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Elite Dangerous

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Elite Dangerous

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Flight school: Share your best flying tip!

Posted by Alex Sinclair in Elite Dangerous

It's time to show those rookies how you earned your wings. For this reward, we want you to share your very best flying tip(s) on social media and then share that social media post with us. Your flying tips could be general or they could be related to a particular HOTAS setup or platform. Be sure to explain and justify them clearly. We'd love it if you expanded on your advice on Just and/or included #JustCreators and #EliteDangerous in your social media post, but it's not essential.

If we get enough great entries, we might turn your tips into an Just Elite flying lesson. Fly safe commanders!

Image credit: 'The Endurance' - Frontier Developments and AndyRice as seen in our screenshot showcase of Elite Dangerous landed ships.

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Created at 9:44am, 18th March, 2025. Page last updated at 8:20pm, 17th April, 2025.
Deadline at 11:00pm, 15th June, 2025.

ENDERS 3/19/2025, 3:29:53 AM

I made this infographic recently to help people in my Discord community and Squadron learn how to appraoch a planet properly. They couldn't get their glide stages to activate consistently.

Unlike approaching Space-Stations or orbital starports there is Planetary Landing, something I think people overlook the imporance of.
Yes there is a "throttle down to 50% engines/speed at 0:07 seconds tip" when approaching a body or station but there is also;

SAFE PLANETARY APPROACH GEOMETRY

blurred background — Safe Planetary Approach Geometry... Yes SAFE. Because slamming into a planet is no fun.

An info-graphic showing tips and the proper way to approach and land on planetary bodies. — Safe Planetary Approach Geometry... Yes SAFE. Because slamming into a planet is no fun.

https://twitter.com/BoyOfTheEnders/status/1902199407992295816

Osiliran 3/30/2025, 11:23:10 PM

Using the cargo scoop or landing gear as a space brake is a great flying tip that was shared with me ages ago. Physics doesn't need to be concerned here, haha, but deploying either one of these will limit the top speed of your ship (if I understand this correctly). The best thing is while this is the case, it does not limit the benefits you gain while under boost such as increased acceleration. So, the cargo scoop is quite handy at controlling top speed while still benefiting from the agility that boosting usually provides. I prefer the cargo scoop over the landing gear simply because you can toggle the cargo scoop as a hold button - the landing gear is just a press for on or off. If your ship outfit is struggling for power, then you may need to use the landing gear as your space brakes!

I wanted to share another tip off the back of Alec_Turner's great one about the mouse widget and exclusion zones. For those who absolutely dislike the widget and exclusion zones, you can turn them off and instead use the proximity warning in the top right part of the screen to gauge if you're on a crash course for the exclusion zone. To illustrate I've left the widget and the exclusion zones on. In the top right, you can see a warning of "Impact", which indicates you're heading for the exclusion zone, indicated by the mouse widget.

If you turn off the exclusion zone, you still get a crash course warning via the Impact message:

Handy if you're exploring and you want to remove the exclusion zones and mouse widget or for when a patch causes problems in VR. Just like the exclusion zone, point the nose of your ship away from the star until the Impact message disappears and you should be good to go for your fuel scooping while avoiding the zone.

https://twitter.com/Osiliran/status/1906485911359234292

Eskimo1313 4/12/2025, 5:21:38 PM

https://twitter.com/Eskimo131313/status/1911107086030680111

Whether its for combat or you jumped into the station from the backside and need to turn around these are two good way to turn around

LiquidMorkite 4/10/2025, 5:22:24 AM

It's just some basic control binding tip. On mouse and keyboard you might find it hard to fly at first, that's why a lot of cmdrs start with controller when they're not sure to buy flight sticks or not, it's because the "roll" action is by default binded to your mouse X axis, when "pitch" up and down is Y axis, and "yaw" (pitching left and right) is actually on A&D on your keyboard, which doesn't make much sense to me. By switching the "roll" action to A&D and "yaw" to your mouse, you can pitch your ship all directions with moving your mouse then roll-which is a separated action-to A&D. Hope I explained it well.

Another tip is every ship's command in this game can be binded to a button, except caustic sink launchers, so you can just in example bind your heatsink or thargoid shutdown neutraliser to some buttons instead of having them on a fire group, which reduces the amount of fire groups, making it easier to manage, especially in complexed combat scenario like AX combat.

https://twitter.com/ntcdat/status/1910200167753523480

RPGEmmaB 4/8/2025, 8:40:33 AM

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Frpgemmab.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lmc34z5vts2q

When I was a newer player, I didn't even know this option existed! So I was taking 50 or more jumps just to travel a short distance across the galaxy...
I was soooo happy when I discovered it could be done quicker!

TheNakedRaider 3/30/2025, 11:51:59 PM

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fthenakedraider.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3llmzvlmhcs2i

Never use supercruise assist or perform a loop of shame again!

