How do you make propeller planes work in breaking ground?

[StarHarbls]

I just bought breaking ground and tried to make a propeller plane but it doesn't move in either direction. I tried adding more props, changing the direction, changing the angle of the props too and nothing works. Is there a guide somewhere that explains how to make a propeller plane?

[Julius]

Originally posted by StarHarbls:

I just bought breaking ground and tried to make a propeller plane but it doesn't move in either direction. I tried adding more props, changing the direction, changing the angle of the props too and nothing works. Is there a guide somewhere that explains how to make a propeller plane?

Air intake? Brakes on?

[XLjedi]

I was planning to do a video this weekend on advanced prop/rotor design. Alas, we had a bad electric storm and it seems to have blown out the ethernet, sound, and one of the GPU slots on my mobo. (not to mention the refrigerator, ugh!) So gotta fix all that now.

For props, what's important to know is...

On the motor itself, delete the automatic hotkey assignment for engine brake being tied to wheel brakes. That just makes no sense. Any prop or rotorcraft is going to want the ability to spin-up the RPM's with their wheel brakes on.

Make sure your engine rotation (either CW, or CCW) is the same as your prop blades. You can change the blade orientation by setting the propeller blade variant to CW or CCW. By default both the engine and blade orientation is set to CW. Which for the vast majority of propeller aircraft (particularly single engine craft) is backwards!

I set the engine and blades for CCW rotation, this will give me the roll to the left which is more inline wtih my expectation of how the plane should behave. Additionally, with this setup your authority limiter values will be positive when trying to move forward.

Your propeller blades should be set so they are in "deployed" state (which is the default for a propeller anyway) and you will control blade pitch with the authority limiter value. For a CCW turning blade, the authority value should be set to zero (as opposed to the default 100) and the blade should be turned so the leading edge is pointing directly into the rotation. The leading edge has the silver-ish looking protective strip on it. When the blade is set to zero pitch and the leading edge is oriented directly into rotation, the blade is feathered such that no amount of RPM's is going to cause the plane to move. The craft won't start moving forward until you add positive blade pitch (again, assuming a CCW engine/blade setup).

If you do it right, an authority value (blade pitch) of +15 for a CCW blade can be used to start on the runway, gradually increasing as you move down the runway from +15 to +25 when reach rotation speed. Once in the air and making about 60 m/s, a good rule of thumb is to set the blade pitch equal to half your speed up to a max of about 50 authority. I don't find I need more than 50 blade pitch for most setups.

Additionally, if you are on the runway and you set your blade pitch to -15, the blade will adjust such that you will move in reverse. At both the +15 and -15 blade pitch angles, the leading edge of the propeller is still correctly oriented into the direction of rotation. I like being able to use the prop for reverse thrust on landing, so I setup my blades with the -15. Some may not want that reverse thrust and might set it to zero.

Personally, I like the complexity of playing with the variable pitch prop. However, if you are just looking for a fixed prop design. I would try something in the range of 25 to 35 pitch as your fixed setting. It will take you a bit longer to reach takeoff speed, and you won't be able to reach your fastest possible speed in flight, but it will give you a very simple fixed prop design to play with.

Finally, I like to use a KAL-1000 controller to manage my blade pitch authority such that I can never set the blade pitch values lower than -15 or higher than +50. I assign the KAL-1000 to the U/D Translation key for the proper management of a variable pitch propeller and...

This all works beautifully!

If this sort of discussion interests you, I can post back when I get my PC back up and have the video tutorial available. There are a few other interesting things regarding propeller craft design in KSP that are also important to know! (unrelated to blade pitch)

Hope you find it useful.

[Z0MBE]

I downloaded a plane through workshop, it's one of the more popular since three months. It doesn't have a counter rotation, but it doesn't matter as much, there's still torque effects / moving right etc - but with less weight it means less torque, you can pretty much ignore it.

On props, I haven't figured it all out, but basically propellors act as airfoils and if you make them flat, or zero at angle of attack, I think, if done right will create lift in the direction you want to go. So f12, yellow arrows will point forwards, if producing thrust correctly. This is at standstill, props in this game (idk about real life) depend on the planes angle of attack and speed produce less lift/thrust at speeds after standstill, more, but less or zero at higher speeds,,, and if done right, less at low speeds and higher thrust at higher speeds. You just have to mess with the prop deployed angle.

I notice that the higher speed prop angles usually have arrows that point away from the center of the motor.. I want more information on this stuff.. I have no idea about any of it lol