In all my time playing Elite, I never knew about this...

[Jack Schitt]

Alternative final approach, assuming you're already maintaining the 6 or 7 second ETA:

As soon as the distance closes to 30Mm, briefly go full throttle until the ETA hits 4 seconds, then throttle right back. The HUD will complain of overspeed all the way in but the alignment bars will both hit the blue zone just as you get to 1000km distance and you can safely exit.

This can shave anywhere between half a second and a couple of seconds off the final approach time, depending on the influence of the local gravity well.

I've yet to overshoot using this method.

Short video:

Spoiler

[video=youtube;AZPyVKzA20w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZPyVKzA20w[/video]

Longer, older video with time-specific instructions, back when I was playing it safe by throttling down at 5 seconds. Trust me, you can reliably do it at 4 with practice:

Spoiler

[video=youtube;gqLhGpCwK_U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqLhGpCwK_U[/video]

 

[Andy_Pipkin]

If I've time to spare, I go by the 6sec rule.
If I wanna be quick, I spiral in around the 3secs mark, and aim for a spot between planet and station. Then turn towards station, and use gravitiy of the planet behind.

 

[the100thmonkey]

You can get it down to five if you experiment.

 

[Tarman]

Gravity braking used to be more pronounced but they depowered the well effects a long time ago. It's sad, it gave systems a SC topography that made your approaches much more important.

 

[rrobes]

Some ships lend themselves to using gravity if you're coming in hot. The Corvette, even for its' size, is quite good at doing this, the Anaconda, not.

Any agile SC cruiser can use the gravity pull. I like to do it for the effect and challenge.

 

[Codger]

I use the lazy man's way and hit my 75% throttle key at 10 seconds. That gives me a 3 or 4 second leeway in case I'm slow on the draw, which often happens

Anyway, glad you figured it out, it does make approaches much easier, and everything flows better.

 

[Calebe]

Been using the 6 second rule for a long time. I set up my number pad 1=25% 2=50% 3=75% and 4=100% power and 6=-25% 7=-50% 8=-75% and 9=-100 (full reverse) and of course 0 is for full stop. Works well for me.
.
Calebe

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

5 - 4 seconds here, nose down, nose up, use gravity to slow down (not recommended, go safe with 6). I alo have a key for 75%. Here is another one:
When You are 5 Mm to the station, you can go again full throttle. Still enough time to exit SC, great for running againts last second interdiction.

Edit: there is some thread burried deep into this forum about the art of speeding towards the stations and correcting the path if overshooting.

this man knows. gravitational body breaking FTW. 6 second rule is for noobs.

 

[Han Zulu]

Surely you mean interdictio...oh wait.

Short for Interichard. Naming my next ship to this.

 

[ExoForce]

Aproaching planetary stations/bases (dont know exact numbers, doing it from expirience):
position the station dead ahead in the HUD center at 75%, at 3Mm full throttle and dont touch nothing, fall down in flames, drop from SC 20-30 km from the base. My record is 16.8 km from the station.

Dont do it on Khun in a Cutter. You should trust me on this one, I did it twice.
(Dont do it if the gravity is above 1G.)

 

[Susanna]

A couple of mates and I use it in real life now... It started out in game

"Hey, how far away are you from the rez?"
"8 seconds out" (We use 8, not 7)
"Roger that"


But has seeped in to real life as an easy way to say 'nearly there/on my way/one second':

"Hey, we're already at the pub, how far away are you?"
"8 seconds out"
...

Is there a pill for that? :x

 

[kofeyh]

By the way, for stations and outpost (non-terrestrial) you can deselect the target if you are going to overshoot, zero throttle for a moment, at which point you'll decelerate rapidly, you can then retarget and fly on.

For those whom spend much of their life in "the loop of shame". You're welcome.

 

[Susanna]

Or shave time off docking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpWLgD_uVbE

Edit: I'll spare you for the experience of the other 856 attempts...

