[Video] Getting to Stations a little bit faster than normal.

[Nagual]

Thought I'd share a short video I made of my supercruise technique. Hope it helps someone else. If you have a better technique, please capture it and share it here too! If it turns out I'm doing wrong then great, we'll be wiser at the end of it.. [Sorry for the copy 'n' paste job from the youtube description, but it's easier and gets the message across... I think..]





Sometimes in Supercruise the final few moments seem to take forever. I played around a bit to see if I could shave off any time. It's not perfect, and doesn't work 100% of the time - mainly due to Pilot Error... Timing is everything.


I'm not alone in using this technique to get to stations / POI as fast as possible, but I thought I'd share in case someone else finds it useful.

[video=youtube_share;_0LLoTerRZU]http://youtu.be/_0LLoTerRZU[/video]



Essentially, once you have lined up to your destination in Supercruise, max out your throttle and wait until you get the 'slow down' message (this can happen way before you're close, other gravity wells in space ie planets etc can affect your speed) once that appears, drop your throttle to zero. Once past the target, loop round adjusting your speed into the 'blue' and you should be very close to your destination.


The reason for doing this is that you can use the gravity well of the planet it orbits. As you loop around your speed will drop dramatically, allowing you to come much closer, in less time than you normally would if you stuck to 'normal' approach techniques.

 

[lonely flyer]

Looks good to me. The only thing I do differently is I drop my speed to the blue instead of dropping to zero and going back up to blue. I don't think there's any difference in speed but save yourself a few clicks.

 

[kaaldesh]

Thanks for sharing.

Have you found this to be faster than going full speed until you reach 7secs out, then cutting to 75% speed and coasting the rest of the way in without having to do any speed alterations? This is the method I use, someone else posted it a while ago. I avoid the gravity well, then at the last second, turn into the inside of the orbit, face the station and drop supercruise. This way I'm always facing the slot, or close to it when exiting.

 

[Nagual]

Thanks for sharing.

Have you found this to be faster than going full speed until you reach 7secs out, then cutting to 75% speed and coasting the rest of the way in without having to do any speed alterations? This is the method I use, someone else posted it a while ago. I avoid the gravity well, then at the last second, turn into the inside of the orbit, face the station and drop supercruise. This way I'm always facing the slot, or close to it when exiting.

That's what I've found, yes, but of course others may differ Probably not my much.. but at the very least it's a little more interesting... planet dodging...

 

[Undecided]

Have you found this to be faster than going full speed until you reach 7secs out, then cutting to 75% speed and coasting the rest of the way in without having to do any speed alterations?

It depends on the mass of the planet (gas giants are the worst, as the stations are so far out you can't "brake" much), but around Earth-mass planets I can arrive up to 20 seconds before a ship using the 7 second technique. The maneuverability of the ship is a factor, but even a Type-7 can save almost 10 seconds with this technique.

 

[kaaldesh]

That's what I've found, yes, but of course others may differ Probably not my much.. but at the very least it's a little more interesting... planet dodging...

Lol very true about the increased excitement. It seems CMDR Undecided also sees this as faster. I might try this then and thanks again for sharing technique!

 

[Undecided]

Just remember that each planet is different! The differences in mass and distances between the station and its parent body mean each time I come to a new station it usually takes me two or three tries to get a feel for the "optimum" approach.

Often I'll still save time even if I overshoot though. The Seven second method is very inefficient.

 

[Ambivalent]

It annoys me, that the ships are perfectly capable of accelerating from 30km/s to 1000c and dropping back to 30km/s very quickly indeed, (point yourself into the blackness with no target, wind up to high speed then try stopping and going again you'll see how fast they accelerate/decelertate). Yet when approaching any target or passing any object we are forced to adhere to this ridiculously poor ship performance, particularly when approaching a distance body, spending many minutes slowly decelerating when I know the ship and go 1000c to 30km/s in about 10seconds if its not approaching a target.

grr, it really bugs me.


Back on topic though, yes I use this method and it works!

 

[stereoBear]

Just one addition to any method:

Once your speed hits the blue zone you can go max throttle since it will not accelerate enough to get out of the blue again. This can shave off a few seconds especially when you got slowed down by the planet's gravity too much.