tips on getting light/long items into orbit

[AlextheBodacious]

See if your boosters are on properly. If they aren't it spins.

If absolutely nothing else works, send a craft file my way & give me an altitude, I'll do it for you. Or, if you're cool with cheats, hyperedit.

[Coga19000]

You have to eject the fairing after around 20km or 25km. If you bring the fairings all the way up to orbit, they are just too heavy.

Alas, we wish it worked like this. In the same way massless parts add their mass to the parent object now, Fairings also add their mass to the fairing Base. Unless you stage the base away, it's going to be the same.

[ElWanderer]

I'm pretty sure that they fixed that in v1.0.1. Ejecting a fairing will shed mass. I tend to wait until 40km, though I've not experimented with getting rid lower in the atmosphere to see if anything untoward happens. (quote follows as my tablet is going a bit mad)

Alas, we wish it worked like this. In the same way massless parts add their mass to the parent object now, Fairings also add their mass to the fairing Base. Unless you stage the base away, it's going to be the same.