Star Citizen - How to Land (and look cool doing it!)

Alright, you asked for it and I'm providing it! For those who have requested I make a tutorial on how I pull off some of my landings seen in State of Trade, this one goes out to you. This will cover the building blocks of decoupled landings and how you can add to them to improve your landing game. At the very least, I hope it's enjoyable and you continue to stick around after learning how easy they can be to pull off.
Once again, the astounding music found in this video is composed by the talented Utho Riley, and you can find more of their works at uthoriley.com/
Shameless plug section: If you're considering joining Star Citizen (after watching a landing video? You're brave!) I'd humbly that ask you use my referral code during the account creation process. It helps both of us out and gives you an extra 5,000 UEC to help start your adventure.
Referral code is: STAR-2VXC-DRBY
Or, if you enjoy what I do and wish to support me and the improvement of this channel (I promise making all ofthis takes a lot of time) I have started a Ko-Fi page which can be found here: ko-fi.com/jackaxton

[@generalrendar7290]

Landings are the pride of pilots because there so many challenges to overcome to make it smooth and seamless. I have 1,000 hours as a flight instructor and I still get excited when I nail a landing.

[@JackAxton]

You're right! It's a thrill and there's always that feeling of "Okay this can go pickled real quick despite doing this a hundred times."

[@xtremetuberVII]

"So here's how I---" I SWEAR TO CHRIS, if more people don't get introduced to decoupled mode through videos like this, I am going to cry. It is a hidden gem at this point that was literally the advertised feature of the game!!

[@cossack4930]

This impresses more than dogfighting

[@JackAxton]

You can always combine the two and land under fire. That makes for some spicy landings and maybe make a turret gunner earn their pay.

[@inrevenant]

@@JackAxton with a hammerhead, this will also allow each of the gunners to have a shot before their capacity runs out - and when landed, just repair, and get out there again! :D

[@Cosmoknot]

Dude!! That spinning bail out landing you did with the Cutlass Red was just soo sweet. Great job!

[@JackAxton]

That's my favorite way to land and I have no idea how I am going to top it now! Thank you so much.

[@peex]

As I said on Reddit: Those landings are a work of art (and make your videos so much more entertaining. :) )

[@JackAxton]

Thank you! I know trade data can be...well, dry. I've eaten crackers that were less dry than my scrolling trade numbers, so the occasional fancy landing helps spice it up a bit!

[@EzeSepe]

Four years playing Star Citizen and I am still afraid if using decoupled mode... I´ll certainly start practicing with these landings. Thanks man!!.

[@JackAxton]

I started learning how to do decoupled mode back in the 2.0 days. Dropping people off at Kareah to hack crime stats down while under fire was a hell of a thrill and I started trying out different things. Turns out Drake's dollar store dropship is a great trainer craft for doing unorthodox landings. Definitely give it a go! You'd be surprised at what you can accomplish in a short amount of time.

[@Mgl1206]

Really? I use it a lot, though I hadn’t used them for landing it would be interesting

[@EzeSepe]

I have a serious problem not being able to see where I´m heading to... that´s it put in simple terms... too many accidents and ships lost due to decoupled mode... but I know it is just me... I hve to learn to fly like Terada and land like Jack here.

[@Mgl1206]

Ezequiel Sepetich oh I know what you mean m, judging altitude is pretty difficult surprisingly since the altimeter shows from sea level not ground level.

[@KuraIthys]

