Air Drops

[dholedays]

Lately I've been trying to use aircraft to deploy atmosphere monitoring probes (temperature, pressure sensors and the like) around Kerbin. The only problem is, as soon as the parachute-equipped packages touch down, they disappear!

I've noticed debris doesn't get auto-deleted when the player craft makes a crash landing. This gave me the idea to try flying as low (~100m radar) and as slow as possible when deploying air drop payloads, and it seems to work. However, it can get pretty tricky (especially in hilly terrain), and certainly won't work for some of the heavier payloads I have in mind. Does anyone know of any plugin that can get around this?

Also, for the devs: I can understand why debris should get auto-deleted if it touches down far away from the player craft, but why command pod/probe equipped payloads? If it works close to the player craft it seems like something the engine should be able to handle farther away.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

In atmo all ships 2.5km from the controlled ship are deleted unless landed.

It's quite annoying I know, there are mods than increase this to 100km

[annallia]

In atmo all ships 2.5km from the controlled ship are deleted unless landed.

It's quite annoying I know, there are mods than increase this to 100km

This also applies to skydiving kerbals as I recently learned...

[Kilmeister]

In atmo all ships 2.5km from the controlled ship are deleted unless landed.

It's quite annoying I know, there are mods than increase this to 100km

Which mod, or what should I search for? I haven't run into this problem before, but I was starting to envision a mission where I'd be airdropping payloads last night, so It'd be nice to know of a workaround in advance.

[SkyRender]

Which mod, or what should I search for? I haven't run into this problem before, but I was starting to envision a mission where I'd be airdropping payloads last night, so It'd be nice to know of a workaround in advance.

Romfarer's camera plug-in lets you control the draw distance, if I remember right.

EDIT: Romfarer's Lazor System adds draw distance control. Most of his other mods also require the Lazor System, hence why I remembered the camera doing it.

Edited December 3, 2013 by SkyRender

[Redjoker]

The TT neverunload mod lets you also set the draw distance, with the mods default being 300km. The advantage of this mod is that it only changes the load distance for crafts with parts so that the game will only process what you want it to. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48720-TT-NeverUnload-Vessel-Unloading-Preventer

[LethalDose]

As a work around, can you drop at a very low altitude, so that either:

1. your package lands before you get > 2.5 km away (This would probably have to be < 100 m above the surface)
   
2. you can circle at a very low speed (and probably lose altitude) until it touches down
   

You could also try deploying the chute while the payload is still attached, have the aircraft & payload ride down for a bit, then when you're SURE you're the payload will land before you're 2.5km away, detatch and accelerate off?

It already sounds like you're doing the first one. I avoid this by attaching the cockpit to the payload, and sacrificing the entirety of the aerodynamic craft when I get where I'm going. Then I just recover the payload + cockpit + pilot after I've landed. I'm not sure if this method would work for you, though. It would depend on the particulars of your envisioned airdrop mission and how reusable you need the delivery craft to be.

[numerobis]

You also want the payload to have an official probe body, otherwise it's classified as debris.

[dholedays]

You also want the payload to have an official probe body, otherwise it's classified as debris.

For sure. The original plan was to deliver the payload, then fly back and land, then switch to the landed probe. That way that I don't lose the crew or have to revert. I guess it can be done crewless, but that's not really what I wanted.

[strongest_2hu]

You also want the payload to have an official probe body, otherwise it's classified as debris.

Which doesn't matter at all in terms of being deleted when the game unloads it in atmosphere.