The altitude meter doesn't work on other planets?

[Will]

No wonder why I tried three times and the auto landing always crashes my ship without even attempting to decelerate. Just tried to land on the moon manually and I crashed into the ground at like 10,000 meters according to the altitude gage. WTF?

[Waldo [M as in Mancy]]

Crashed into the Mun (moon) at 10,000 meters? No, that's a good orbit for landing on the moon. 2,000? Maybe, still high, Ithink my norm is 900m in the Mun.

Land in day light, use your shadow.

If you switch to in cockpit view, the Radar Altimeter will show your accurate altitude, even without atmosphere. Can't in third person.

[Grimblob]

The altimeter in 3rd person is a reading from "sea level" or lowest surface level, you will hit mountains if you rely on it.

[Raell]

^ what Solid said.

[bpivk]

Originally posted by 素人:

No wonder why I tried three times and the auto landing always crashes my ship without even attempting to decelerate.

Auto landing never works at least for me so don't rely on it until you land a couple of times manually.

Also look for your shadow as SolidCordon and don't use the altimeter because it shows you the sea level altitude and unless you're sure that you're landing in a crater don't use it. And even then hope that the crater doesn't have bumps. :)

[Waldo [M as in Mancy]]

LOL @ Sea level on the moon/non atmospheric bodies without liquid.

[bpivk]

Originally posted by Bigboomer (one hand):

LOL @ Sea level on the moon/non atmospheric bodies without liquid.

It's a general term that describes the 0m marker. If you have a better one please share with us. :P

From wiki: Mean sea level (MSL) is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface (such as the halfway point between the mean high tide and the mean low tide); used as a standard in reckoning land elevation.

[ZEnON]

As others have posted, before you make your final decent check inside the cockpit (IVA) there is a radar altimeter, make a note of the actual ground distance and compare it to the altitude above 0 or sea level and adjust your speed and retrograde burn accordingly.

see pic from mk1 cockpit :: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=142951801

[Clip_it]

Originally posted by ZEnON:

As others have posted, before you make your final decent check inside the cockpit (IVA) there is a radar altimeter, make a note of the actual ground distance and compare it to the altitude above 0 or sea level and adjust your speed and retrograde burn accordingly.

see pic from mk1 cockpit :: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=142951801

^^^ just felt this needed repeating. Its as good an explanation you can get on the topic. And I think you meant 1000 not 10000. The mountain range barely hits 2000. 0 is, in fact, "sea level". Yes, yes there's no sea on the mun, but just as with meters and grams and such, its a universal standard. Good luck with your landings.

[Grimblob]

If you're using mechjeb mod, then the surface data tab will give you actual radar hight and vertical speed in all view modes while taking up some screen space.
Autoland in the latest mechjeb is ... very Kerbal in its reliability.

[deDalei]

mechjeb autolander dont work (or maybe only for me ;) but what you can do is let the autolander make the position where you want to land and if you see the ground, abort the autolander and oben the Translatron (start the kill H/S) make " speet " to -250 and start " Keep Vert " than slowly bring douwn your " speet " -150 than -50 than -5 and you are safe on the ground !!! ..... I don´t let Translatron on all the time , I play around with it on / off , if i´m to fast I start Translatron ! works great for me