I frequently noticed that people seem to be having significant problems with fitting the big ships through the mailslot and into a station. Hence I am going to share a neat feature I have been using for a long time to safely get several different big ships into a station. I tested this with the Anaconda, the Type 9 Heavy, and the Beluga. Due to the vastly different cockpit placement on these vessels I can, with quite an amount of confidence, claim that this should work for other big vessels as well. Using this approach takes a fair bit of practice though, but as you will notice from the pictures below, I managed to get a Beluga into the docking bay without having to bother with lowering the landing gear first - meaning there is a fair bit of clearance left.
That being said, now what is the OLS I am referring to? Much like the system used on aircraft carriers, this OLS consists of several sets of lights which guide a pilot through their approach on landing.
To be precise there are four sets of lights as indicated on the picture below.
Outer Port Lights (red) on the outer parts of the grille
Outer Starboard Lights (green) on the outer parts of the grille
Outer Center Lights (red) just above and below the mailslot
Inner Central Lights (three red lights in a line on the structure protruding into the docking bay on the opposite side of the mailslot)
As you can see above, the key is, to keep the Inner Central Lights centered between all sets of outer lights - both horizontally and vertically. Having the dot widget in the center of your screen toggled on does make this approach substantially easier since it adds another point of reference for alignment.
Picture 1
Notice: The yellow dot widget in the center of the screen is turned on!
Picture 2
If you start your alignment far enough out from the grille you will have little trouble getting it right since you have plenty of room to maneuver.
Picture 3
Keep the widget over the structure on the far end of the docking bay.
Picture 4
It may feel as if you were approaching too high, but that is not the case as you will realize upon getting closer to the mailslot
Picture 5
Compensating the station's rotation is easy enough and even like this you have plenty of quite literal wiggle room in the mailslot.
Picture 6
As you can see you are actually low enough to pass through the mailslot - even without deploying the Beluga's landing gear.
Picture 7
And we are through the mailslot. Now you just need to land your ship on your designated pad. Don't forget deploying your landing gear ;-)
If you have any questions, go ahead and ask.
That being said, now what is the OLS I am referring to? Much like the system used on aircraft carriers, this OLS consists of several sets of lights which guide a pilot through their approach on landing.
To be precise there are four sets of lights as indicated on the picture below.
Outer Port Lights (red) on the outer parts of the grille
Outer Starboard Lights (green) on the outer parts of the grille
Outer Center Lights (red) just above and below the mailslot
Inner Central Lights (three red lights in a line on the structure protruding into the docking bay on the opposite side of the mailslot)
As you can see above, the key is, to keep the Inner Central Lights centered between all sets of outer lights - both horizontally and vertically. Having the dot widget in the center of your screen toggled on does make this approach substantially easier since it adds another point of reference for alignment.
Picture 1
Notice: The yellow dot widget in the center of the screen is turned on!
Picture 2
If you start your alignment far enough out from the grille you will have little trouble getting it right since you have plenty of room to maneuver.
Keep the widget over the structure on the far end of the docking bay.
Picture 4
It may feel as if you were approaching too high, but that is not the case as you will realize upon getting closer to the mailslot
Picture 5
Compensating the station's rotation is easy enough and even like this you have plenty of quite literal wiggle room in the mailslot.
As you can see you are actually low enough to pass through the mailslot - even without deploying the Beluga's landing gear.
Picture 7
And we are through the mailslot. Now you just need to land your ship on your designated pad. Don't forget deploying your landing gear ;-)
If you have any questions, go ahead and ask.
Last edited:
