Inaugural Kerbal Air Race Championship

[TheMattyPrince]

Then perhaps a plane that is easier to control and fly through the course?

Biggest thing to improve the handling characteristics would be:

-reduced wing loading (more wing surface area per mass unit); this would help making the aircraft more mobile and easier to fly slowly

-slightly increased elevator response (so that pilots can pull higher angle of attack)

-dedicated elevators and ailerons instead of combined elevons

-reduced rudder response (the mobile canard is WAY too powerful a control surface for a rudder in such a small aircraft - a tail fin with small control surface bolted on it would likely do a better job)

The supplied craft is meant to be difficult, it is for pilots to show that they can manage the energy well, and flow throught the course. I think it is good as it is. The reason you can make your own craft is to make a more agile one and compete with that.

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, yes. But Nooblet68 sort of has a point. Not everyone CAN control the current plane through the course, and since there\'s only the 'default craft category' and 'free category', there\'s two problems that come into play.

First is that since anyone can build their own craft and participate in the free category, the plane building skills become a factor in the time set for each plane piloted by its creator. Thus, people who can\'t handle the default craft and would require an easier aircraft to practice the flying maneuvers and the course layout have no way to gauge their progress, since each plane has its specific performance and thus the players have no idea if they are flying badly or well, or how much better their particular aircraft could be flown.

Secondly, the people who find it excessively difficult to fly the default craft through the course are, most likely, also the people who don\'t have the expertise to build a better plane. There are two ways of building aircraft: First is by trial and error, which albeit effective is also somewhat slow and frustrating and doesn\'t necessarily produce ideal aircraft, just one that works 'well enough'.

By contrast, applying basic aerodynamic principles in the process of building helps immensely in knowing what might be causing the unwanted behaviour, and more importantly how you might be able to fix it and improve the handling characteristics.

If there were a standardized 'easy modo' aircraft for practicing the flying maneuvers through the course, it would perhaps make the challenge a bit more accessible for wider audience. The tiered system would be well suited for adding a vehicle with a bit more benign characteristics.

[TheMattyPrince]

I think that even a slightly easier to fly craft, would still be too difficult for beginners though, due to the fact that this course is a difficult one. The only real way to open up this type of plane air races to beginners is to wait for persistence, then make landers that have a part on them which makes edges of a course, then you could have longer courses, just made up be multiple crafts.

The main problem I think, with trying to make a beginner friendly craft, for this course, is that there are two real styles of flying this course I have found (with my own crafts)

Type 1: To fly using energy management, its slow, but gets you used to the course and flying with a specific craft, its also very stable as the planes don\'t tend to swing round too much (equivalent of drifting but for planes is what I mean)

Type 2: To make an unstable, but quick plane, this is using the principles of modern day aircraft fighters, they are made to be unstable so they are agile. The downside to this is you need to be quick to react and be a relatively good pilot. This is the style I used for my fastest run, it\'s good as it requires very little energy management as you are just trying to pull corners as tight as possible.

The problem lies with neither style of flying for this course is very beginner friendly.

What I may do soon, is make a video of me flying a slow lap of the course with the standard craft, break it down into each section, and walk through it step by step. Hopefully this will help beginners to get the hang of this course.

[jgjiscool]

I was really disappointed to see that CheatEngine didn\'t really work at slowing the game down. Total buzzkill.

[doomboy101]

Inspired by the thread on KSP\'s most experienced pilot in General Discussion; what better way to separate the excellent pilots from the good pilots than with a race, so I present the inaugural Kerbal Air Race Championship.

The winner will be crowned 'that guy who flies planes good'.

---

Course map:

Video of a lap completed on my crappy computer:

http://youtu.be/g5Sz_tggtWw

---

Leaderboards:

Standard

Use the craft provided to set the fastest lap time

[table]

[tr][td]Herra Tohtori[/td][td][/td][td]2:37[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]TheMattyPrince[/td][td][/td][td]2:44[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]White Owl[/td][td][/td][td]3:01[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Free

Create your own racer and see if you can better the standard craft

[table]

[tr][td]TheMattyPrince[/td][td][/td][td]1:26[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]White Owl[/td][td][/td][td]2:25[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Rules:

• 
  [li]C-7 flight pack V2.16 required (no thrust vectoring!)[/li]
  [li]Finish the lap by crashing into the VAB for a reliable way stopping the mission timer.[/li]
  

Where is the .craft file and the course?

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

Where is the .craft file and the course?

Come one man. The last post on this thread was over 3 months ago.

[semininja]

Oh, come on. It\'s an awesome challenge, and as far as I know, there\'s no reason why it shouldn\'t still work. Granted, C7\'s pack has changed a few times, but the course is one of the coolest things I\'ve seen on this forum, /including/ plugins. This deserves to remain active.

[White Owl]

This course was how i spent Christmas.

When the forums were rearranged awhile back, a lot of attachments were broken. I bet that\'s where they disappeared to.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

Oh, come on. It\'s an awesome challenge, and as far as I know, there\'s no reason why it shouldn\'t still work. Granted, C7\'s pack has changed a few times, but the course is one of the coolest things I\'ve seen on this forum, /including/ plugins. This deserves to remain active.

While it is a cool challange, and I really enjoyed flying the course a couple of times, I don\'t think necroposting should be any less hated for it.

[doomboy101]

White Owl do you think you could upload the course if you still have it? :\'(

[semininja]

While it is a cool challange, and I really enjoyed flying the course a couple of times, I don\'t think necroposting should be any less hated for it.

Since this thread is not based on out-of-date information and its creator is still active, it hasn\'t died, and therefore isn\'t subject to necro-posting.