Relayer91, I'm just starting to fly the Shuttle and I'd like to know whether, in your opinion, it's preferable to fly it in Orbiter2006 with the FCS or in the 2010 version without the FCS.
Thanks in advance.
Well, depends on how much you actually like flying. There's no doubt that using AutoFCS is easier - and to some degree more realistic too, as real shuttle re-entries are controlled by the DAP autopilot.
However, I fly 2010 without the FCS. It takes a bit of practice to get it right - I must have flown about 10 or so failed re-entries one after the other before I 'got' it, and even now I might still mess one up every so often (maybe 1 in 15-20) by losing too much energy - so make sure you quicksave after your deorbit burn so you can fly it again if you screw it up.
That's the thing about doing them manually - you sort of have to make an educated guess about how much roll to put into your S-turns (which directly affects how much vertical acceleration you have - more upright, more lift going upwards).
With practice you learn to judge it more or less correctly, although I have OPS 3, Aerobrake and Surface MFDs open to help me.
OPS 3 allows me to judge how much drag I'm creating and how much that is in relation to what I 'should' be creating.
Aerobrake is invaluable, as when coming out of an S-turn whether I can simply glide to the runway or whether I'm still too fast and need to burn off more energy. Incredibly useful for judging how much
α you need to be right on the money for making it to the TAEM area.
Surface MFD is equally indispensable, as for most of the re-entry I use the orbital HUD mode to better judge how much I'm rolling and pitching in my S-turns. Velocity, altitude and vertical acceleration are the key things to keep an eye on.
My main re-entry method uses a 'skip' method whereby I'll do maybe one or two S-turns which burns off quite a lot of energy (judge it so you don't burn up. ShuttleFleet comes with nice big alarms to let you know when it's getting a bit hot) and then rolling more upright, directing me back upwards into the atmosphere with a lot less velocity. From then, using Aerobrake I can simply glide back in to the TAEM without any further S-turns, in a parabolic arc. I believe the real procedure is to do 4 S-turns, but this method reliably works for me.
Hope this helped, if you have any other questions feel free to ask!
