Scarecrow88

If you just want to practise docking without having to go through the process of launching something in to orbit first, I created a set of scenarios that you can reset as often as you like until you are happy you can do it successfully. There are 4 scenarios you can download, which progress in difficulty, from 2 craft right next to each other to having to create your own intercept, to a ship built for a Mun mission which requires you to perform all the stages of a rendezvous and docking. More explicit details of the scenarios and download links can be found in this thread :- http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86616-Beginner-to-Expert-Flight-Practise-Scenarios?p=1279271#post1279271

That doesn't sound right to me. With the station orbit matching the terminator at the full and new position, a ship approaching from Kerbin will be coming in at a tangent to the orbit, when he needs to come in parallel to it. If it was me, I would be aiming to arrive at the Mun when it was at the first or third quarter, again assuming the orbit of the target is in alignment with the terminator.

So you're saying that increasing the mass of his rocket with the parts required to negate the problem off his offset thrust will have no effect on it's efficiency. Okay - I wish I could fly all my rockets in your world.

That could be the problem

That looks like an interesting craft, so I downloaded it to give it a go, but I must be doing something wrong. I can get the engines rotating, using alt+e or alt+q as appropriate, but as soon as I let go of the keys, the engine stops. Any hints or tips?

Unfortunately it needed clipping switched on. Those tail pieces can be a 'mare to fit at the best of times.

My single engine SSTO can get to 36,000m and 2000+ m/s in air breathing mode, so only needs a relatively short burn in rocket mode to achieve orbit, so it's a thumbs up for the RAPIER from me. By docking and refuelling, it's possible to get to Mun and back.

Developed from an SSTO that was designed for Kerbin orbit only, the addition of a vertical engine allowed this little fella to get to the Mun or Minmus. Due to the small tank, it needs to refuel before leaving Kerbin orbit, but that's all part of the fun.

I find it best to set the predicted path to the surface to the east of KSC rather than over the mountains to the west. You lose a lot of speed coming through the atmosphere which, allowing for some planet rotation while you are coming down, usually means you land some way short if you don't have the orbit prediction a little way off to the east. That's without mechjeb though, so I have no idea if you need to do it completely differently using an autopilot. As for the not smashing part, try building an ordinary plane and fly to the island runway and back a few times. That should give you enough practice to nail your landings every time.

Grasshopper was quite easy, as it is stable and has a good power to weight ratio, which makes controlling the height of the hover quite simple. The Hummingbird was a little more difficult, as a small change to the throttle setting of the lift engine has quite an impact on the climb/descent rate, but with the usual delay of the jet engine, which made it quite tricky. And just for variety, I landed my Harrier lookalike on the largest of the Aztec pyramids a little while ago. Landing was quite easy, as the landing area is quite large compared to the island tower, it just took ages to get there. All landings were made using the lift engines and throttle for height control, and normal pitch, yaw and roll controls for horizontal positioning.

I tend to use mods that offer additional helpful information that isn't available currently in stock, rather than those that add additional bits, or provide any sort of autopilot ability. You may like the ability to have extra parts that make your craft look really swish, but bear in mind that if you get to the point where you would like to share your creations with others, if you have built them using modded parts, you will only be able to share them with people who are running the same mods. Autopilot mods, such as Mechjeb, tend to be quite divisive; people tend to either love them or loathe them, and you can find loads of threads arguing one way and the other if you are interested enough to search. All I will say is that it is down to personal choice. Whatever you choose to do, and whichever mods you choose to use or not use, don't let anyone tell you that you have made the wrong choice. Ultimately KSP is about having fun, and only you can decide what is necessary to achieve that goal for you.

So why do they call you Rodney, Dave?

A sub-orbital flight is one that doesn't go in to orbit. What you need is a launch that has an apoapsis between the two altitudes you list, to meet the requirement of the mission, and which then comes back down to Kerbin.

Also make sure your probes are fitted with batteries and a means to keep the batteries charged.

Wow, someone really smacked those last two hard with the ugly stick. In other words, whilst you may think they are close to ultimate, I wouldn't give them room in my hangar. As others have already said, 'ultimate' is purely subjective, and will vary differently depending on what the craft is expected to do or achieve, and each individual player's individual requirements and aesthetics.

I found experience counts for a lot, as you learn to judge when things are lined up nicely and when they are not. A simple guide to help you get things lined up would be to plant a flag a couple of hundred of metres off each end of the runway. When landing, set the nearest flag as a target, and keep your nose pointed at the pink target marker on your navball. At the same time you should be aiming to keep the two flags lined up vertically. This latter action means you are in line with the runway, whilst the former is designed to have you aiming at the near end of the runway.

Yes it is. You can just about see it in the 3rd image down, just underneath where the leading edge of the wing meets the fuselage.

Only just seen this thread, but as entry is still open, thought I would submit my SSTO. SSTO One Completely Stock Showing off the goods Activate SAS, throttle up and stage to start rolling. Pull up to 45 degrees when airborne At 10,000m, drop the nose to approx. +20degrees, and keep the prograde marker just above the horizon Make adjustments to attitude every so often to keep climb rate down. Later stages of airborne flight will only need nose to be at +10 degrees or so. When Rapier engine automatically switches to rocket mode, pull nose up to +45 degrees until desired apoapsis is made, and cut engine to coast to apo. With a good ascent, you should be able to achieve 33000m altitude and 2200m/s before the rocket kicks in. At apoapsis, burn to circularise This particular flight established a 85k x 86k orbit, with roughly half the fuel load remaining. A docking port is fitted if you would like to rendezvous with an orbiting station to refuel. A small retrograde burn is enough to de-orbit you. I like to manually switch the engine to air breathing mode once the de-orbit burn is complete, so that it is ready right away once back in the atmosphere. Homeward bound. Flight over, job done. SSTO One craft file

I find it easiest to tweak my arrival inclination immediately after entering the SOI of the body I am travelling too.

I have very few mods, but managed to attach the engines and SAS 'ducts' to the I-beams by way of one of the small rectangular girders. The Editor Extension mod does sound like a useful tool however. I have also considered the mod that allows you to choose alternative roots, as trying to attach something in places that doesn't have a root by default is just about impossible.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. I also have a twin engine version of the Hummingbird (i.e. 2 engines for normal flight) which is a little bit faster if anyone is interested. I had to move things slightly to maintain the CoM due to the greater mass and positioning of the 2 engines compared to the single engine version, but the changes were very small so as not to look like a completely different design. Hummingbird II craft file

Hummingbird and Grasshopper I don't very often venture in to trying to build aircraft capable of VTOL flight, but I've had a lot of fun with these two, and both are quite simple to fly, so I thought I would share them. Hummingbird : a fast nimble bird, capable of maintaining flight at the hover. This craft can launch either conventionally or vertically, and land either way too. For vertical take off, a touch more than 1/3 throttle is enough to become airbourne. Action group keys: 1 to toggle the vertical lift engine 2 to toggle the horizontal flight engine Grasshopper : A slender insect capable of flight, but usually restricted to short jumps. 1/3 throttle is enough to hover, so plenty of power in reserve. Movement is controlled by the attitude of the aircraft, with smooth turns benefitting from coordinated use of the roll and yaw controls. Hummingbird craft file Grasshopper craft file

Echoes my sentiments perfectly. +1

I've been to all the bodies. The only one I haven't sent a manned mission to (apart from the obvious sun and Jool) is Eve. At some point I might be bothered to design a craft capable of returning form the surface, but I've been spending most of my time lately doing things in the local Kerbin system.

You ask about docking, and then tell us you are not using docking ports. I'm confused.