jsfalconero

If you're looking for a good video tutorial I'm going to recommend one by Scott Manley (who gets a lot of love around here because he's usually pretty good about these sorts of things) that should help with the concepts and provide a decent visual walkthrough of the process. I can't remember if he says it in this video, but one bit of advice that I think is quite helpful is to try for Minimus first -it's just easier to land on than Mun. Here's the video...

That's Ok, it's a big daunting universe out there. If you can make a stable orbit, try making a flyby of the mun. The idea is that you want to get close enough to get captured by the mun's gravity well then just sail on past and collect science the whole way. To do that set up a maneuver node on your Kerbin orbit such that the angle made by mun, kerbin, and your spacecraft (With your craft at the base, Kerbin in the middle, and mun to the right) then increase the prograde vector by around 1000m/s. Your orbit should cross the mun's and as long as your planes are aligned you should get an encounter. You can fine tune it until you're happy with everything then execute the node. You'll go flying off to the mun and pick up a ton of science if you play your cards right. Then once you escape the mun you can burn retrograde to drop your periaps into the atmosphere and boom! Successful mun flyby! Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

The flameout threshold for the turbojet engines is roughly 0.01 intake air per engine. If you click on the resources indicator during flight you can watch the intake air drop toward that point. Of course, intake air is also a function of speed/altitude. Generally I allow myself a safety margin of around 0.02 when I'm at my jet service ceiling. Another trick if you have 4 or more jets (generally not a good idea, but sometimes necessary) is to toggle one set of jets off on the same action group as your rocket engine -you can sometimes gain a bit more jet they thrust that way before you need to kill the second set of engines and close your intakes. You'll need the rocket engine(s) firing though, as usually one pair of jets won't be enough to keep your TWR high enough to offset drag.

I don't think you can view them aside from modding -at least not easily. One option might be too quick-save (F5) then press your number keys to see what they do then quick-load (F9, press and hold). It's kind of silly but it would work. If you've the time you could also go back and load the craft into the VAB/SPH and have a look directly at the action groups there.

Ooh, along the lines of another moon/Magic Boulder, we could have a moon orbiting another moon... They could call it... moonception!

You know what would be an awesome Christmas present? Magic boulders for everybody! Ed: Blast! Ninja'd again! Brain, y u not be faster!

Adding to the above, they've recently included a patcher (under the main KSP folder or accessable through the launcher) that will update the game without disturbing your current saves. As long as an update doesn't break saves you can update that way and keep your saves without any added effort. Personally I like to start fresh each time, but it's another option for next time. Also, you can move individual crafts between saves by looking in the ships folder (under VAB or SPH) finding and moving the craft. That way you can build a ship in one save then launch it in another, or build a ship you like and use it in all your saves.

Yes, it's all about the atmo. When you have a craft with an orbital path that takes it within the atmosphere of any planet (or a certian radius of any airless world) the game assumes that it will be slowed down by drag (or hit something) and be destroyed, parachutes notwithstanding. Thus the wayward craft/debris are summarily deleted. The exception to this is craft that are within 2500m of the craft you are actively controlling. Within that distance the game will start calculating the actual physical forces on the craft rather that making assumptions about what it will do. So as long as you either stay within 2.5km of the 'science bombs' or follow each one down (provided the next one doesn't enter the atmosphere until the first one touches down) your idea is quite solid. Have fun with it, you should be able to rack up a LOT of science that way! Ed: curse you fat fingers! Your sloth has permitted the ninjas entry!

Congratulations Lieutenant! Same goes to all the first time planetary landers on this thread. Keep up the good work! Once you've mastered the art of interplanetary transfers the whole system opens up to you. Are you in career or sandbox mode? I'll be honest, I literally visited every moon in the game before I even tried for Duna on my career save. You're quite likely doing better than I am!

Blast! Forgot the Kraken! Thus... To the tune of Jingle Bells: Kraken strikes, Kraken strikes, sometimes people whine Sitting on the launching pad and everything's on fire, oh 666 666 altimeter reads Now I'm at the speed of light on an impact course for Eve

To the tune of "Oh Come Oh Come Emanuel" Oh come oh come recovery crew And save me from this desolate moon I really want to make it home 'Cause all my snacks are now gone Chorus: Rejoice, Rejoice, Jebediah's on his way With chips and salsa I will eat today Oh come and bring your extra delta-V And land within 1km from me If need be I'll extreme EVA To get the snacks you've toted all this way Chorus I probably could make it home from here I've been sitting here for over a year I could try to throttle up and leave But Alas I'm not Scott Manley Chorus Oh Jebediah how did you crash too? All that I saw was your can of Goo Go flying past at escape velocity Now Where's the snacks 'cause I'm hungry

There's something weird going on with the brakes at the moment to where they don't fully work unless you click on them (bottom right of the altimeter). Time was that you could press B and toggle the brakes but now I think it's just a momentary pulse of break power. Typically you should be able to stop within a few hundred meters of the point where you touch down. The other option is to have an intentional crash, but one that's survivable. What does it matter if the plane is destroyed (at least at this point) at least you get to see the Easter Eggs! Good job on getting to the island runway. Keep it up and you'll be flying to other spac... other Easter Eggs.

Everyone's given good advice. I'm by no means an expert pilot, but I've mucked around enough with SSTO's and Seaplanes to figure out a thing or two. SAS was one thing I'd forgotten. It's immensely helpful, but don't forget that when you make a major attitude adjustment you probably want to hit "f" to reset it, otherwise it will tend to drift back toward your original heading. That's in the air. When it comes to landing, I wouldn't try for the landing strips straightaway. Instead get the feel of landing by shooting for the plains around KSC. The first thing to master is just 'hitting the ground without HITTING the ground." Once you can reliably land on a flat(ish) plain then it's time to try lining up with the runway and coming in for a landing. Start at KSC (make a short flight out, maybe 15km, then turn around and come back the way you came), try to land from about 1km in altitude (the runway is at around 80km, so bear that in mind) and once you can do that, THEN try for the island runway. The island is rough because it has hills around it, and the strip is about half the length of the KSC runway. I still have trouble with it and I can land a plane on the KSC runway from about 1km out and 30km in altitude (going 1200m/s) but that was foolish to try and I don't recommend doing it.

Yeah, crashing planes is easy, flying them is a little harder. The thing is that engineering plays a role as well. If your airframe is not well balanced you can easily turn too quickly and lose control. It can even happen in stable aircraft like the Aeris (as the wreckage scattered all over my spaceport can testify) but happens less frequently. One suggestion I have is to try using fine controls (bound to the Caps Lock key) -you can still oversteer using it, but it should lead to less "instant death" incidents. The other thing I suggest is the banking turns that have been suggested elsewhere. Roll to between 45 and 90 degrees (I'm going to assume 90 since I tend to be a little aggressive with my rolls and always wind up at or past 90) then pull up. Your nose is at 90 deg to the horizon, so up is actually sideways. If you find that your nose is dropping you can turn left or right (with the tail... a or d depending on the direction of the turn) which when rolled 90 degrees becomes up and down. Airplanes love to move the nose up and down relative to themselves since they have the wings to really help move along that axis. When flying it helps to remember that and try to steer by making "up" move you in the direction you really want to go. Hope that helps! Also, I would avoid trying to land until you're confident in your ability to steer in flight. But that's a lesson for another day

I just had a go at reverse engineering it. My center of lift wasn't too far forward. My first attempt had too little dV -had to circularize with RCS, but it made it. Fun little plane, but it is a tad tricky to fly, and it can't glide to save your life (RIP Jeb, lol)