How to make a plane carrier that doesn't explode on separation?

[delta wee]

I'm trying to build a craft that consists of a small plane that gets carried by a larger plane to a high altitude and then the small plane detaches from the large plane and flies on its own. What I did was first build the small plane, and then attach a decoupler to the bottom of the small plane, and then build the carrier plane under the small plane, attached to the decoupler. This plane takes off fine, but when I activate the stage to decouple the small plane, the carrier plane instantly explodes into a million pieces. The small plane doesn't explode, but it sometimes gets hit with debris from the big plane and gets sent off course and crashes.

How can I prevent the carrier plane from exploding when it releases the plane it's carrying?

Edited April 29, 2019 by delta wee

[Ratwerke_Actual]

Is your decoupler force set too high?

[steuben]

Decoupler force shouldn't, make a difference. But the kraken takes many forms and it's appendages can be as subtle as [vulgar simile redacted. Seriously, there are kids here - ed.] Sounds like you may have some clipping issues. It is doable however, not recommended in stock because of game-engine constraints.

My ALS-4, reporting name Gull, works for what you are thinking of. For me barely, but then I'm pretty ham handed on the stick. 

Post up some pics and we'll be able to help.

[delta wee]

On 4/29/2019 at 9:25 AM, steuben said:

Decoupler force shouldn't, make a difference. But the kraken takes many forms and it's appendages can be as subtle as [vulgar simile redacted. Seriously, there are kids here - ed.] Sounds like you may have some clipping issues. It is doable however, not recommended in stock because of game-engine constraints.

My ALS-4, reporting name Gull, works for what you are thinking of. For me barely, but then I'm pretty ham handed on the stick. 

Post up some pics and we'll be able to help.

Here's what I have now. The carrier plane is the one on the bottom, and blows up instantly on separation.

[steuben]

What are you autostruts set to?

[delta wee]

3 hours ago, steuben said:

What are you autostruts set to?

I tried autostrutting every part to Root, Heaviest, and Grandparent and the carrier plane still blew up on separation.

[Aeroboi]

The thing with autostruts set to "root" or "heaviest is that both can be on any of both vessels (the smaller or larger one)
So if many of the wing pieces are set to "root" and "root" is the mk1 cockpit then the "root" allocation will change when you decouple.

You said the carrier plane breaks. Well, I might be wrong but I think it's best to autostrut something to a part that is heavier then another heavy part. For that matter, using "heaviest" autostrut will change it to what's heaviest to begin with.
But what if you decouple 2 planes where the heaviest part on the 1st stage is much lighter then on the 2nd stage as in your case. I believe many of the wing pieces on the carrier plane are set to heaviest which is the large fuel tank on the rocket plane it carries. That means a strut line is drawn from the lower wing horizontally to a center point above the vessel. That means the wings of the carrier plane are strutted on a X and Y axis. In other words, in the X relationship it's bolted on the fuselage, in the Y relationship it's held up on a cord which is the rocket plane above.
If you decouple both vessels the heaviest part of the carrier plane will change to the Mk1 liquid fuel tank or mk1 cockpit presumably. In that case there is a strut line across the width, nothing is holding the wing up on the Y axis. Couple that with very wide wings, consequential physics oscillations due to re-strutting and things will break.

Try to test out the carrier plane first. Also, make smaller wings. I have never used wings that large, do you want to fly very high?
If wings fail, you should place each wing segment seperately and then use the move and rotate functions to get them to the right place, instead of segmenting them together, while you could do that I would only segment 3 together and then attach a new set of 3 to the fuselage and drag them using the move tool function to get the desired wing shape.
The problem if you glue every wing piece together that the connection point of the whole wing is at the fuselage and you will get a lot of flexing.