How on earth do you fly an airplane?

[dunbaratu]

I'm not even trying to build one yet - I'm just trying to practice flying the stock ones the game comes with and even THEY don't seem to work. The craft keeps trying to flip up on its back and pressing and holding "W" doesn't help - it still pitches up anyway. I have NO idea why this happens.

Has anyone had success with this? I'm trying to practice with the stock planes before I go off into making my own.

[NoSkilsz]

u have 2 match the center of lift and the center of gravitiy (klick the symbols on the left down side of ur screen)

[Nats]

Planes in KSP are rope tbh - they are so unrealistic in the way they 'fly' you cant control them without ASAS on all the time, so I personally dont bother with them at all.

[benneralan]

What craft are you trying to fly? Some of the stock airplanes are not balanced. Try the Aeris 4A or the Albatross 3.

[dunbaratu]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von leroy1st:

u have 2 match the center of lift and the center of gravitiy (klick the symbols on the left down side of ur screen)

I specifically said I'm flying stock craft and NOT building them yet.

[dunbaratu]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von benneralan:

What craft are you trying to fly? Some of the stock airplanes are not balanced. Try the Aeris 4A or the Albatross 3.

I have tried both of those and they both have the problem. If you pull back too far then instead of looping or stalling which are the two possible outcomes in a real plane, they just flip over on their back and keep going straight the way they were, so they're now flying retrograde and upside down, which is completely unlike what should happen.. ALSO, and this is the part that makes it impossible for me to control, is that it's like the controls are centered but unstable like trying to balance a stick vertically on the palm of your hand - the further off-center you get, the more it wants to go go off in that direction. So if I want to pull up for example, from straight ahead up to a climb of 20 degrees, I have to traverse those 20 degrees of tilt by tap-tap-taping the 'S" key very timidly, and then, completley unrealistically, tap-tap-tap the W key to stop the upward rotation once I reach 20 degrees (like the weather-vane effect of the air doesn't even exist and I'm just flying a rocket horizontally in space so I have to stop my rotation). Also, if I do it like I would in space where I would just hold "S" a few seconds and then hold "W" a few seconds that doesn't work either because after holding "S" a few seconds, the "W" key is no longer strong enough to stop the upward pitch rotation and so the craft just flips onto its back no matter how much I hold down "W" it won't stop it..

[bpivk]

As benneralan said... Some stock crafts are not balanced at all. The best premade craft that I used was Aeris 4 and even that had some problems (you can't return into the plane because it doesn't have the ladder placed correctly).

Also since there are not aerodynamics in the game it's really arcady when you try to control a plane. Sometimes it stalls and sometimes it just flips and goes backwards. I even flew diagonally once with one of my planes. If you want a more realistic flight try the FAR mod. Although I never made a flight worthy plane with that mod.

[benneralan]

@madings

Ok. Some airplane aspects that you need to consider:

-Airplane controls are very sensitive, you really need to tap the keys sometimes.
-Do not fly too fast. If you try to turn while flying too fast, it's very likely that the plane will spin out of control.
-Do not move the plane too far away from the prograde vector, it may spin out of control too. Turn slowly.

If you still find it very dificult to control, try activating the ASAS/Avionics.

[toroid]

Nobody has mentioned hitting the CAPS LOCK key to enable precision control mode.

[Saïbaïman]

notice that spaceplanes are heaviest planes ever...
it is like trying to make a brick to fly

[Real Goblin]

In the cockpit of most airplanes, there is a button known as "Auto-pilot". Press that and if it still crashes, try going with the flow.

[Im Still Gone]

Lalalalala

[dunbaratu]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von benneralan:

@madings

Ok. Some airplane aspects that you need to consider:

-Airplane controls are very sensitive, you really need to tap the keys sometimes.