@@EzeSepe I do have to say while it's certainly doable, the UI for decoupled mode could be better. I used to do the racing mode ages ago mostly in decoupled, and I always found I lost my markers really easily. (doesn't help that the Arena Commander racetracks have very bright blue backgrounds and I was flying ships with bluish UI). Much experimentation showed me that decoupled mode would work vastly better if both the UI and control scheme were different. But I don't expect either to happen, so we work with what we have. The UI improvements would be to have a permanently visible vector indicator showing ship movement relative to orientation. This should be near the targeting pip. It's especially important to know if you're flying sideways. Basic idea would be to draw a line vector from the pip in the direction of flight relative to your orientation, with the length of the line relative to the speed. Movements that are along the axis your ship is facing are less important, though you'd still want to be able to tell at a glance whether you are going forward or backwards relative to your facing. Key point of this UI vs the existing one is that it's in a fixed location on the HUD thus you don't have to scan your entire field of view to tell which way you're going. (though the existing marker shouldn't be removed, since it has other benefits that my alternate UI idea would not provide, such as being able to see if you're going to impact something in the environment. The control changes are more subjective, but a LOT of racing attempts taught be that what I'm trying to do 99% of the time is control the direction of the movement vector of the ship + the orientation of the ship. The current control scheme essentially amounts to firing the thrusters directionally along the 6 sides of the ship. this is entirely relative to the orientation of the ship. Yet what I'm trying to do when flying decoupled is not related to the ship's orientation most of the time. Thus what I realised (and this also makes twin stick setups easier to make sense of) is that a better arrangement would be to have two control axes that don't cause lateral movement of the ship directly, but rather rotate the ship's motion vector in a consistent way around the ship. Thus one set of controls is used to control the physical orientation of the ship, the other is used to control the heading of the motion vector. (this requires that there be a completely arbitrary reference heading for the motion vector, but that doesn't matter so much; It can be set at the orientation the ship has when you take off, and just maintained relative to that.) This is quite a different control scheme to what we have, but it's essentially what I'm doing mentally when flying decoupled. (except with the current setup I have to keep a mental note of my ship's orientation to know which thruster sets to fire to achieve the desired effect.) I don't expect either change to come to star citizen, so... Learn to deal with what we have. But it's a useful mental model even then. Think of it as rotating two arrows around. One arrow is the physical orientation of the ship. The other points in the direction the ship is moving. It's 'decoupled' because you can control both of these fully independently...

[@citizen_brimstone3113]

I'm rewatching this because I have a fun story to share. I went out to rescue a new player who was stranded on Aberdeen last night. The guy was super grateful and said it was his first interaction with another player. He hadn't seen many ships, so my MSR was impressive to him. When we got to EH, I decided to perform my "fancy" landing for him, one I taught myself because of this video. Basically flipping around the pad from underneath, coming to a rest with the cargo door towards the elevators. Not super complicated but I do it fairly smoothly. The guy was geeking out so hard it reminded me why I love SC so much.

[@ghrcknzr5768]

doing a backflip while landing in lorville damn bro u must have big balls... u just earned a sub nice vid

[@JackAxton]

The Pisces is one of the best stunt landers in the game. Not to mention that the lift gate is so tiny that it can deploy on the stairs of outposts, meaning you literally don't have to touch the ground if you have packages to deliver. And thanks for the sub!

[@ironman98]

@@JackAxton Dang, and I just upgraded my Pisces to get a Cutlass Black with LTI. :/ But, thanks for showing most of this video while using that ship, I feel confident I can probably learn with that. :) I also have an Aurora, and a 300i which I could try out.

[@xander9460]

Landings aren't cool without a flaming explosion

[@JackAxton]

My insurance agent begs to disagree!

[@xander9460]

@@JackAxton What if I told you it's the enemy ship going up in a blazing inferno in the background. After knocking him out over the landing site in a sick dogfight. Who had a massive bounty on their head. How does your insurance agent like that

[@wild_lee_coyote]

The fact that you do this with just keyboard and mouse is even more impressive.

[@delando9003]

Hey! KZbin recommend actually worked out for once. As a new ish trader in the verse your videos have been so helpful. And now I can look good doing it thanks to this! You sir have earned yourself a sub

[@JackAxton]

Hey, thank you for the sub and good luck with trading! It's rough out there when it comes to cargo hauling.

[@gatorpika]

Thanks dude. You just created a whole new generation of pad rammers as they try to learn your skillz. :) Nice stuff. I always liked decoupled landings because they felt more like actual space docking. I never really tried trick landings, but just coming in decoupled and thrusting and counterthrusting to align and land was somewhat more of a challenge than "full powa" then hit autoland.

[@JackAxton]

Hopefully they're only ramming the pad they've been greenlit for! Besides, CruSec does it all the time anyway. And yeah, decoupled landings just feel so much better. Smoother, softer, and just overall better looking.

