Atmospheric Reentry

I know most of you use TVM or reverse thrust when re-entering the atmosphere, which to be honest uses rather alot of fuel. Using aerobraking requires VERY little fuel and can cut down on the cost of a sub-orbit flight greatly. You will have to fly this manually, but once you have cracked it, you will never look back

Ok for this help section I will assume the following -

-You are flying between 100 - 120km alt

-You are travelling at roughly 5.600km/s

-You are NOT carrying cargo (which changes the distance at which you start to slow down dramatically)

Deciding when to drop

Ok first you must understand that the atmosphere has no effect on your vessel until you descend below about 70km altitude. And since you are not in the atmosphere you cannot use the air to brake ( Are you starting to see what we are going to do? )

If you are travelling at the specified speed and altitude, you will want to start to descend at around 1500km from your target, you want to aim to be hitting the atmosphere at between 850 - 1000km from your target.

The best way to descend in a controlled fashion, first set your trim to 0! and use your vertical thrusters. In order to do this starting using your roof mounted thrusters to push yourself into a descent. A sensible descent speed when going down to meet the atmosphere is about 0.300km/s

If you sense you are going to overshoot your target because you are too high think about increasing that rate of descent to about 0.500km/s.

It is important that you DO NOT let that descent rate increase above 0.600km/s or you are at high risk of burning up the atmosphere.

REMEMBER it is NOT your FORWARD speed that will kill you IT IS your RATE OF DESCENT.

Meeting the Atmosphere

Ok so at about 850 - 1000km you are just starting enter the atmosphere and you are now starting to pick up IAS airspeed. You will notice your speed both velocity and ground speed will start to decrease ever rapidly as you descend.

At this point you need to make sure your wings are level with the horizon and your pitch angle is no more than -5 degrees. When you are more confident and want to slow down faster feel free to go in nose first. But it is dangerous and I dont reccomend it till you know what you are doing. You are aiming to go in *belly first* so to speak.

The TWO MAIN instruments you need to pay close attention to now is your VSI and your J which is in the left MFD.

Slowing Down

You will also notice that as you descend and slow your rate of descent will start to decrease and head towards a positive rate of climb. This basically means that you are now picking up lift from the oncoming air, and at your current speed that lift is so powerful it is pushing you right back up!

There is a way to combat this and keep your rate of descent constant or to your desire.... by rolling 90 degrees left or right you can maintain the descent rate that you wish to hold. I suggest that you alternate your roll left and right at intervals so that you do not drift too far off course.

It is IMPORTANT that you DO NOT roll inverted, this will cause your rate of descent to increase VERY rapidly and you are very likely to burn up!

All the while during your rolls and manuvers keep watching that J number in the left MFD, this is how many Gs of acceleration\deacceleration your are pulling from below your vessel. I advise that you do not allow this to get further than 5.000 or -5.000 or your will start to lose health and parts of your ship will begin to break away. The same goes for K which is the force in Gs from the front of your vessel although you can let this get up to about 12G I DONT advise it unless you know what you are doing.

As you reach about 3km/s ground speed look at your distance from you target... if you sense you are falling short, roll level and point your vessel at the horizon, this will reduce the level of slowing that is being placed on your ship, do not be concerned if you start to gain alt due to lift, and do not try to fight where the air is taking you with pitch too much. You can then glide a bit further a then try to lose some more altitude when you feel you are at a good distance... I would say you want to aim to be about 350 - 450km away from your target before continuing a descent and brake from 3km/s

Once you are down to about 1km/s you can start thinking about using your ptch controls to gently ease the velocity vector down towards your target vector circle. Your ship will continue to slow gently from here and you can apply power as and when you feel it is neccesary.

If you made it down safely WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS! You just completed your first safe operational aerobrake!! go and get a drink and celebrate!!!

Pointers to Remember:

- Dont fight the lift being placed on your vessel with pitch or thrusters you will risk overstressing the airframe and losing bits from it, and causing pilot death. However if you need to help slow your DESCENT RATE, thrust downwards and use a little positive pitch to reduce your rate of descent.

- DO NOT ROLL INVERTED

- If you are going to overshoot, no problem, stop manuvering and level out, ride the lift and begin your descent again when you are ready.

- DO NOT scramble to get on target in your first few attempts if you overshoot or come short SO WHAT?!?! the main thing is you need to be in one piece to be pleased with what you just acheived, you can work on getting on target with practice.. safely!! getting on target is not to promote expansion of your e-genitals!

- Your instruments are your friends, they will show you when danger is approaching, not the window.

- STAY CALM AND DONT PANIC!

- Need further help just ask

- On your left MFD the following letters mean:

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J --- The force in Gs from below your ship

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K --- The force in Gs coming from the front of your ship

Thanks for reading this tutorial I am not fabulous at writing such things and I hope I have not rambled too much and actually HELPED you

Anything anyone wishes me to change or add please tell me!