Flight Question How are y'all bringing the Shuttle Fleet v4.7 home these days?

[destinos]

Mainly a question for those working on the OFSS II since so many of the missions use it, but open to anyone else who flies v4.7 (for which autofcs doesn't work). I attempted to use aerobrake yesterday and had it go pretty wonky on me, with the course prediction wildly jumping all over the place. Not sure if it's meant to work with the shuttles or not.

I'd rate myself at 'intermediate' pilot level, and I realize that more advanced pilots probably use a varying mix of techniques for getting this done. Just wondering what some of yours are.

 

[n122vu]

I had wondered about trying aerobrakeMFD, but hadn't had a chance to give it a go yet. Maybe tonight if I get some work done on the Cortez I'll take a break and give it a shot. I'll let you know if I see the same.

 

[C3PO]

I use GPCMFD OPS 3 and 4. For the HAC turn I sometimes use my own version of nightlanding's Aproaid(not available anymore) if I want the landing to be spot on.

I haven't tried [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2763"]Glideslope[/ame] in 100830, but it should get you to TAEM within the envelope. It doesn't require as much guestimation (experience) as GPCMFD.

 

[Tex]

I use BaseSyncMFD to get a nice close pass, then MapMFD and Orbit MFD. I generally do a de-orbit burn just west of Australia when landing at KSC and at an altitude around 380-350km. Bring PeA on the OrbitMFD down to about 57km and go for a manual reentry and landing using the MapMFD to stay on target.

 

[halcyon]

How are you guys holding a fixed AoA?
I've tried AttitudeMFD but it doesn't seem to hold an AoA. I also tried Shuttle Fleet's UnivPTG but even though the manual says that the roll, pitch, and yaw data in the lower right corner displays current values in reference to a level horizon, my values are anything but.
With the default LVL function enabled, my ship is pointing right towards the horizon in it's direction of travel.
But pitch is showing about 170, yaw 60, and roll 80 something. I don't get it. I tried UnivPTG mode 2 and I get the same values.

I tried using AerobrakeMFD's autopilot holding an AoA, which works only if you also use kill rotation with it (otherwise it starts oscillating the pitch up and down violently), but I can't get any roll with it for the S-turns.

Help?

 

[C3PO]

Try pressing

 

[halcyon]

Try pressing

Sorry, B for which addon?
I looked in the Orbiter manual and nothing is mapped to B by default.

 

[Wishbone]

Holding AoA steady is helped by Aerobrake MFD's autopilot. And yes, OPS 3 and 4 are very useful.

 

[hribek]

I vaguely remember that B disables stock atlantis launch autopilot. It might be turning on the Aerojet DAP, perhaps? Never tried it. If the Fleet shuttles have a realistic enough flight model, CG shift can help.

 

[halcyon]

Holding AoA steady is helped by Aerobrake MFD's autopilot. And yes, OPS 3 and 4 are very useful.

When AerobrakeMFD's AoA autopilot is used with Shuttle Fleet, it helps yes (I needed to also use kill rotation), but as I said I can't make any turns or else I lose my AoA, even with the autopilot on.

Here's a screenshot of what UnivPTG on MFD screen 1 shows me when leveled with the horizon:

For those that can't see under CUR:
roll = 300.63
pitch = 130.27
yaw = 40.35

And the numbers continuously count downwards. I thought the reference for these values was the level horizon? At least that's what the README said for UnivPTG.

*edit*
Thanks C3PO, realized B turns on aerojet DAP for reentry

 

[Tex]

Just do it manually with the joystick.. :shrug:

That's sort of the fun part if you ask me. You can't hold a high AoA with the shuttle fleet or it skips out of the atmosphere, so I use extreme banks which then lets me pull the nose back for some nice braking.

 

[halcyon]

Well after all the research I did, I didn't have enough data to do manual reentries, such as when to perform the first roll, which direction, how many degrees, for what duration, and so on and so forth.

Sooo...I decided on the simple solution.
AerobrakeMFD AoA autopilot holding 7.9 degrees AoA giving me a V/S of -118 all the way from 120km to about 50km at which point I really started a deceleration which ended at Mach 2.1 just hitting the middle of Florida at 21km altitude.
From there it was an easy turn onto the HAC using GPCMFD Ops 4 and voila!
Touchdown on the centerline, chute deployed, and wheelstop!

Ok, so my ship got a little crispy coming in.
But hey, if it's unrealistic to hold an AoA of 8 degrees for reentry, so is manually landing the space shuttle without AutoFCS.

Cheers! I'm happy with my solution!

 

[halcyon]

I decided frying the shuttle crews on each reentry wasn't a viable solution for the long term future of NASA.
After some troubleshooting, I got GlideslopeMFD to work in 2010P1. Used with GPCMFD Ops 3 and 4 I can manually land the shuttle in the reentry envelopes every time.

After I figured out that the degree of rolling in the S turns = direct control over my vacc it got a LOT easier to maintain proper altitudes and vspeeds.
For more drag, I just pull back on the stick in the S turn for a higher AoA if I'm getting out of the velocity corridor in GPCMFD Ops 3.

 

[Wonderer]

I usually crash the shuttle somewhere...

 

[ky]

i sometimes just wing the landing.I do it all manually with help from orbit mfd and glideslope mfd.And i actually land on the runway lol

 

[Trex1094]

Well i never learned how to use AutoFCS could someone tell me. I have Both v4.3 which has AutoFCS and v4.7 which doesn't. Til this day. Ive been bringing the shuttles home with manual full control reentry. I've gotten fairly good at it now

 

[Cras]

What exactly does Aerojet DAP and Glideslope MFD do? Will it somehow manage the descent or do they just hold AoA and I then have to perform the proper roll reversals to prevent from climbing back out of the atmosphere?

Using AutoFCS made flying Shuttle fleet quite realistic in that the descent was controlled by the computers and then right before Mach 1 I would diasble it and fly the HAC and land it myself.

Could always wait for the new AutoFCS to be developed too.

I heard that you could let AutoFCS take the shuttle all the way down to the ground and it would even autoland but I have never let it go that far.

As for Trex1094's question, it is really easy to use. You open it open from the same box you access the Scenario Editor, then you select your base and the runway you want to land at, then you let it perform the deobrit burn, and then you activate it again to let it perform the deorbit descent. And it does a great job. I would advise using Basesync to make sure you will pass fairly close to the base first.

 

[foundpra]

Hi -- @halcyon writes (gleefully) "chute deployed." How do you deploy a chute upon landing? Add-on? Keystroke? Thanks!

 

[Cras]

Chute deploys automatically if it is equipped in SF 4.8

 

[Ripley]

...I attempted to use aerobrake yesterday and had it go pretty wonky on me, with the course prediction wildly jumping all over the place...

I've never used SF, but I remember an old discussion I had on FOI with AerobrakeMFD creator himself: he explained that this MFD relies on some atmospheric files you have to manually create by first doing a 360° (around the pitch axis) in the atmosphere, then saving the file pressing Shift+S.
On subsequent runs, AerobrakeMFD will find and use that file (with *.LD extension, saved in ..\Modules\Plugin).

Details:
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=217690&postcount=13

On FOI
http://orbiteritalia.forumotion.com/t206-aerobrakemfd#1061