surfaces were harmed in the making of this episode.

Minutes later the River Stux came into view, but Jeb kept it at cruising altitude for this pass.

"Bob's definitely going to want to take a trip down that river... just need to find some fancy pants tourist with the cash to pay for the trip".

At last the desert lay ahead of the Flam Flam and with a decent amount of fuel left in the tanks (Jeb had been running on two engines since a little after takeoff) there'd be no need to put down somewhere in it and wait for a helping tanker.

Well, looks like this is it for this trip, just got to put this thing down nice and gentle... and she's down.

Smooth touchdown Jeb.

Edited June 22, 2019 by purpleivan

purpleivan · June 30, 2019

Trip 3 (part 1) - Terror in Tornado Alley

With the rover's wheels fixed after Bob's trip to the Arctic, it was time to take more paying customers to little visited locations. This trip would take Tihat and Nellgar Kerman to the location of one of the DSN stations on Nye Island.

Riding up front with Val, Tihat had quite a view of the mountains to the South of the Woomerang launch site.

Takeoff was a little bumpy, but all the better to get into the air with. The Flaming Flamingo is sluggish to leave the ground on the flat, needing to reach about 140m/s to leave the ground, but on this kind of terrain it barely needs 100.

After hopping over the mountains Val piloted the plane out over the sea, heading South.

Tihat is not the best of flyers, so she was a little nervous at the thought of spending so much time over the sea.

Navigating to Nye island isn't the easiest thing to do, even for a pilot of Val's caliber, basically it was a case of heading South until hitting the coast...

... then swinging round the the West.

At last their destination came into view, the might dish just visible at the far end of the island.

Val wanted to take a pass over the island to identify a good landing site.

After which she lined up for an approach from the South West, aiming for a fairly flat area of sand.

The Flam Flam can glide a long way even with the engines cut, so Val overshot the sand a little.

With the landing made, Val rolled the Flam Flam back down the gentle slope towards a shallow body of water... somewhere to dunk the brakes after the heat from landing.

Realising that deploying Bob in the rover would result in it becoming an unpowered boat, Val nudged the plane out of the water.

Ok... time to get going and time for Nellgar to finally get a view of something other than the cargo bay interior.

Bob and his paying companion on this trip said goodbye to Val and Tihat before heading North towards the great dish.

It's not the most dramatic of scenery on the way to the DSN dish, so Nellgar spend most of his time staring at the snack lockers. One marked "Deep fried marzipan - Bob's stash - Hands off" gained particular attention.

The pair's first sighting from the ground of the dish.

Rather than keep on top of the ridge that runs roughly along the center of the island, Bob opted to take the scenic route and rolled down to a cresent shaped beach.

Having climbed back up from the shoreline to the ridge again, the dish was back in view. Finally there was something for Nellgar to get excited about.

Bob was keen to show off the capability of the rover and more than once got a little overeager, coming off the top of a slope.

Almost there, with just over half charge left in the batteries.

As the rover headed closer to the mighty dish, its size became ever more apparent.

Finally Bob drew the rover up to the side of the dish and the pair left it to take a closer look at the marvel of kerbal engineering. Nellgar is especially proud of this, as it was uncle Tinsom "Nye" Kerman who designed it. The famous engineer picked up the nickname "Nye" from his thick Northern accent and the frequency with which he used the word in discussions with KSC accountants.

His famed quote of "Nye... you pencil pushin dream stealers ain't cuttin' my budget by a single bolt", is affixed to the wall above the entrance to the KSC's engineering dept. Riveted into place with the finest rivet guns, 50,000 funds could buy.

Suddenly Nellgar's excitement got the better of him and he dashed across the base of the dish to the huge tracking mechanism. Although there aren't any "Danger - Keep Out - Risk of Crushing" signs, Bob clearly felt there should have been, if only to keep out the tourists.

On joining Nellgar, Bob let him know that the tour company's insurance did not cover "slow death by dish moving mechanism."

"Ok... I'll be careful. BTW... what's that grass doing there in the tracking mechanism"

"Budget cuts."

