To Autopilot or Not?

[PaulG]

What do you typically use for operations such as synchronizing/docking, interplanatary travel, landing, approach, etc?

Do you use a lot of autopilots or do you do these operations manually?

Just curious as to what people do.

 

[Jarvitä]

Orbital insertion - manual unless I need to enter a very specific orbit, for example when docking in LEO

Orbital randezvous - manual, using RandevousMFD for guidance

Docking - manual

Interplanetary - manual, using IMFD burn vectors for guidance

Earth re-entry, landing - manual, mapMFD, surfaceMFD and aerobrakeMFD as guidance

Landing on bodies without atmosphere - manual

I think that pretty much covers it. Basically I mostly rely on instruments, but I prefer to actually execute the burns myself.

 

[eveningsky339]

I prefer to use autopilots for ascent to orbit, but that's about it.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Depends on what I'm doing and how routine it is for me. Getting into orbit is always exciting with a DG so I go manual, however I fly auto for realistic launchers to conserve fuel. For a lot of orbital operations like fine plane alignment, I'll go manual as the autopilots aren't quite that good at getting them aligned perfectly. Rendezvous I'll go automatic up until I need to head toward the target after velocity match. Then I'll dock manually. Going to the moon and such, I'll use automatic just because what's so special about pointing one direction and burning for minutes at a time?

 

[Urwumpe]

I prefer autopilots for longer eject burns, but otherwise, I have no problem with assisting autopilots, for example for reentry (AOA hold) or hover landing (Autothrottle).

 

[astrosammy]

For the shuttle launches to my station I use the launch autopilot (I'm using Shuttle Fleet, but plan to try out SSU on my next launch). In Orbit I only use Attitude MFD.
I do the rendezvous manually and slow. If the closest approach is at might I use IMFD to do station keeping. For docking I use the KillTrans autopilot that comes with Intermod 2. When I want to land I use BaseSync to find the next opportunity, and let AutoFCS do the burn and reentry. I switch it of for HAC and landing.
For Interplanetary flights I use IMFD. If I want to launch Multistage.dll rockets I do that manual, because the launch guidance does not bring you to Orbit when you change the launch heading.

 

[Kveldulf]

Launch to Orbit: Autopilot for neatness.

Orbital Rendevouz: Manual, but I never do it.

Docking: Autopilot, but I've only gotten that far once.

Interplanetary: Autopilot, but I'm starting to grasp the concepts to attempt a manual flight

Re-entry/Approach/Landing: None, I always end up burnt to a crisp, or forming a crater in Africa.

Landing without atmosphere: Manual. Takes me a while though.

I know the concepts, but hand things over to the computer, as it makes things less messy then the way I can do it.

 

[RisingFury]

Everything manual.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Launch to Orbit: I don't do it that often, but I watch OrbitMFD when I do. Or if I'm using the DGIV, I just use it's AP.

Orbital Rendevouz: Manual, using Sync Orbit MFD and Align Planes MFD.

Docking: Manual, using Docking MFD.

Interplanetary: I do the burns manually, but I use IMFD to calculate them. I've only done one true interplanetary flight though, the rest are just Planet-Moon-Planet type flights.

Re-entry/Approach/Landing: None, I always end up burnt to a crisp, or forming a crater in Africa.

Ok, I've made a FEW successful reentries... call it luck. :lol:
I REALLY need to download that AeroBrakeMFD some time.

Landing without atmosphere: Manual, maybe with some usage of the AutoHover AP, but I haven't done this in a while.

 

[V8Li]

All manual. I was using the Attitude-Hold autopilot that comes with the XR1 for reentries but I like it better to control the center of gravity myself. Plus a manual control gives me more freedom when it comes to fine-tuning.

 

[Scarecrow]

All manual, except for a vanilla reentry in an XR-1 or DGIV, in which case I use the attitude hold autopilots, because doing it manually is just a pain. However, since they can't hold heads down attitudes, I do it manually when doing extreme aerobreaking.

 

[okturus]

I'm really struggling to orbit with Mir with the Atlantis shuttle. My orbit inclination is always crazy and the shuttle doesn't have enough thrust(or fuel for that matter) for me to do a plane correction, much less an orbital synchronization.

Can anyone give me a how-to on this, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Enjo]

If nobody's gonna do it then I will

Use this:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2802"]Launch MFD - v 1.2.8[/ame]

 

[okturus]

I have the LaunchMFD but my latitude is greater than MIR's orbit inclination from Cape Canaveral. As a result, the Launch MFD defaults to manual. Moreover, I can't seem to find MIR's inclination and LAN values--TRANSXMFD is perplexing me and i've read all the docs.

I've docked with the ISS before but the MIR is causing me so much grief it ain't funny any more. I HAVE TO DO THIS! I can't stomache flying a fictitous delta glider before I do the "real" thing with the shuttle.

Any solution, save launching from south america, would help a lot. I've yet to witness our U.S. space shuttle launching from Brazil--we launch from these here US of A. It has to be from Canaveral or I'll never have a sense of accomplishment. I'm a week into this project and still no luck--somebody help a fellow orbiter junkie out!

I have all the autopilots that you can name--all are convoluted and worthless. I even tried changing the code in the flight plan for the space shuttle ultra--the feeling could be likened to running my head into a wall.

please help. thanks so much.

 

[garyw]

The default MIR as provided in Orbiter can only be reached from the cape with a large plane change burn. In real life MIR was at a much higher, more ISS like inclination.

 

[Gorn]

Use autopilots? If it's a craft I'm still learning to fly, I'll use the autopilots to help me out. Once I've got to where I can do the basics, I'll practice doing it manually until I know I can reliably fly the craft that way. After that, it depends on how lazy I'm feeling that day.

Danny

 

[DevCo]

Much Like Gorn above, it depends on how I'm feeling that day. I used all the AP's at first to watch what was going on and watch numbers and teach myself how everything related to everything else, but then I took the stick and learned to do it all manual, sometimes you safe fuel/time sometimes you don't.

 

[Kaito]

Sometimes I'll use Autopilots for ascent, other times manual. The two times i've used IMFD to get from the Moon back to Earth, i've used the AutoBurn Feature. When Reentering, i use Pro104spec40. Other then that, its all manual (tho i do watch instruments a lot)