Sacs

Something I usually do is to grab one of the early 'Rescue from Kerbin orbit' contracts, the first ones are almost always in a perfect equatorial low orbit. When I get to the target, I rename it to 'Inclination Zero' then leave it there as my reference. :-)

If you have Kerbal Alarm Clock, while sitting at the KSC waiting to launch, you can set your target to the ship you need to rescue, then set an alarm for the next An/Dn. The alarm will go off as the targets orbit is passing over the KSC then you can launch into the target inclination as others have mentioned.

I often use Kerbal Alarm Clock for this. With no target, setting an alarm for the next An/Dn sets it to the appropriate equatorial An/Dn for the body you're orbiting. Or in career... rescue a Kerbal in low orbit, they're almost always perfectly inclined. Before the actual rescue I rename their piece of space junk to 'Inclination Zero' and use that for the target.

No, you must also add struts.

For controlling RCS you could try hitting <Caps Lock> to toggle precision. This makes the RCS controls a have a lot less effect and could make it easier for you. To stop Kerbals from being launched from the capsule at a bazillion m/s, you could also try the Stock Bug Fixes mod. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/97285-KSP-v0-90-Stock-Bug-Fix-Modules-%28Release-v0-1-7d-28-Feb-15%29-Misc-Utilities-%2818-Jan-15%29 Unzip that and drop the EVAEjectionFix.dll into your GameDate folder. Since using this I've never had a Kerbal let go. :-)

One trick: once you get the encounter click on the target and 'Focus View' & zoom in until you can see what your encounter looks like. You can then fine-tune it, though it can be a prick to get your maneuver node back up again. (It minimizes when you focus on another object which is a pain.) To get a pro-grade orbit, you need to come in behind the target, for retrograde you want to enter SOI in fron