Quick Start

Quick Start: your first flight in five minutes

This assumes you've done the Installation and the report test worked. We'll take a stock plane up, fly it around a bit by chat, and let the autoland bring it home. No mods beyond kRPC needed for this one.

Sidry: Five minutes. I've had sandwiches that took longer. Let's go.

1. Roll out

Launch the stock Aeris 3A (or any plane with wheels and real wings) onto Runway 09 at the KSC. Press Alt+K to open the chat. You can drag the window by its title and resize it from the // grips.

While the chat box has focus, KSP's keyboard controls are locked, so pressing Space won't stage anything by accident. Click outside the window to fly by hand again.

2. Take off

take off

The bridge reads your plane's mass and thrust, picks a sensible starting throttle, rolls down the runway, rotates at the right speed and climbs out on the runway heading. The STATUS window (open it from the AICS menu header, Alt+J) shows what it's doing.

[INTERCOM] Bob (Sci): We're moving. We're moving FAST. Is this the fast part?

3. Fly it by chat

Try these one at a time and watch the plane respond:

climb to 2000
heading 090
speed 150
report
turn left 90
circle here
level off

Each of these is a Captain's Order: the bridge understands it directly, so it works instantly even with a small local AI. The pilot answers in the chat, for example Sidry: Heading 090, Captain.

Feel free to ask normal questions too, like "how much fuel do we have left?" or "what's the stall speed of this thing?". Those go to the AI.

4. Land

land at KSC

The autoland picks runway 09 or 27 depending on which side you're coming from, flies to a long final on the extended centerline, drops the gear late (drag costs fuel), flares and brakes gently once all the wheels are down.

The first time a particular craft lands, it flies a short slow-flight test at altitude to measure its stall speed. That number is remembered, so later landings skip the test. Don't panic when it slows right down at altitude. That's on purpose.

[COMMS] Bill (Eng): If it starts flying really slowly at three kilometers, that's the test. If it starts flying really slowly at three meters, that's the landing. Different thing.

5. If anything looks wrong

abort autopilot

That stops every bridge autopilot and hands the controls back to you, no questions asked. (Plain abort also fires your ABORT action group, so it asks yes/no first.)

Rockets, if you have MechJeb

With MechJeb2 and kRPC.MechJeb installed, put a rocket on the pad and ask in plain English:

launch to an 80 km orbit

The AI calls MechJeb's ascent autopilot. Later try circularize, "transfer to the Mun", or deorbit and "land here". The bridge checks delta-v before landing burns and refuses if the numbers don't add up (you can tell it to go anyway).

Where next

• The full list of direct commands: Captain's Orders
• Propeller planes and helicopters: Autopilots
• Plan a whole flight and press Fly: Flight Plans
• Meet the people screaming in the back: The Crew