Flight Question How come the delta glider iv reentry autopilot can hold its pitch but i cant

[Stevodoran]

fairly simple but i want to do manual but it just disintegrates any help thanks

 

[hribek]

because the ship's gravity centre is too much in the front of the ship for you to handle. You need a way to shift CG to the back. Use DGIV manual entry autopilot.

 

[Lucy]

The DGIV was not really designed for manual reentries, as far as I know. For that, I'd use a craft like the XR2, which has an automatic centre of gravity shift to allow for some beautiful manual reentries.

 

[Stevodoran]

ok thanks

 

[statickid]

I have done plenty of manual flight-stick reentries with the DGIV, but it took me LOTS of practice and it is very easy to burn up.

Hilariously I was unaware the DGIV could move it's center of gravity so maybe that will make it very easy for me. Learn something new everyday!!! :lol:

---------- Post added at 11:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

on a side note to that, I have NEVER successfully transfered from autopilot to manual control. Turning off the autopilot just seems to be like pushing the self-destruct command. I have only completed a manual reentry when I had full control from start to finish

 

[RisingFury]

because the ship's gravity centre is too much in the front of the ship for you to handle. You need a way to shift CG to the back. Use DGIV manual entry autopilot.

No...

The DGIV was not really designed for manual reentries, as far as I know. For that, I'd use a craft like the XR2, which has an automatic centre of gravity shift to allow for some beautiful manual reentries.

No...



The reason you can't hold your pitch is because you have your ship's control set to RCS thrusters only.

What I usually do is enable both at once. You need to go into the 2D panel display by clicking F8, then in the top left corner of the panel you'll find the control switch. Set it to air control surfaces. That will shut off the RCS thrusters and will leave air control surfaces online. Now... they're useless at high altitude, so you need to turn the thrusters back on by going to glass cockpit view (F8 again) and then in the top left click ROT.

That's kind of a trick that allows your DGIV to have both air control surfaces and RCS thrusters online.

---------- Post added at 19:00 ---------- Previous post was at 18:57 ----------

on a side note to that, I have NEVER successfully transfered from autopilot to manual control. Turning off the autopilot just seems to be like pushing the self-destruct command. I have only completed a manual reentry when I had full control from start to finish

Press R to slow down time. Make sure that both your air control surfaces and RCS thrusters are online, as I've just described as soon as you can, after killing the autopilot.

 

[Hielor]

No...




No...

Yes, actually...the DGIV reentry autopilots shift the CG.

 

[RisingFury]

Yes, actually...the DGIV reentry autopilots shift the CG.

Seriously?! There's no need to do that :facepalm:
If there's a way to manually fly the thing, then there's obviously a way to do it with code, without cheating.

 

[Hielor]

Seriously?! There's no need to do that :facepalm:
If there's a way to manually fly the thing, then there's obviously a way to do it with code, without cheating.

It's not cheating, it's realistic--the shuttle adjusts its CG before re-entry by dumping forward RCS fuel or shifting it to the back, doesn't it?

The DGIV is simulating the same thing--presumably there's more than one fuel tank in that wing.

 

[RisingFury]

It's not cheating, it's realistic--the shuttle adjusts its CG before re-entry by dumping forward RCS fuel or shifting it to the back, doesn't it?

The DGIV is simulating the same thing--presumably there's more than one fuel tank in that wing.

Sure, sure... the problem is that it can do that behind the scenes, but won't let the user do that.

 

[statickid]

Well it doesn't really seem to matter anyways because as I stated earlier it's definitly possible to do reentry without shifting any CoG's.

 

[Wishbone]

The Shuttle does not use _active_ CoG shifting _during_ reentry. The CoG is shifted before reentry to get nominal conditions for flight control surfaces.

 

[Izack]

The Shuttle does not use _active_ CoG shifting _during_ reentry. The CoG is shifted before reentry to get nominal conditions for flight control surfaces.

Hmm, so maybe engaging the autopilot before entry interface could give the pilot the same advantage the autopilot has (the shifted CoG), but could then disengage it to fly manually? Seems like a hassle.

 

[statickid]

is it even documented that the autopilot even does this CoG shifting? I just read through the DGIV docs (although rather quickly I admit) and didn't see anything about this. I also did not find anything about doing this operation manually. I recommend either following Risingfury's advice or just practicing with the atmospheric auto setting selected as this has always been fine for me.

 

[Mike Skywalker]

Hi, Stevodoran, and all orbinauts !! :tiphat:

I know you're an intermediat pilot(orbinaut) ,but there is an excelent post:
"Re-entry for Dummies"posted by Grover in 10-11-10, 10:40 PM.
Read it. That post helped me to approaching at 10-30 km before the base- by using for the first time DEO button of BaseSync MFD, which gives the exact position of deorbit-burn. DEO parameters-as indicated in that post. (ALT 90 km; ANT 45*; Reentry angle 0.7*). I used the manual re-entry autopilot(P104S45).
Perfect re-entry, perfect landing at any base(Canaveral,Miami, Ascension Island etc)

And, Btw, Miami Int.Airport have no VOR transmitter? I insert a NAV_BEACON line in Miami base .cfg file, but nothing's happend. (LAT and LONG- same as the base; NAV freq ;range=500 km.)

 

[Stevodoran]

thanks man