Parachute being destroyed on launch

[Aigol]

I have played KSP in the past and am now enjoying trying the career mode but I keep running into the same problem.  When launching with anything bigger than the smallest solid booster My parachute is destroyed by heat and aero forces.  This isn't happening on reentry but durring launch around when I start hitting 300 or so m/s.  I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I am doing something very wrong

[NathanKell]

Sounds like you're staging your parachute on launch. Don't stage it until you're descending and the background of the parachute icon is neither red nor yellow.

[Reactordrone]

Is it being destroyed or is the indicator turning red to show that it is unsafe to deploy? If the background is red it's just an indicator and you're fine, if the chute is red then you've probably staged the chute on launch.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Reactordrone

[Plusck]

The wiki page on parachutes now has a section on staging icons, if that helps...

 

 

12 hours ago, NathanKell said:

Sounds like you're staging your parachute on launch. Don't stage it until you're descending and the background of the parachute icon is neither red nor yellow.

Yellow? I don't think I've ever seen yellow.

[Pecan]

1 hour ago, Plusck said:

The wiki page on parachutes now has a section on staging icons, if that helps...

Yellow? I don't think I've ever seen yellow.

Is true (I think the associated right-click text is "marginal") but doesn't appear for long unless you're having real problems slowing down.  It's "not quite safe".

[NathanKell]

The text says "Risky". It is when the combination of outside forces and heat will eventually destroy your parachute if nothing changes, but will not do so instantly. You may slow down enough, before the parachute melts/shreds, that the parachute no longer is at risk of melting/shredding.

[Devric]

Sounds to me like you're just going too fast too soon. 300m/s at a low altitude might create enough heat/aeroforce to break it.

[Aigol]

Parachute is in it's own stage that isn't triggered at launch.  On ascent the icon goes straight from white to red at around 300 m/s.  Sometimes it tells me parchute was destroyed then and sometimes I don't find out until I'm descending again and try to trigger at which point it tells me the parachute was destroyed

[Plusck]

Safe speed for the parachute is under 250 m/s. If you hit *space* at any higher speed there is a very good chance your parachute will die.

[Pecan]

I've been trying to recreate this, but I can't.

If you go too fast too long in atmosphere so the parachute overheats you get 'xxx exploded due to overheating'.
'Destroyed by ...' only appears to happen if you deploy the parachute outside the safe parameters.
Check your staging and keyboard mashing again, I'm afraid.

[Separately and possibly amusingly:
Test rig 1: RC-L01, mk16 parachute, X200-8 fuel tank, mammoth engine.  TWR 20-odd, reaches 300m/s below 500m but burns-out before any heating effects.
Test rig 2: OKTO2, mk16 parachute, thumper.  TWR 3-ish, doesn't reach 300m/s until nearly 2km but keeps on burning until the whole thing explodes.]