XR Flight Operations Manual Version 3.0
Copyright 2006-2018 Douglas Beachy. All Rights Reserved.
49
WHITE
OVER-TEMP! The hull will likely fail within a few seconds if heat
is not reduced. The hotter the hull gets, the more likely it is to
fail.
Remember to keep an eye on your internal coolant temperature as well, which is the
gauge on the right-hand side of the display. (This was detailed earlier in the
Walkthrough: Launch from KSC to Low-Earth-Orbit
section.)
Descent Hold Autopilot (Hovering and Landing)
XR vessels include a highly accurate and efficient
DESCENT HOLD / AUTO-LAND
autopilot that can hover or hold a specified ascent or descent rate within 1/100th of
a meter-per-second (0.01 m/s). It is MDA mode 1; use the MDA arrows and click
the
Engage
button, or use
A
to engage it via the keyboard. This high-precision
autopilot replaces the stock
Hover Hold Altitude
autopilot.
NOTE: before engaging the DESCENT HOLD autopilot, be sure that the hover doors
are open: if the hover doors are closed or if you close them with the hover engines
running, the hover engines will shut down and the DESCENT HOLD autopilot will
disengage. You can toggle the hover doors with CTRL-V or by using the switch on
the upper panel.
DESCENT HOLD Autopilot Engaged
You will notice there are three sets of
SET RATE
arrows labeled 2.5, 0.5, and 0.1.
Clicking these will adjust the configured ascent/descent rate by 2.5, 0.5, and 0.1
meters-per-second, respectively. You can set any rate between -990 m/s and +990
m/s.
Also notice the
HOVER
and
AUTO-LAND
buttons:
HOVER
will reset the rate to 0.0
m/s, and
AUTO-LAND
will switch to auto-landing mode to efficiently and smoothly
land your ship. If you attempt to engage
DESCENT HOLD
but the ship is too heavy
for the hover engines to maintain the requested ascent or descent rate you will
immediately receive a warning message stating that there is insufficient hover thrust
available. For example, you will get this message if you attempt to lift off from Earth
using
Realistic
hover engine settings (this is set in the config file) with more than
about 50% fuel remaining.
