What have you learned to do without an autopilot?

[Starhawk]

I'm curious which piloting tasks people have had the play-time and desire to learn how to do without an autopilot.

I just recently executed my first successful gravity assist, which took the longest to learn of the items on the list for me.

Happy landings!

Edited February 23, 2015 by Starhawk
grammar/clarity

[TimePeriod]

Autopilot is many things. Are we discussing MechJeb or just old fashion SAS?

[Starhawk]

Autopilot is many things. Are we discussing MechJeb or just old fashion SAS?

I was thinking of MJ or any other similar system.

[Thomas988]

Yup, everything on the list except gravity assists. I have yet to do a single one of those. I don't like the idea of playing with an autopilot, just sounds cheaty to me. (That my opinion, guys!)

[PetahSchwetah]

[deleted]

Edited January 28, 2022 by PetahSchwetah

[WhiteKnuckle]

I was thinking of MJ or any other similar system.

Oh... then all of them.

I can see MJ being useful to get rid of the tedium of doing your 54874615712th launch, but IMO you should know how to do everything yourself before handing it over to an autopilot. You learn more, become a better player, and know how to handle things when something bad happens.

[Norpo]

All of them. I've never even installed mechjeb, let alone used it.

[Robotengineer]

Yup, everything on the list except gravity assists. I have yet to do a single one of those. I don't like the idea of playing with an autopilot, just sounds cheaty to me. (That my opinion, guys!)

Same here. I have MJ and kOS installed on my install, but just don't use them.

[RAINCRAFTER]

All except the fixed location landing.

[grawl]

All of them, but gravity assist. I tend to let fate decide if I'll be lucky enough to get that Jool moon assist or not.

So, despite I already made it, I do not consider I've "learned" to do it.

I didn't learn anything from an autopilot.

[Wallygator]

All of the above. Never installed mechjeb. Never.

[Ten Key]

Autopilot. . .that's what happens when it's three in the morning, the coffee's starting to wear off and you're flying along on muscle memory alone, right?

I've checked everything off of that list except for the gravity assist.

[vixr]

Never used MJ...learned everything From Scott or the hard way.

[klgraham1013]

All of the above.

[Daze]

Well... ALL! Hahah

[Tank Buddy]

As with many of my other opinions, whatever makes you happy makes me happy. I personally found that doing everything myself is the best way for me to learn, but if you don't have the time or just aren't interested in flying, go ahead and use autopilot.

[KSK]

Bleh - clearly I'm posting too late or with insufficient caffeine on board because I ticked off the two options that I haven't yet learned to do which are gravity assist and precision landing. And I figure that I know the principles behind a gravity assist, I've just yet to fly a mission that needed one. Other than that I figured it all out sans autopilot.

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I do everything without an autopilot MechJeb.

[TeddyDD]

I can do everything from this list manually but sometimes use MJ for repetitive tasks or for high precision maneuvers like gravity assist (and I do not mean Mun > Minimus flight, rather something like Kerbin > Eve > Duna)

Edited February 23, 2015 by TeddyDD

[Starhawk]

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I'm actually more curious which things people think are worthwhile to learn.

[SkyRender]

I've never once used any autopilot, and can do all of the tasks listed in the checklist and thensome. Of course, I have something of an advantage over many players in terms of how much time I've had to master those skills, admittedly...

[regex]

I'm actually more curious which things people think are worthwhile to learn.

Everything. MechJeb is a great tool for dealing with repetition, and is a great program in general, but, IMNSHO, it shouldn't be considered a learning device or a replacement for getting your hands greasy. That being said, it's only my opinion.

[zarakon]

I've done all those things (except intentional gravity assists, just never bothered) without autopilot and also without maneuver nodes

[kookoo_gr]

All of them expect gravity assist. MJ is only used for info at my flights. I learned doing the above tasks since when i started playing KSP i didn't know how to install mods and alsoi liked the challenge of doing certain things by myself for the knowledge of it. But even when i installed MJ i only used it in order to know how to use MJ and then once in order to build a space station since i was bored to manually fly for the nth time a delivery run.

[Vashts]

there's an autopilot?!