Hotel26

You have made an excellent -- and totally valid -- point. No one need justify doing anything they want to do. Especially while they are having fun doing it. Hey, I had fun building rovers! And there's a science to it, I'll give you that. Then it became a question of 'opportunity cost': "If I can mine Fun at a rate of 0.001 giggles/second using this rover, or I can mine 2.5 giggles/second doing this other,...?" You get the point. (I'm the guy who has a rover stuck about 1/3 of the way West around Kerbin on a circumnavigation and it hasn't moved for ... donkey's years. It's just not the fastest way to explore, actually, although it has the advantage of you being up-close-and-personal. That's why I designed a hybrid that was part ground rover and part supersonic. I didn't use it as much as I thought I was going to, though.)

A year or two in to KSP, after a little orbital mechanics had penetrated my grey matter, a subtle revelation blossomed. The KSP system is a cleverly-constructed set of graded exercises in orbital mechanics. Each one of these unique puzzles, once attempted successfully, teaches something new, interesting and valuable. Maybe it's not what you find when you get to Dres but what you learn getting there.

Agree totally with this approach (and have specialized in it). I agree with "throw-away", too. And point out that if you simply reserve the last 800 m/s to go back to orbit and refuel, you can continue to use such indefinitely, even after establishing your mission beach head. Such vehicles can be used as personal transportation from one base to another. And what I wrote above is why I eventually gave up completely on rovers (personal choice) as a pitiful waste of time (not to be controversial). (Bon Voyage would have made a difference, but last time I used it, it did not support RTGs and/or fuel cells(?).) The only exception for rovers is those that are Mun dune buggies, purely for fun, show-jumping... "Life is short -- and the universe is infinite." Where I find the OP's question really relevant, though, is on Kerbin, for atmospheric flight ending in horizontal landings. I started compiling a small database of likely landing spots and it is quite precious information. I don't think e.g. SCANsat gives the kind of precision required to find a high-quality permanent airbase. (I have thought, in the past, about a mod for locating precisely this as you fly over...)

KSC naval forces now equipping with surplus MiG15b supersonic jets. This MiG 15 demonstrates a "drogue landing" on R6 at KSC naval base.

For fun, I built a small space station for tourists. (Not a lot of mods & cons.) All the components, including a Lance MP tug and this "Bucky Ball" station hub fit inside Mk3 cargo bays (3 flights to transport and assemble the whole deal). The tug is easily able to detach & transport 1 or more of the HAL passenger components to other locations in orbit. I computed today there's about 12.3 m3 of space inside the Bucky Ball (pi.r2.h) and I'm very tempted to clip some MP storage in there... so that would be, like, 1,500 kallons. Yeah, let's just call it "Kraken reparations"!

I would define "form factor" as the shape of something with special reference to how it is going to be used. Or, as Wikipedia says: "Form factor is a hardware design aspect that defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of components, particularly in electronics. A form factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized components, or it may prescribe a specific standard. It may also define an entire system, as in a computer form factor." As for the Hitchhiker, its mass is exactly what its Creator determined it to be. Whether you use it or not, is up to you.

Good! You need focus on the ship -- not on you on EVA, which is a separate vessel. And, with focus on the ship, you need either a Kerbal or a probe control (in comm with the network if you have Commnet active). So technically, you don't need the kerbal if you have some other form of control.

Right-click the tanks that need the fuel and the tank that has the fuel. Use Shift-Right-click to hold them open as you go, or Pin them open. The fuel amounts will be shown and you will be able to command one tank to fill or empty a particular resource. That fuel will flow to all other tanks with the resource. You won't be able to control a particular resource unless all other tanks have that resource. There is a KSP Setting for Tweakable pop-ups: you made need that for full control, but I have never had to use it. The Resource panel up in the top-right corner (toolbar) is invaluable and I fly with it open at all times. You can use it to open all tanks of a particular resource (which can then be pinned). Locking tanks off and fuel priorities are other, related topics for exploration. (Locking tanks does not affect the manual kind of fuel control discussed above, however.) Don't think any mods are required.

