Kayak Club

[Pds314]

1 minute ago, Hotel26 said:

Ha ha, deck chairs and a brolly, too.  The gauntlet has been thrown down, @purpleivan!!

And because the umbrella is on a breaking ground piston, it can be adjusted up and down. For example, to dodge incoming wings.

[swjr-swis]

While I appreciate a good showdown of water contraptions... this is now derailing the purpose of this thread quite a bit. Can we move that particular exchange elsewhere (and maybe leave a link here, for those of us wanting to monitor or participate)?

 

[purpleivan]

On 5/14/2020 at 2:39 PM, Hotel26 said:

Ha ha, deck chairs and a brolly, too.  The gauntlet has been thrown down, @purpleivan!!

Well, here's something I made earlier.

It was going to be a replacement for the Coastal Cruiser in the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation, as it had 3 time the fuel capacity of the original, so much greter range between fill ups. However I then realised it would take ages to fuel with my fleet of tanker craft and rockets, so it only had the one test run before being mothballed.

In adddition to a couple of jet engines and sporty styling, it carried a rover that was similar to the original's but with much greater battery capacity, as well as parachutes for rapid descents of mountains.

Drop it off a cliff, release the chutes and sit back which descending at 30m/s.

The boat also carried some extra vehicles in the form of two mini jets.

as well as a minisub in its belly. However this wasn't entirely stock as I used a mod to give it a tiny ballast tank.

Right... time to to do some kayaking.

[Hotel26]

2 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

as I used a mod to give it a tiny ballast tank

He he heh.  My Stingray and Neptune utilize what I have dubbed the Tardis Effect (edit the craft file!) to vastly expand the capacity of internal ballast tanks to accomplish same.  I do use ShipManifest to dump/fill them ("sea water") for dive control.

[purpleivan]

Val's been getting cabin fever ever since she dropped out of the rotation, after a prank of hers turned into a major conflagration in the R&D Center.

So she jumped at the chance to headed skyward once more, with a trip that would take her to @swjr-swis Cape Stinger, in a mini jet.

It only has a max speed fully fueled of 185m/s but it's a short trip to the Cape.

Spoiler

Spoiler

See ya KSC.

Spoiler

Cape Stinger dead ahead.

Now to swing around for a landing.

Spoiler

Straighten her up and reduce power.

Spoiler

Coming in at a nice gentle 35m/s

Bounce, crunch ouch!

This is not one of Val's proudest moments.

But she's ok and glad that she decided to keep her helmet on for this little excursion.

Spoiler

Right... back into the seat and fire up the engine and see if this thing can slide towards the water.

Unfortunately Val slides out of the seat first.

Spoiler

Somehow Val's muscles are a match for the roaring jet and she manages to make it back into the seat.

Then it was time for more slide (grinding) towards the ocean.

Every bump, every stone, every grain of sand... Val can feel 'em.

Spoiler

Then it was one bump too many and she once more slid out of the seat, but this time with the jet at full blast.

She stood on the shore for some time watching her ride head out across the waves.

Well... better call a cab I suppose.

Edited May 16, 2020 by purpleivan

[Castille7]

2 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Well, here's something I made earlier.

The man has definitely got Adventure Skills 

[purpleivan]

4 minutes ago, Castille7 said:

The man has definitely got Adventure Skills 

The one thing that boat is missing though is Bob with an eyepatch, stroking a fluffy white cat.

[Hotel26]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:46 AM, swjr-swis said:

While I appreciate a good showdown of water contraptions... this is now derailing the purpose of this thread quite a bit. Can we move that particular exchange elsewhere (and maybe leave a link here, for those of us wanting to monitor or participate)?

Good point, I must concede.

22 hours ago, purpleivan said:

So she jumped at the chance to headed skyward once more, with a trip that would take her to @swjr-swis Cape Stinger, in a mini jet.

Well done, @purpleivan visiting the @swjr-swis landmark, Cape Stinger -- and getting us back on track.

 

UPDATE: scores have been updated.  fyi: @Chequers: you were only the second visitor to Lake Omaroo and you have hence been awarded +4 (plus Naming Honors).

Edited May 17, 2020 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

Very happy and pleased to announce that, in one of the Most Hotly Contested decisions in the illustrious history of the Supreme Court of Kayak Club, and a very narrow vote of 2-0, Judges Their Honors, @Castille7 & @purpleivan have ruled that the contentious Landmark claim by @Paaaad regarding the matter recorded as "Null Bay" has been -- Unanimously Approved -- with the commentary, "in Our Entire Judiciary Experience, we have seen nothing like this Landmark.  We strongly recommend a visitation..."