Then the dish rotated, one of it's hefty supports covering the small patch of lawn, growing on its base.

The pair stood at the base of the great dish, watching its frequent rotations, as it locked onto distant spacecraft, beaming their valuable data home to sweaty palmed scientist.

In the next thrilling episode, the rover goes downhil, the plane gains altitude... then loses it again.

purpleivan · July 3, 2019

Oops

Edited July 3, 2019 by purpleivan

purpleivan · July 3, 2019

Trip 3 (part 2) - Terror in Tornado Alley (Part Deux)

With some "well, the packaging's already opened" logic, Bob decided that taking Nellgar for a quick tour of the inner workings of the DSN dish wouldn't do any harm. He quickly made his way to the center by hoping from the outer ring of the base to one of the moving feet of the dish itself, then leaping from that across the gap to the base center.

Nellgar watched his tour guide's efforts and was sure he could do the same, so he took a few steps back to get a good run up for the hop, run and jump to join him.

Well... I supposed that went as well as could be expected, but at least they both made it to the center.

In the shadow of the great dish, Nellgar noticed a larg bug on Bob's back, which he was more than a little shocked by. Bob on the other hand took it in his stride, reaching round to give it a quick flick.

That dish sure makes a good parasol.

Wanting to show Nellgar everything, Bob took him over to the far edge of the base ring (incurring more scuffed knees in the process).

From here the pair had a fine view over the ocean... not much else, but lots of ocean.

Bob stared out at the vast blue expanse, thinking about taking the rover down to the beach below on the way back to the Flam Flam.

Suddenly he realised that Nellgar was no longer standing at his side.

He had unknown to Bob sneaked up on of the dish's supports (he's quite the climber) to get a closer look at his uncle's creation.

"Cool... even if I do feel a bit awaaaa..."

"Hmmm... this is strange, the ground looks a bit on the blue side, and there sure is a lot of grey cloud."

"I just want to get down now, this is not as much fun as I first thought... plus more nausea inducing too."

After hearing some cries for help above him, Bob quickly located his paying passenger, and retrieved a long rope from the rover, before throwing one end to Nellgar to drag him back to the edge of the dish.

A little while later, after getting accustomed to the idea of the sky being over his head, and not at any random angle it seemed to choose, Nellgar climbed down from the dish. He was more than a little shaken by the ordeal, which Bob explained was caused by some "electrothingamies... or possibly magnets".

A fine explanation from the KSC's chief scientist.

Once Nellgar was in good enough shape to nut hurl all over the inside of the Rover, Bob allowed him back onboard, before climbing in himself.

Well... better charge up those batteries for the trip back I suppose.

Hmmm... something not quite right about that view out from the rover. Must be something to do with the electrothingamies.

Bob, having previously made the decision to take a detour to the beach on the way to the plane, he brought the rover round the side of the DSN and took a look down the steep slope.

"He we go... easy does it."

Although Bob had to repeatedly jam on the brakes to stop the rover rolling down at catastrophic speed, the fine vehicle made it down to the bottom safely.

After a quick trip along the sandy it beach it was time to put some distance between them and the DSN.

It didn't take long for them to make it back to the Flaming Flamingo and it's sandy, almost desert like location.

While Bob and Nelgar had been visiting the DSN, Tihat and Val had been making good use of the tropical island location to get a spot of sun and surf. To loosen up, Tihat went for a brisk jog around the plane.

After some time on their boards, the pair decided to take a dip in the small lake/large pond near where Val had parked. A little while later Tihat noticed the return of the rover.

Val knowing that they needed to make a quick takeoff to get back to Woomerang before nightfall, left the water to make the plane ready for departure.

Meanwhile Tihat took the opportunity to have a final few minutes of swimming on her own.

After a quick dip in the water to clean off the tyres, Bob asked Tihat if she wanted a lift back to the Flam Flam. She took a look at the plane that was in spitting distance (she and Val had tested this out earlier), but decide she might as well hop on board.

So she didnn't get knocked off when the Bob took the rover under the wing, Tihat jumped off, then ran forward to the ladder, grabbing some selfies on the way.