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BSC: Albatross 3 - And the winner is...

Xeldrak

By Xeldrak
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

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BSC: Albatross 3  

  1. 1. BSC: Albatross 3

    • antbin - Ahlbetossed 4b
      3
    • Ekku Zakku - Ensoku
      26
    • GusTurbo - Albatross 18
      17
    • mcirish3 - Condor
      7
    • Octagon - Diamond Flyer
      3
    • Sirine - The Albatross
      10

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mhoram

mhoram

Posted
Posted
Thanks so much for picking mine as your first choice as the stock replacement! That means a lot =3 there's a reason why I said it's the best plane I've ever made! I surprised myself with how well it flies.

Well handling, liftoff and landing are only a few criteria for the competition. But I think as stock-planes they are quite important for beginners, because before they go around the world, they have to get the plane into air and in a straight direction.

I find it funny that in one review the KJ200 works well, and in the other, it doesn't. I would like to know more about this "eeratic" handling.

I am playing with a keyboard and not a joystick and had the impression that short keypresses rotate the plane too much. So what I am missing in the KJ200 is a fine-grained handling which is especially important during landing.

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BlazeFallow

BlazeFallow

Posted
Posted

Well that's embarrassing. I completely forgot that wings have wonky fuel crossfeed capabilities and forgot to add in fuel lines between my outer tanks and the inner. :blush:

My vote has to go to Ekku Zakku's butterfly like plane. Ensoku was incredibly easy to fly as the controls were smooth, responsive, and stable. The plane recovers well from stalls, glides like a dream, and lands like a feather. The plane also maintains the tri-hull design and wide wingspan, albeit with some fat wings on the outside. While you wouldn't necessarily be able to call Ensuko an Albatross, as the similarities between it and the bird are missing, it nonetheless fits the bill for low altitude long flight and gracefull wide wings.

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mcirish3

mcirish3

Posted
Posted
(also the atmospheric sensor package but no comms device is a knit-pick)

UM????? yes it does at least the last craft file I submitted did. hmm. I also ran some fuel lines, to keep the COM less mobile. Also the flame out issue make me think you have an even earlier version than that one. If your version doesn't have a description you have a 2 version old craft.

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FallingIntoBlack

FallingIntoBlack

Posted
Posted (edited)
I tested half of the planes.

So my favourites (besides my own :)) are

Ekku Zakku - Ensoku, gm537 - Kalbatross and FallingIntoBlack - FS-1 Kestrel

And here are the Detailed Test Results.

Hey man, thanks. I love that you commented on it, "Innovative design". Originally, it only had landing gears on the fuselage, but I decided to upgrade it during the challenge to make it a better entry; I upgraded the landing gears (put the four back ones on the wings), made it look cooler (love the new design with the Tail Connectors) and overall, I'd say it's a better plane than it originally was. If it doesn't win here, I am surely entering it in a Ravenspear Challenge.

Edited by FallingIntoBlack
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whistlehead

whistlehead

Posted
Posted

Ooh! A vote! Yay! I don't care what happens for the rest of the competition now - I got a voo-oote, I got a voo-oote! :D

I just couldn't choose what to go for in the end, so I decided to vote on best description among my favourites - so the Polar Express got my vote.

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mcirish3

mcirish3

Posted
Posted
Hm, I realy should come up with a better voting system ^^ I'd like to have something like "choose you three prefered planes" - but I didn't find a website that offered such polls.

We the current poll system you're using does have a multiple choice option, but I am guessing it wont let you limit the number to only 3-5 or something like that. Not sure it would still be that bad if people could just vote for the ones they like. Perhaps give it a go on the nest challenge and see how it works out for the preliminaries, and leave the finals as a single choice.

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Xeldrak

Xeldrak

Posted
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Posted
We the current poll system you're using does have a multiple choice option, but I am guessing it wont let you limit the number to only 3-5 or something like that. Not sure it would still be that bad if people could just vote for the ones they like. Perhaps give it a go on the nest challenge and see how it works out for the preliminaries, and leave the finals as a single choice.

