Cockpit view only landings, have you done it?

[zarakon]

I've always wanted to do an entire mission from IVA, but the instrumentation seems far too limited. Even for landing, really, though I never tried it with one of the advanced pods.

Yeah, to do a full IVA mission (no map) you have to do either a bunch of math (almost real rocket science!) or rehearsals in order to get your transfer burns right. It's kind of crazy when you first attempt it to realize that you can't even tell whether you have an intercept lined up or not. When I did a full IVA mission to the Mun, I first did it a couple times the easy way and wrote down my steps. Then I just reproduced the same steps for the IVA mission.

Landing is the easy part. With the radar altimeter that most pods give you, it can actually be easier than using the external camera. Aiming for the right landing spot is a bit trickier, especially in the 1-man black capsule with its tiny awkwardly-placed window.

If you want to try a full IVA mission, the Mun is by far the easiest target. It's a big enough target that you can still get an intercept even with a lot of inaccuracy in your transfer burn. Minmus would be extremely difficult, and other planets nearly impossible.

[Accelerando]

Done once or twice with the Mk 1 Lander-Can, as well as launch and transfer.

[Aragosnat]

Did a IVA landing of a SSTO plane last night. It was fun and easy. Easy part was from the fact most of my craft can glide down safely with out need of booster assists to keep the nose up. Have done a few IVA landing before. Cannot remember if they where complete or a hybrid?

[Starwhip]

IVA landings? Psst. I rock at those things. You want a real challenge? Try getting to the Mun without using the nav ball. Or maneuver nodes. I did that in the demo because I didn't know the game yet. Friggin' hard, but I did it!

[Crown]

I do almost every landing in cockpit view because there I have be better view at the radar altimeter.