do you use drogue chute to kill the KE of your plane when descending?

[lammatt]

say... you are coming back from Mun or Minmus, (roughly 3km/s i guess)

do you use drogue chute to bleed the KE off or do you take you time letting the plane glide for an hour until it lands?

(well an hour is an exaggeration, but you know what i mean~)

i do, because i dont have the patience....

i usually cut the chute when the plane slows down to manageable speed (~mach 1-2 @10km altitude)

and then fly it back to the space center.

Edited January 15, 2014 by lammatt

[Jodo42]

Although I rarely send planes to the Mun/Minmus, I can definitely say that I don't use drogues for landers. For now, since re-entry heat isn't implemented, I tend to just slam into the atmosphere as hard as I can, since it gives a more impressive light show. I rarely find a need for drogue chutes, but I suppose they might be useful once re-entry heat is implemented. For now, if I want to slow down more gradually, I'll stick with successive aerobreaking passes.

[lammatt]

Although I rarely send planes to the Mun/Minmus, I can definitely say that I don't use drogues for landers. For now, since re-entry heat isn't implemented, I tend to just slam into the atmosphere as hard as I can, since it gives a more impressive light show. I rarely find a need for drogue chutes, but I suppose they might be useful once re-entry heat is implemented. For now, if I want to slow down more gradually, I'll stick with successive aerobreaking passes.

for bigger planes, you cant really afford a very steep descend, the plane just doesnt have enough agility to do maneuvers to kill the vertical speed (if you are playing with FAR)

without FAR, ya, maybe you can go straight down and still manage to get down to a manageable speed before it crashes...

and landers... yes, who cares about drogue chute...

just the normal 500m altitude ones are fine, they dont break anyways even when opening at crazy speed.

[Specialist290]

I don't dabble much with spaceplanes either, but I've found the drogue chute to come in handy in a number of circumstances, particularly for slowing larger landers down to the point where I can safely deploy the main chutes without having to worry about them tearing off.

[katateochi]

When landing planes on Kerbin I usually take a fairly shallow entry (even thou I don't play with FAR), I kinda like the idea of doing "realistic" landings and not having the whole craft turn into a fireball. I don't find that it takes too long and tbh I'd rather be making small (and largely pointless) tweaks to pitch than just floating down on chutes.

When landing pods I've recently (after watching some Apollo documentaries) taken to skipping the pods of the atmo so it slows down a bit on the first contact with the atmo, then skips up for a bit before coming back down (without having to do another orbit). This often results in very little reheat effect. Yeah it is a slow way to return home and makes it really hard to predict landing site, but if you enjoy skipping stones on a lake, this is even more fun!

I don't use drogue that much really. On a couple of fast jets I use them as brakes just before landing (and wish that they could stay open once the plane has landed). And I've used them on Duna landings before to start slowing down earlier, but aside from that they don't get used that often.

[FlamedSteak]

I'm not proficient enough with planes to have developed any landing maneuvers, my landings usually involve flat spin stalls, explosions and death. Then again maybe a drogue would be handy for straightening it up....

I still use drogues for slowing landers in the atmosphere, though they're not required as much now that you can set regular chutes to deploy at any hight you like.

The G-Shock isn't as significant with the drogue, so they still do have some use if you're coming in really hot before you deploy.

[lammatt]

I'm not proficient enough with planes to have developed any landing maneuvers, my landings usually involve flat spin stalls, explosions and death. Then again maybe a drogue would be handy for straightening it up....

I still use drogues for slowing landers in the atmosphere, though they're not required as much now that you can set regular chutes to deploy at any hight you like.

The G-Shock isn't as significant with the drogue, so they still do have some use if you're coming in really hot before you deploy.

i think Scott Manley just posted a youtube last week on how to interpret the charts on FAR

that may help you troubleshoot your plane's reentry before you actually are flying it.

[katateochi]

I'm not proficient enough with planes to have developed any landing maneuvers, my landings usually involve flat spin stalls, explosions and death. Then again maybe a drogue would be handy for straightening it up....

snip*

I used to suffer flat spins (or horrific tumbling) with most space planes on re-entry. I've found that adding several reaction wheels helps deal with the shift in COM when the fuel tanks are empty/low.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I'm not proficient enough with planes to have developed any landing maneuvers, my landings usually involve flat spin stalls, explosions and death. Then again maybe a drogue would be handy for straightening it up....

I still use drogues for slowing landers in the atmosphere, though they're not required as much now that you can set regular chutes to deploy at any hight you like.

The G-Shock isn't as significant with the drogue, so they still do have some use if you're coming in really hot before you deploy.

is your COM/COL relationship stable with the empty tanks? the SPH is actually a very versatile tool. with tweakables you can see the COM shift with fuel use, and by pitching the plane up and down (shift+w/s) you can see how the attitude changes where the COL goes. often times even if the COL starts behind the COM, if you pitch up/down enough, it'll shift to be in front of the COM, causing a deathspin

[LostElement]

I only use drougue chutes for crafts over 50 tons.

[Jon Tash]

I usually don't use drogue chutes. When entering the atmosphere of kerbin with a spaceplane I wait till the altitude is less than 5000 where my speed is usually at 200 m/s to make the spaceplane maneuverable enough to land at a specific target. I always try to go as fast as I can when entering the atmosphere and staying as long as I can in the zone where we see the entry effects.

