Newcomer / Intro Unable to re-join FSS

Wombat1940

Wombat1940
Apologies if I use the wrong terms here, but as yet not familiar with the use of each term .....

I was carrying out a Courier run and successfully moved to the target's System. Then targeted the Station and engaged FSS by pressing <J> on my keyboard. I pulled out early (forgotten why ...) still 300km short and 30min flight time away at max speed, non-FSS from the Station. Tried to recommence FSS with <J> which successfully re-charged ONLY to immediately drop out of FSS. :( Tried numerous times but unsuccessful with each try. 😟 Eventually had to reach the Station at max. speed but in normal flight mode, hence taking me the full 30min to cover the 300km. :cry: Why couldn't I stay in FSS? Thanks.

Edit: My FSS should read FSD (I think ...)
 
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Wombat1940

Wombat1940
Bloody-hell !!!! 😲😦🤫 Just visited Aitkins Hub in the Dromi System. It's on the surface of a bloody Planet!!!! Managed to land (with auto docking) but had to get bloody close to the surface to call up for approval to dock. This place is full of surprises. 😉 Just love it! (y)
Editing: In Italics
 

Hell Razor5543

H
The way I imagine the FSD working in Super Cruise is like a racing yacht (with hydroplanes) 'flying' above the surface of the water, and that the closer you get to a gravity well the choppier the water becomes, until it is too rough for the yacht to 'fly'. Because of this I plot a route outside of the planetary plane of the star system I am in; the route might be 50% longer in distance but (if done properly) only take 75% of the time (or less) that a straight in run would take.

When I am heading in to a planetary station I will stay over 1,000KM out until my destination appears on the edge of the planet, and then head in towards it. That way the angle of descent is shallow enough for me to handle any 'steep' gravity wells (when you have a high G planet). I try to keep the descent shallower than 30 degrees.
 
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Dragsham

Dragsham
I suspect you could engage it but were not facing in the direction of the jump reticule.
So put the planet or moon or whatever behind you and fire it up.
 

Wombat1940

Wombat1940
Hell Razor5543 said:
The way I imagine the FSD working in Super Cruise is like a racing yacht (with hydroplanes) 'flying' above the surface of the water, and that the closer you get to a gravity well the choppier the water becomes, until it is too rough for the yacht to 'fly'. Because of this I plot a route outside of the planetary plane of the star system I am in; the route might be 50% longer in distance but (if done properly) only take 75% of the time (or less) that a straight in run would take.

When I am heading in to a planetary station I will stay over 1,000KM out until my destination appears on the edge of the planet, and then head in towards it. That way the angle of descent is shallow enough for me to handle any 'steep' gravity wells (when you have a high G planet). I try to keep the descent shallower than 30 degrees.
Click to expand...
Being an ex boaty, I know what you mean. It's called getting the boat to "plane". Easily done with a power boat, in fact the hull design (shape) is made get the boat on to the plane quickly as possible (as the speed increases) because it saves fuel.
OK ....... applying all that to this scenario makes a lot of sense. At one point today I had to find an "Escape Vector" just to escape the planet's gravitation effects. 😜
 
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Dragsham

Dragsham
Thats always either 90 degrees above you , or facing directly away from the planet you've fallen foul of, assuming you alter your vector so the planet is behind you.

o7
 

aRJay

aRJay
You don’t need always need to be precise with the escape vector anything within 45 degrees of it will work for a planet, but the closer you are to the vector the quicker you will be out of the gravity well.
 

CMDR Jago Kain

CMDR Jago Kain
Congratulations on making your first planetary landing!

Here's a rundown of the different flight transitions as I understand them. They're very important but the game doesn't explain them at all.* When these are understood you can trial and error your way to a perfect approach and landing. Note that when you descend through these stages you don't need to hit <J>, the transitions happen automatically at the necessary speed and altitude. At low speeds hitting <J> will instantly return you to normal flight. This might be what left you 300kms short of your target.

Supercruise - Approach the planet/moon from space. I aim to have the target settlement/location in the top quarter of my view. on my side of the planetary body. Reduce throttle to <50%. If you approach too fast you will be dumped straight into normal flight and your ship will take minor damage.

Orbital Cruise / Orbital Flight - At a certain altitude supercruise will change to orbital cruise. Speed is slower than supercruise but still faster than normal flight. The altimeter and pitch indicator appear on your HUD with the message "orbital flight engaged".
Pay attention to the altimeter. If you drop below the "OC" mark you will enter glide then normal flight.
On the pitch indicator you will see the range -5 to +5 is shaded blue. You accelerate a lot faster when at this pitch which is great for reaching your target if you've come down a bit short but can easily result in overshooting.