Well, airplane controls in THIS simulation are, anyway. Most other games tend to take into account the very strong forces that tend to make the plane act like a weathervane and point into the headwind created by the airpseed. Being pitched up more than 90 degrees defelected off from your velocity vector isn't a thing you can do my simply puling up on the elevators and nothing else. You should have to "pull" the veclocity vector with you (making half a loop) in order to rotate 180 degrees onto you back by pulling up. The only airplanes in the real world that can do what happens all the time in KSP by accident are ones deliberately built in a wacky way to be able to do that, and a very deliberate manual set of steps is necessary to pull it off (the Mig-29 can do it because it has very extreme degrees of deflection vectoring on its engine thrust making it possible to ride backward on its tail, but again it doesn't happen by accident - it takes deliberate engineering effort to make it possible). By *default*, real pilots flying most plane designs cannot even *deliberately* do what keeps happening *accidentally* when flying KSP planes - which is making the orientation vector differ from the velocity vector by more than 30 degrees or so while at cruising speed. In a real plane you've got to be stalling to pull that stunt off.

Maybe I should put off using planes until after Squad implement more areodynamics effects to see if they make it any better.

-Do not fly too fast. If you try to turn while flying too fast, it's very likely that the plane will spin out of control.
-Do not move the plane too far away from the prograde vector, it may spin out of control too. Turn slowly.

Even with capslock, it's still oversensitive, although that's also a problem I have with the rockets as well so it might be something about my setup. (i.e. I'm floating in orbit in a capsule and I'm 10 degress off from where I want to be pointed so I tap (with capslock) a key once for as short a tap as is humanly posisble to rotate and it rotates me 20 degrees before I can tap the other way to stop the rotation because it's THAT fast. And this is too far, so I tap it once the other way and it rotates me 20 degress back before I can stop it, making it almost impossible to get it to rotate any lesser amount to hit the spot in the middle. So the plane problem may be related to this. My controls are sometimes really hypersensitive even with capslock on.

If you still find it very dificult to control, try activating the ASAS/Avionics.

I know but that doesn't help for when I *do* need to change direction so I have to turn it off or my controls are overridden. So I turn it off a moment, make a motion, and it's already fubared before I can turn it back on again.

[benneralan]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von madings:

By *default*, real pilots flying most plane designs cannot even *deliberately* do what keeps happening *accidentally* when flying KSP planes - which is making the orientation vector differ from the velocity vector by more than 30 degrees or so while at cruising speed. In a real plane you've got to be stalling to pull that stunt off.

This is caused, as you said, by the drag model currently used in game. It doesn't take into account the position of the parts, only their drag values. That's why nose cones are useless. If you are trying to do aerobatics, it's very likely that you will spin out of control.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von madings:

Even with capslock, it's still oversensitive, although that's also a problem I have with the rockets as well so it might be something about my setup.

I agree, capslock doesn't appear to help much. I only use ASAS to make corrections.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von madings:

I know but that doesn't help for when I *do* need to change direction so I have to turn it off or my controls are overridden. So I turn it off a moment, make a motion, and it's already fubared before I can turn it back on again.

As I said, the turns must be gentle. You have to switch off ASAS, turn a bit and switch on, repeting the process until your direction is right.

A joystick would certainly help. Since I don't have one, I use MechJeb Smart A.S.S. to keep the plane under control. Although I found that the Albatross 3 is quite easily to control manually, even at landing.

[Zombo]

I too find the plane controls are too squirly. Ive spent a fair amount of time trying to build an ssto now.. And the thing spins out everytime the jets turn off, and I switch to rockets or srbs, or both, to escape the atmosphere. This is with an avionics package, and a 20 torque SAS. (yes I close the intakes)

I find the planes are constantly wanting to go butt-first, for lack of a better way to put it... And ive adjusted the center of mass in every direction trying to find the sweet spot... No luck..

This game needs a button for drag. So you can see how your vehicle is catching air.

[Shitting Log Stalker]

If I can make a lawnmower fly (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=151662671) you can make a plane fly. Use fine controls and enough control surfaces. Also place the center of lift slightly behind the center of mass.