XR Flight Operations Manual Version 3.0
Copyright 2006-2018 Douglas Beachy. All Rights Reserved.
31
6.
The computer will call out
100 knots
, then
V1
(which is
Takeoff Decision
Speed
), and finally
Rotate:
pull up when
Rotate
is called out and press ALT-S
to engage Airspeed Hold, or throttle back to about 40% manually. As the
ship goes airborne, by default the computer will call out
Wheels Up
, which is a
pilot term that means "the wheels are off the ground." It does
not
mean that
the gear has been retracted.
NOTE: you can change or disable the liftoff and
touchdown callouts by editing
your vessel’s configuration
file; refer to the
LiftoffCallout
and
TouchdownCallout
properties in the file for details.
7.
Once you are airborne raise the gear with
G
. Turn smoothly to 136 degrees
(or whatever your ascent heading is), level out, press SPACE BAR to
disengage Airspeed Hold, and push the main engines to full power. Pitch up
to about 70 degrees.
Do not engage the SCRAM engines yet!
As you
accelerate you will hear a sonic boom as you pass through Mach 1 unless you
have disabl
ed the sonic boom sound in your vessel’s configuration
file.
8.
Once you approach 24-28 km altitude, level out smoothly and begin to
accelerate to Mach 3.5 (XR1/XR2) or 4.5 (XR5) and open the SCRAM doors if
they are not already open (CTRL-G, or use the switch on the upper panel)
Adjust the elevator trim controls to maintain level flight (
CTRL-.
and
CTRL-,
or
INS
and
DEL
). Once you reach your target velocity, push the SCRAM engines
to full power and gradually throttle back the main engines until they are shut
down. Keep an eye on the thrust generated by the SCRAM engines; if you
throttle back the main engines too soon the SCRAM engines will not be able
to accelerate the ship by themselves. Adjust the elevator trim controls to
maintain about +100 m/s
(meters-per-second)
ascent. If you want to you
may engage the
Attitude Hold
autopilot at this point (
CTRL-L
) to maintain a
smooth ascent profile.
9.
As you accelerate uphill keep an eye on the
Dynamic Pressure
gauge: it
should read about 35 kPa at 24 km at Mach 4. Adjust your climb rate via
elevator trim to gradually decrease dynamic pressure until it reaches ~10 kPa
at 40 km altitude. Then adjust elevator trim or Attitude Hold settings to
maintain 10kPa.
Note: you may need to adjust your ascent profile somewhat
depending on the vessel you are flying and its payload
mass.
10.
When the sky becomes dark switch your secondary HUD mode to mode 2
(press the
2
Secondary HUD button or press
CTRL-2
on the keyboard). This
will switch to a transparent HUD with different data fields useful during
ascent. Remember that you can customize each of the five secondary HUD
modes via
your vessel’s configuration file.