Well, thanks to mhoram I got a site with a very interesting voting system, I think it will really improve the primary votes in the next challenge.

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SirJodelstein

SirJodelstein

Posted
Posted

I didn't participate, but i did test some planes. So many cool-looking planes, but not enough time to try them all. Did not vote because of this, but here is some test flight feedback anyway, in order of tests. Please take note that i am rubbish at flying and landing planes, so i might be the perfect test candidate :)

In my interpretation, a BSC Albatross has huge wingspan and glides well. Unpowered hands-free landing should be possible, in-air control may be a little bit sluggish in exchange for stability. Lets see what we got here:

BlazeFallow: Nice design, flies great, easy liftoff, but is somewhat difficult to land. Crashed 4 out of 5 landing attempts at about 60m/s.

EkkuZakku: Sold! Easy liftoff+landing, in-air control and range.

gm537: Nice. Flies great, but has a tendency to do turns during braking after landing (and on the runway). Also, danger of tailstrike on liftoff.

Ojimak: Amazing plane, lots of fun to fly (needs SAS though). But i think it does not capture what i would expect from a plane called Albatross (i know something like your plane was in the OP, that's just my personal opinion). Also, its an infiniglider, so maybe a little too advanced for beginner crafts.

Sirine: Once again, you submit an outstanding piece of art and engineering rafinesse. Takes a little to learn in-flight controls. Lands like a feather. Illuminated flapping wings make a great albatross imitation.

Romphobia: Great beginners plane, flies and lands perfectly. Looks like an actual plane, too :-)

Whew, good thing that i do not have to vote, way too many great options.

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gm537

gm537

Posted
Posted

Yeah go for it Jokelstein! It seems like you are really considering what it takes to have a good beginner craft that still has a resemblence to the Albatross we need more people like you to vote!

I am also glad to hear that you are looking at a different voting method Xeldrak as I agree I am bit disappointed at the number of people who still seem to prioritize looks over genuine functionality and ease of use for new players. When I saw the Heavy Lander challenge and saw yours that won it took me all of 30 seconds to know that that was the best of the group it just screamed simplistic functionality. In this challenge that's harder to do since you have to fly the planes to judge functionality but it still seemed that that's the way people were thinking but maybe I got ahead of myself.

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gm537

gm537

Posted
Posted

Well I already told you guys some of my other prizes that I 'awarded' (the award is verbal affirmation knowing that another experienced KSP player thinks your design is of the highest quality) so now here are my top 3 including my vote! Obviously these are still my opinions and don't reflect what the actual final tally will be.

3rd Place for Best Stock Craft replacement of the Albatross 3 goes to: Trinity by Scarecrow88

2nd Place for Best Stock Craft replacement of the Albatross 3 goes to: Firestarter by mhoram

1st Place and winner of my vote goes to: Ensoku by Ekku Zakku

Bet Ekku Zakku didn't see that one coming! Yeah I really like your plane overall there are always some knit-picks that can be made but yours is the all around best. You clearly took your time and did it right while considering what beginners need to have in a plane.

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Ekku Zakku

Ekku Zakku

Posted
Posted

Wow, nope, didn't expect that at all XD I'm really surprised I'm actually a strong contender in my first appearance in BSC (oh how I've been wanting to do these challenges ever since they started... Never had time to enter any before!).

I did notice what XolotlLoki mentioned with veering after landing in some of my earlier versions of the plane (I mean really early versions), but I hadn't noticed it at all in the final few versions. I wanted to make sure the yaw control was enough to help keep rough landings straighten up once they were on the ground. Taildraggers are often unstable on landing in KSP though, or so I've noticed.

One last note, I thought it was super silly to call Kerbal's Japanese equivalent "Kappanese" (sorry Nova, I can't help myself when it comes to K-words lol), since Kappa are a Japanese mythological creature which are green. They don't really resemble Kerbals in any other way, but it seems fitting nonetheless XD The name of the plane, Ensoku (I give all my craft Japanese names), translates roughly to "field trip"; as it's a long range craft that does science, that also seemed fitting. I'm not a weeaboo, I swear =P

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