Attempting KSC runway upgrades (runway lights/beacons)

[oberlerchner123]

After returning from Laythe I have been thinking about putting a airport there, right on the nice flat area I recently landed my space plane on. (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=155667714)

While I postponed that until 0.21, I figured why not try and see if I can improve the runway I already have right there at the space center as a test.

And as much as I love structural panels, obviously I wouldn't be able to just pave a runway onto Laythe.

Instead the idea was to send a rover down to drive along near my previous landing area and find the best spot and angle,

and put down two lines of lights to mark out the runway.

And as you know if you have tryed to land at KSC at night before. It's pretty damn dark there. No runway lights.

Let's try and change that.

As just a test, I didn't design this from scratch, instead I repurposed my previously built utility truck.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/li2az441hhef2kp/2013-07-10_00002.jpg

Moving into position along the runway and turning on the lights. There's a situation where Sunglasses at Night might actually make sense.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9l31djoe7pp7k3/2013-07-10_00003.jpg

Jebediah, apparently not minding doing the dirty work after having visited the Mun, Laythe and Minmus, turns around the truck after he has set down the first half of runway lights, deploying the other half and a beacon.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5xtyb7ugxxelfo/2013-07-10_00005.jpg

In the meantime Shelbald Kerman makes preperations to take off at the near by airport.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqqy4b9j3vpl01t/2013-07-10_00008.jpg

Soon he comes alongside the space center runway, not as bright as we hoped it would be, but still much easier to find thanks to the beacon placed there now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pjhg4kvi7dnuzr1/2013-07-10_00014.jpg

As we know the heading of the runway is 90° for runway 09, Shelbald is instructed to line up the direction of the beacon with the 90° marker, then head directly towards it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c16xej2bd512oks/2013-07-10_00017.jpg

The beacon assisted approach seams to be a great success, however Shelbald is somewhat worried about the runway lights potentially giving him an epileptic attack as they flicker like strobe lights.

Something isn't right, he thinks.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebivkj1ji3r0312/2013-07-10_00019.jpg

His worries seam to be confirmed as things start to explode as we come within 2,5km of them.

Did Jebediah fill them with stuffed SRBs as a hoax to scare the pilot? Or was it the space kraken?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkdoykddzdg8881/2013-07-10_00020.jpg

Still pending investigation.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vi2rcqwim2fhzd0/2013-07-10_00022.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6skomt1upzoebh/2013-07-10_00025.jpg

__________

If this happened after having gone through the trouble of sending and setting it up on Laythe, I would have been pretty ... annoyed.

But I knew this wasn't going to stick around anyway here since, loading a new plane would just wipe everything off the runway.

So it really gave me quite the laugh when everything started exploding around me as I drove past it.

Lessons learnt: Don't put too many light sources, it will freak out the game engine.

Placing a lot of stuff in my vicinity will cause lag. (Who would have thought!?)

They won't render the light anyway unless I get close.

And things still fall through the ground when coming into the 2,5km range.

I really hope this is going to be fixed. As this really seams to happen with everything landed. Flags, landers, rovers and apparently small probes with lights on them.

I think I will still try and make this work once 0.21 comes out, as I just find it a lot of fun to fly a plane to another planet (or moon rather) and land there.

And it being Laythe and having jet fuel means I still have a lot of range as well.

Having a designated port to land at there, maybe with a small base, seams like something I want to do.

Just have to watch out that I don't over do it and break the game, and hope everything just doesn't randomly explode again.

Hopefully that's less likely as there is just 1 layer of terrain there.

[austin4050]

That is a really good idea, make the lights actually work, and bacons (lol) (I ment beacons) on the stripes and sides.

[box_brain]

I would love to see more:D

[Tw1]

I put some lights around the launch pad....

I did it somewhat differently though...

Edited July 13, 2013 by Tw1