Speaking of unpowered landings....

[Napalm42]

I hit the same milestone TMac did just a few minutes ago. I brought back an XR5 safely back home to Wideawake from my station at 262km without firing my engines once on the decent, touching down at a somewhat jarring (but well within safety parameters) 6.5 m/s. I promptly allowed myself a moment of pride.

That is all, back to building my station.

 

[Cras]

Good job!

 

[Pale Blue Dot]

That's great! It feels really good to be able to pull that off. Great job :thumbup:

 

[TMac3000]

It's easy to do, once you figure out all the numbers...
The hard part is figuring out all the numbers It seems to take a buttload of trial and error.

Well done! Shuttle-style landings are a rewarding experience indeed

 

[Napalm42]

It's easy to do, once you figure out all the numbers...
The hard part is figuring out all the numbers It seems to take a buttload of trial and error.

Well done! Shuttle-style landings are a rewarding experience indeed

For me, it was mostly a feeling thing. I had the Map and Aerobrake MFD open at the same time, monitoring my approach on the Map, and keeping the two "pins" on Aerobrake aligned as much as possible. Even when I started to decelerate hard at around 50 KM where I normally disengage and fly a standard approach, this time, I decided to keep it going as long as possible.

I managed to keep a synchronized landing on Aerobrake until around 43 KM, where I slowed below mach 5, and started to stall. There, I immediately disengaged and found that drag was naturally slowing me down, and that with my current distance, I'd be able to swoop in without aid. That was awesome indeed.

 

[TMac3000]

Mach 5 is a checkpoint for me. That's where I look out the side window to see how close the base is. If it's too close, I'll pitch way up (like 60*) to decelerate faster. If it's too far...well, then I'm screwed

If everything looks good, I let it ride until Mach 2, where I turn off the autopilot, cut a hard left (Cape Canaveral ), and start my approach.