DGIII capable of 90° slope reentry !!!

[metabaron]

hi,
I ve try to make some reentry with a +/- 90°slope  (80-85°)  but the few times I ve succed it was almost a miracle.
I ve decided to write a procedure for reentry and now almost all my attempt are succesfull.

It is quite simple:

you have to be in orbit and don't forget de reentry procedure (computer check) :p

First, retrograde and FULLPOWER !! (don't forget the turbo pomp, I love it :p)

keep your retrograde program online utile your nose point 90° (hud surface mode)

use the MDF "surface" to have an idea of your vertical speed
   if your Vspeed is in positive or null shutdown the reactor

While falling like a rock, activate LevelHorizon
use your hoover to maintain about -1000 VSpeed

use the computer (reentry data) to see your actual AOA.
   you can adjust it by using main engin  (also usefull to look at the smoke direction to adjust AOA)

Take care, your ship is going to spin a little bit. Its the begining of a flat spin so you have to stop the rotation quickly
       ( I didn't the first time and when my ship reach 1 or 2 rotation per second (thats late I know :p) I set hoover at
         100% so I can focus on the rotation and not on the VSpeed. But I didn't expect my ship to turn over (BAD :p)
        With my head down and 100% hoover, my hull reach 2500° before I realise what happend (that was a bad day)

When altitude is above 10 000 Km use autopilot ( PRO200SPEC8 ) or do a nice vertical landing manualy

I will try to calculate at wich distance of a runway you have to start this manoever to land on it.

If someone find an easier way please tell me.

ENJOY orbiter :p :d

(ps : I suppose you have noticed, my first language is not english (french) so excuse my mistake :p)

[freespace2dotcom]

hehe. I already noticed that the ship spins if you fall straight down in the atmosphere while you're level with the
surface. Of course, it's far more noticable when you do my version of the straight down re-entry. (Dan, why is that?)

I'd like to add that any angle of entry will work if you have the speeds low enough to prevent excessive heat, and
technically a re-entry is when you use atmospheric drag to stop. (although yours is more valid as it's
survivable.. )

And my easier way to land is just to hit the ground hard.  I can never line up with a runway, much less land at the
beginning at speeds I'm supposed to...

It's either that, or land on a pad. there's no other way...



Post Edited ( 09-08-04 09:34 )

[metabaron]

of course the most important thing is to watch out for hull temp and adjust your VSpeed in function

For those who want some harder challenge, you can try to reentry just with Main reactor (no hoover).

That way is very difficult because the instability of the ship is much greater than with the hoover

[freespace2dotcom]

Another challenge I can think of would be re-entering upside down.

Definately worth trying to simulate a few times...

[blackomega]

done the upside down capture.
its actually valid as the "lift" being produced pulls you down more, which makes it excelent for planetary captures
from a long trip. but yeah, common sense, there