OP, I'm running a trade Conda setup and have manually docked probably a 1000 times with D7 thrusters and A4 shields. 1st day with this ship, I was repainting 9 out of 10 passes thru the slot. Now it's more like 1 out of 20 passes. As mentioned, and shown in the video's, and I'll put some numbers in to help, you will need to make sure your entry alignment is square the slot.
The Conda's inertia must be neutral except for forward motion, roughly 3000 meters out from the slot. I started out early on with 4 pips to sys, but found that 2 to sys and 2 to eng. made for a better balance. Too much to sys and speed becomes too slow and problematic. You probably found yourself trying to adjust with thrusters, lateral and vertical, but the ships inertia will drive you nutz as you panic and find yourself stuck in the slot with the station warnings going off.
At 2 sys, 2 eng. your speed won't drop off as much, (I'm using a keyboard/joystick setup) and tap the forward thrusters to maintain between 80 & 100 m/s entering or leaving the station. Align as mentioned, with your ship favoring the top of the slot. When you've positioned yourself correctly, look at the bottom of the slot and you should see the entire plane of it, narrowing towards the rear. As the nose of the ship enters the slot, pitch the nose down 1 degree. This will prevent scrapping the top and allow you to pass thru cleanly. Make sure you're paying attention to the rotation of the station. As you become more comfortable, this will become second nature and your confidence will improve.
As for docking, awareness of where the pad is located is very important. What you do when entering the station depends on this. Pads like number 2 & 24 are right below or above the slot as you enter, closest to the slot, which you will generally be forced to slow down a bit as you pitch the nose up or down and use vertical thrusters to get her parked. If you are paying too much attention trying to navigate the slot you may forget about the location of pads 2 & 24. This generally results in you blowing past them. You will find that you need to flip your ship around within the station, don't panic if this happens. Come to a dead stop and just pitch the nose up or down for 180 degrees. There's plenty of time to do this, then flip back to the proper orientation. You can backup your ship if you know your position of course, but line of sight is difficult.
Pads 9, 17, 32 for example, are left and right of the slot. I'll typically just point my ships nose at which ever one is required, tap forward thrusters and slide over them with horizontal thrusters, then thrust down when aligned with the pad. The pads at the back of the station, 10, 25, 40, generally don't require thrusters if your approach angle is correct.
Other suggestions, rinse and repeat and don't worry about the paint early on, it does get easier. Never fly this ship without shields, at least early on, and only if you can afford the loss. Oh and there will be days, even after lots of practice, that you will struggle to pass thru cleanly every time. One other thing, check your scanner for other ships entering the station when you are exiting. Most ship are not much of a problem, you can exit even with a T-7 entering the station parallel to your ship. The T-9 and Clipper on the other hand will cause problems. Once I had 3 T-9's lined up to get into the station, one right after another, and another time where 7 ships were lined up outside. Have patience, the slot will clear in time for you to exit.
Hope this helps...
The Conda's inertia must be neutral except for forward motion, roughly 3000 meters out from the slot. I started out early on with 4 pips to sys, but found that 2 to sys and 2 to eng. made for a better balance. Too much to sys and speed becomes too slow and problematic. You probably found yourself trying to adjust with thrusters, lateral and vertical, but the ships inertia will drive you nutz as you panic and find yourself stuck in the slot with the station warnings going off.
At 2 sys, 2 eng. your speed won't drop off as much, (I'm using a keyboard/joystick setup) and tap the forward thrusters to maintain between 80 & 100 m/s entering or leaving the station. Align as mentioned, with your ship favoring the top of the slot. When you've positioned yourself correctly, look at the bottom of the slot and you should see the entire plane of it, narrowing towards the rear. As the nose of the ship enters the slot, pitch the nose down 1 degree. This will prevent scrapping the top and allow you to pass thru cleanly. Make sure you're paying attention to the rotation of the station. As you become more comfortable, this will become second nature and your confidence will improve.
As for docking, awareness of where the pad is located is very important. What you do when entering the station depends on this. Pads like number 2 & 24 are right below or above the slot as you enter, closest to the slot, which you will generally be forced to slow down a bit as you pitch the nose up or down and use vertical thrusters to get her parked. If you are paying too much attention trying to navigate the slot you may forget about the location of pads 2 & 24. This generally results in you blowing past them. You will find that you need to flip your ship around within the station, don't panic if this happens. Come to a dead stop and just pitch the nose up or down for 180 degrees. There's plenty of time to do this, then flip back to the proper orientation. You can backup your ship if you know your position of course, but line of sight is difficult.
Pads 9, 17, 32 for example, are left and right of the slot. I'll typically just point my ships nose at which ever one is required, tap forward thrusters and slide over them with horizontal thrusters, then thrust down when aligned with the pad. The pads at the back of the station, 10, 25, 40, generally don't require thrusters if your approach angle is correct.
Other suggestions, rinse and repeat and don't worry about the paint early on, it does get easier. Never fly this ship without shields, at least early on, and only if you can afford the loss. Oh and there will be days, even after lots of practice, that you will struggle to pass thru cleanly every time. One other thing, check your scanner for other ships entering the station when you are exiting. Most ship are not much of a problem, you can exit even with a T-7 entering the station parallel to your ship. The T-9 and Clipper on the other hand will cause problems. Once I had 3 T-9's lined up to get into the station, one right after another, and another time where 7 ships were lined up outside. Have patience, the slot will clear in time for you to exit.
Hope this helps...
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