[@robotspartan9100]

00:41 a'ight, that was bloody impressive. Bravo sir, bravo

[@JackAxton]

Thank you! I got lucky with that one, the servers have been awful about letting ships maintain speed and vector after leaving the pilot seat.

[@ewetmill]

Amazing!

[@PeterGrace2013]

At R+R's I always back my caterpillar in because reversing out seems to be harder than reversing it in. I can't believe I never thought of doing decoupled mode -- line up for the bay, decouple, spin the cat reversewise and bobs your uncle. Great tip, thanks.

[@JackAxton]

It's my favorite way to land at those and it gives anyone in the tractor control room a definite show. And I know that feeling, I hate backing out of those with a Caterpillar.

[@jeromeblanchet685]

i'm obliterated , puzzled , atomized , vitrified , you are my hero !

[@gordonaucie8158]

The best landings I’ve ever seen

[@3dVisualist]

Superb advice, thanks. A new reason to use decoupled mode!

[@danny1229c]

Caught your live stream by random on Elite Dangerous last night so decided to check out some of your stuff, it's refreshing to see somebody who makes vids not only land without going to 3rd person every five minutes but pull off stunts like this ;) great spacial awareness and understanding 👍

[@sandroguettner]

Thank you ;) its so much fun to learn new stuff to pilot better and get used the the decoupled mode.

[@dennisgoedbloed5445]

Just been playing SC for a week: never seen anything like it. Great!! Enjoyed this very much and will be decoupling soon!!

[@dethfactor]

Decoupling was always a thing I more or less avoided outside of doing low orbit fly-bys. Time to get practicing. Thanks for making this!

[@JackAxton]

Hey, you're welcome! I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to it.

[@Les.The.Occasional.Aviator]

Completely and seriously AWESOME! One of the beginner videos I watched mention the Coupled button, but said there's no reason to ever use it. You've proven them wrong. And looked cool doing it. SUBSCRIBED and NOTIFIED! Thank you.

[@Baleur]

0:55 this is the most incredible thing i've ever seen.

[@JackAxton]

I got that on the first take during a stream and I cannot tell you how elated I was to pull that off...because I have scuffed plenty of them.

[@Acidmonk603]

Landing with style (or landing upright) is a high bar for me but you have given me some great ideas. Thank you!

[@JackAxton]

Hey if you can land upside down and get back in your ship, that's a neat landing too! I might go try that.

[@LeeAndrewVideos]

I usually land like this in many games I play, but I never would have thought of doing it in SC. I was amazed when I saw you do it during the live stream with the MSR.

[@pandahsykes602]

Star citizen is amazing. Can’t wait for the MMO server mesh , full on persistence and some aliens / creatures .

[@mredgeworthvii]

The second the game quits freaking out and I have access to any of my ships again, I'm practicing these. Had no idea any of these were possible, cant wait!

[@kanascastle4097]

This was a fantastic tutorial! Great delivery and visuals! Well done!

[@MatthewLombardi84]

Very inspiring. I also appreciate the PvP advantage it can give. Great vid.

[@Temnis]

Very impressive! I will practice this! Thank you!

[@korbenjoseph3276]

It's amazing the great content you find hunting pirates. Much love brother 💛

[@kaedron17]

Thanks for the very informative video on decoupled landings :)

[@RicoZaid_]

Brilliant work.

[@jamesdavis4009]

Amazing! Thank you for this!

[@JonMcMenamin777]

That landing at Kareah blew my mind. That was beautiful. I am going to spend so many hours practicing this!

[@JackAxton]

It used to blow a lot of other minds at Kareah, but that also involved using the Arrowhead. =) Glad you enjoyed it! Practice and you'll have it in no time it's easier than it looks by far.

[@adenry7755]

Loved this. Will have to give it a go.

[@ptb2007]

I love this video Jack, I have been practicing like mad!!!

[@Erad_Prime]

Awesome Jack. I'll def. give it a try!

[@kaijuseansy8122]

awesome presentation! awesome skills!

[@DasPibe]

Excellent! Thanks man. Now let´s try...

[@KhairulFadzlyAKarim]

Thanks Jack, I finally did it my first landing as you’ve shown in my Prospector (without Quantanium ofcourse) 👍🏽

[@JackAxton]

Noice! And yeah, always...always without quantanium. I learned that the hard way the other day and blew myself up *and* sent myself to jail.

