Recovering landed stages

[SpeedDaemon]

I've found that using a standardized recoverable SSTO boost stage makes it much easier to be consistent with the landing.

In my case I primarily use it for putting ~20T station modules in orbit, so it always begins its de-orbit from a 130km circular equatorial orbit, which also makes things easier. (I know that it takes exactly 100m/s burn at 160 deg E to hit KSC)

It's expensive (70k funds for the booster), but at 98% recovery, it's still difficult to be cheaper, even for fairly small stuff.

If you can standardize your boosters, and flight test a few standard pre-return orbits, you can be pretty consistent and not have to drag stuff across the surface.

[morganchane]

Thanks for the kerbalx vehicle suggestion, I'm going to try it out and report. 

My attempt at heavy lifting heliquads resulted in failure as I had a hard time with the flight modes and balance, but I'll give it a try (I pilot rc drones and gliders IRL so I guess I have to mostly get my thumbs translated to WASD and such, which brings to mind I might want to attach my Radio simulator to KSP somehow for analog control ). 

Regarding standardized boosters yes, absolutely, I found that although fun, I resent having to retry launching stages again and again because the cheapest thrown together booster couldn't cut it. 

I currently have standard SSTO boosters for 1-3 Ton, 6-8 Ton, 15 Ton and 15-20 Ton (With Stage Recovery compatible SRB assisted first stage), and a 30-40 Ton booster. They all range in cost between 10K and 100K but dragging them back to KSC to recover nets only spent fuel as a real expense, and that's very cheap luckily. I semi standardized reentry profiles now by always having either Mainsail plus Glenn Medium legs and ring, or Mammoth and Large combo, they seem to reenter at similar drag rates. 

I also found that offbalance RCS is a lot easier than humongous reaction wheels on the way down (It would be fun if it were cheaper on the way up too). 

Yes with help from trajectories mod I have now gotten into the  around 0-5Km from KSC landings and those are a breeze.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

I don't know if you've done stock helis before or just ones using mod props and rotors, but here are some tips for the stock helis:

On the single main rotor heli:

Assuming you're controlling from the command seat, basic control inputs are like with a regular plane: pitch ws, yaw ad, roll = qe, however there are some additional quirks due to the spinning rotor. The rotor acts like a gyroscope, shifting some of the control force counterclockwise in this case (when viewing from above).

As a result, you have to combine your controls to shift the force back where you want them. Ex: to pitch up, you of course want to do regular pitch up input, but also add a little bit of roll left input to counteract the gyro torque.

Also in forward flight, the advancing blade produces more lift than the retreating blade (because the advancing blade has a higher airspeed). Once again gyroscopic effects modify this, resulting for this helicopter in the thing wanting to pitch up and roll left as forward speed increases. You'll want to counteract this with your controls. SAS can deal with it to some extent, but it can get confused sometimes.

For other single main rotor helis, the modification of controls will be mirrored if the rotor spins in the other direction.

 

On the tandem rotor one:

The two rotors cancel out each other's gyroscopic control effects, so the only thing you have to watch for on them is the pitch-up at higher speed. It might be good for a new stock heli pilot, and usually can fly faster too.