Controllable Parachute Jumpers

[Balladeer]

Could we at some point see a controllable freefaller? It would be great to have a controllable astronaut or ejected pilot. Control options would include for example:

-ability to deploy the chute manually whenever and wherever desired
-ability to have minimal control of the chute so as to somewhat control landing

I suppose the character would actually be a vessel and the parachute command could be the same as jettisoning stages with the J key. And the minimal control could actually be very weak thrusters that could be made to be invisible. That way you could have a little control to bank and perhaps pitch and flair your character. Any upward thrusters could be removed altogether, meaning that when you come down your are coming down no matter what.

This would be a great add on to perform HALO and HAHO operations. Perhaps the character could also be ummu compatable so that addon makers or anyone could utilize the person in their planes or space planes.

 

[Woo482]

ummu has all them functions (just enable parachute with j about 100 meters before you want to deploy)

 

[Hashy]

Yes as woo has said..

In the meantime you can have a bit of fun with UMMU's.. Grab a DGIV, load er up.. Take her up. When a crew member is out the airlock, by default autochute is enabled.
The chute wont open until a certain altitude.. But if you let it open by itself, it opens rather high up and will be awhile before you hit the ground.

Just as you push a crew member out the airlock, cut the time compression back abit, so you have enough time, if your too low, to turn the autochute off ( J key)

First time, I went up to the 100km space boundry... I throw out the crew, the pilot stays and keeps it on hover..
Well yes, it was great having my crew members survive the fall.. Got pretty hot for abit but didn't cook thank goodness.

Of course I must have had some realism setting off/disabled, as the next time I tried this. It didnt end up too well. =p

Just dont forget to re-enable that chute before the last few hundred metres.. Should be able to guess what would happen if you dont

Head on over to Dan's page and get the require files, if you have not already. =)

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/

Happy Freefalling =D

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

Just remember you have better odds of surviving space jumps with the front of the ummu facing downward as that slows him down a good bit just like in real life.

 

[Balladeer]

Is there a way to make the ummu's thrust more potent once the chute is opened? It would be nice to have a little control on landing.

It would be great to see an Orbiter model like the jumpers on this page: http://http://www.batnet.com/~mfwright/mfwright/miljump.html