[@no-target3152]

Brilliant. Gonna give it a go.

[@dannystratyys4002]

Damn dude! That was awesome! I really enjoyed watching this video. Thanks for the knowledge, I look forward to practicing these combat landings. Subbed

[@ArcOfFireGaming]

WOAH! That is going in the training manual for my Org! Thanks for the video!

[@olli9876]

Awesome guide, thanks a lot for sharing it! I will definitely practice those decoupled landings with my ships the next time I log into the verse.

[@JackAxton]

Thank you, and have fun with it!

[@Anachroschism]

Fantastic tips!

[@pidginmac]

👍 cool tutorial. Can’t wait to start flying

[@marko93ns]

This is amazing I absolutely love it. I will practice and practice until I perfect it!

[@rifasmohamedniyasudeen5227]

tried this technique and it works, now I need to learn to do the backflip back entrance style that is really cool

[@JackAxton]

Sorry Rifas, I'm just now getting my youtube comment notifications. The backflip is...difficult, at times. I wreck a lot doing it.

[@epereyralucena]

i thought decoupled mode was like cruise control "keep your ship moving even if you get up", but this changes everything damn

[@Torquessf]

Great tutorial on landing. Need to start practicing using decoupled mode more.

[@JackAxton]

Thank you! I pretty much live in it now. Coupled is used for braking faster near the ground or to 'correct' my heading quickly before lining up for something.

[@MrPantheraUmbra]

Dude, this is amazing, it never occured to me I could exit before my ship lands, intact.. I have to try this as soon as I get home from work. Btw great choice of music! There are so many good SC youtubers but they use ingame music which lets be honest sounds so lonley and depressive and hard to watch especially if there is topic I don't care as much. This was really pleasing to watch - amusing landing skills + lightly upbeat music = win ^^

[@magicalpancake]

This was so cool to watch definitely going to try, thanks for the video!

[@sango754]

Man, these landings would make Han Solo jealous. Thanks for the tips and time for me to start practicing.

[@TumBear]

Absolutely awesome 👏.... cheers on the tute. Flew FA off in elite and loved it, although never landed FAO...

[@JackAxton]

I tried landing once with FAO inside the Coriolis style stations. I was paying insurance about 20 seconds later.

[@TumBear]

@@JackAxton after watching this I jumped straight in my gladius and did some decoupled landings at Everus... Piss easy and great fun. Thanks again... It's like a mini game now.. 😂😂😂

[@JackAxton]

Yes! See, that's what I'm talking about! Good on you, and welcome to decoupled landing!

[@CaptianJ]

Incredible stuff Man! Fr

[@ErsahMajor]

Mr. Axton, thank you for the video tutorial.. I will be practicing like crazy now to master landing at PO.

[@JackAxton]

You are welcome! And side from very minor IFCS changes and decoupled being affected by gravity, most of this still works in 3.10.

[@ErsahMajor]

@@JackAxton Been struggling with flight since we were first allowed to actually "fly" in-game. I've always wanted to be able to land "Han Solo" style in SC, but have lost count how many times I've crashed and burned trying. :P Your method looks like it will suit my needs (with more practice) so I can become a better support/drop-ship pilot. Most impressed.

[@Rocketeer843]

This is so awesome !

[@JackAxton]

Thank you! It was fun to put together.

[@peterlamers1829]

You are awesome as always......

[@OutlawCaliber13]

Didn't understand decoupled mode until this. Thanks. I'm working on my landings, being fast with them. Doing cargo runs, so trying to get through it as smoothly as possible with all the back, and forth. I ain't happy till the fat lady dances--i.e. my Andromeda. lol

[@Flyironman822]

Damn this is sooo cool, I’m gonna try this 😃 Thanks for the video 👍

[@solarasolarwind4323]

That was beautiful dear!

[@JackAxton]

Thank you!

[@H4wK333]

Nice video Man, nice tips!

[@fredashay]

WHOOP! WHOOP! Terrain! Terrain! Pull up! Pull up!

[@AlbandAquino]

That Cutlass Red landing was SICK ! :D

[@JackAxton]

Thankfully it's got two AutoDoc med beds in the back to fix that!