Ah! So that is how to stop a Cutter going through the slot waaaaaaay too fast... Just ram the slot entrance to kill your speed

And I was expecting a considerable Thump at the back of the station...

Edit. Did you take out any ships while boosting into the station... That would have been entertaining too!

 

[Badben]

Another rule I'm not sure if people know, When you're closing in on a station, watch the little window that shows your speed and distance to the target destination. Once the bar measuring speed drops into the blue, you can push the throttle to full, and it turns the last 15-20 seconds into about 3-4. You will get the "slow down" warning, but you won't overshoot. Once your speed hits the blue, it won't come back out, even on full throttle, well, maybe for like a half a second, but it always drops back in before you hit the target distance. It does mean you have to be quicker about pressing the button to drop out as you are going faster than usual, but I've never missed it. It also doesn't save an especially large amount of time, but I do it anyway.

 

[Schmack]

0.06 is too hot for a landing.
Landings are different. Supercruise gets "grabbed" by gravity so the throttle setting will vary according to how many G's you're landing into. Weirdly, the higher the G's - the more you can push the throttle.

My trick is to approach on a 45 degree angle.
You set that up before you have the pitch angle in the HUD.
The "straight down" center of the planet has a marker, And you can see the horizon. So you put your destination target on the top quarter of the sphere as you see it, and you should be about 45 degrees when the pitch angle appears in the HUD.
If your angle is too shallow, pitch up a bit to stay high. The lower you are in the gravity well, the slower you will go.
If you come in too steep, the bottom part of your HUD will have Red Cross hatching. If you stuff it up, you drop out of Supercruise with a long drive or an SC cool down followed by a escape and hop back.

For a too steep - too hot entry, You're better off recognizing the mistake> turning up and away from your destination and circling back. Correcting your approach should be done high. A correction that maintains height and supercruise has a faster recovery than an early drop.

I've done a video, but it's part of an explanation of how to make a quickish billion credits working for the Alliance. Alliance eyes only sorry.

I like to do a flyby in SC and loop back in once the flight mode changes, and that typically puts me about 5.5 - 6km out when I come to a stop. For a while I was boosting immediately after dropping from glide, but now, because of the falling skimmers, I come in high and drop down once I get above my docking pad.

 

[EddyRockSteady]

gravitational body breaking FTW. 6 second rule is for noobs.

This.

Full throttle, hair on fire, skim the bottom of the planet to catch gravity well and decelerate. Land with enough time to rodger best friend's wife waiting in the station for hubby who flies 6-sec rule........

 

[Zebaoth]

It still baffles me that FD couldn't figure out how to make a proper ETA calculation.

Acceleration is changing based on distance to the selected target destination and only influenced by throttle settings or gravity wells.

Using calculus should give a more appropriate value of time left, instead of displaying the same value for more than 10 seconds...

 

[Rankaze]

In supercruise, you can fly at full throttle, until you hit seven seconds distance, at which point you should drop to 75% throttle, and finish the journey.

Knowledge courtesy of some unnamed CMDR.

My trading and passengers are getting more time efficient now!

You can do this, but it is not the fastest way. Closing in at a higher speed is faster if you use the gravity of the body the station orbiits to decelerate more rapidly than you would otherwise be able to do. This is how we Buckyballers do it when racing. It is much faster if you do it right... so much faster that it is often still faster even if you do it wrong and end up overshooting.

I am on my tablet at the moment or I would link you a video, but just search for Elite Dangerous Gravity Braking, there are a number of good tutorials on the technique.

 

[Whitehair]

It still baffles me that FD couldn't figure out how to make a proper ETA calculation. ...

It baffles me that people still assume FD couldn't figure out how to make a proper ETA calculation, instead of trying to understand how the ETA calculation does actually work.

Hint: ETA is a constantly recalculated figure, dependant on the speed and distance at the time of calculation.

 

[SMcA]

this man knows. gravitational body breaking FTW. 6 second rule is for noobs.

Golly gosh! After three years I'm still a noob. I must try harder.