[Spyritdragon]

Generally, i dont use drogue chutes. Most of my craft either stay in space, or decouple the crew and science parts when underway to the Kerbin ground. In these cases i usually dont use drogue shutes. The semi-opened stage of my chutes has never ripped any parts of my crafts off yet - ill usually semi deploy a few normal shutes high up to slow down to a manageable rate. By the time i get really low i've usually gone under 200 m/s of velocity. Then i use whatever is left over in the engines to safely guide my craft through the main opening stage. A last burn to get me under 6 m/s for landing seals the deal.

Most importantly, my craft are usually designed with the parachutes placed as low as possible while still remaining above the center of gravity. This makes that my craft compresses itself when the main shutes open instead of stretching out, which it can usually handle far better.

Except spaceplanes. When i have spaceplanes ill usually try to attach a chute or two to the back of the plane, not to slow down but to keep my nose pointing the way i want to go - my planes usually flip horribly out of control on reentry when i dont do this. Once i hit a RAM engine and control surface manageable speed and altitude, ill usually cut the shutes and glide back to the ground potentially assited by the engines.

[Anton P. Nym]

is your COM/COL relationship stable with the empty tanks? the SPH is actually a very versatile tool. with tweakables you can see the COM shift with fuel use, and by pitching the plane up and down (shift+w/s) you can see how the attitude changes where the COL goes. often times even if the COL starts behind the COM, if you pitch up/down enough, it'll shift to be in front of the COM, causing a deathspin

I now use Tweakables to shut off my spaceplanes' fuel tanks near the COM in the VAB/SPH, reserving that fuel and keeping the COM fairly stable until the rest of the fuel is spent. This does bear the risk of flaming out during a burn if I forget to switch them back on... but it's easier to recover from that, at least in my experience, than from a flat spin or tumble.

-- Steve

edited to add: I generally do not use drogues for spaceplanes, preferring instead to use "S" turns to bleed off excess energy. I use drogues a lot for vertical landers and probes, though.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Anton P. Nym

[Sabreur]

Yes, but mostly because I really like making VTOL's - with those, gliding isn't really an option, and the sheer size of my planes means that drogue chutes are necessary to keep parts from snapping off due to sudden deceleration when the main chutes open.

[Captain Sierra]

Although I rarely send planes to the Mun/Minmus, I can definitely say that I don't use drogues for landers. For now, since re-entry heat isn't implemented, I tend to just slam into the atmosphere as hard as I can, since it gives a more impressive light show. I rarely find a need for drogue chutes, but I suppose they might be useful once re-entry heat is implemented. For now, if I want to slow down more gradually, I'll stick with successive aerobreaking passes.

Drogues don't deploy high enough for that anyways. If you popped it at that time you'd incinerate it or rip it off (at least IRL), so I'm like you and just sit back and enjoy the beautiful effects. Only time I ever find them practical is when I'm landing on Duna or doing a direct return (straight down to KSC) from Dres or farther out.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

if they'd stay open on the ground they'd have a lot of use in stopping planes on landing, too bad they're automatically cut off. it would be really useful when landing planes on duna with its super bumpy terrain

[Duxwing]

I never use drogue chutes, instead deactivating my engines, flaring during re-entry, and flying home at maximum speed. I use FAR and DRE.

-Duxwing

[PlonioFludrasco]

Sometimes I use drogue chutes as emergency anti-spin and stall recovery chutes like this on my bad designed planes that stalls or spins too often (too lazy to re-design or to teach Jeb how not to stall )

[Javster]

Although I rarely send planes to the Mun/Minmus, I can definitely say that I don't use drogues for landers. For now, since re-entry heat isn't implemented, I tend to just slam into the atmosphere as hard as I can, since it gives a more impressive light show. I rarely find a need for drogue chutes, but I suppose they might be useful once re-entry heat is implemented. For now, if I want to slow down more gradually, I'll stick with successive aerobreaking passes.

It's also quicker. You get to the ground more quickly.

[Madrias]

Drogue chutes? We've got drogue chutes?

All joking aside, I tend not to use chutes except in emergencies with my planes. Point it into the atmosphere and re-enter with full burn, might as well enjoy the pretty yellow and orange lights.

If I'm concerned about descent velocity, I'll mount a rocket backwards and action group it to push my plane from the wrong end in a rocket-braking technique.

If something goes wrong, it's a matter of 1 2 3. One ignites all sepratrons, two activates all emergency decouplers, three opens ejectable cockpit chutes. On some planes, it's merely a count of one. Fire the main decoupler and release the Flying Ant Safety Plane. It's a semi-infinigliding Ant Engine powered MK1 Cockpit with wings and wheels. Everything you need to make it to ground and not explode.

[EndOfTheEarth]

I think I used them once in my Duna lander, but haven't used them since (then again, I haven't run a mission that needed them since). For returning to Kerbin, I let the atmosphere do most of the work, aim for an ocean, and pop chutes at 600m.

[Skorpychan]

My generic lander design carries two, because it's way easier on my mind than sudden chute openings, and serves to orient the craft properly so the legs are down.

I'm still tweaking that last bit, though. Without the reaction wheels, it sometimes wants to flip upside-down.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I will generally use a drogue chute on anything that has a least 3 parachutes. Better safe than sorry, right?

[Richy teh space man]

I do use them on Duna when I'm not doing a powered landing. As for using them on space planes, I do use them for my cargo plane when landing on Kerbin, only because it can't land normally due to spin outs.

[AeolusRoc]

What are these drogue parachutes you speak of? All of my Kerbal's love hurtling towards Kerban at 150 m/s, they admire those impact craters.

Joke aside, I generally deploy the parachutes when I'm in the last 1/3 - 1/4 of the atmosphere for everything.