Glide - This is sort of a loading screen before normal flight. Speed is fixed at 2500m/s, just point at your target. If your altitude is too low you will drop into normal flight. This also might be what left you 300kms short of your target. Ideally you want to be descending at a pitch of about -35 degrees. If you're on target you will be safely placed into normal flight at an altitude of around 6 or 7 km and at whatever speed your throttle is currently set to. Don't think about how our bodies respond to the sudden deceleration or you'll realise the whole procedure is insane. Simply throttle back and request docking permission.

Experiment. A bad approach to the typical low gravity moon is unlikely to destroy your ship. Put 4 pips into SYS just in case you do hit a cliff face... (y)

*I learned planetary landings before the Codex was implemented. There might be useful information in the Pilot's Handbook now.
 
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Tyres O'Flaherty

Tyres O'Flaherty
As an aside and just for info: FSS is the "Full Spectrum System" scanner you use in exploration. That's a whole other aspect to the game and actually - and probably - my favourite.
 

Wombat1940

Wombat1940
CMDR Jago Kain said:
Congratulations on making your first planetary landing!

Here's a rundown of the different flight transitions as I understand them. They're very important but the game doesn't explain them at all.* When these are understood you can trial and error your way to a perfect approach and landing. Note that when you descend through these stages you don't need to hit <J>, the transitions happen automatically at the necessary speed and altitude. At low speeds hitting <J> will instantly return you to normal flight. This might be what left you 300kms short of your target.

Supercruise - Approach the planet/moon from space. I aim to have the target settlement/location in the top quarter of my view. on my side of the planetary body. Reduce throttle to <50%. If you approach too fast you will be dumped straight into normal flight and your ship will take minor damage.

Orbital Cruise / Orbital Flight - At a certain altitude supercruise will change to orbital cruise. Speed is slower than supercruise but still faster than normal flight. The altimeter and pitch indicator appear on your HUD with the message "orbital flight engaged".
Pay attention to the altimeter. If you drop below the "OC" mark you will enter glide then normal flight.
On the pitch indicator you will see the range -5 to +5 is shaded blue. You accelerate a lot faster when at this pitch which is great for reaching your target if you've come down a bit short but can easily result in overshooting.

Glide - This is sort of a loading screen before normal flight. Speed is fixed at 2500m/s, just point at your target. If your altitude is too low you will drop into normal flight. This also might be what left you 300kms short of your target. Ideally you want to be descending at a pitch of about -35 degrees. If you're on target you will be safely placed into normal flight at an altitude of around 6 or 7 km and at whatever speed your throttle is currently set to. Don't think about how our bodies respond to the sudden deceleration or you'll realise the whole procedure is insane. Simply throttle back and request docking permission.

Experiment. A bad approach to the typical low gravity moon is unlikely to destroy your ship. Put 4 pips into SYS just in case you do hit a cliff face... (y)

*I learned planetary landings before the Codex was implemented. There might be useful information in the Pilot's Handbook now.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This will take some absorbing, however, I can see it's of huge value. I'll need to come back to you on a few issues, but for the moment I'm going to do as many Courier Missions with planetary landings as I can find.
However, for the moment, what is Codex ? :confused:
 

Wombat1940

Wombat1940
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
As an aside and just for info: FSS is the "Full Spectrum System" scanner you use in exploration. That's a whole other aspect to the game and actually - and probably - my favourite.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I assume my discussion here is about FSD and I've corrected a few of my posts to show that. 😏 Just wish I could change the thread title but can't see how to do that ...... 🤭
 
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aRJay

aRJay
Wombat1940 said:
Thank you. This will take some absorbing, however, I can see it's of huge value. I'll need to come back to you on a few issues, but for the moment I'm going to do as many Courier Missions with planetary landings as I can find.
However, for the moment, what is Codex ? :confused:
Click to expand...
The Codex is in the right hand panel in your cockpit.

It is a combination of factoids about the galaxy, pilots handbook, has stats about you and an eye-spy book where you can tick off discoveries in each region of the galaxy.
 

CMDR Jago Kain

CMDR Jago Kain
The fact that the Codex, and Pilot's Handbook within it, are so poorly signposted says more about ED's player unfriendly aspects than any rant I could compose.

I do generally enjoy the 'figure out the best way with the tools available' intraction that Elite offers but it consistently fails to explain what the tools do.
 
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