CorruptDB

I am trying to remove a KAS winch (actually 2 winches) from a space station. I love KAS but the phantom physics involved when a winch is installed is killing me, my station starts spinning like a top making it undockable. I tried editing persistence.sfs to remove the PART entry for the winch but when I do that the whole station below the point of the winch disappears. I had assumed that the parts are in a parent-child tree and the winch shouldn't have any children but obviously I missed something. If I hook the connector to a fast ship and thrust hard for the 100m of slack is it likely to pull the winch off the station or it is more likely to break the connector off the winch? I would like to get these off without damaging the station, but a little damage would be preferable to deorbiting it. Anybody have any suggestions to make this happen?

I don't know what mods you are running but you should just need to unzip the mod in your KSP directory the same as in Windows. I use linux and installed Kethane, KAS and Engineer without any problems.

If you have KAS why not use the magnet or grappling hook to grab the probe?

Oh, I almost forgot, when approaching the station use the RCS translation keys (IJKL in staging mode) to align the yellow target prograde marker with the target marker when approaching. This will ensure that your orbit matches the orbit of the target and you don't miss to the side/top/bottom.

It sounds like you have the gist of it, but unless you are way off from the other ship you shouldn't have to wait more than an orbit. Here is my normal docking procedure: 1. Launch when target is 15-30 degrees behind KSC (depending on target altitude) 2. Burn until periapsis is at target altitude 3. Approach periapsis and do normal orbital insertion burn 4. Match inclinations to target (instructions higher in this thread) 5. Get next intersect as close as possible. To do this, burn prograde (to raise your orbit) if target is behind you or retrograde if target is ahead of you. Keep the mouse over the intersect point and watch the seperation distance decrease until it starts going up again. Then use RCS ('n' if you passed the closest spot) to adjust the intersect to the closest possible spot. If your inclination is good or the node is on the intersect it should be possible to get the intersect to 0.0 KM. 6. When you reach the closest intersect make sure the navball is in target mode and burn retrograde relative to the target until the relative speed between you is less than 1 m/s 7. Point the ship at the target marker on the navball and use RCS to approach it. It should be less than 1 KM away. Using this method I can generally get within a few hundred meters of my target. If you are more than 1 KM from the target do steps 5-7 again. Be careful with 0.0 KM intersects, this method is accurate enough that I have crashed into my station a few times from the map screen.

Sounds like KSC is installing a space elevator

Well, I have about 10 kerbonauts in orbit right now but if the planet kersploded I think the race is done for because I don't have any kerbettes in orbit.

@Alamo I think you are missing a step after step 7. Once you get to the intersect, since you are now close to the target your navball should change to target mode. It should also show your relative speed relative to the target. Put your nose on the retograde marker and burn until you get the velocity between you and your target to 0 m/s. Now, since we are close to the station and are going the same speed we should be in basically the same orbit, so you can point your nose straight at the target and thrust toward it. Keep your velocity low (1-2 m/s) and use warp if you want to get there faster. The prograde marker for the target should be near the target marker that you are thrusting toward. You want to make the prograde marker and the target marker to line up with each other, use the RCS translation keys (ijkl) to center the yellow prograde marker on the purple target marker. Once you get near the station kill your speed (by backthrusting with n) then use the normal rotate/translation keys to line up with the port and dock. Keep at it, I was very frustrated at first as well (matching orbits MANUALLY instead of using the above method) and I would always do the same as you, end up with the target passing by me at high velocity. By a) matching speeds (and thus orbits) with the target and using RCS translation to adjust my course when approching the target I was finally able to dock successfully. Once you have done it a few times it will become A LOT easier, so don't give up!