NZFF

Ok, so since there was some interest to see more, here is the reentry, decent and landing phases of my Shuttle mission. Like the launch, I was very impressed by this aspect of the sim as well, things evolved as you would expect, I didnt realise it actually took so long to return to earth. Most of the process is automated, you just need to enter computer programs and the shuttle flys until finals, then your on your own. Flying brick is about right.

Initial deceleration, we have just started to hit the atmosphere..hold on kiddies!



Pleas ensure your tray tables are up, and your seatbelt is fastened..




Things are starting to warm up a little in here...




Nice view...




Wow, we are a shooting star...Doing about Mach 14 or so here, maximum velocity and falling 14,000 ft a second +





And then we are in the atmosphere proper, you wouldnt know it at first but suddenly we start to cool down..phew, looks like well make it





And then just when you thought you WOULDNT loose your breakfast, program 305 mission control tells you to punch into the computer has the shuttle making steep banks to loose speed...




But we are on track, the neat thing is you can monitor the decent process on the panel. Initially I was coming in slightly off centre and steep, these displays helped heaps to get things on track.



Coming home, here at 310 feet and mack.8, some more steep turns coming up before we hit the glideslope...




All manual now, HUD helping us down..



Gear down and locked..



Well there you go. I havnt shown my landing, the brick stopped flying about 300ft short of the runway

WOW that dose look brilliant B) Welcome home Endeavour

Shes a great sim Ian, well worth a look given what you have sitting in your lounge

Nice shots of the HUD does it have an AoA indicator or is that those 2 triangle shapes either side of the FPM?

JonARNZ  Posted on Jan 1 2007, 11:05 AM

Shes a great sim Ian, well worth a look given what you have sitting in your lounge thumbup1.gif

Hey Jon , idea ?
I'll thro a Radio Control unit into it , get my brother up in his hang glider up to release it and with your Shuttle flight experience , get you to bring it home safely:lol:

And if U dont make it She'll Burn up well

Ian Warren wrote:

JonARNZ  Posted on Jan 1 2007, 11:05 AM

Shes a great sim Ian, well worth a look given what you have sitting in your lounge thumbup1.gif

Hey Jon , idea ?
I'll thro a Radio Control unit into it , get my brother up in his hang glider up to release it and with your Shuttle flight experience , get you to bring it home safely:lol:

And if U dont make it She'll Burn up well

That could be an interesting combination... more like a train wreck waiting to happen if I was at the 'wheel' me thinks... 'Oh the humadity!'

Brilliant screenies Jon, I particually like 6th and 9th from the bottom

Wow thats awsome, It amazes me how the atmosphere is so hot yet you cant even see it with the human eye....

that panel looks prety complex Pity about your landing, I suppose its like all the times iv tried landing a heavy aircraft with no engins, its hard to judge how its gana glide..

Is it possible to save during a flight so you can practice things like the approach over and over with out having to do the whole thing? I suppose there would be...

Thanks for posting Jon

I suppose I will be ignored

Jimmy, the programme has 4 differant scenario set ups Launch, orbit, Re entry and landing. So you can try one of those set ups or go for the whole thing B)

Wow thats awsome, It amazes me how the atmosphere is so hot yet you cant even see it with the human eye....

The atmosphere is not hot its called Ionisation When a object travelling in the vacum of space at 17500 mph suddenly hits the Air Particles that surround our planet the more it hits the more friction is created which creates the fireball effect and if you happen to hit at the wrong angle you either skip off the atmosphere or burn up

If they could reenter slower then there would be no Heating and glow, BUT they need to maintain 17000 mph to be able to create a stable orbit, the energy needed to slow to a none heating phase is enormous and literally a waste of energy.

Boils down to physics and as a famous Star Trek Engineer once said "You canne change the laws of physics'

Thanks for that, I like physics stuff jsut a pity I don't really have clue about anything lol Hopefully I will one day.....
So all the particles in the atmosphere cause the heat.. so theres no particles or anything in space then, jsut empty? hmmmm

Probably something to do with friction as well, you rub two objects together and you get heat, the faster you rub the hotter it becomes... hmm,anyway, as the shuttle hits the atmosphere at speed hey presto, heat. Just like concorde use to heat up and expand at high altitude and speed.

Now given Dreamweavers excellent answer, I could be talking a load of bollocks