Klapaucius

I'm all for props as well. I think it is the biggest gap, not just for planes but also for Duna probes. There should be both piston and turbo-prop options. Perhaps the first engine on the tech tree could be a Kerbalized variant of the rotary that was on the Sopwith Camel--complete with torque issues :-) I like the way Firespitter does it with the size and blade # configurable in the SPH. I'd also like to see a counter-rotating prop option so we could make things like these:

In this game, if you can salvage the situation at all, that is a win. The fact you got her back into orbit at all is pretty amazing.

This does not answer your actual question, but since there has been some plane discussion, I thought I would contribute . Feel free to ignore it right now if is is not your priority As someone who found himself over the last year building a lot of planes, I've learned a few things. 1. Landing on the runway is really hard to start. So, forget the runway to begin with. The area around the KSC, both on Kerbin and Gael, is large and flat. On Gael as well, the "Island Airfield" is located very far inland on a big plain. On Kerbin, the area around the Dessert Airfield is perfect. If you have the DLC you can start from there and just try putting your plane down anywhere on the surrounding terrain. This allows you to first learn the approach without getting overly worried if you are drifting left or right. 2. As @HvP stated, you want a shallow approach and at least under 80 m/s. When I was first learning to fly, my mistake was landing at too high a speed and/or descending too quickly. (I do not use the navball for landing--I eyeball it usually from a side view, but that is a personal preference thing. Find what works for your) 3. I almost always just kill my engines completely on approach. If I find I am losing too much speed a quick tap of the Z key and then back to nothing usually gives me just the boost I need. 4. You can bleed off speed by nosing up a bit and then letting yourself back down. Ideally, you are just a bit nose up when you touch down. 5. Kerbal Engineer is a great mod if you don't already have it for many reasons. For landing purposes, it has a readout that shows you your altitude over terrain as well as sea level. This eliminates a lot of the guesswork when landing, since the stock readout is based on sea level. 6. Finally, practice using a known entity--like one of the stock KSP aircraft (though they are not perfect) or something from KerbalX. A lot of what makes a successful landing is plane design. Most of the tweaking I do in building my oddball aircraft involves getting them safely on the ground. I really like this plane: https://kerbalx.com/DarkLion/Soarcerers-Apprentice. You cannot really build a plane that will land well until you know how to successfully land. Finally, @bewing mentioned amphibious solutions. Check out some of the craft from my amphibious challenge. It might give you some ideas.

Which kind of goes back to my original post. A stock KSP hose system with a dedicated small part that looks like a fuel cap. I kinda wish they would take a look at a few of the holes in the parts catalog (like this or props) rather than re-jigging existing engines.

I, like many of us, have my own personal in-game rules of what I allow and do not allow. The mod simply gives me a good option, and I can impose my own restrictions on what works or does not for me. I can already see me making sure I only attach to a fuel tank (and not just any body part) and probably I would also impose on myself a rule that the Kerbal must be able to access the fill location (whether from the ground or via ladders etc.) I tend to upload a lot to KerbalX and I like to keep things stock not only for the challenge it puts on me but also for share-ability. So it is a balance, and this seems to be a good compromise. In the real world, no one refuels planes by putting a docking port on them and driving another one up and attaching it.

I had never heard of this mod, so I looked it up and watched KottabosGames's video on it. That is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I love the fact that it only requires the mod part to be on one ship, so I can create a tanker to fuel all my stock aircraft rather than adding parts to everything. This is a really elegant solution. Will it work in 1.6.1?

Actually, the developer moved the Island Airfield to a totally different location. It is at -71.88524 Longitude, -1.52562 Latitude. You cannot really see the icon in the picture, but it is pretty much dead center. And just for fun, I Mission Buildered my submersible airplane to the underwater dish. It's around 500 meters deep.

After a pleasant night out camping, the crew of the Umberto plane woke up to a lovely sunrise. A short hop to the Mesa South dish and some barnstorming around it before a trip back to KSC. The tank was a bit emptier than hoped but they made it okay.

I'd like to see a stock refueling solution that does not involved docking ports or the claw. I realize there are some mods out there, but this seems like a pretty core concept. It would be great , for example, to transport a drill to refine ore somewhere on Kerbin and set up a refueling station. I land my plane there, and a flexible hose on refueling station tank is available to fuel my craft--perhaps attaching to a (very) small filler coupling part. Similarly, that same setup could be created for spaceplanes on Duna or Laythe or for wherever. The main thing is to not have to either: add docking ports--which require very precise alignment, or just fire claws at things--which is a bit against the spirit of things and not very precise. As an addon, it would be nice if the Kerbals have the ability to pick up that hose and move it. Right now they can walk and fly aircraft, but they cannot pick up stuff.

I am happy to report that the 1.6.1 update has fixed the issue!

I tend to build only in stock because that's my thing...but there are a few non-part mods that I think make life better. If you don't already have them: Kerbal Engineer WASD Camera Editor: This allows for a lot more flexibility in the SPH and VAB for maneuvering around your craft with the camera for part placement and turn on Advanced Tweakables in the setup menu. This allows you to see fuel routing, stiffen you craft and use "autostruts" which act like invisible EAS4 Strut connectors. Learning about that changed everything for me. Again, you may already know about these, but I thought I would post just in case

Just decided to plop down for it. He seems like a developer worth supporting and I am keen to see where this goes. I'm not sure when I will have a chance to get to it, but will post a few notes on the forum when I do.

Thanks for that. I looked up the video. It looks great, and more impressive was the developer responded to several questions in the comments section. He seems very passionate and switched on. I think this will go far.

Well, I did not know you could embed debris into the ground. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but it is kinda cool. Alas, it was a bug that lead to this (with some poor taxiing to be fair, but I would've gotten away with it!). Valentina discovered too late that the thrust reverse action group on her previously reliable plane had been disabled. I was worried she had died in the explosion, and was relieved to find the intact cockpit. Yet ANOTHER rescue for my increasingly Keystone Cops attempt at my own challenge.

http://reentrygame.com This came up on my discovery queue on Steam. Has anyone tried this? It is still early access and was only released in November, but it looks quite cool--not that I need anymore games in my library.