About landing to an outpost (planetary).

[Chaka (FR)]

Hi, i haven't really problems about approach, speed etc...
But the problem is when i'm trying to brake at almost 30 kms to target, speed doesn't go lower and stays 2500 m/s. No matter how hard I turn up the front engines, it won't budge.
It's only when I fire up the engines to regain altitude on the way back up that I finally slow down.
Any tips for it?

[Septimus]

Sounds like you're in Glide, where you have very limited control. It should exit about 5km above the surface, and then you have control again.

[Icefalcon]

You can exit glide early by pulling back on the stick, but you can't change the glide speed.

[Jeebs]

Yeah, what others have said. That's actually normal behaviour. When you approach the planet/moon, you'll see a display pop up on the right with OC and DRP. OC is where you enter orbital cruise and DRP is where you drop out into conventional flight. You'll get dropped out at either threshold if you're going too fast (same as an emergency drop out of Supercruise if you "hit" a planet/star while going too fast).

If your angle and speed are both good, then you'll drop out into "glide" mode (it's more like ballistic mode to me, but nevermind that) when you reach the DRP threshold. You'll "glide" at 2500 m/s until you reach 5-10 Km altitude if you're landing at an outpost, or 3-5 Km if you're just aiming at the ground with no target. Once out of glide, you'll slow down to normal speeds.

Watch out for gravity though. Higher gravity worlds will require you to be careful when you go for landing. If you're aiming straight at the ground going full throttle, there's a good chance you won't be able to stop and you'll hit the ground hard. A docking computer can help you with that, though you should learn how to do it manually all the same.

If you get the right entry angle, you can actually come out of glide right above the star port, request and be granted docking permissions before they even acknowledge your arrival. It's kind of amusing.

[Chaka (FR)]

Ok, i am usually at around 35° angle. But it sounds a bit strange and dangerous speed only drops when you are almost to 5 or 10 kms. I will try to use pull back before.

[martin77]

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

Ok, i am usually at around 35° angle. But it sounds a bit strange and dangerous speed only drops when you are almost to 5 or 10 kms. I will try to use pull back before.

why you want to drop the speed before you are there?
You are totally safe the drop will come automacically.
To be even closer to your target when drop out you can do the descend at 55 degrees.

[Chaka (FR)]

Why i want to drop speed before? Because i feel like i will crash ! ^^

[Regulator]

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

Why i want to drop speed before? Because i feel like i will crash ! ^^

You won't. If you drop out of glide early it takes a while to fly to the surface. Let the glide complete then pay attention to speed , descent and pitch.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

Ok, i am usually at around 35° angle. But it sounds a bit strange and dangerous speed only drops when you are almost to 5 or 10 kms. I will try to use pull back before.

Aim just above the settlement you want to land at. Cut your thottle to zero when you start your glide. Keep flight assist on. You'll stop about 4 to 7km above the settlement, close enough to request landing access. It's just like dropping out of cruise at a station.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

Why i want to drop speed before? Because i feel like i will crash ! ^^

It feels like you're going to crash but you will safely stop it time. Takes some getting used to.

[Chaka (FR)]

Originally posted by funkynutz:

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

Ok, i am usually at around 35° angle. But it sounds a bit strange and dangerous speed only drops when you are almost to 5 or 10 kms. I will try to use pull back before.

Aim just above the settlement you want to land at. Cut your thottle to zero when you start your glide. Keep flight assist on. You'll stop about 4 to 7km above the settlement, close enough to request landing access. It's just like dropping out of cruise at a station.

Thx, i will do that.