Hi Enjo,I am kind of confused about using direct acsent,in the playback folder you have three scenarios 1. direct acsent phase 1. 2.direct acsent 2nd phase,and 3. direct acsent 2nd phase syncro,Ok here is where I get confused. when I use the 1st scenario direct acsent it gets my DG-S up to the ISS,but there is no 2nd phase,and I can get to about 300km from the ISS.
Phase 2 is an extension of phase 1. If you grabbed steers right after the phase 1 playback ends, you'd be in phase 2 or phase 2 synchro, whatever DA mode you choose. They are alternative ways to perform the manouevre. The synchro mode is needed, because the first mode is impossible to perform when you cruise with like > 4 km/s.
The two modes can be switched with the DEF button on Direct ascent page.
Now the phase 2 scenario has the DG-S cruisng along waiting for the ISS to catch up with it,and the text says turn AP on and wait for Delta T to go to 0.
Interceptor said:
OK,when I see the Delta T start lowering, I turn off the launch MFDs default autopilot,and press mod button twice to turn on direct acsent AP,and I also turn on the COR button,and finally the AP button again,and the ship goes crazy heads for the ground,and crashes.What am I doing wrong?Thanks:shrug:
This is another source of confusion. Currently the MFD doesn't store AP using/not_using flag in scenario (playback) file, so after the playback starts, you have to click on the AP button to get the correct readouts.
To make things clear, immediately after you launch and get into more or less correct direction, you should enable the DA AP and the COR and keep them, because they are specifically programmed so that they will always try to keep you "under" the target's plane, even if you go beyond it. You may notice sometimes that the DA AP suddenly turns you 90* right, then after some time 90* left. This meant that you got over the plane (from south to north), then, after some time of turning 90* right crossed it (from north to south), and finally, you have to reallign by turning 90* left, and slowly to the right (you can see it on the Map MFD). It's all done automatically only in the DA autopilot (not in the standard one), so be sure to enable it as soon as you can.
The cruise speed is intentionally not controlled by the AP, because you might be using DG, DG-S, XR, or DGIV that all have their own specifics. Besides, as Cras noted, at least initially, you want to lower the cruise speed to make the intercept happen sooner. In short - cruise speed and trim control is always left to the user.
Make sure your RINC is zero. When that is zero, and your Delta T is getting close to zero, pressing the autopilot button should then cause it to pitch up. It also controls the engines.
Zero RINC increases precision, but it's the DA AP that helps you keep it that way. You could try to do it yourself by following the flight director of course, that would have exactly the same effect as using the AP, plus human error, but I didn't predict the manual use case and the RINC correction works only when the AP is on. I'll try to provide a fix for that.
And an another tip-o-the-hat from my own experience:
When you use the regular DA mode, once the orbital insertion starts, you will notice that the ship has a hard time pitching up to the target pitch, because it's neither in thick atmosphere, nor in the space. You can help it by using the numpad to reach the target pitch, until in space. This greatly increases precision, and leaves more space for the main engines to correct the interception time.
If anything is still unclear, I'm happy to answer, and thanks for the thumbs up
As far as previous bug reports are concerned - I didn't forget about them and I will look into them when I have some free time.
