Newcomer / Intro Correct speed for Planetary Landings

[Maymo]

Hi guys is there a recommended throttle for planetary landings or is every entry different depending on gravity?

If I reduce to 75% throttle at around 10sec like I do for outposts and starports I'll often come in too hard even if my angle of entry is good.

I'm not struggling to land by any means, I just throttle back once in orbital cruise until my speed is good. Just curious if there's a more efficient method of getting the entry speed right, like cutting to 75% throttle at 15sec rather than 10 or something?

Do you guys have a set method or do you just eyeball it like I do?

(I did read unicorns guide but didn't see this specific point covered, unless my skim readings got me into trouble again)

 

[Chris Simon]

I approach the planet in the blue zone at 7s, just like with the stations and enter the orbit relatively flat, with the target base "just" at the horizon. Throttle back a little to get the ETA counter between 10 and 15s and orbit towards the base until it's about 40 degrees under me. Then dive straight into it. At that point you can usually throttle all the way up - the ship is slowing down, anyway. But generally 10+s is the ideal.
If you keep yourself at 40 degrees and aim sightly above (behind) the base, you usually exit the glide about 5km above it and can ask clearance and start your landing approach right away.
If the planet has more than 2g, I usually aim to exit the glide sooner before reaching the base so I can descent at shallower angle.

 

[Maymo]

I approach the planet in the blue zone at 7s, just like with the stations and enter the orbit relatively flat, with the target base "just" at the horizon. Throttle back a little to get the ETA counter between 10 and 15s and orbit towards the base until it's about 40 degrees under me. Then dive straight into it. At that point you can usually throttle all the way up - the ship is slowing down, anyway. But generally 10+s is the ideal.
If you keep yourself at 40 degrees and aim sightly above (behind) the base, you usually exit the glide about 5km above it and can ask clearance and start your landing approach right away.
If the planet has more than 2g, I usually aim to exit the glide sooner before reaching the base so I can descent at shallower angle.

Thanks for your reply Chris! Informative as always!

 

[d8veh]

The angle is very important as well as the speed. The closer your angle is to 45 degrees, the better.

Gravity keeps changing as you descend, so try and keep the time around 10 seconds for a more relaxed descent. you can still go down to 7 seconds, but you have to concentrate and be active on your throttle control.

 

[Maymo]

The angle is very important as well as the speed. The closer your angle is to 45 degrees, the better.

Gravity keeps changing as you descend, so try and keep the time around 10 seconds for a more relaxed descent. you can still go down to 7 seconds, but you have to concentrate and be active on your throttle control.

Thanks! It just seems strange, sometimes I can hit a planet at full pelt and enter just fine....others I damage my hull. If I have to slide around to the back of a planet in order to land then I can maintain 75% throttle all the way because gravity has forced me to crawl.
Most consistent way seems to be to cut throttle to 75% when 7-10second out....then cut again to around 55-60% on orbital entry if the headings good.

 

[Demonlord79]

I approach the planet as I would adjust my speed as any port or station, match ratio and let ship coast in at its own speed but when I hit outer limit I make sure I always take it at about 30 to 35 on altitude and hold till I drop once I drop out I adjust speed and level to match gravity. 0.5 or less it doesn't affect anything but when its 1.0 or more I have to level asap or I droooooooop and thud or worse baaang. When landing I always approach like a normal aircraft at 15 to 20 degrees and level and counter to gravity. Tap drop at high gravity and sometimes keep that thrust up if you drop to fast. There ya go and high G's is hard but you'll get used to it. Commander of an Anaconda, very hard with T9's. hope this helps. o7 commander...

 

[bookmite]

If the angle is good- 25- 40 degrees, then 40% throttle, ( if you have it bound ) if your coming in steeper or faster you risk failing the glide and can take structural damage in doing so..also I never approach a planet any faster than 50% it gives you time to get the approach correct before you descend.

