Captain Vlad

I hadn't built one before I saw this post, but the OP inspired me to tinker with the idea a bit. Made for a fun couple hours, kerbingamer, so thanks for that. The final product of my efforts was the X-11. Initial problems included a long take-off run (center of thrust wasn't where it needed to be), insufficient range to reach the island (my goal) and other minor issues like turning to one side of the other while accelerating to take off. That's all stuff I could fix without any drastic modifications, so the final result still looks very much like the prototype. One of my early test flights revealed that the thing was actually pretty buoyant! The successful version, though, made it all the way to the island. I didn't use constant power though...I'd boost up to 2000 meters and glide down a bit, then repeat. I misjudged how much altitude I still had to lose at the end though...it's one of my more common piloting problems...and didn't have any fuel left to turn around and try again, so I popped my chutes. I'd decided beforehand that any safe landing on the island was a success, though, so...I was happy. I really wish they had powered landing gear wheels so I could taxi her into the hangar.

I established my first space station! The ship docked to the girder is my rescue pod for 'save the orbiting Kerbal' contracts. She also served as the delivery vehicle for the very girder she's attached to. The buzz I got off getting the station in orbit then docking with the add-on is...so why I play this game.

You can have my early flights to the North Pole when you pry my dead, frost-bitten, polar-bear gnawed fingers from them.

*fingers crossed for cargo bays, just so he has someplace to put all his spaceplane's batteries and RCS fuel*

That moment when you, after three or four minutes of trying to figure out why your turbojets aren't spinning up, realize you never put any air intakes on the plane.

I hope so. I don't use it for planes much, but I love it for rovers.

I put radio antenna on everything I build because I can't stand the idea that my Kerbals can't talk to mission control. I will sometimes send no science crew reports home, just to establish that communication is taking place.

Bizarrely, my own google searches turned up...nothing. Thanks!

A while back I saw a photoshop thing someone had done. Jeb under massive acceleration with KSP-style lyrics to a variant on the song '99 Problems' (...I've got 99 boosters all in stage 1). I've looked and looked and can't find it again. And I really want it as my smartphone background. Any points in the right direction would be appreciated;)

That feeling I get when I take a Kerbal where no Kerbal (or at least none of mine) has gone before, or when I do something I've never tried and pull it off, or when I do something I have done before, but think of as challenging. This is one of the few games ever that can make me honestly nervous.

I wanted too, but decided that such a device sounded like a Kerbal killer when my usual inability to accurately use RCS thrusters is taken into account. So instead of a command seat, I used a probe core on top of two small cylindrical RCS tanks, weighed it down with the smaller science equipment and the tiny landing legs and attached it to the top of my usual Minmus lander. It worked. Basically. Sort of. I did something wrong with the docking ports and couldn't re-attach the probe. On the other hand, I flew it around and collected lots of science which I then had Jeb and crew collect before they blasted off, leaving the probe on Minmus, resting on its side cuz it's leg footprint was way too narrow. In retrospect, I wish I had used the spherical tanks alongside the cylindrical ones to provide a wider landing footprint like I assume you did. I may try that for the next mission...the spherical tanks might shorten it too...it was so tall it my lander a bit more wobbly than usual as I designed it.

I agree with the idea it looks like a barely-maintained but still 'functional' country airfield. Like one where the guy they paid part time to mow the grass has to run the cows off the runway when a plane's coming it. I also wish you could refuel or something there, and that there were more little (or big) airfields scattered about Kerbin. Still, even as is it's a fun place to test your landing capability, etc...I even stuck a flag on the top floor of the control tower as a 'beacon'.

Worked on my next Minmus lander, which I'm building to include a probe-core driven floating drone with thermometers and seismic and gravity sensors. I'm sure someone's got a really nice one up somewhere, so I'm deliberately not looking at pictures of such ideas to see how what I come up with compares. With the changes to the little orange radial engines I was able to reduce overall part count, since I used eight of those on my lander stage. Just need four now. Could use the new parts to build a new lifter for the mission, but the multi-stage asparagus setup I'd been using for that worked really well so I'll likely just keep it.