Scores will be updated immediately.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Hotel26

[purpleivan]

Getting in straight away with a visitation to @Paaaad's Null Bay.

This was last year during the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation, you can see the distinctive mountain in this shot that matches the one in @Paaaad's "East" image. I've got another image with coordinates displayed by KER that show I'm in the area, but I'll send that to @Hotel26 privately, so it doesn't give the location away.

[Pds314]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:50 AM, purpleivan said:

Well, here's something I made earlier.

It was going to be a replacement for the Coastal Cruiser in the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation, as it had 3 time the fuel capacity of the original, so much greter range between fill ups. However I then realised it would take ages to fuel with my fleet of tanker craft and rockets, so it only had the one test run before being mothballed.

In adddition to a couple of jet engines and sporty styling, it carried a rover that was similar to the original's but with much greater battery capacity, as well as parachutes for rapid descents of mountains.

Drop it off a cliff, release the chutes and sit back which descending at 30m/s.

The boat also carried some extra vehicles in the form of two mini jets.

as well as a minisub in its belly. However this wasn't entirely stock as I used a mod to give it a tiny ballast tank.

Right... time to to do some kayaking.

This brings up an interesting idea for a challenge. Making boats go as fast as possible while maintaining circumnavigational (or some other specific) range.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Pds314

[purpleivan]

7 hours ago, Pds314 said:

This brings up an interesting idea for a challenge. Making boats go as fast as possible while maintaining circumnavigational (or some other specific) range.

Circumnavigation by water on Kerbin isn't actually possible as the seas don't connect up in any direction, essentially they're just one big lake stretched around the planet. That was the reason for the "Sorta" being added to my circumnavigation, as I was following the coastline around the mainland. But a point to point race somwhere could be interesting.

[Pds314]

3 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Circumnavigation by water on Kerbin isn't actually possible as the seas don't connect up in any direction, essentially they're just one big lake stretched around the planet. That was the reason for the "Sorta" being added to my circumnavigation, as I was following the coastline around the mainland. But a point to point race somwhere could be interesting.

After building some jet-powered vessels for my own challenge with 1000 km range at max power, and one with 10000 km range at max power, and a rather huge one (6600 tonnes) with no engines that can move toward the equator without any power at all (using the rotation of Kerbin to get up to 5-7 m/s before it randomly detonates), I think a good distance for a race would be at most a few hundred kilometers, as we don't want too long of a race, and we want to be able to go at reasonable speeds without craft being too large and ungainly. The other question is, should it be an open ocean race where turning isn't really important, a race between islands and straits, where you need to smoke to turn but not that well, or a river race, where large portions of the course might even require you to throttle down to safely turn?

Edited May 18, 2020 by Pds314

[Hotel26]

On 5/12/2020 at 7:46 PM, Pds314 said:

Summer flew to this location blindfolded

Once again Pds314, you've have thrown down the Gauntlet.  You, sir, are making a reputation within Explorer circles for posing devilishly difficult (= unfair) challenges.  I, Hotel26, of sound mind (self-certified), accept your dastardly challenge!

I did come here now, actually, to beg you to answer one simple question, but I see in your submission above, that you have riddled it with clues!  This will be easier than I thought!

I will give an example (lest I be accused of 'gas-lighting') -- and I don't think I'm giving too much away here: your island is located approximately at sea-level and is dangerously threatened by the rise of the oceans due to kerbal flatulence.

The rest should be quite straightforward...  Photos/trip report at noon.  I meant to say, "soon". 

(Now.  Where's my blindfold?...)

Edited May 20, 2020 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

On 5/12/2020 at 7:46 PM, Pds314 said:

island has been deemed Airstrip Sandbar 

   

Nice one!

Turns out I've been over this location numerous times on high-altitude (36km!) surveillance ops...  +10 for Pds314; +5 for Hotel26.

My friend: you still haven't cracked Valhalla!

Edited May 20, 2020 by Hotel26

[Pds314]

1 hour ago, Hotel26 said:

   

Nice one!

Turns out I've been over this location numerous times on high-altitude (36km!) surveillance ops...  +10 for Pds314; +5 for Hotel26.

My friend: you still haven't cracked Valhalla!

I think I found Valhalla on a map. But I'll need to fly there to be sure.

[Paaaad]

So I believe I have located Valhalla. I was only able to match up one screenshot,  but the coordinate clue sealed the deal for me.

