Any way to cruise with airplanes?

[jebster]

I have to do regular trips from KSC to the south pole and the arrival/return trips collectively take around an hour. I want to hold my plane's altitude at 20 kilometers. Is there any way I can do this without pressing W and S every few minutes?

[Tw1]

There is the autopilot mechjeb.

[Crown]

There is no way to have cruise control without plug-ins.

But MechJeb has a very good cruise control.

[AndreyATGB]

You can either use MechJeb's spaceplane autopilot (never tried it) or its Smart A.S.S to hold a specific pitch value. Smart ASS seems a little weird in 0.21 as it doesn't use SAS anymore, so it's very jerky but it should work fine.

[ouch]

Have you adjusted your trim? (Alt+WASD)

[bsalis]

Trim should allow you to get a stable level flight. Pitch should be easy, but I would say getting a stable heading would be near impossible.

So... MechJeb it is I think.

[FenrirWolf]

Adjusting the Trim should let you hold your altitude at least.

[Bean]

If you only have a single central engine you could hold a fixed pitch and just let it flameout and restart when it gets low enough again. About the only stock-only method I can think of, but you do need to periodically adjust pitch on the ASAS due to the horizon changing relative to the plane.

[Stone Blue]

Trim should allow you to get a stable level flight. Pitch should be easy, but I would say getting a stable heading would be near impossible.

So... MechJeb it is I think.

Too funny...I get just the opposite...Pitch keeps nosing down on me, and is impossible to leave for more than just a couple mins before I always end up at over -100m/s...And heading I got locked dead, using SAS...Never moved without manual input, over 2hrs of flight time at between 5K-10K on a couple trans-continental flights I took today, with the B9 Strugatsky.

But then, I did not know there was a trim adjustment, either...lol

Also, I cant seem to get it to cruise very well at over 8K....But I guess thats about right, since on Earth, 9K-11K seems normal cruise altitude, and Kerbin is scaled down... ??

Also, every time I try to use MechJeb Landing Guidance, the autopilot always kills throttle, flames out, and dumps me into a deep, rolling nose dive to port, no matter what aircraft, or what actual course it needs to follow to target... ??

But anyway, more on topic, you should try the Strugatsky, if you dont mind going with a mod, and if a strictly traditional atmospheric craft will work for you. Other than MechJeb landing autopilot, and the pitch issue (which may be fixable with a trim adjustment I didnt know about), that thing cruises pretty darn awesome...And fuel consumption is no issue.

Two hours at max throttle (couldnt keep it less than that, due to magnifying the nose-down issue), 850km, and out of the dozen or so on board tanks, only three went down to around 30%, and the LOX in the bay only went to 75%...(Though this was empty except for a large H.O.M.E LOX fuel tank I docked in the bay, thinking I might need the extra fuel, and also to test the fuel equalizer mod), I bet I could have EASILY circumnavigated Kerbin on full tanks, and had QUITE a bit left to spare,

Only reason my flights ended was trying to land on what I thought was flat surface, only to have a hillside appear in front of me...(My Kingdom for an altimeter that read true surface, instead of always off sea level...)

It has a nice, full length top loading cargo bay, in ADDITION to a dropping rear cargo ramp...Just be aware, if you DO put any weight in the rear, you'll probably need to add more landing gear, if you can believe it...lol

Mine kept blowing up as soon as it transferred from the SPH to the runway...Doh!

Also ended two flights abruptly when I went to the 4th warp setting...Plane blew up into many pieces just seconds after warping into the 4th setting TWICE!...Third setting was fine though...

Edited August 14, 2013 by Stone Blue

[ChevronTango]

You can cruise at about 28k easily with a few more intakes than you'd expect. The issue with ASAS is that it doesn't take into account curvature of kerbin, so after a while you may find your nose pitching up, as it tries to keep its heading. I only ever really notice this on atmospheric circumnavigations though.

[Stone Blue]

You can cruise at about 28k easily with a few more intakes than you'd expect.

Then this is with Sabres, and not jet engines?

[CalculusWarrior]

Romfarer's Lazor System includes a very good plane autopilot; in fact it will even calculate the necessary great circle route so that you end up flying over a shorter distance!

[Dispatcher]

The extra intakes is a good idea. I'm gonna have to try that with some of my planes (the ones which flame out when left unattended).