Yes, to the first assumption, and "not so" to the second. I'd assume heavier due to "longer trip duration (space for supplies, storage) plus radiation/micro-meteorite shielding". appearance, prefer "form factor", which is much more important than mere appearance. It's much easier to fit a cylindrical 2.5m part into a space vehicle (not just space stations). You can see the seating is oriented this way, too. Perfect for landers, positioned on the ground floor (e.g. Goblin)! Hitchhikers are great. (Check out "Hitchhiking to Moho".) I've used them many times (including just now: a module called "HAL"). (And not to say you cannot build aircraft with Hitchhikers... I've done it. But then: I am a "mad scientist"; from Krakpotistan.)

@Stewcumber Curious whether this was your problem?

Danger, Will Robinson! Scorpion at play... (wherein I once more join battle with infernal KSP Robotics.) So far; so good. Scorpion is a Paxmover-class airport service vehicle. That "stinger" goes way up over Mk3 cabins/fuselages; or worst case, will catch a wing. The other dock enables long-distance transportation on a flat-bed carrier (e.g. Pterodactyl).

Maybe another in my series of Break-Apart airplanes? [click + arrows] I decided I needed a Nissen Hut for accommodating off-duty Kerbals at .e.g Baikerbanur, Dessert Strip and the Island Airport.

So I have lately been thinking about a Cruise Climb concept. By hand, the way I fly this, to get an aircraft to the highest/fastest altitude it can maintain -- therefore, with low drag, meaning the nose is within a degree or so of prograde -- means I set the altitude for a known figure that the aircraft has plenty of power to go to unaided; once there, then tune the climb via climb rate. I pin AeroGUI open to watch what it reports as AoA (which is of the craft body, in this case). (Actually, these days, I just have Pitch in the KER HUD and fly that.) The strategy is to increase the climb rate when AoA is negative to get it near zero. As you climb higher, AoA will tend to climb higher and this is an indicator to reduce the climb rate, (sometimes by decrements into the decimals). One keeps increasing altitude and hopefully speed by keeping the AoA within the 1-degree zone. Eventually, the climb rate will be reduced near enough to zero that you might as well conclude you are at optimum cruise altitude. This exercise is essential at airplane design time, but then it is still necessary often to get the plane to cruise in normal flight. For shorter flights, you don't need to go so high, but for the longer ones, it can make an incredible difference to your range and is therefore very well worthwhile. Just a bit pains-taking. It would really be a benefit to just hit Cruise Climb and let a PID controller do the job even if it took 10-15m. For the descents, I either do a quick calculation of desired descent rate or aim at (or below) a target at the destination (Fly-By-Wire); and, in either case, set a speed on the bug to control power.

Not directly, but you can set both the rate of climb/descent and maintain a speed with power and you can limit the maximum pitch angle. (All these things, no doubt you've already found.) I do believe that maintaining speed, when it is dialed in, is a priority for AA and it will curtail the climb rate in favor; but not the reverse on descent. And this is still probably not exactly what you want. (I don't feel I've ever suffered for not having exactly what you specify, though.)

Still carriers... This one is a 1.3.1 build. The Habsburg... Quite plain but lots of deck space: about 3 times the area of the Yamamoto...

Please also give consideration to Telemagic above: see https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/202253-surface-refuelling-another-solution/&do=findComment&comment=3971543

I'd also like to recommend the Telemagic mod, recently released for 1.11.2. Two vehicles parked on the surface within 30 meters of each other may transfer fuel, supply ship to client ship, in which the focus is on the client and the supply ship is its target. The mod also allows refueling of craft at certain designated "fuel aprons": at KSC, Island Airport, Dessert Strip and Baikerbanur. Single click of the button and ten seconds to transfer fuel, repack chutes, clean the windshields and empty the ashtrays. (Spark plugs and oil changes remain your own responsibility.) There's a rumor it can also teleport runway and launchpad vehicles at the KSC immediately to the equivalent location at Baikerbanur, making the latter location finally a first-class spaceport again, but that capability is probably still a "work in progress". The history is that, after 1.2.1 and 1.3.1 completely torpedoed existing mining with breaking changes ((extra) radiators and other nonsense), and after spending the following years looking for "claw" solutions (see my Pegasus line of fuel tankers and also the pitifully desperate Bowser attachment; as well as the Goblin & Gremlin line of lunar miners), I finally got "jack" of it and made Telemagic. No parts involved; just a little imagination. If your pilot can walk or swim to the other craft and back then the "hose" is a given. A certain co-collaborator of mine has just manufactured a tanker capable of delivering 22 megakallons of fuel to anywhere on Kerbin in 35m to act as a base fuel supply ship to all visiting craft and will be publishing it very shortly (@swjr-swis: HELP!). Think about it. Regional airports/operating bases. Telemagic works on any celestial body (other than asteroids)... No fuss; no muss.