 

[JetsonRING]

Hi guys is there a recommended throttle for planetary landings or is every entry different depending on gravity?
If I reduce to 75% throttle at around 10sec like I do for outposts and starports I'll often come in too hard even if my angle of entry is good.
I'm not struggling to land by any means, I just throttle back once in orbital cruise until my speed is good. Just curious if there's a more efficient method of getting the entry speed right, like cutting to 75% throttle at 15sec rather than 10 or something?
Do you guys have a set method or do you just eyeball it like I do?
(I did read unicorns guide but didn't see this specific point covered, unless my skim readings got me into trouble again)

I used to struggle with keeping the throttle in the blue-zone for planetary landings until I realized that 50% throttle did the trick so I just mapped another button to 50% throttle.

 

[Evil_Merlin]

I approach the planet in the blue zone at 7s, just like with the stations and enter the orbit relatively flat, with the target base "just" at the horizon. Throttle back a little to get the ETA counter between 10 and 15s and orbit towards the base until it's about 40 degrees under me. Then dive straight into it. At that point you can usually throttle all the way up - the ship is slowing down, anyway. But generally 10+s is the ideal.
If you keep yourself at 40 degrees and aim sightly above (behind) the base, you usually exit the glide about 5km above it and can ask clearance and start your landing approach right away.
If the planet has more than 2g, I usually aim to exit the glide sooner before reaching the base so I can descent at shallower angle.

Bingo.

Never had this fail me. I just don't do planetary landings often because they still take so much more time versus a station landing.

Using this I can usually do a full on landing on most planatary/moon bases in under a minute. I've only had high gravity kick me in the once.

 

[Stealthie]

There doesn't really seem to be much about landings that requires a great deal of decision-making IMO.

Make your initial approach with the target on the horizon of the planet.
Adjust throttle to keep your ETA at 7s or greater.
Once you enter orbital-cruise, set yourself up for roughly a 2:1 glide-slope (usually achieved by keeping your target visible just above your dashboard) during the initial descent.
When you drop out of OC and start your glide, keep your pitch indicator just above your target.
By the end of the glide you should be directly above your target, throttle to zero and request docking.
Job done. Tea and medals.

Even if a planet has high gravity, it doesn't really affect your approach at all.
It's only after the glide completes and you try to manoeuvre your ship that you'll notice things aren't as you might expect.

If you ARE on a high G planet, keep your ship as level as possible.
Use your rudder to steer rather than banking and control your descent with your thrusters rather than by adjusting your pitch.
Basically, you want to keep as many of your thrusters pointing at the ground as possible.

And if it all goes horribly wrong, switch FA off, point your nose at the sky and hit boost.

 

[Conde]

There's always one Dork who will hit the thrusters down key during landing approach as an experiment on a high G world. Let me introduce that Dork, "Hello"! I was a few hundred metres from The Dweller's base, did the dirty deed and found myself literally caught between a rock and a hard place. The base authorities lost patience with my "loitering" very quickly and decided to launch what felt like nuke ICBMs. A 6.6 Million re buy has really focused my attention when landing now, BE CAREFUL NOT TO PRESS THE THRUSTERS DOWN KEY IN HIGH G!

 

[Chris Simon]

There's always one Dork who will hit the thrusters down key during landing approach as an experiment on a high G world. Let me introduce that Dork, "Hello"! I was a few hundred metres from The Dweller's base, did the dirty deed and found myself literally caught between a rock and a hard place. The base authorities lost patience with my "loitering" very quickly and decided to launch what felt like nuke ICBMs. A 6.6 Million re buy has really focused my attention when landing now, BE CAREFUL NOT TO PRESS THE THRUSTERS DOWN KEY IN HIGH G!

Heh. Ouch.

And wait until you try some properly high Gs. Like 6 or 8.

 

[xondk]

Hi guys is there a recommended throttle for planetary landings or is every entry different depending on gravity?

If I reduce to 75% throttle at around 10sec like I do for outposts and starports I'll often come in too hard even if my angle of entry is good.

I'm not struggling to land by any means, I just throttle back once in orbital cruise until my speed is good. Just curious if there's a more efficient method of getting the entry speed right, like cutting to 75% throttle at 15sec rather than 10 or something?

