Has anyone actually sat and flew a plane around Kerbin?

[JKpart]

Like, sat there for ~5 hours and watched it all happen?
I had to put unlimited Prop on so I can make the trip, otherwise, i sat there and circumnavigated Kerbin at about 6000m up and going about 127m/s
Took a polar direction, and ended up having to find KSC in the dark. spooky

[NexusHelium]

I did it once after installing Blackrack's cloud mod in KSP 1. Mixed with all the other visual mods, it was beautiful.

[Bej Kerman]

I've managed to do between 50-75% of the journey before in around half an hour.

[TechieV]

Yep! I circumnavigated Kerbin in KSP 2! It was a little boring, but it gave me time to look at all the new visual enhancements to Kerbin. Took about an hour.

[JKpart]

On 1/11/2024 at 11:06 AM, TechieV said:

Yep! I circumnavigated Kerbin in KSP 2! It was a little boring, but it gave me time to look at all the new visual enhancements to Kerbin. Took about an hour.

Same. at first I was exciting, but then after about 1/4th the way, I kinda just let the plane fly... 
It was balanced and trim'd right enough to let it do its thing. No adjusting or anything. Tried to plan it where the flight would be day time, but I was going to slow, and had to land in the dark, lost a wing if I remember correctly, but the KSC was lit up enough.
I wanna do mun with a rover next.

 

I'd like to see if I can trace my path. or at least mark it

 

 

The kerbin flight, I didnt have to touch anything. The rover, i'm going to... I dont think there is an auto pilot for rovers.

[TechieV]

On 1/13/2024 at 11:12 AM, JKpart said:

I'd like to see if I can trace my path. or at least mark it

You could deploy small probes at intervals of the trip to mark it, like bread crumbs. Flags can't seem to be marked on the map, otherwise you could have used those. When the trip is done, just make imaginary lines between the probes like "Connect the Dots".  Putting something on the W key might make a good autopilot. The rover would just drive itself.

 

Please share pictures of your voyage!

Edited January 14 by TechieV

[NexusHelium]

13 hours ago, TechieV said:

You could deploy small probes at intervals of the trip to mark it, like bread crumbs. Flags can't seem to be marked on the map, otherwise you could have used those. When the trip is done, just make imaginary lines between the probes like "Connect the Dots".  Putting something on the W key might make a good autopilot. The rover would just drive itself.

 

Hansel and Gretel in space. Now THAT's a book I would read.

[18Watt]

I have driven rovers all the way around Kerbin.  Many times.  Boats too.

[Aevitas]

I was going to nearly do that; but after a quicksave my wings got distorted somehow, and started an uncontrollable spin. Ended up crashing because of it and clipping through the South Pole terrarin instead of exploding. Lol

[ralanboyle]

I did it in a helicopter one time... Earned an award worth keeping. 

Edited January 16 by ralanboyle

[boriz]

I have been experimenting with a 'permaplane'.  A plane that can remain aloft permanently, never needing to land or refuel. Entirely solar powered (no RTG). Enough battery capacity to make it through the night, and solar panels to recharge during daylight.

Most of the flying is done with MechJeb Autopilot, though there is a crew of two, and I have done a lot of manual flying, perhaps not a complete manual circumnavigation, but I have sat and watched it when not flying hands-on, and diverted manually to places that looked interesting. I don't know how many hours I have watched this plane, but I'm certain that I'd be embarrassed to enumerate them here.

By sheer accident, I discovered the cruising speed of 175m/s seems to be approximately sun-synchronous. So while flying West (in daylight), the sun remains pinned above, and the solar panels do all the work leaving the battery fully charged continuously. Indeed, were I to only fly west, I could save a lot of weight and carry no battery at all. Flying east leaves the battery about 1/4 full when the sun rises and begins recharging.

6000m was chosen as a compromise. It flys faster at lower altitude (200m/s@5000m), but you have a much higher chance of hitting a mountain.

Note the mission elapsed time. I don't know how many circumnavigations that is, but I did leave it going while I slept. This was essentially my screensaver for a couple of days. Also, at reduced performance, it can carry 1200u liquid fuel anywhere for free, and with a very low stall speed, can land quite safely pretty much anywhere vaguley flat for refueling missions. Also Note, time acceleration does not work with these props, so by necessity, it was all realtime. (Thanks Squad)

(Respect to the OG, Solar Impulse 2)

P.S. Please please please, can modders add propeller/motor sounds? Hearing nothing but a slight rush of wind just annoyed me eventually, so I turned the sound off and listened to an audiobook instead.

[camacju]

Here's a challenge for exactly this. People have gone way beyond just one lap of Kerbin.

Here's another for flying all the way around Earth. This took me 59 hours but luckily I could put on time warp and let autopilot fly while I did something else in the background.