Not Telemagic. That's a mod that allows you to refuel on Kerbin at the major airports (KSC, Island, Dessert and Baikerbanur) and also allows you to transfer fuel, parked on the surface, from a tanker craft to the client. It's objective is to facilitate transportation networks. I believe it can also be used on the surface of any other body in the Kerbolar system. But not in space.

OK, so some people have never seen a helicopter before... And helicopters can be rowdy, e.g. in the wee hours! See Leg 19, in which our intrepid Dick Smith 'beats up' Gilligan's Island for no good reason -- other than chopper pilots are, well, a 'rowdy' bunch. Or maybe that's just Australians in general?

In honor of Dick Smith: Australian entrepreneur and first person to circumnavigate our Earth solo in a helicopter (a Bell JetRanger) -- with the bullet holes to prove what a hardy race we are.

Leg 20 [prev] [progress] [click + arrows] Departed: -1.524/-71.903 @ 3.259.0.52 Airborne: 8m Heading: 298 Distance: 32.3 km Altitude: 0.5 km Arrival: -0.097/-74.618 Dick Smith and trusty Engineer sidekick Newgas Kerman embark upon the final, arduous leg of the journey over a particularly hazardous stretch of shark-infested waters... ...and touch-down on the roof of the KSC VAB. No one had believed this journey -- thither & there & back again -- would ever complete. But here we are -- where we were. Well done, Everyone![1] Dick Smith, having followed the 3-page Chippewa Shutdown Check List, takes note of the awaiting, cheering, adulatory crowd... No one. Then realizes he has landed, of course, on the hardest place to get to in the KSC. Only one thing for it! JUMP!! [click + arrows] Amelia Kerman & Dick Smith pose together before the ever-reliable Juice Goose supply ship: "Could not have done it without you, Amelia!", says Dick, most warmly. The next morning's KSC Spaceport Times headline would herald: "Dick Smith Completes '20 Legs Around The Globe' Voyage" [1] including, You, most Gracious Reader!

Best technique for me now seems to be to set an Outer Marker 5 km out and fly at 75m ASL at some speed about 10 m/s above stall (maybe +5 deg pitch) and then use a somewhat steep approach in the final moments, triggering the chutes when I see the whites of the ball boy's eyes... I have the chutes attached about a meter behind the CoM, which means I can still flare just before hitting the deck. Oh yeah, there's something else... Umm. Oh right: gear down at the OM and set the brakes at the same time! (Yamamoto, by comparison is 70 x 20m (74 parts). It would need a crane to stack planes on the aft deck... So, strictly: one visitor at a time. )

OK, you know I might as well get into the spirit of this thing: here's my entry, Firebrand... It's 6.7 x 5.8m. It's just a trainer jet for making touch-and-goes splats on carriers. (Love your carrier, @Pds314! What are her dimensions?)

And I always use them unless there are good reasons not to. So, on Rosetta, I have 200% on the rear and 100% on the nose. I tried 200% on the nose but with the layout of this undercart, hard braking causes it to tumble. (In this case, I actually wanted 200% merely to hold the craft until the engines had fully spooled. Turns out that 100% on the nose and 200% rear while stationary will hold it (almost) on full dry power and one triggers the afterburners instantly exactly upon releasing the brakes.)

Philae_Rosetta2021 had it setup for 35 m/s but my rev'eng version ("Rosetta") has a stall speed of 44 m/s. But... I did get it stopped. I flew the inbound, knowing the carrier heading and I maintained 48-50 m/s, not far above stall. 50m off the deck. And my version has a couple of chutes on it. I threw them 20-30 m before the deck. I may put my Sudden Arrester System (a.k.a. Sepatrons) on it or use a slightly bigger wing design.