Do you guys have a set method or do you just eyeball it like I do?

(I did read unicorns guide but didn't see this specific point covered, unless my skim readings got me into trouble again)

See the bar on right side, that shows your elevation speed, (how fast you are going up/down) don't let that hit red and you'll enter glide just fine.

 

[Conde]

"And wait until you try some properly high Gs. Like 6 or 8."


Well for fun I decided to show the flag by flying in open over Capitol in a Corvette, then landed on Achenar 3. Now if only a few hundred Fed CMDrs would like to meet up there we could have an Imperial BBQ

 

[Stealthie]

There's always one Dork who will hit the thrusters down key during landing approach as an experiment on a high G world. Let me introduce that Dork, "Hello"! I was a few hundred metres from The Dweller's base, did the dirty deed and found myself literally caught between a rock and a hard place. The base authorities lost patience with my "loitering" very quickly and decided to launch what felt like nuke ICBMs. A 6.6 Million re buy has really focused my attention when landing now, BE CAREFUL NOT TO PRESS THE THRUSTERS DOWN KEY IN HIGH G!

I'm not entirely sure about that.

I think it's more a case of not being too clumsy with thrusters on high-G planets.
Basically, if you thrust until you see your ship begin to move in a given direction (especially downwards), you've probably over-done it.

When your ship's hovering over a planet then whatever thrusters you have facing the ground will already be firing with enough thrust to offset your ship's weight and suspend you above the planet's surface.
On a high-G world that can often be somewhere near the full capacity of your thrusters.
That being the case, the briefest dab of downward thrust is enough to start you descending, even if you don't seem to be moving at first.
Incidentally, that's also the reason why banking is often a bad idea on high-G worlds.
When you bank, your thrusters aren't pointing directly at the surface any more so they can't keep you off the ground as efficiently.

I suppose it's also worth mentioning that if you boost while applying any input to the thrusters, the boost will be discharged through the thrusters that are in use.
So, for example, if you're thrusting upwards and you hit boost, your ship will jump upwards vertically rather than moving forwards.

If you are falling out of the sky on a high-G world, boosting while applying upward thrust can help prevent you pancaking into the surface.
In an emergency it's better to just point at the sky, give it full-throttle and then boost but if the landing is still viable then up-thrust+boost can arrest your descent.

 

[Chris Simon]

I'm not entirely sure about that.

I think it's more a case of not being too clumsy with thrusters on high-G planets.
Basically, if you thrust until you see your ship begin to move in a given direction (especially downwards), you've probably over-done it.

When your ship's hovering over a planet then whatever thrusters you have facing the ground will already be firing with enough thrust to offset your ship's weight and suspend you above the planet's surface.
On a high-G world that can often be somewhere near the full capacity of your thrusters.
That being the case, the briefest dab of downward thrust is enough to start you descending, even if you don't seem to be moving at first.
Incidentally, that's also the reason why banking is often a bad idea on high-G worlds.
When you bank, your thrusters aren't pointing directly at the surface any more so they can't keep you off the ground as efficiently.

I suppose it's also worth mentioning that if you boost while applying any input to the thrusters, the boost will be discharged through the thrusters that are in use.
So, for example, if you're thrusting upwards and you hit boost, your ship will jump upwards vertically rather than moving forwards.

If you are falling out of the sky on a high-G world, boosting while applying upward thrust can help prevent you pancaking into the surface.
In an emergency it's better to just point at the sky, give it full-throttle and then boost but if the landing is still viable then up-thrust+boost can arrest your descent.

Yes, plus another thing is the matter of analog vs. digital input. I have enough axes on my hotas to be able to bind one to vertical thrusters. That helps immensely on High-Gs, because I'm not giving the "Full down" command when I engage the thrusters.
For people with not enough thruster axes I can only recommend setting up landing overrides and switching the throttle and vertical thuster bindings. That way they can handle the most important axis on planets (vertical) by an actual axis.