Challenge KSC to Wideawake - "The Classic" Speed Run

vsfx

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Having recently become interested in trying to complete this flight (I haven't yet), I thought I would start a challenge thread to get some competition going and generate some helpful discussion. This is the KSC to Wideawake 8,200 km speed run, or as I have named it: "The Classic". Post your videos, playbacks or screenshots (success or fail) with time of flight (MET) here and I will add it to the scoreboard. Optionally post a screenshot of your maximum velocity at MECO.

TOP 10 FLIGHT TIMES

# |
Pilot Name
|
Time(mm:ss)
|
Max. Vel.(GS m/s)
1 |
agentgonzo(playback)​
|
16:35​
|
14,990​
|
2 |
dgatsoulis​
|
17:15​
|
14,703​
|
3 |
agentgonzo​
|
19:58​
|
11,496​
|
4 |
blixel​
|
20:00​
|
12,025​
|
5 |
tinfoilchef​
|
22:35​
|
11,027​
|
6 |
vsfx​
|
23:51​
|
11,812​
|
7 |
SolarLiner​
|
26:37​
|
11,600​
|
8 |||
9 |||
10 |||

General rules:
- Use the default XR2 Ravenstar, set fuel/crew/LOX/payload as you wish
- Damage simulation must be enabled
- Liftoff from the runway at KSC, MET will commence
- Land on the runway at Wideawake International, at wheel stop MET will give the flight time
- Obviously don't cheat, what's the point?


Here is blixel / David Courtney's very helpful commentated version for any beginners out there:
He has a scenario in the video description you can use, or just set up your own using the default XR2 at KSC.

I haven't been able to do this myself yet but I'm glad I uploaded the failures as David was able to point out where I was going wrong:

I've added two previous flights that I am aware of to start off the rankings.

agentgonzo's flight:
 
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dgatsoulis

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Great idea! :thumbup:

Someone call WHAP. Ascention Island is about to fill up with wreckages of dead Ravenstars. :lol:

One small correction that you were probably not aware of.
Steve's (agentgonzo's) legendary record run was 995 seconds from "wheels up" to landed at WIN. Including engine start, it was 1005 seconds (16:45).

No video of it exists, but there is a playback somewhere in O-H.

:cheers:
 
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blixel

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One small correction that you where probably not aware of.
Steve's (agentgonzo's) legendary record run was 995 seconds from "wheels up" to landed at WIN. Including engine start, it was 1005 seconds (16:45).

Did that include the use of an extra fuel module in the payload area?
 

dgatsoulis

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It was a few years back, so I am not sure. IIRC the playback didn't have a fuel payload.

EDIT:
I found the [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3669"]playback[/ame] in the hangar. There is no payload in the flight folder.
 

dbeachy1

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BTW current versions of the XR vessels disable damage detection during playback except for crash damage, so playbacks using the current XR2 version should finish consistently now.
 

blixel

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Note also that you should be at least 10-20 meters off the ground before you raise the landing gear. The playback recorder won't record raising the landing gear if you press the button too soon. I learned this over a year ago, and discovered it again within the last hour while recording a playback. My playback is ruined because Orbiter thinks the gear is down the whole flight. :(

8-13-20137-34-43PM_zps0c160585.png


This is a bit more than just a cosmetic annoyance. Since the landing gear is down, the XR2 temperature readout will (correctly) display that you are overheating the air frame during the entire flight.
 
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Tommy

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You should be able to raise the gear "manually" during the playback by pressing the "g" key - you may need to be in Glass Cockpit mode for that to work.

Alternately, you can add the appropriate entry into the .atc file in the flight recording.
 

blixel

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You should be able to raise the gear "manually" during the playback by pressing the "g" key - you may need to be in Glass Cockpit mode for that to work.

Alternately, you can add the appropriate entry into the .atc file in the flight recording.

I haven't been able to raise the gear in the playback from any of the 3 views. Adding the entry to the .atc sounds like a good plan though. I'll check into that.

--EDIT--

Yep - that works. Thanks Tommy.

Orbiter recorded the GEAR UP event after all ... but apparently there's some condition where it won't actually raise it. My .atc said:

Code:
23.65080059 GEAR UP

I just changed it to 24.65080059 (1 second later) and now the playback shows it raising.​
 
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dbeachy1

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The reason for the landing gear not raising on playback if raised too soon is a side-effect of how Orbiter records the ship's position, which includes altitude: during playback the ship is repositioned each frame by the Orbiter core, so playback is not 100% precise. This can cause the ship's wheels to be in contact with the ground during playback for slightly longer than they were when the flight was recorded. If the wheels are in contact with the ground the XR vessel will not allow the gear to be raised.

I can probably work around this in the next XR patch releases by disabling ground contact checks for gear-up commands if playback is active. I'll look into it.
 

vsfx

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One small correction that you where probably not aware of.
Steve's (agentgonzo's) legendary record run was 995 seconds from "wheels up" to landed at WIN. Including engine start, it was 1005 seconds (16:45).