Spoiler

(Hope you can see these. The sharing links from Google Photos weren't working for some reason, even though I swear that's what I did last time. Just ended up right clicking and copying the image address.)

I was also able to determine the altitude of the mountains highest peak - 4,673.7 meters.

 Try this: https://photos.app.goo.gl/trMUV4HYzkGNYnYx8

Edited May 22, 2020 by Paaaad
album link.

[Hotel26]

5 hours ago, Paaaad said:

So I believe I have located Valhalla

Paaaad!!  Good man!  Eager to see your evidentiary photos...

If your photos do indeed check out, you will be only the second kerbal/human to set foot (or eyeball) on Valhalla -- not including poor Lemdas, of course.  Even sweeter, you will have beaten out @Pds314, who is even now fueling up for this very same sortie!

Paaaad, returning to that pesky subject of photos, your photos are still locked against those who only have the link.   Please certainly use the same work-around as you did before in this case.  But might I most helpfully suggest you also look into a free (and wholly untroublesome) imgur.com account?  Add the image; Copy the Direct Link; paste the link into this forum.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

Two new Landmarks under Claim:

You'll find both if you follow the one set of instructions.

Loch Inverness:

 

And Safe Harbor.  I had seen this one from high altitude and hoped it was open to the sea, which would have made it one-of-a-kind.  Sadly not, but perhaps it will launch a quest to find the longest, sheltered harbor in the world.

 
 

And now here are the instructions: take off from Flamingo Island^[1] and fly on a heading of 190.  You will encounter both landmarks within about 300 klicks.  Good luck to you.

 

[1] actually not quite an island, but very large, on the "easterly beaten track" and hard to miss.

[Paaaad]

7 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

Paaaad!!  Good man!  Eager to see your evidentiary photos...

If your photos do indeed check out, you will be only the second kerbal/human to set foot (or eyeball) on Valhalla -- not including poor Lemdas, of course.  Even sweeter, you will have beaten out @Pds314, who is even now fueling up for this very same sortie!

Paaaad, returning to that pesky subject of photos, your photos are still locked against those who only have the link.   Please certainly use the same work-around as you did before in this case.  But might I most helpfully suggest you also look into a free (and wholly untroublesome) imgur.com account?  Add the image; Copy the Direct Link; paste the link into this forum.

Just added the link at the bottom of my post. I couldn't find the spot looking down from the cliff, but the mountains in the background seem to match.

[Hotel26]

7 minutes ago, Paaaad said:

the mountains in the background seem to match

I'll pay that, along with the altitude you mentioned.  (There's some variation known between KSP versions and/or depending upon terrain level setting.)

So, congratulations, Paaad: that makes you the Second Visitor to this gnarly location, +4.  Well done.

 

[Hotel26]

On 5/10/2020 at 7:24 PM, Chequers said:

The Three Sages

Went looking for Knowledge and did not find it (this trip) but met Wild Beauty in an area I would never have traveled to but for Kayak Club.  No claims (yet).  Just sharing...

[click and arrows for slides]

   

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Hotel26

[purpleivan]

Some time ago, there was much discussion and theorising about the true nature of Kerbin's arctic ice. Does it sit on top of a great landmass, or does it float, possibly providing a navigable space beneath it, to act as a shortcut from one ocean to another.

Well, Val and Bill finished their survey of that region today.

After leaving the outpost, the Drop in the Ocean, the pair headed in the Naughtylus for the frozen icecap.

The sub arrived and found... rock, lots of rock, near the surface at least.

It looked like it went down a long way, but just how far, that's the question.

Only one way to find out.

After descending for several minutes the Naughtylus hid the seabed and the truth was revealed.

"The Wall" as it's known in these parts, is just that... a wall, with no navigable way through it.

But at least Bill got to try out Bob's latest creation, a diving suit that use a beathable liquid to allow for important reseach at these depths, such as will flags stick into rock 1.1km down.

The answer is yes, they will, and in case you're wondering the breathable liquid is mango flavoured.

With the question of the nature of the icecap resolved, Bill returned to the Naughtylus before it headed back to the surface.

Special thanks go to the mods Kerplunk, MOIST and BallastWaterTanks for making this important research trip possible.

[Akagi]

is the OP still around?

because I'd like to do this

[Akagi]

Turn to HDG 032.

Fly for around 2 minutes and 15 seconds at ~600 m/s

Is there like a badge for Kayak Club members? If there isn't I'll make one!