Flight Question To the moon: When to apply HTO DV?

[palebluevoice]

Hi, so, after numerous attempts, a lot of learning and getting more experienced, I managed to land(okay, crash) on the moon, using a delta-glider. I have no idea when to apply full thrust for the HTO. I'm aware of how to use it, and I've checked, double checked, and rechecked to make sure I know what each line means and how it works. What I don't understand is, when to apply the thrust.

The "Go place in space" manual instructed me to apply full thrust 30 seconds before the countdown reached zero. That worked on the tutorial mission, but when I tried it again, it didn't work; the DV count wouldn't drop like it was supposed to, the actual DV ellipse got warped, I ran out of fuel and missed the moon by a huge margin. After some trial and error(lots of error), I found that I was able to get the DV to go down(and the ellipse to go as expected) when I applied thrust when the countdown reached zero.

So to summarize my question, when am I to apply thrust? Is there some kind of rule I can learn, or a principle that I can apply to guess when to apply thrust?

Thanks!

 

[TSPenguin]

to the forum!

It is more or less half before and half after the point you are supposed to.
I have always loved and used [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1407"]BurnTimeCalcMFD (BTC) 1.5[/ame]
I greatly recommend it. It works with everything that assumes dV is being spent instantly.

 

[palebluevoice]

to the forum!

It is more or less half before and half after the point you are supposed to.
I have always loved and used BurnTimeCalcMFD (BTC) 1.5
I greatly recommend it. It works with everything that assumes dV is being spent instantly.

Ahh, that's an easy rule to remember! I'll have to try out that addon; and perhaps browse around for a few more while I'm at it. Thanks for your help, and your welcome!

 

[TSPenguin]

You should take a look at our recommended addons page!