Take off direction

[Vingo]

My biggest problem when landing on another world is taking off again. I always end up taking off in the wrong direction and have to correct it, wasting delta v. How do I assure I am always taking off in the right direction? 

[Plusck]

Simple answer: don't look at anything but the NavBall. Glance at the external view once or twice to start with to avoid mountains, but as soon as you have started climbing, switch to map mode and use only the NavBall to nudge your trajectory the right way.

Before you even start taking off, you should check on the map whether you need to go due east or whether you need to head very slightly north (if south of the equator) or south (if north of the equator).

[Snark]

+1 to Plusck's answer.  However,

1 hour ago, Plusck said:

Before you even start taking off, you should check on the map whether you need to go due east or whether you need to head very slightly north (if south of the equator) or south (if north of the equator).

...if your goal is to achieve the orbit with the minimal inclination (i.e. the closest thing possible to an equatorial orbit), you should always take off heading due east, regardless of whether you're north of, south of, or directly on the equator.

But yes, use the navball exclusively.  What I always do, just before I take off, is look at the navball, figure out which way on it is due east, and then turn the ship in that direction upon takeoff.

To make my life easier, usually I'll perform a roll maneuver right after takeoff to make that direction be directly below (or directly above) the navball's center crosshairs, because that way I can focus on simply adjusting my pitch up/down.

[Plusck]

6 minutes ago, Snark said:

+1 to Plusck's answer.  However,

...if your goal is to achieve the orbit with the minimal inclination (i.e. the closest thing possible to an equatorial orbit), you should always take off heading due east, regardless of whether you're north of, south of, or directly on the equator.

OK, I was being a bit too succinct...

If you just want to get to orbit with minimum expenditure, heading due east is the way to go.

However, my first concern is generally to avoid hills, so my initial ascent tends to be too steep. By heading slightly towards my target equatorial orbit to start with, that original inefficiency can be turned into an opportunity to reduce some of the inclination change as I head towards the horizon later: "prograde" is relatively high on the NavBall, so aiming for the horizon is changing my trajectory anyway, so heading due east at that point makes very little difference to fuel expenditure... if you see what I mean.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Plusck said:

OK, I was being a bit too succinct...

If you just want to get to orbit with minimum expenditure, heading due east is the way to go.

However, my first concern is generally to avoid hills, so my initial ascent tends to be too steep. By heading slightly towards my target equatorial orbit to start with, that original inefficiency can be turned into an opportunity to reduce some of the inclination change as I head towards the horizon later: "prograde" is relatively high on the NavBall, so aiming for the horizon is changing my trajectory anyway, so heading due east at that point makes very little difference to fuel expenditure... if you see what I mean.

Ah, okay, that makes sense.

Though my own solution to that particular problem tends to be "don't land to the immediate west of a mountain range, or in a crater near its eastern edge." 

[John JACK]

There is a digital heading display just under a navnall. 90 means east.

[Warzouz]

As said, focus on navball go to 90° (east)

It's even easier when you land your ship oriented on the 270°. So your navball will be as on Kerbin Launchpad. You'll have to go simply "right".

Anyway, after 2 ou 3 landing, you'll get used to it. Practice in sandbox with Kerbal-X on the Mun, it takes only 30 min for a round trip.

[Reactordrone]

Since we've concentrated on heading east for a standard orbit it should also  be pointed out that if the ship you're going to dock with is in a retrograde orbit you'll have to have to head west or 270° and for inclined orbits the same launch rules apply as for Kerbin, wait until the orbit crossed overhead and launch to match inclination.

For all of those the navball is your friend. Check it before liftoff and see which direction you need to head in so that you can quickly apply the turn then fine tune in map mode.

[Warzouz]

9 hours ago, Reactordrone said:

Since we've concentrated on heading east for a standard orbit it should also  be pointed out that if the ship you're going to dock with is in a retrograde orbit you'll have to have to head west or 270° and for inclined orbits the same launch rules apply as for Kerbin, wait until the orbit crossed overhead and launch to match inclination.

True, but I would suggest never go to a retrograde orbit, except for very specific missions (rescue kerbal or place satellites). There is no advantages to this. In Outer planet Mod, I think there are retrograde rotation planets (even a retrograde revolution moon), in that case there is a meaning. Even though, if the rotation speed is low, it doesn't matter much.

[KerikBalm]

tip towards the 90...

if for some reason you need to rendevous with a craft that captured retrograde (like if you were doing a free munar return), tip over towards the 270.

If your craft is in a polar orbit, well then tip towards 0(N) or 180 (S) as appropriate... launch only when its nearly overhead so you are in the same plane...

For me, since I almost always caputre prograde in a near equatorial orbit.... its basically always: tip towards the 90