Oh, Pleh!

[Lar-E]

After much trial and more error, the crew arrived at Eve, achieved a stable orbit, and rendezvoused with Gilly. Bully for them! Now it's time for Bob to plant a flag and go home! The problem I'm having is, the nifty little Gilly lander I designed and sort of tested in LKO thinks it's a rover: the controls are rotated 90 degrees. So I can fly visually-- point the butt of the lander at Gilly and burn; but as far as actual navigation (i.e. getting back to the old Ignorance I) I'm a little flummoxed. Seems like I should be able to add (or subtract) 90 degrees from the navball, but I can't for the life of me figure out which 90. Can any of youze rocket scientists help?

[blizzy78]

First of all, Gilly has a ridiculously low gravity, so you can go straight down instead of a more angled landing without using too much fuel. You can use this fact to your advantage: Since your craft thinks it is a rover, pointing the nav ball exactly at the horizon will position it so that the top is at the top and the bottom is at the bottom.

In other words: The 90 degrees you need to rotate lands you exactly on the horizon on the nav ball. You should be able to figure out how to rotate so that up is up and not down

Edit: In your screenshot you're rotated almost correctly. Just pitch up by about 35 degrees and you're all set.

[Monkeh]

You'll need to re-orientate the command bit, whether it's a manned or unmanned, to the correct plane. Mess with spinning and flipping just that bit.

[Lar-E]

Blizzy, Thanks! I'm not actually so worried about the landing aspect; I'm worried about using maneuver mode to get back to the mother ship...

[blizzy78]

Well the 90 degrees is only in the up/down direction. Since orbiting Gilly needs only a very low velocity, you have lots of time to decide your ascent angle, then rotate another 90 degrees by pitching up/down. If all goes wrong, there's still quicksave

[Kasuha]

Your problem is caused by the fact that you used the seat. They're always oriented where the Kerbal is facing, otherwise you'd have problem using them for rovers. So it's about either mounting them so the Kerbal faces up, or adding OKTO2 or other automatic command pod and switch control to it. Or you can control from a suitably placed docking port.

[Rhomphaia]

Hard to see from the screenshot but it looks like you have a remote guidance unit between the reaction wheels and the RCS tank, if you do then right click on that and select "control from here"

Edited October 9, 2013 by Rhomphaia

[Lar-E]

Kasuha, duly noted Rhomphaia, no remote guidance unit.

[Kasuha]

Regarding orientation - orient your ship to face the burn vector. Then orient your camera to look into the Kerbal's face. Rotate the ship 90 degrees using single control (W/A/S/D). If you're now looking at the top of Kerbal's helmet, you did it right.

Actually you need to use the same control every time and I guess it's either W or S but I'm not sure which one it is.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Kasuha

[Rhomphaia]

Kasuha, duly noted Rhomphaia, no remote guidance unit.

Ok then, using the nav ball try pointing directly at the prograde marker, oriented parallel to the horizon, then pitch up until pointed directly at the sky, fire up the engines carefully until the retrograde marker lines up, now you are moving straight down, just point at and parallel to the horizon and control your descent

[blizzy78]

Actually you need to use the same control every time and I guess it's either W or S but I'm not sure which one it is.

That would depend entirely on his roll orientation.

[Kasuha]

That would depend entirely on his roll orientation.

Not at all.

[boomerdog2000]

Is there a docking port on it? If so you could use that as a another command point.