Quick Start

TestFlight Quick Start

This page will get you up and running with TestFlight very quickly, allowing you to use the system and enjoy playing with it. It will not cover some of the more advanced topics or controls.

Important Terminology

I won't hit you with everything right away, but there are a couple of things you should know to best understand what is going on.

• Base Failure Rate (BFR) There are a lot of numbers under the hood that drive things, but they are all derived from this. Every part supported by TestFlight has a config file that defines what its base failure rate is for a given amount of flight data. When you actually fly a craft with supported parts on it, the base failure rate of the parts on that instance of the craft are set at the time of launch and do not change for that flight.
• Flight Data As you fly supported parts, they automatically collect flight data in data units (du) and that is transmitted to your ground control teams. This transmission is a hand-waving behind the scenes thing that uses no power (in fact uses no antenna!) and happens automatically. Just know that your flight data is collected whether you recover your craft or not. The more flight data you gather, the lower your base failure rate will be for those parts on the next flight.
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) The MTBF is a common enough term that you have probably heard before. It is simply a measure of the average statistical time between failures of a part. It is important to understand that this is a statistical number. A part can certainly fail before that time and can certainly fail after that time. It is simply a way of indicating an average reliability. Note that the displayed MTBF is based on the base failure rate and will never change on a part during flight.
• Momentary Failure Rate (MFR) While the base failure rate is fixed at time of launch and will not change, things can occur during the operating cycle of a part that cause its failure rate to temporarily increase of decrease. This moment to moment reliability is known as the momentary failure rate. It is the MFR that is displayed when you show failure rate. A really good example is a rocket engine. When you first ignite a rocket engine there are a lot of stresses going on in that engine and its momentary failure rate increases, sometimes sharply, for the first few seconds and then lowers back down to its base failure rate. It then stays there for a period of time known as the rated burn time which is basically the amount of time the engine was designed to be able to run continuously for. When that time is exceeded the momentary failure rate will then start to slowly rise again.
• Master Status Display (MSD) The Master Status Display, or MSD, is how TestFlight communicates part status to you during flight. In it will be listed all the parts on your current craft that are monitored by TestFlight and it will indicate various stats and their status, as well as buttons to repair a failure should one occur and it can be repaired.

Your First Flight Test

Enough with the boring up front stuff. If you are like me, you learn by doing. So now that we have the terminology out of the way and you should know what i'm talking about when I say "Notice the MFR on the MSD", let's do!

I recommend running through this quick start with a brand new sandbox game. TestFlight is certainly supported in career mode, in fact I think its best played there, along with the awesome RP-0 mod, but sandbox will make it easier to rapidly try out the things we talk about in this guide.

So go ahead and start up a sandbox play, jump into the VAB and build a very simple rocket with a single stage, and use a supported engine. If you are playing Stock then most all engines should be supported. If you are playing in Realism Overhaul, then less are supported at this time (but I'm always adding more!) and I would suggest something early like an Aerobee Sustainer or X-405. Put that rocket together then meet me on the launchpad.

Before you launch that amazing rocket, let's get a brief overview of TestFlight now that we are in what the game calls the flight scene. On the stock application launcher (aka toolbar) you will see a new icon that looks like a little rocket ship. Clicking that button will open up the Master Status Display (MSD) for TestFlight, so go ahead and do that now. Yes by default the window is rather large. There is a lot of data to display! You can however customize this window a lot, but we won't worry about that in this quick start. Just know that you can. If you click the chevron at the bottom of the window that will open the settings. Do that now, and ensure that MTBF, failure rate, and Part Status are enabled. Then close the settings by clicking the chevron again.

Now go ahead and launch your rocket and as you do pay attention to the MSD. Assuming your engine doesn't fail right away, note how the MTBF remains constant, but your failure rate jumped up at ignition and is now dropping. Your engine is more likely to fail in this initial run up time. Again assuming your engine hasn't failed, after a period of time you should see the MFR stabilize and stop changing. You are now through the run up and into the normal operating cycle of the engine. If the engine manages to keep running through all of that (which it probably won't if you chose to use an Aerobee or X-405), then after a bit you will see the MFR start to climb again. You are now beyond the rated burn time of the engine and your failure rate will be increasing.

Now note the flight data you have been collecting. It will be listed in data units (du) and will continue ticking up as long as the engine is running. If the engine fails, you will stop receiving data until such time as you fix the failure -- if possible.

Lastly keep playing until your engine fails. If you are lucky (or unlucky?) you might need to do a couple flights. Once you do have a failure though, note that the MSD is showing you on the right hand side what the failure is, and one or two buttons have appeared. The first button "A" will always appear. "A" stands for acknowledge and basically means you acknowledge this failure. It doesn't mean much in this Quick Start, but I wanted you to know what it means. We'll cover that in another section. The other button that might appear is the "R" button. This is the Repair button and lets you attempt to repair the part. The button however only appears if a repair can be attempted, and that depends on the specific failure and its repair requirements. Regardless of whether the button is shown or not, mouse over the name of the part in the MSD. A tooltip will appear that shows the repair requirements of the failure. Requirements that have been met will be shown in green, and requirements that have not been met will appear in red. Optional requirements will be shown in yellow. Optionals are in deed optional but give a bonus to your repair chance if met.

Once this flight is over, ending in either disaster or success, do another launch with the exact same rocket. Before launching however, open the MSD and note your flight data is not 0 this time. Your flight data from the previous flight has been recorded, and you will also note that your MTBF has increased, at least slightly, and your failure rate has decreased.

Welcome to TestFlight