Flight Plans

Flight Plans

A Flight Plan is a whole flight written as one step per line. You (or the AI, or a template) write it in the AICS Flight Plan panel, check it, and press Fly. The bridge then works through it step by step: planes with its own autopilots, rocket steps with MechJeb.

[INTERCOM] Bob (Sci): A plan! We have a plan! ...Does the plan have snacks in it?

The panel

• Templates: Cruise + circle (take off, climb, cruise, a few laps around the field, land), Out & back, T&G circuit (touch and goes), and Orbit (MJ).
• Ask AI + AI fill: describe the flight ("take off, climb at 50 m/s, circle the KSC 5 times, then land") and the AI writes the steps into the box. If the AI rambles, a simple rule-based reader turns your request into steps itself.
• From chat: turns your last chat request into steps. Asking in chat ("make a flight plan: ...") also drops the plan into the box.
• Check reads the plan and points out problems without flying it. Fly checks it strictly, then runs it.
• Stop ends the plan after the current step. The autopilot that's flying keeps flying; use Abort to drop everything.

The status line shows the step that's running, and the panel's indicator is green while a plan runs.

Step grammar

One step per line, upper or lower case. Anything after # is a comment.

Planes

takeoff
climb 3000 m agl vs 50 speed 200
descend 1000 m agl vs 20
cruise hdg 090 alt 3000 m agl speed 180 for 2 min
cruise for 40 km
circle 3 laps right bank 20 around field radius 5 km
fly to Island Airfield alt 2000 m speed 150
land Runway 09 tg 2
taxi to Runway 09 start speed 8

The bits in each line after the first word are optional. tg 2 means two touch and goes before the full stop. Circling without around banks in place and counts the heading change; around field, around KSC or around <spot> flies a circle around that point. Fast planes need room: at 320 m/s the circle is over 50 km across.

Rockets and orbits (MechJeb)

ascent 80 km inc 0
circularize
transfer Mun
warp to soi
warp to apoapsis
course correction 30 km
set ap 2863 km
set pe 32 km
inclination 6
match plane
apsis longitude -74.6
station keep lon -74.6
deorbit 30 km
land ksc
land here
chutes

Any craft

wait 30 s
science
science no transmit
stage

Overrides in a plan

Plans can carry the same overrides as chat orders (see Captain's Orders):

override bank 45 *       # asks you in chat when this step runs
override speed 400 ***   # pre-authorized, no question
authorise all            # every override and limit question applies without asking
override off             # back to the defaults

An unmarked or * override asks "Override ... for the rest of the session? (yes/no)" when the step runs. No answer within two minutes means no, and the plan carries on with the normal limits. The same goes for speed-cap and safe-ceiling questions inside a plan.

When the AI writes a plan, its overrides are always the asking kind. An AI-written *** is downgraded to * and authorise all is dropped unless your own request said *** or "authorise". No AI hands itself a blank check.

Sidry: "Authorise all" means I get to fly it how I like. Bob, put your helmet on.

A complete example

# Island hop
takeoff
climb 2000 m vs 40 speed 180
fly to Island Airfield alt 2000 m speed 180
land Island 27 tg 1
takeoff
fly to KSC alt 3000 m
land Runway 09