Wanderfound

Kerbobee. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qzix822rswwlqo/Kerbobee.craft?dl=0

Actually, do leave it out: ...but don't rely on it as your only antenna if comms matter.

Put it in place, open the drag curves, watch them change as you extend the antenna.

Gimbal is your friend: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m53ww9y81bh5qm/Krokoduck%20SP.craft?dl=0 Basically, either have a moderate amount of gimbal and a slick payload or a draggy payload and a lot of gimbal. Strapping on some radial Verniers (e.g. Thuds) adds a lot of gimbal in a hurry. If you're running boosters that don't gimbal, then you need active control surfaces. But if you're still running gimbal-free at altitude, those control surfaces won't work as well any more, so you'd better have an intrinsically stable craft by that point. If you've got a slick payload, you can get away without fins (see above) or without gimbal, but probably not both unless you're very good. If you've got a draggy payload, pile on as much stability as you can; fins for the lower stages and gimbal that stays with you until space. Fins on the boosters and verniers on the core will cover most things, though. Make your fairings as pointy as you can; drag and stability are helped by avoiding sudden changes in cross section at the top of the craft.

The main thing wrong with your design is a bug in FAR: the voxelisation isn't picking up the bottom half of the cargo bay. This is why your green line takes that massive dip behind the cockpit. It's causing huge drag, and doing it in the worst possible place. The bug is fixed in the dev build; either switch to that, or avoid Mk2 cargo bays until the next official FAR release.

One more on a similar theme: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m53ww9y81bh5qm/Krokoduck%20SP.craft?dl=0

Krokoduck SP. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m53ww9y81bh5qm/Krokoduck%20SP.craft?dl=0

Krokoduck SP. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m53ww9y81bh5qm/Krokoduck%20SP.craft?dl=0

Self-fuellers don't need to be that big: (swap the cupola on that for a Poodle and it'll happily go interplanetary after refuelling itself) Or:

As everyone has said: contracts for money, exploration for science. If you can EVA, you can farm EVA reports from every biome you can orbit over (i.e. all of them). And there's always the early game science missile: Stayputnik, parachute, science gear, thrust-limited RT-10, fins. Can hit half a dozen biomes from KSC.

Another demonstration of the awesome power of gimbal: Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmis3ep4bu48uu8/Krokoduck.craft?dl=0 FAR rocketry doesn't seem that limiting to me.

No, it isn't "head heavy". It's head draggy. Mass at the front of your rocket is good; it promotes stability. You want your centre of mass as high as possible. Drag at the front of your rocket is bad; it promotes instability. You want your centre of drag as low as possible. So: skinnier, more streamlined payload if possible. Much bigger fins at the base of the rocket as well. And gimbal is your friend; strapping a quartet of radial engines around the base of your core rocket would provide a lot of control authority. It's what the Vernier engines (e.g. Thuds) are designed for.

Krokoduck. Get your Minmus/Munar mining operation set up in one launch. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmis3ep4bu48uu8/Krokoduck.craft?dl=0

Krokoduck. Get your Minmus mining operation set up in one launch. Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmis3ep4bu48uu8/Krokoduck.craft?dl=0

lordcirth, try this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8q63vgie02oobkn/Light%20Cargo%201_8WF.craft?dl=0

A run at Black Krag where I don't miss a gate... 1 minute 25 seconds.

Any chance of numbers on the gates? That'd also make it easier to set alternate tracks (e.g. "odd numbered gates only"). -- A run at Black Krag where I don't miss a gate: 1 minute 25 seconds.

Dynamic Deflection plus Pilot Assistant's PID tuner with these settings: ...gets me SAS that doesn't wobble, and stays where it's pointed unless the control authority required to hold it exceeds the power of the available control surfaces (at the roughly 2/3rds stick that SAS will apply). Since that only happens at extreme AoA, it's actually more of a help than a hindrance; those sorts of AoA's demand manual piloting anyway. This is the only part of Pilot Assistant I regularly use; the autopilot features don't intrude if not activated. If that isn't enough, you'll need to find something else, but I don't know what.

Yup, the Salvager is for salvage-ing. I've been having a few nasty yaw surprises myself lately, not always caught by the stability derivatives. But the standard response to yaw problems should work: moar tailfin, and/or pull CoM forwards.

So add some turbojets. Plenty of room under and behind the wings.

Basic jet only:

- - - Updated - - - Are there only nine gates (not counting start/finish) on Black Krag? Or did I miss one?

The right way 'round: