Question Altering VOR ranges to 500KM

[paddy2]

Please excuse me if this seems like a new boy trying to change the rules. I am very new to Orbiter but this is in no way meant to start a flame war.
My question comes from 3 starting points.

1) A lot of Orbiter seems to be based in the future. ( I know there is a lot of Apollo stuff, I watched the boys do their stuff live, so no disrespect intended.)

2) Most craft are landing from very high and very fast entry way points.

3) As opposed to "general aviation", there are few points on the earth where they can / would land. It follows there are few points which they use as waypoints.

My idea would then be to reduce the number of VORs available but give them longer ranges, i.e. 500km.

By commenting out most of the VOR's in the /config/earth.cfg and altering the ranges of others in the south of england, I get a better chance of setting up an approach to london heathrow. Looking at the map of the Cape area is just a sea of Vors.

I accept that I can do what I like to MY installation but I raise this to the kind souls who write the MFD's that I use, to see if this idea has legs.

I know VHF is line of sight, but from 10(plus)km up you can see a fair way. With phased array aerials you could increase apparent power from the transmitter.

Again I accept that using dead reckoning I can ( with your help and MFDs) leave the ISS and land at the Cape, SO LONG as I wait for the exact right time to undock. How do I leave at noon (gmt) and land in india ??

So I am thinking I need 50 Long Range VOR's not 3 in a 10km area.

Hope all that makes sense and I would welcome your views

 

[icedown]

To time your deorbit, you need to use baseMFD and aerobrakeMFD. There are several deorbit tutorials out there to help you learn. A successful deorbit directly to your target takes lots of practice, trial, and error. And every ship is different.

If your just looking for the base direction, you can set the target in your MapMFD and it will show up on the heading tape at the top of the surface hud.

As far as the VOR range, if your doing a deorbit to hit KSC directly, you won't actually be able to maneuver until you are within VOR range unless you over/undershoot your target. Due to the curved flight path relative to the ground while in orbit or deorbiting, trying to actually line up on a radial is useless.

 

[Ripley]

To time your deorbit, you need to use baseMFD and...

The exact name is BaseSync MFD, found at jarmonik's page.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jarmonik/Orbiter.html

 

[paddy2]

Thanks for the feedback gents
Think I am still thinking in "Flight Sim" mode.

I was just thinking along the lines of
"Finish my cup of tea, say bye to the the lads on ISS, pop into the old delta glider and before you know it, having a beer in the flight bar back at good old KSC"

Change mind set and think Orbital!

 

[Rtyh-12]

Basically, you need to do the following:

Make your orbit go over KSC. BaseSync MFD can tell you when to burn for that. Remeber that the Earth is spinning while the orbit is not, so if you are passing right over KSC now, on the next orbit you'll be thousands of kilometers from the base (assuming you're in LEO; the numbers might be different for other orbits).

Burn retrograde when you're 'on the other side' of the base and BaseSync MFD tells you that you'll be right over it in half an orbit.

Use Aerobrake MFD, it tells you where you'll end up if you keep the same AoA/bank. The atmosphere will slow you down and, if you used Aerobrake MFD correctly, you'll stop right above the base.

Land normally on the runway.

Also, this tutorial should help. It definitely helped me :thumbup: