The Eris II Hovercraft

[Rarity]

I usually just lurk, and admire the creative superiority of most of you over me, but I was proud of myself on this one and thought some of you could have some fun with it 8)

It\'s a concept I\'ve fantasized about for the majority of my rocket building career: Instead of building the same old thing where you place engines on the bottom and they push you forward, I wanted to build a rocket where the engines are on the belly and they push it up. Up until today, there were no parts that would allow me to place engines at that angle. Then I discovered Gaby\'s Quick and Dirty Miscellania. I\'ve been messing with the design for about four hours now, and even though adding wings detracts from what I had intended, it was too much of a hassle to control without them.

Sadly I never planned on releasing my creations, so I never took note of what packs I download and use. I\'m going to do my best to make a list, and please tell me whether or not it loads. If it doesn\'t, then I don\'t have everything. If you recognize parts from a pack that I don\'t have listed, please tell me.

Requires:

Gaby\'s Quick and Dirty Miscellania - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=5710.0

(Maybe, I\'m not sure) Probodobodyne DIY Kit and BACE Constructon Co - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=6397.0

Down Under Aerospace and Party Supplies - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=3362.0

C7 Aerospace Division Third Experimental Release - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=5884.0

(Maybe, I\'m not sure) NovaPunch Remix Pack Alpha 0.9 - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4180.0

I\'m almost certain that there are others. If you recognize any of the parts on this ship; please tell me so that I can add them to the list.

Download the .craft - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6993206/Eris%20Hovercraft%20II.craft

To take off, immediately turn RCS on right before you get to the launchpad. The ship should start leaning forward, press S to slow it down until it hits the tower (or right before you hit it) then launch the first stage. The rocket will try and flip backwards, so hit W and be ready to spam Q and E because it will want to roll (more than likely to the right for some reason). One of the landing legs will probably break off; press space again to detach them even if they manage to stay on. If you can get into the air without losing anything other than the landing legs, congratulations. Now you just have to fight with it a little bit to get it where you want, then turn on SAS. Any time you need to make adjustments, try to do them in small increments or the ship will try to roll around and get out of control. I\'ve been trying to get it as stable as possible, but for now I\'m happy with it. If you have any suggestions to improve the ship, I would be ecstatic to get advice from rocket scientists like yourselves

I know a video would have been much easier, but I have dial up. :\'(

Protip: Try to avoid letting the nose dip too far. For some reason it makes the whole thing try to start spinning, and it\'s easy to lose a lot of altitude.

[Tim_Barrett]

-Just a tip, for VTOLs and hovercraft, I suggest you avoid the idea of liquid fuel engines for vertical thrust. Right now you can only gimbal them, not change the amount of thrust for each specifically, meaning if you drop a payload, you won\'t be able to fly properly for the rest of the flight. I\'m sure you understand since you had no doubt trouble placing the engines to accompany the center of gravity.

Right now I only use heavy one-way RCS thrusters, in the C7 parts pack. It may not look pretty, but its much more manueverable and they alter their own thrust values automatically to fit the actions to your controls. For example, the Centaur00-42 Lander uses this design.

Notice the fact that flight is still in fact stable, and my engines are free for forward thrust, or longer distance missions.

Anyway, nice ship man! :thumbup:

[Polecat Industries]

-Just a tip, for VTOLs and hovercraft, I suggest you avoid the idea of liquid fuel engines for vertical thrust. Right now you can only gimbal them, not change the amount of thrust for each specifically, meaning if you drop a payload, you won\'t be able to fly properly for the rest of the flight. I\'m sure you understand since you had no doubt trouble placing the engines to accompany the center of gravity.

Right now I only use heavy one-way RCS thrusters, in the C7 parts pack. It may not look pretty, but its much more manueverable and they alter their own thrust values automatically to fit the actions to your controls. For example, the Centaur00-42 Lander uses this design.

Notice the fact that flight is still in fact stable, and my engines are free for forward thrust, or longer distance missions.

Anyway, nice ship man! :thumbup:

I don\'t know, mine works fine. But that is probably because it was designed to fly without a payload, rather than with the two missiles.

Also, for the thing where you need to 'spam w', what I did was add a separated launch stage onto mine, that separates after it has gotten mostly horizontal.

[Rarity]

-Just a tip, for VTOLs and hovercraft, I suggest you avoid the idea of liquid fuel engines for vertical thrust. Right now you can only gimbal them, not change the amount of thrust for each specifically, meaning if you drop a payload, you won\'t be able to fly properly for the rest of the flight. I\'m sure you understand since you had no doubt trouble placing the engines to accompany the center of gravity.

Right now I only use heavy one-way RCS thrusters, in the C7 parts pack. It may not look pretty, but its much more manueverable and they alter their own thrust values automatically to fit the actions to your controls. For example, the Centaur00-42 Lander uses this design.

Notice the fact that flight is still in fact stable, and my engines are free for forward thrust, or longer distance missions.

Anyway, nice ship man! :thumbup:

Thank you. I can tell by just looking at yours that it\'s probably less of a -redacted- when trying to turn than mine :. What I don\'t get is how can you actually control your altitude with just RCS? Do you just turn RCS on to ascend and turn it off to descend?

[Tim_Barrett]

Thank you. I can tell by just looking at yours that it\'s probably less of a -redacted- when trying to turn than mine :. What I don\'t get is how can you actually control your altitude with just RCS? Do you just turn RCS on to ascend and turn it off to descend?

Ah, good question. You see, WASD controls the RCS for heading and direction, which automatically adapts to the placement of the RCS to make proper changes in direction.

The IJKL 'translation' keys actually move the craft from side to side, for example if you pressed K, your rocket would move in the camera\'s opposite direction, or toward yourself if your distance was not nailed. That key is used for VTOLs in my designs, alternatively stablizing minimal imperfections in center of gravity will simultaneously using the WASD keys for RCS. So now I can 1 - get lift, and 2 - control your heading, at the same time! 8)

Of course, RCS placed way offsides will never be effective. You cannot control the thrust of LFE\'s individually. This is the most important and key advantage of RCS over LFE VTOL systems.

I hope this helped!

[Rarity]

I wasn\'t aware of any IJKL \'translation\' keys. I\'ll check that out, and probably build some more 'pure' VTOL ships with it. Learn somethin\' new every day...

[gabyalufix]

Holy crap someone used my mod pack. Howabout that. Even better: he used parts in ways entirely different from their original purpose.

Love it.

[cteam]

these look cool