Altitude meter vs landscape

[Failatlaunch]

Hi, there must be a way in-game to know what altitude you're at depending on the level of the ground below. I've had numerous failed attempts of landing (most of the times at night), where the altitude meter showed me something like 3 km above sea level. That's quite frustrating. At least it is when you don't know how high is the landscape beneath you.

Anything I missed? Or am I going to have to check the wiki everytime I land?

Edited September 19, 2014 by Failatlaunch

[Aethon]

In some command pods ( the ones with finished interiors ) you can press 'C' to enter cockpit mode. Look for the gauge with the orange on the needle. That's the RADAR altimeter. It only works from 2000m A(bove) G(round) L(evel) to 0m.

It's also a good idea to put lights on the bottom of your landers.

Hope this helps.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Aethon

[AlexinTokyo]

There is a radar altimeter that shows your height above the surface, but it is only accessible in the IVA view in stock. It has a logarithmic scale, which can make it tricky to read if you're in a hurry.

IIRC it starts at 3 km AGL, so one thing you can do is wait for it to twitch, look at your altitude above datum (sea level on Kerbin), and then subtract 3000 m to get the surface height.

Alternatively informational mods like KER, VOID, etc. can give you an AGL altitude readout.

EDIT: Ninja'd. I thought it was 3 km, but Aethon's probably right that it's 2.

[JebNeedsHelp]

It's also a good idea to put lights on the bottom of your landers.

This - even in daylight the mk 1 gives you 400 meters' warning (at least in my stock game).

[juanml82]

This - even in daylight the mk 1 gives you 400 meters' warning (at least in my stock game).

Which, depending on your TWR, might be too late. I have some rovers landing on 48-7s which need to burn for more than a minute to land safely

[Carsogen]

I thought it was 3 km, but Aethon's probably right that it's 2.

It is in fact 3km

Which, depending on your TWR, might be too late

This was the fate of my recent Ike lander Edited September 19, 2014 by Carsogen

[Sirine]

1) Avoid landing at night. (If you have to, use the Radar Altimeter).

2) Pack plenty of fuel before landing.

3) Read the Nav-Ball on how to do precision landing. You can choose where to land, and not end up on a sloppy hill.

[Godot]

Another way would be to use mods:

Kerbal Engineer Redux has the radar altitude in its "surface"-tab.

See here (as "Altitude (Terrain)":

There also is "Raster Prop Monitor" which puts multiple MFDs into your IVA.

With it you can easily land he spaceship in IVA (which is something I normally do, if I have installed Raster Prop Monitor).

Just as shown here (with Radar Altitude and Horizontal/Vertical speed all at the bottom of the display):

Edited September 19, 2014 by Godot

[Aedile]

If you don't mind using mods

Use this

Altimeter will show height from surface, if you switch your navball to surface

[Failatlaunch]

I'm getting KER, looks awesome! Thanks!

[Failatlaunch]

By the way, is this working for Mac? (KER)?