[@Captain_Max]

Very impressive! I'm still working on quickly stopping while in decoupled mode

[@JackAxton]

You've got two options here actually. If you go to settings, disabling proximity assist will help apply stronger braking when closer to the ground. I kind of enjoy PA though, so I like to feather the Couple/Decouple key multiple times, giving me quick braking and then switching back before it affects my trajectory too badly.

[@Atljeepboy]

Sweet ! Thanks

[@MindBurntDE]

great video and great tutorial. Thanks for the work 👍

[@JackAxton]

Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@Jigoogly]

Bravo. You are gonna go far.

[@JackAxton]

Only if I don't slow down in time!

[@Marcusstratus]

Thanks for the tips, even if I'm not doing tricks, there's some good advice on making a smooth landing.

[@JBGecko13yt]

Very cool tips, flying is frustrating lol still new and learning.

[@Serra12]

Perfect!

[@marktvcturner2448]

That was brilliant. Thank you! Mongrel Squad suggested to check out your youtube. Well worth it.

[@OrcActual]

I always recouple right as I'm about to land. Gotra grow a pair and try these!

[@pippipylup8106]

About the "airstrip-like" landings: if you're going for realism, you would want to flare (raise your nose right above a completely parallel position) so that the rear legs touch down first, making your landing more stable, and reducing the possibility that you land on your front leg, causing you to lose balance and swing off to one side source: been flying RL flight simulators for years, and have studied how to land properly

[@FlorianAalderks]

Very cool!

[@cmdrdiamondfast1162]

Just started playing this about a month ago, and I am enjoying it a lot. Only wish it had native VR, and more freedom in Quantum Flight.

[@CaptainSaber7]

Great tute! Keeper!

[@h.t.fosterchen7989]

stylish. I like.

[@xdakiXtritex]

Amazing video

[@Havak37]

Loved it

[@StaffordHarriman]

Another awesome vid! I'm newly inspired.

[@nunshorts1]

Thanks for helping dude! Keep it up.

[@spcrowe]

Very cool

[@Artemis0713]

Imagine having to work there though, dealing with all those "Stunt pilots" grinding their ships into your perfectly maintained landing pad, or once again attempting in a carrack and carving out 10 meters of deck plating from your pad.

[@m4_patriot374]

Im so glad I found you

[@JackAxton]

Hey man I'm glad you found me too!

[@vanguardgaming704]

Awesome Video!!! Thank You...

[@JackAxton]

Hey, thank you!

[@solidsnake665]

It's soo impressive

[@SpaceMike3]

Disgusting showoff. I love it. Great work man I learned stuff.

[@blacknass1943]

excelent ! nice work

[@JackAxton]

Thank you!

[@fiercemonkey1]

cool! finally someone who can land just as good as i can! for reals homie good video. to many new bros out there arrow into the dirt on there landings, its nice to see some help out there for them. Decoupled is indeed the best way to land with a smooth touch. i fly all the time in decoupled mode and it is like what video said; its very important to know when to and when not to decouple. keep up the good work sir and i hope to see more quality content in the future! cheers m8 o7

[@JackAxton]

I cannot even land in coupled mode now, it just feels...stiff, you know? It's either jittering close to the ground or just slamming the ship in to the pad. Decoupled fixes all of that for me.

[@F4ir8or]

That first unmaned spinning landing made me laugh so hard xD Nice video. Will definitely try this.

[@shmokenjoe]

Absolutely gorgeous 😍

[@JackAxton]

Thank you!

[@kinsierobakahn3385]

Nice video, very impressive.

[@t.k.8815]

This will be an introduction in star citizen when u going to make your first flight 👌

[@serald7254]

Thumbs up, @JAx - thanks for sharing

[@JackAxton]

And thank you for watching!

[@Malachiasz1983]

I can't wait to impress my wife with this awesome landings!

[@JackAxton]

Do it and let me know how it goes!

[@MooneShadow]

Wow this is amazing g

[@veiss8801]

Another smooth landing! Quality videos

[@JackAxton]

Thank you! I only wish that frame rates would cooperate sometimes. You go to do a landing and it ends up being smoother than your frames.

[@AWARHERO]

Amazing!