News I finally got safely on the ground

[bcbarnes]

Can't thank David Courtney enough :thumbup: for the great tutorial taking an XR2 from docked at ISS to a safe landing at KSC. I must have watched it 7 times, and tried flying it about 12 times, landing at Edwards instead (just to be sure I really understood it all). But perseverance pays off, as you can see in the image. No damage and no injuries, although the rollout went a touch long (and I did use a short burst or two from the main engines). First time I haven't killed all the passengers!

For others struggling with this, the tutorial is actually two videos in a row, starting with this one:

 

[Thorsten]

Flying from space to runway the first time is always a big moment :thumbup:

(having said that - the autopilots tend to take away some of the magic if you do it a while...)

 

[ADSWNJ]

Deorbiting and doing an unpowered reentry through to landing on Earth is one of the hardest things in the simulation. Congratulations!

When I first studied the Shuttle reetry to landing techniques, with the steep S-banks and the awesome HAC approach, I was in awe. It inspired my work on Glideslope 2, resurrecting an old dead addon, and making it what we have today. I still have a desire to write a full HUD-enabled reentry version, with a reentry autopilot as well, but it's still a dream...

 

[TeamJackSwigert]

Did you do it with a stick (recommended) or just by mouse and keyboard? Congrats!

 

[bcbarnes]

I use the keypad when RCS is running (although I'll still use the throttle slider on my joystick because it is easier). Once I got to turning RCS off and enabling the flight controls, I switched to my joystick. I have lots of hours in FSX so once Edwards came into view I was pretty happy.

Pretty much the same thing in reverse during ascent.

 

[fullarmor2]

Another challenging flight is going from Hall Base on Phobos to Olympus Base at Mars. Its a tricky deorbit and landing due to the very thin martian atmosphere. And I believe David has a video or two in which he demonstrates the flight.

 

[dbeachy1]

Grats!! Great job! :thumbup:

 

[statickid]

You have a flat Edwards runway??? Is there a patch for this now?

 

[bcbarnes]

fullarmor2 - I'll have to look for that. I just finished an 'earth to mars' series from TexFilms where he landed at Hall base. Honestly, I've watched more video of other people playing this 'game' then time I've actually spent playing it myself ...

statickid - This is Orbiter 2016 with all the high res texture stuff from the main download page. I've installed so many add on 'things' that I really couldn't tell you if it was ever not flat in the first place, or what made it become flat. Sorry man.

 

[Tex]

You have a flat Edwards runway??? Is there a patch for this now?

You need the 'antelope_scn.zip' from here.