Fast docking

I just want to share a few vids showing how to approach a station and dock fast.

Actually in both vids I messed up the docking part a bit as i was overshooting in the first one and in the 2nd one i hit the outpost landing pad from the wrong angle.

However, I will give a small explanation how i usually do it as docking in elite can be very time consuming.

So here are the vids:

Approaching a station in supercruise actually isnt that hard.... unless you want to do it in a fast way.

Problems are:

• if you approach the station too slow then you loose time
• if you approach the station too fast then you overshoot and miss the stations disengage zone
• if you directly approach a station the chances to face front of the big stations is minimal (you most likely will end behind the station forcing you to fly around it

Important to know is that station docking bays always face in the direction of the planet that this station orbits. That means if you either approach the backside of the station or between you and the station is a big planet.

Thats a given fact.

So the task is to manage to get between the planet and the station when you approach it in super cruise.

There is a maneuver that allows you to do exactly this... and it also allows you to approach the station at (almost) top speed without overshooting. This allows you to dock about 40% faster than with any other method.

The maneuver is called "Helix of death" or "Helix maneuver". In both vids above its shown how it works.

You can clearly see that I approach the station at top speed and that there is this stupid warning "slow down" which is a clear indicator that you are coming in way too fast and going to overshoot.

At around 10secs aproach time I start the Helix maneuver.

I turn the ship so the station gets moved into the upper left corner of the screen.

At 5 secs approach time I reduce my ship speed to 97% (you can not do the helix with 100% -> at least not in an ASP). Thats the perfect speed for this maneuver in this ship.... other ships might require different speeds (I tested a python today and had to reduce the speed to 95%).

However, task is to keep that station in that upper left corner of the screen while still having a very high speed.

This way you cycle around the station pretty fast... getting closer and closer.

If your ship makes loud noises then you are doing it right (it just means that the ship is almost breaking apart, no reason to worry).

This maneuver allows you to slow down your ship pretty fast and get between the station and the planet (it works pretty often ... in the first vid it didnt work actually -> i tried to compensate it by moving the station to the right corner of the screen but it was already too late... but in most cases it works and you have the chance to do small corrections during the maneuver to get into the correct position),

Perfect approach speed is when the approach time shows 3-4 secs (3 secs is fastest - 4 secs is secure speed).

When your distance to the station is at 4-5 Mn you can move the station back to the center of your screen because then you are slow enough to disengage cruise.

Thats it.

How to tell the ship speed?

Well... Ive actually calculated it.

I use voice commands and say something like "slow down" which reduces the throttle by 0.1 secs (which is perfect for the ASP). For the Python I think its required to reduce the throttle by 0.25 secs (thats how long the "reduce throttle" key is pressed).

So how does docking work? (and thats just my personal opinion)

-> as fast as possible

I use boost to get close to the station as fast as possible and get landing permission meanwhile.

Crashing on the landing pad in vid 2 was no accident.

Its the best and fastest way to reduce speed.

I hit the landing pad in the middle and then let the docking computer do the rest (since at this point the docking computer is much faster than me maneuvering the ship into the correct docking possition).

I could let the docking computer do all the work.... that would take ages.

I also could dock without docking computer... yes... thats possible.

But the combination of hitting the station at the right spot and then letting the docking computer do the rest has turned out the be the fastest method.