Please -- need help with parachutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Paul Kersey]

I keep running into the "re-entry is death" scenario because my parachutes do not work right. I'm pretty sure something is out of whack on the physics. I deploy chutes properly while re-entering Kerbin's atmosphere and they have no effect on the craft's speed.

I'm not the only one to have this problem but I cannot find either a patch or an adjustment that works. Please tell me there's a fix. Please tell me definitively where it is. Please tell me I don't need a PhD in computer science to install it. Please let me get back to running my little amateur space program without killing any Kerbal lucky enough to make it into space.

[Vanamonde]

How high and how fast are you trying to open them? If you right-click on a parachute, one of the info lines on that screen lists a status for opening the chutes: unsafe, risky, safe.

(Interesting forum name, by the way.)

[Xannari Ferrows]

They have no effect at all? They take a few seconds to fully deploy. Let's run through the book real quick...

You want to deploy them as late as possible without smashing into the ground. This is so the atmosphere can slow you down enough to where your chute wont instantly incinerate. Instantly...

Never plop yourself straight down into the atmosphere. Enter at a relatively shallow angle, so that you don't squish your Kerbals into their seats with G's. You want a very gradual descent so that you shave off velocity for a longer time, while taking longer to get to the ground, thus not overheating and exploding, as fun as that may be.

Okay, now that that's done, is it working? ...Maybe? ​Just maybe?

[Mock Turtle]

Don't deploy them too early. I find that you have to be flying slower than 250 m/s or the chutes will fail. Just let yourself aerobrake for a while until you're below 250.