RCS Tips?

[Fearless Son]

SAS will use any available means of adjusting craft orientation you give it, which means if you have RCS enabled it will use RCS.  My advice is to keep the SAS on for most of a docking procedure, but do not leave the RCS enabled the entire time.  Only turn on the RCS when you need to gently thrust the craft, disable it when you need to change the craft's orientation.  So for example, drift slowly toward your docking target, use SAS without RCS to adjust the orientation, then turn on RCS to adjust your approach vector.  Disable RCS again and let it coast in on momentum.  Re-enable RCS to make correction maneuvers, and disable it again when you go back coasting.  Repeat as necessary until your ships are docked.  

Also, as soon as the docking ports begin to make contact, disable the SAS.  The docking ports will use magnetic forces to pull the ships into final alignment with each other, and the SAS will resist that change in orientation, potentially causing the docking to fail and result in a bounce.  Assuming you are stable to begin with, turn off the SAS at the last second and let the magnets do their work.  

Edited December 18, 2015 by Fearless Son

[The Optimist]

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