I've added this to the scoreboard as a second entry for agentgonzo. 19:58 was tough enough but 16:35, that's crazy! If anyone can beat that it will be by a mere few seconds...
 

agentgonzo

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Someone's got to beat my time. Come on folks!

Oh, and vsfx, the max speed for the 16:35 run was 15km/s (GS I think - you may need to check the playback as I don't have orbiter installed anymore)

Edit again: For those interested in the history, here (http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=5727) is the original thread where we all started from. Reading through it and watching the times tumble is quite nostalgic
 
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blixel

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Someone's got to beat my time. Come on folks

I'll be happy if I can match your 19:58 time. I'm getting close. Today I had best run to date, but still did not get wheel stop until 20:39. (Just slightly faster than my 20:53 run in January.)
 

vsfx

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Someone's got to beat my time. Come on folks!

Oh, and vsfx, the max speed for the 16:35 run was 15km/s (GS I think - you may need to check the playback as I don't have orbiter installed anymore)

On the playback you topped out at 14,990 m/s GS. I wouldn't worry about re-installing Orbiter, I don't bet on anyone beating 16:35 :lol:
 

wehaveaproblem

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Nice one vsfx, great to see this flight challenge revived, and with a proper high score table too. I had planned to do this for the ORL stuff, but it never took off enough to make it worth while. Hopefully you will have more luck than I did. Also, as people here know, I have planned a lot of things over the years, but am still relying on my Wideawake fame to hold my head up high on these forums! ;) :lol:

Someone call WHAP. Ascention Island is about to fill up with wreckages of dead Ravenstars. :lol:
...Again.....
Haha, the reef of wrecks from the last challenge is turning into a nice habitat for the local sealife now!

interested in the history, here (http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=5727) is the original thread where we all started from. Reading through it and watching the times tumble is quite nostalgic
Nostalgia indeed... And man, 2008, really? Time flies...

For anyone wanting a little more atmosphere for their flights, remember you can dl the ORL package from OH to add the grandstands to start/finish runways.
 

blixel

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I'm still working to improve my "score", but I'll put this flight on here as a minor improvement over the one that is currently listed. (That was my January, 2013 flight. Speed Run #4.)

I've attached the playback for the flight I'm submitting for my new score. Note that if you use any time acceleration, you will get "Wheel Stop" at a different XR2 MET than if you watch it play at 1x. At 1x playback speed, you should hear "Wheel Stop" when the XR2 MET timer says 20:39. But I've noticed if I warp time forward at 200x-300x to rush through the beginning, I will hear "Wheel Stop" as early as 18:14. (Even watching it at 3x, I get "Wheel Stop" 3 seconds faster than if I watch it at 1x.) EDIT: This is not an XR2 bug or anything, it's just an unfortunate side effect of the way time warp works. You can always get the correct total time of flight by taking the sim time at wheel stop, 1301, minus the sim time at throttle up (60), and then divide by 60. (1301-60)/60 = 20.68

When the scenario starts, you will immediately get a Master Warning alarm because I only have 22 minutes of LOX in the XR2. (Get there on time or suffocate! :)) You can't press CTRL+W to turn it off, but fortunately with the XR2 1.6 update, you can now click the MWS button to turn off the alarm during replays. (Thanks Doug!)

Also note that this playback includes my GlideSlope 2 SubOrbital profile. If you don't have GS2, you can just delete that file.

The zip file is set up so that you can unzip it straight into your Orbiter directory.

To "uninstall" the playback, just delete the "KSC to WIN - Blixel 20130814" scenario file, delete the "KSC to WIN - Blixel 20130814" directory in the Flights folder, and delete the XR2-Blixel.xrcfg in the Config folder.
 

Attachments

  • KSC to WIN - Blixel 20130814.zip
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vsfx

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Nice one vsfx, great to see this flight challenge revived, and with a proper high score table too. I had planned to do this for the ORL stuff, but it never took off enough to make it worth while. Hopefully you will have more luck than I did. Also, as people here know, I have planned a lot of things over the years, but am still relying on my Wideawake fame to hold my head up high on these forums! ;) :lol:

Thanks. This flight takes a lot of patience but it's also intense and a lot of fun. And Wideawake is an great add-on! :tiphat:

I'm still working to improve my "score", but I'll put this flight on here as a minor improvement over the one that is currently listed. (That was my January, 2013 flight. Speed Run #4.)

Updated. Nice flying blixel!
 

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It is intense,I keep skipping out. Dous landing gear damage disabled count as a cheat,it's so sensitive. :blush:
 

dgatsoulis

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My first video; There were a couple of mistakes but overall it was a pretty good run. Timed at 18 minutes 16.8 seconds from "throttle up" to "wheels stop". (XR2 MET counter: 18 min 07 seconds). Max velocity (GS) was 14.62 km/s

I added a lua script to display some info of the run and a keypress logger to show the keys. Flight was made without a joystick.


I will update if I get a better score.
:cheers:
 
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