What did you do in KSP1 today?

[JebNeedsHelp]

Today I made my first plane since giving up on them in .23.5 - I killed a lot of Kerbals on the runway or just past it back then, so I gave up on making planes and concentrated on rockets. But after grinding contracts enough for one day, I decided to give a plane another go. Thanks to the .25 parts, I got Bill off the ground quite easily - I was shocked at how smooth the takeoff was.

I made a left turn, thinking I might try to come back around for a landing, but since I only used a RAPIER I ran out of fuel halfway around. Without fuel, my plane wouldn't turn anymore, so instead I just concentrated on keeping a steady glide, all the while thinking that Bill might actually survive this landing. Here's my plane (please be kind - it's my first successful attempt to keep a plane in the air):

Here I have a nice big area to land on:

I brought the plane in for a picture perfect landing, except for one thing. Since I never have flown a plane before, I had no idea where the brake was, and I'm playing in fullscreen mode (couldn't open the key bindings doc). Found the B key, but couldn't figure out how to lock the brakes - every time I let go of the B key, the plane started to roll backwards down the hill I landed on. Finally, after rolling for a longer amount of time than the plane was in the air, I just retracted the gear so Bill could pose for a picture.

Overall, I consider it a phenomenal success... but I still don't know how to lock the brakes.

[Cuky]

but I still don't know how to lock the brakes.

On the top of the screen where your altimeter is you have 3 icons on its right edge. From top to the bottom they are: lights, landing gear, parking brake. Just click on that orange parking brake icon and you are set

[Cirocco]

Dude, when first starting spaceplanes, it's a pretty big achievement if you manage to actually land the thing on your first flight. Took me several flights (read: semi-controlled long-duration crashes) before I could reliably put a plane on the ground without explosions. Kudos!

as for the brakes: no idea what the hotkey is, I just always press the "brakes" button which is the brown exclamation point inside a circle next to the horizontal speed indicator.

EDIT: ninja'd.

[capi3101]

Are the old swept wings still in the game? I must've seriously missed those things somehow......and before any of y'all say anything, I've unlocked the whole tech tree at this point.

JebNeedsHelp - minor suggestion, replace the Mk1 Cockpit with a Mk1 Inline and stick a Shock Cone Intake on the nose (or better yet, a Ram Air Intake). Your RAPIER won't be dependent on oxidizer to run that way - which means your plane will have greater overall endurance. She still won't be spaceworthy with just a single intake, but at least you'll be able to make touch-and-gos on the runway. (Well, she might be spaceworthy - I'd have to test it out my own self - but I'd imagine it'd switch over to rocket mode too low).

I might also suggest replacing that Tail Fin with something that gives you some rudder...an AV-R8 weighs just as much but would give you that yaw authority. Heck, a Delta-Deluxe Winglet would give you some rudder without messing up the overall look of the plane all that much. Strictly speaking a rudder isn't necessary, but it does have its uses.

Not much accomplished in KSP last night. Planted a flag for cash. Launched Jeb on a trip to Minmus. At this point I've wound up with a flotilla headed to Minmus - a space station and ground base (for FinePrint contracts) and Jeb's "science = money" mission.

Edited October 30, 2014 by capi3101

[Starman4308]

Today I made my first plane since giving up on them in .23.5 - I killed a lot of Kerbals on the runway or just past it back then, so I gave up on making planes and concentrated on rockets. But after grinding contracts enough for one day, I decided to give a plane another go. Thanks to the .25 parts, I got Bill off the ground quite easily - I was shocked at how smooth the takeoff was.

What I used to do when I was first learning was to have a stack decoupler between my cockpit and the rest of the craft, such that in an emergency, I could separate the cockpit and parachute it down. In any case, these days, I usually recommend this guide to building spaceplanes.

[Trentendegreth]

prepared the final 6 moduals for Mun Base 006, and sent a resupply drone to stock up on pylons and pipes, moved some of the pods on the base to clean it up a bit, nothing worth a screenshot as of right now, tomorrow ill start sending the last bits

[NecroBones]

Testing out a new 3.75m quad engine.

[capi3101]

What I used to do when I was first learning was to have a stack decoupler between my cockpit and the rest of the craft, such that in an emergency, I could separate the cockpit and parachute it down. In any case, these days, I usually recommend this guide to building spaceplanes.

Yeah, I still add those. Usually I tack on a Sepratron or two to make sure the cockpit gets clear of the plane, and then chutes for the descent. Such a system saved Jeb just the other day...

[numerobis]

Today I flew around Kerbin.

I took my space lab + science gear setup, and slapped wings and a cockpit on it. Actually doesn't look bad, flies beautifully, and lands beautifully. I didn't really need the cockpit, but I used the Mk2 one, since it can survive 45 m/s "landings" like I have done with all the other versions of this craft. For once, I didn't need it.

I intended to go to the pole and back. Once there, I realized I had lots of fuel, so I explored the nearby tundra and mountains. Still full of fuel, so I went to the badlands.

Flying home I decided to see if I couldn't get into space with the plane. I peaked at 74 km above KSP, and fulfilled a "get science from space" contract using an air-breathing plane with no rockets.

On the return, I was able to keep Pe above 38km, so I could have floated for a long time. Unfortunately I misjudged and stopped a bit too early; I ran out of fuel to recover, so I was forced to land in the desert one continent over, at night. The plane can glide a long way, but it can't survive a water landing, so I pitched down hard (actually I did a loop, starting from inverted) as soon as I was sure I was over land. Ended up in the deserts.

