distance to surface when landing?

[fommil]

Hi all,

When landing... especially on the dark side... it would be incredibly useful to know height above the surface rather than altitude.

Are there any mods that provide this info? (preferably in the flight screen beside/instead of the altitude instrument, but having it in the nav screen would also be good)

Best regards, Sam

Edited November 9, 2014 by fommil

[MartGonzo]

Hi all,

When landing... especially on the dark side... it would be incredibly useful to know height above the surface rather than altitude.

Are there any mods that provide this info? (preferably in the flight screen beside/instead of the altitude instrument, but having it in the nav screen would also be good)

Best regards, Sam

Yes, Kerbal Engineer Redux has that info, there is a radar altimeter inside the capsules too

[Laie]

Mechjeb and KER come to mind. Presumably a lot more.

HOWEVER: that figure isn't missing from the game, only hard to find. If you go IVA (=Cockpit View), one of the instruments will display "Radar Altitude". That's just what you're looking for. Depending on the cockpit, the view out of the window will be more or less restricted, though.

[fommil]

Yes, Kerbal Engineer Redux has that info, there is a radar altimeter inside the capsules too

Excellent! I actually have that mod, but I never appreciated that this information was provided. I tended only to use it during construction. Doh!

[MarvinKitFox]

Mechjeb, Engineer, etc..

What I like is the thingy in BTSM which just "pings" the surface. A nice audible beep-beep-bip-bip-b-b-b-b-b*crash*

[mhoram]

Also the Mod "Landing Height" replaces the altimeter-information in the GUI.

And "SteamGauges" provides additional GUI for altimeter readout.

[fommil]

Also the Mod "Landing Height" replaces the altimeter-information in the GUI.

And "SteamGauges" provides additional GUI for altimeter readout.

awesome, even better than engineer!

[kcs123]

I didn't liked Landing Height mod, because you missing info how dense is atmosphere at given altitude. I found most simple way to have a clue how far you are from ground by using lights.

Put some spot lights near landing gears if landing gears doesn't have it. In action group editor put toggle light in gear action group, and in SPH turn light on in editor. At the same time remove toggle light from "light" action groups.

Simple end effective without monitoring any kind of instruments on HUD or IVA. Whenever you lower landing gears at runway aproach light will be also turned on providing you with usefull info.

[Kerba Fett]

The same fellow who does the Landing Height plugin mentioned above also has a Vertical Velocity Control plugin. It shows radar altitude and can control your vertical speed. Makes landing and hovering MUCH easier.

[tsotha]

I didn't liked Landing Height mod, because you missing info how dense is atmosphere at given altitude. I found most simple way to have a clue how far you are from ground by using lights.

Put some spot lights near landing gears if landing gears doesn't have it. In action group editor put toggle light in gear action group, and in SPH turn light on in editor. At the same time remove toggle light from "light" action groups.

Simple end effective without monitoring any kind of instruments on HUD or IVA. Whenever you lower landing gears at runway aproach light will be also turned on providing you with usefull info.

The problem with using lights is you won't see anything until you're 400m from the surface. That's probably fine if you thought you were at, say, 1000m. But if you're coming down on a plateau at 4500m you're probably going too fast to benefit from a 400m warning unless you have a huge TWA or you're being particularly profligate with fuel.

Before I started using KER I would check radar altimeter in IVA until the meter started moving (3000m). That would give me a ballpark for the altitude of the surface so I wasn't going too fast when the lights came into play.

[Wanderfound]

DaMichel's Kerbal Flight Data is my go-to for this sort of stuff.

...if not doing it IVA with RPM data screens:

Edited November 11, 2014 by Wanderfound

[Kendrick]

I have to say that having no default ui for surface distance is an atrocious miss even if it is beta. its a real quick way to get support tickets made because a newby has no idea how close to the suface and the altimiter is reading 4k... I may have been hit by that recently and have to say getting the tsteam gages is next on my list of todo.

[Anquietas314]

I have to say that having no default ui for surface distance is an atrocious miss even if it is beta. its a real quick way to get support tickets made because a newby has no idea how close to the suface and the altimiter is reading 4k... I may have been hit by that recently and have to say getting the tsteam gages is next on my list of todo.

There is the radar altimeter in IVA view. it's far from ideal for landing a plane, but it is there.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I've never tried this, but you could likely drop a ball of cubic octagonal struts encasing a spotlight and battery inside. If it fell away ahead of you, it could survive impact and make it easy for you to see where the ground is from much further than the light shines. You'd just have to make sure it doesn't get more than 2km away from you.

[capi3101]

I've done a manual ILS before but that takes time to set up. What you do there is get you a rover and stick a lander can on it, one that the Kerbal can climb in and out of easily enough. Drive to the east (ocean) end of the runway, go off the end and get off of the raised area. Plant a flag. Get the Kerbal back in. Drive off the other (land-ward) end of the runway and get off of the raised area. Plant a flag. Drive inland another kilometer. Plant a flag. Drive another four kilometers inland. Plant a flag. Drive another five kilometers inland. Plant a flag. Plant flags at five kilometer intervals for as long as you like. If you label each flag with the distance to the end of the runway (i.e. 0 km, 1 km, 5 km, 10 km, 15 km, etc.), you can use the whole system as an ILS - the flags themselves will help you with alignment, while the names of the flags will give you your glide slope (take the distance to the flag plus the distance indicated by the flag, times 100 meters, plus 100 meters - and that's about where you want your altimeter. For example, if you're 10.4 kilometers to the fifteen kilometer flag, you want your altimeter to read 2,640 m ((10.4+15)*100)+100 = 2640). If you're higher than that by 100 meters or so, you're too high; lower than that, you're too low.

If flags don't work for you, you can also use an automated rover with drop probes. Just rename each one as a base and give it the same labelling you'd use for a flag and you're golden. Best part there is that the rover itself can become a marker once it's out of drop probes.

Anymore, I just use NavUtilities - an integrated ILS system mod. I generally combine it with KER's surface tab data during the flare-out to make sure I'm still coming down at a decent rate. The developer has confirmed it works in 0.90 without an update.