After a couple days of tinkering, I finally got my SSTO into orbit. The X-7 flies! It was far from the ideal mission. I used up all but a tiny fraction of my fuel boosting from 22,000 meters and saved just enough to de-orbit. I had to finish getting my periapsis to 70K with my RCS thrusters, and then had just enough rocket fuel left to get said periapsis low enough to aerobrake. I couldn't adjust my landing area prior to re-entry and came in over the ocean after two 'slowing down' orbits. Still, I've gotten rovers faster than this thing is willing to glide, so Neilden got home safe (without most of the rest of the jet, but safe). Now I just gotta figure out how to do this with enough fuel to adjust orbit, dock and have some jet juice left when it's time to come home. But I feel like I overcame the biggest hurdle tonight. Yes, I know this is all old hat to a lot of people here. Picture is Neilden jetting around, checking for damage or something.

I actually got quite a bit of use out of the jet tech in career mode. The best thing about a jet, to me, is that you can land and take off again, allowing you to sample multiple biomes on the same trip. And then when you unlock new science tech, you can go do it again. This turned out to be especially handy in situations where I didn't QUITE have enough to unlock something. Kerbin's science multiplier is low, but sometimes it's great to jump in a jet, run out, and get the five points you need for rover wheels with a barometer and a thermometer on the side of your cockpit. I do wish you could get science awards for doing 'faster, farther, higher' type stuff when in-atmosphere. Never get a jet to Mach 3? Be awesome if passing that threshold netted you a few points (more if you didn't end the trip in a fireball).

I like all of my little guys. I make sure each one gets to do something cool occasionally. Bob did my first successful orbit. Jeb did my first Munar flyby. Bill did my first Minmus flyby. Of the non-original three, Donby took my first jet to the north pole and survived a crazy rocket disintegration early in my career game, so he's my 'lucky' one. Jonnie Kerman on the other hand, managed a 1.5 km spacewalk between two ships that hadn't had their orbits entirely matched (I hadn't learned to do that yet and had to rescue him), so I give him the really crazy assignments.

I think it was poor control surface layout on my part, actually. So Bill's in the clear on that one. I also freely admit I get attached to the little fellas. Had serious problems replicating my 70,000 meter ascent after repeated follow-up test flights and concluded I'd done something different the first time. Figured out I wasn't adjusting my climb angle with altitude and so I kept losing lift near the 'fire the rocket!' point. Made some modifications for better air intake (ie, slapped two more intakes on), and adjusted my flight profile, which helped immensely. If I'd had a little more fuel, I could've got a periapsis, I think, but as it was she flew halfway around the world. Ran out of oxidizer before she ran out of fuel...I may have to ditch the stock-craft style fuel lines from the jets to the rocket...though that actually doesn't seem like it'd do any good, thinking about it.

Here's one for two people: When you're eating at Dairy Queen on your lunch break and text someone about revisions you're planning to make on your spaceplane. And they listen.

Took my first SSTO spaceplane attempt to 70,000 meters on its first flight, but didn't have enough oxidizer to complete the orbit.*snaps fingers* On second flight, with only slight tweaks and the same flight profile, I entered a supersonic flat spin at 18,000 meters and watched as she disintegrated in rather spectacular fashion. On the other hand, my cockpit jettison/parachute system worked well, and Bill can surely buy a new pair of pants. I also had a difficult time explaining to the woman why I yelled 'Talk to me, Goose!' at the computer during that incident.

Lately it's been obsessively designing Mun landers. I pay precious little attention to my lifter and spend two hours trying to perfect a relatively light-weight three-Kerbal lander. I'd understand this obsession more if I hadn't managed one that worked on my second Mun mission attempt. Instead, I'm not satisfied and keep making slightly different ones to see if they work better/are more fuel efficient.