I've been to many planets, and glide always kicks in, then stops RIGHT away. No idea if that is a bug or not...
Horizons How is Glide intended to work?
- Thread starter Commander Guathix
- Start date
You travel ( Glide ) going fast but descending , until you are about 5000 km from the ground .
Useful for traveling fast to planet bases , just keep the ships nose up and in the blue.
Useful for traveling fast to planet bases , just keep the ships nose up and in the blue.
If you get no glide it normally indicates that your approach angle is off or that your speed is too great.
The following is the method I've taken to using for most planetary approaches and it seems to work across a range of planet sizes and masses.
For most approaches it's possible to keep the throttle at maximum for almost all of this, but it's worth keeping an eye on the ETA hack below the target distance. Just as with space station approaches, if this gets below 6 or 7 seconds you may be travelling too fast. For planetary approaches this manifests as a failure to enter glide mode.
An alternative to all this is simply to approach the target from directly above, keeping the ETA at 6 or 7 seconds as you would for a space station approach. When it works this is obviously faster than doing an orbital approach but if you overspeed you will almost certainly suffer a glide failure and may have to approach in real space from 100km+ unless you turn away and re-enter OC.
I prefer the orbital method because it's prettier, but if you're always in a hurry the "dive-bomb" might be more appropriate.
The following is the method I've taken to using for most planetary approaches and it seems to work across a range of planet sizes and masses.
- Approach with the target installation over the horizon so you have plenty of time for alignment and glide. Aim to hit orbit half way between the blue OC threshold and the yellow DRP threshold (the red X in the image).
- Do a high-speed orbital flight (blue zone on the attitude ladder) until the target bracket is approximately the same on-screen distance below the DRP threshold as the attitude markers are above it. Hopefully the image makes it clearer. You want both arrows to be approximately the same length on screen.
- Once these conditions are met, nose down to align with the target, throttle up and wait for the glide phase to kick in. Every time I've done this I end up between 8 and 12km from the target when the glide ends.
An alternative to all this is simply to approach the target from directly above, keeping the ETA at 6 or 7 seconds as you would for a space station approach. When it works this is obviously faster than doing an orbital approach but if you overspeed you will almost certainly suffer a glide failure and may have to approach in real space from 100km+ unless you turn away and re-enter OC.
I prefer the orbital method because it's prettier, but if you're always in a hurry the "dive-bomb" might be more appropriate.
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Gilde kicks in when you get low enough while maintaining a pitch between -10 to -60 degree and a velocity that's not more than 4km/s? I've had glides still work even though I went almost 4km/s.
Anyways, the speed will most likely be the issue as the whole artifical horizon turns red for pitch below -60, if you don't get that warning then be glad you get emergency dropped instead because otherwise you might smack into the planet : /
But it's way too easy to go too fast, normal SC works by having 75% throttle as sweetspot to keep the ETA at 6sec all the way which is maximum deceleration, the issue comes from someone having had the bright idea of making horizontal orbital flight go WAY past the SC speed near the planet.
Example being that you can go 200km/s near the planet, then a bit closer to it in high altitude 0 pitch orbital SC you can suddenly go 300km/s... My guess is that this leads to the breakage of the 75% sweetspot, I've had -45 degree approaches where 100% throttle was fine, and 50% led to overspeeding at glide and drop instead.
Doubt this will be fixed as I'd bet my 32mil Asp that this is working as intended
So to make approaches easier, try to guess your dive angle between -30 and -45 degree, target your landing place and keep the ETA at or above 7sec, unless you just wanna go for the surface, then you're on your own with guessing whenever you're too fast.
Or if your target is on the other side: flip upside down and go 0 pitch orbital SC while looking up until it comes in view, then as above.
Anyways, the speed will most likely be the issue as the whole artifical horizon turns red for pitch below -60, if you don't get that warning then be glad you get emergency dropped instead because otherwise you might smack into the planet : /
But it's way too easy to go too fast, normal SC works by having 75% throttle as sweetspot to keep the ETA at 6sec all the way which is maximum deceleration, the issue comes from someone having had the bright idea of making horizontal orbital flight go WAY past the SC speed near the planet.
Example being that you can go 200km/s near the planet, then a bit closer to it in high altitude 0 pitch orbital SC you can suddenly go 300km/s... My guess is that this leads to the breakage of the 75% sweetspot, I've had -45 degree approaches where 100% throttle was fine, and 50% led to overspeeding at glide and drop instead.
Doubt this will be fixed as I'd bet my 32mil Asp that this is working as intended
So to make approaches easier, try to guess your dive angle between -30 and -45 degree, target your landing place and keep the ETA at or above 7sec, unless you just wanna go for the surface, then you're on your own with guessing whenever you're too fast.
Or if your target is on the other side: flip upside down and go 0 pitch orbital SC while looking up until it comes in view, then as above.
This topic is right on time. Did my first planetary landing earlier today and was wondering myself.
Thank you gentlemen!
Thank you gentlemen!