se5a

Seems a little non intuitive for new players (me)

Ok so... has this changed again? from what I'm reading in this thread, crossfeed is not blocked for air breathers but is for rockets. However I'm finding that the "Enable Crossfeed" toggle works properly for air breathers, but not at all for rockets: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mc0w9jaekpd3j8v/Screenshot%202016-01-10%2013.32.38.png?dl=0 In the linked picture, only the tanks that are attached to engines drain. neither the central column nor the outer tanks drain. Crossfeed has been enabled on all radial decouplers. This is a bit of a pain since fuel lines are kinda deep into the tech tree. Previous messing with junos taught me that the toggle works fine for air breathers (or junos at least), excepting that if you toggle while in flight the UI does not change to show that it's been enabled. (I had a couple of drop tanks on the wings of an aircraft, toggled in flight and nothing happened, gave up and continued flying. a little while later I had trouble with the damn thing rolling, figure out one drop tank was empty and the other was full...)

Should I be able to transfer crew while out of range? basically I've got a little plane which has the Mk1 cockpit - Mk1 Crew - ServiceBay etc etc Fuel - Rocket. Due to not having direct access to the hatch I'm unable to directly EVA the crew, I first have to transfer them to the cockpit then EVA. If I'm out of range where I land however this becomes impossible, I can get the pilot out, but then I'm unable to EVA the crew.

Hah! This is nearly exactly what I've done: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a172az6tnvnqo5h/Screenshot%202016-01-01%2019.36.34.png?dl=0 That'll get up a little past 100k SubOrbital. It's got a tendency to lean over to the left, always the left on assent. not sure what's up with that... might spin it around in the hanger and see if it still goes left or if it goes forward. the ThreePod design still out performs it in flight though, I guess those pods have a really good amount of lift on their own.

Re-entering like a spaceplane is what I was doing with the original, and attempting to do with the new design, currently in my campaign game I don't yet have the reaction wheel (or the terrier). I'm attempting to enter slightly nose first till I've bleed off enough speed to not overheat (belly first using the wings/fins as breaks), then tilting forward enough that I've got some directional control which allows me to steer into a shallower descent, slowing to chute speed and aim for the ksc. I'm a bit leery of adding more/larger surfaces to the top of the whole stack, previous experience has shown this to be a bad thing for the assent. I'll have a play around with the second stage as a liquid engine and see how it works out. Edit: just re-reading what you wrote, I was and did temporarily remove all the parts that were not on the re-entry vehicle and stuck the CoL on the CoM. the two re-entry vehicles should be pretty similar in that respect.

Made a pretty decent Sub Orbital Tourist ship using a stack of three pods, four basic fins, two radial chutes and a nose chute: https://www.dropbox.com/s/frdsg62l9js9vvu/Screenshot%202016-01-01%2017.28.34.png?dl=0 it'll re-enter ok from 100k sub orbital, and is controllable enough to get back to KSC or even the runway if you're good/lucky In My career game, I finally got the MK1 Crew Cabin and attempted to prettify the above and use that instead of the two pods, so far this is been an exercise in frustration: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wj5nbiqygv0mgou/Screenshot%202016-01-01%2017.37.11.png?dl=0 For some reason it makes the whole stack far less stable, requiring eight extra winglets, and still has a tendency to tip sideways even with sas on. it's a little lighter I guess, but that much? it won't re-enter well either, it'll nose into the slipstream instead of bellying into it as I'm able to do with the three pods, causing it to loose speed slower and the front fins to go all explody due to heat. I dunno maybe the extra gyro of the pods was enough to keep it controlled? the whole stack is 4k funds more expensive in the end as well. Anyone else attempted to create a mini shuttle/reentry vehicle using the MK1 crew?