MrT 3/27/2025, 7:29:31 AM

https://twitter.com/miketuppen/status/1905159320716607827

I can't fly all the time with Flight Assist (FA) turned off, although it would be a great skill to learn, but turning it off just for a little while helps a lot when in combat as you can turn much faster. The idea is that with it off you can turn and face the other direction while still moving in the direction you were previously. This isn't possible with just FA on as it will correct your direction based on how you are facing.

Rac 3/22/2025, 5:20:00 PM

Flight tip for Elite Dangerous

Especially for new traders

Know your ship and your fuel supply!

If you set a route to other systems, you should only ever do this with a fully loaded cargo hold!

Note how far your ship can jump (without fuel scoop) without a stopover to refuel.

From a certain system you will only see a dashed line instead of a continuous line, you should refuel here at the latest!

Pay attention to whether the system is inhabited! No inhabitants = no fuel

Translated with DeepL.com

https://twitter.com/CmdrRac/status/1903496401939759555

USCSS 3/22/2025, 12:50:46 AM

https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1903246906605568147

Configuring the Keyboard and Mouse in Elite Dangerous for Better Flight:

The post contains the full explanation

(Translated with Google Translate)

lionriver 3/21/2025, 6:35:09 PM

Hello Commander and justabout:

I'll leave you a guide on how to take stars without sequences, and some images of some places I've visited with those stars that have helped me along the way.

I've been to all the nebulae or most of the system's bubble, up to the edge of the systems.

https://twitter.com/Lautaroros2/status/1903152687253704908

ayebawl 3/19/2025, 9:58:09 AM

My best flight tip is to install EDCopilot for its extremely useful flight information. The feature I use the most is the additional docking information it provides when landing at larger stations - landing pad one is at 6 o'clock at the front when entering with green lights to your right, for example. I have no idea why this isnt a feature in the main game. Ive never overshot a landing pad since!

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fayebawl.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lkpvvuxyak2l

Alec_Turner 3/18/2025, 8:15:57 PM

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Falecturner.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lkoic25xik2i

Add your social media post here

ENDERS 3/19/2025, 3:31:50 AM

Alec_Turner

I just wanted to say, I don't ever use orbit lines. I see people using them and it seems cool but bugs me too much to keep it on for very long. I get my visuals of the orbit lines in FSS if need be.

Additionally I can't imagine not flying with a mouse widget on, could never bring myself to disable it, its certainly a big NEED imo.

St4r_Lord 3/18/2025, 7:57:23 PM

https://twitter.com/olkomolko/status/1902086765067833454

Tip for flying!

ENDERS 3/19/2025, 3:32:49 AM

St4r_Lord

I actually made an infographic based on NASA charts on this subject recently, I decided to include it here as a submission. :D

Alex SinclairMod3/19/2025, 10:08:54 AM

St4r_Lord

Many thanks for entering the reward, St4r_Lord! We've awarded you a prize! In future, we recommend including a reference to Elite Dangerous in your SM post so people outside of Just know what you're referring to too

psykit 3/18/2025, 6:08:06 PM

If you're in a large ship and you're using a docking computer, don't expect it to just land for you. Especially if you're landing somewhere... tricky.

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fpsykit.tv%2Fpost%2F3lkoauvdboc2n

XCezor 3/18/2025, 1:42:14 PM

Tips are explained in the post, there's really nothing more to add to it.

https://twitter.com/XCezorr/status/1901992262399123674

Sturmer 3/18/2025, 10:15:09 AM

https://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fsturmer-ja.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lkngldn4s22s

I wouldn’t call myself a pro pilot in Elite Dangerous, but one thing I learned pretty quickly: stars are massive and dangerously hot. Stay clear of them else you get trapped and melted!

Caenyx 3/18/2025, 10:10:01 AM

https://twitter.com/MaeSkyonick/status/1901937851992006931

When I first learned how to fly FA off it took awhile but once it clicked you actually gained so much more control of your ship. One of my favorite tip is the quick turn. To put it simply you toggle FA off, boost and yank your ship in a direction then toggle FA on again and adjust your ship direction after. It's alot quicker than doing the whole maneuver with FA on.

uzilei 4/17/2025, 8:20:39 PM

https://twitter.com/uzileii/status/1912962912206958914

I'm surprised no one talks about this, but it's a pretty widely used technique in AX combat.

Going more in depth into those example use cases:

When I'm in front of the mail slot, I usually boost to get in there significantly faster. But there are times where you're misaligned and if you kept going that fast you'd run into the walls. So, lower the landing gear early, you're capped to roughly half or a third of your usual speed, but you still get the acceleration of a boost, to adjust your alignment really really quickly
When fighting something like an Anaconda in a small ship, you usually want to not be in their line of sight. You could "orbit" it from far away, or you could get way closer and still "orbit" it while alternating between boost + gears and normal boost. The amount of control over your positioning when you do that is unmatched.

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