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Edited October 30, 2014 by numerobis

[JebNeedsHelp]

Thanks for all the input regarding my plane. I'll have to see what changes I can make after work. Maybe I'll change nothing at first and see if my first flight and landing was a fluke.

[goldenpeach]

I made a new space shuttle, my last one was just too inefficient and useless.

(it had only one pilot, no payload and was very unstable at launch).

The new one, can hold six kerbal while having a launcher that cost about 50% the price of the launcher used for the last shuttle.

(also, the newest shuttle use the main engine of the shuttle during launch(and for a short time, it use the fuel of the orbitor): which is, for me, cooler this way

(also, it use the inline docking port, which will make docking cooler for me: every docking I made was by using a docking port place "in front" of the craft, while this one will use a docking port that will placed on the "up" of the craft(when lying flat on the ground))...

The next version I will made of this shuttle will include cargo bay(s)(but I will remove the crew compartiment).

It doesn't have a lot of parts, so if anyone is interested, I can sent the craft file.

[BrainiacBlue]

I participated in THE KSP GAME - find it in challenges

[Overfloater]

Meanwhile in RSS...

I made a 30.6 t lifter,

and flew by the Moon...

...At a ridiculous altitude o_O

[Theoderich]

I put up a boring new ComSat into kerbostationary orbit in preparation for sending unmanned mapping probes to places ( like Duna and Eve).

Then I send a boring little rocket to the desert which came back with some 60 Science! and started to design those mapping probes. So basicly an hour of shifting stuff around to fit as much as possible into the only fairings I got: 1.25m

[cantab]

I built a mobile bridge.

Now the top Kerbs at Mission Control can stroll over to their private spaceplanes in the SPH without having to mingle with the hoi kolloi on the ground.

[zekes]

Meanwhile in RSS...

I made a 30.6 t lifter,

http://i.imgur.com/soADVd7.jpg

only 30 tonnes? I bet you can get more out of it.

[Robotengineer]

I made a plug-in, it took 2 weeks to learn but I'm satisfied with the result.

It's über simple, but it's a good starting point.

[Theoderich]

I made a plug-in, it took 2 weeks to learn but I'm satisfied with the result.

http://i.imgur.com/wmLYjsk.png

It's über simple, but it's a good starting point.

I really should try the 6.4x sized system one day, those dV numbers look nasty.

[smysha]

I failed to build ComSat network around the Kerbin. RemoteTech is hard.

[arne_brun]

Having fun with my space shuttle.

Launching it to collect science and crew from Eve, which has returned to Kerbin orbit, and docked to my spacestation.

Launch. Two pilots, room for 4 extra kerbals.

Docked to spacestation. Eve vessel at mid-left. Will deorbit and crash it, because it has some design flaws.

Used the same procedure with my Dunamission. Fun to have a purpose for the spaceshuttle.

No need for enginepower when landing it on the runway.

[WooDzor]

I failed to build ComSat network around the Kerbin. RemoteTech is hard.

I just started remote tech a week ago, Bob's/Felbourn on the forum helped me quite a bit:

1. get 3 geostatsats in orbit

2. launch a couple of gps like satelites with a 2 hour interval in a polar orbit.

3. Add a highly eccentric polar orbit (molnya) to every body where you are planning to go to.

4. repeat step 1 and 2 for all these bodies, though geostat is not required

and you're good to go.

[capi3101]

Took JebNeedsHelp's spaceplane design from yesterday and tweaked it; swapped out the Tail Fin for an AV-R8 and the Mk1 Cockpit for a Mk1 Inline and a Shock Cone Intake. Made orbit. The CoM doesn't shift much (ever so slightly forward, actually) and the design handles reasonably well, though its atmospheric flight ceiling was a bit lower than I prefer (around 27,000) and its switchover speed was lower than I prefer (just less than 1800). Landing was rough - the handling became a bit slugglish once she was lower on fuel - so I might add an Inline Stabilizer to my list of recommended tweaks for the design. Wound up landing it immediately to the north of the runway, close enough that I was able to drive it up there once I'd slowed down a bit.

Overall, I'd say the original design was excellent - particularly for a plane designed by a spaceplane rookie. It just needed some air.

Got started building a DocMoriarty-style transport spaceplane for a fifteen tonne payload. And by "getting started" I'm being literal - I time enough to build only the frame before I had to shut the game off last night. Hopefully things will be able to pick up there pretty soon; I'm excited to see if this design will work out the way I hope it will.

[BJ Quest]

I have been working with Karbonite add on. In this process I have been creating surveying/mapping ships to map Duna and its moon Ike, Eve and it moon Ghilly and then Jool and its various moons. Creating ships to go and map out Duna and Eve is easy (leaving a small mapping satellite in orbit around each body). Even having the remains of the ship drop in and land on Duna and Eve for some science should go well. Jool is a different story. The attached screenshot is my solution to getting 6 orbiting mapping satellites to the Jool system. So far the ship launches well and the individual satellites separate nicely in orbit around Kerbin. Now to fuel it up and take it out to the Jool System. The small satellites also have several DMagic science collectors on them and I am using SCANsat add on for the mapping of the celestial bodies.

Edited October 31, 2014 by BJ Quest

[Slam_Jones]

Built a Space Dock big enough to house/refuel my Cruiser ships. Doesn't look like much yet, but it's the biggest thing I've put in orbit yet, so I'm rather pleased.

[Guest]