Post your stupid mistakes

[Australian Sloth]

So, I found myself making an asshat of myself today while returning a rocket to kerbin and it got me thinking,

what\'s everyone\'s stupidest mistake?

Here\'s a few of mine:

1:Set up a rendevous only to launch the second rocket going the other way.

2: Launching from the mun, activated my next stage with the previous stage rockets still going. One flew straight into my fuselage and propelled me to about 5k\'s before it flew off.

3: Built a plane to go to the south pole, at 2x time acceleration just before the ice sheet it shook apart, I could pilot the wreckage but still killed the crew.

That\'s all I can think of at any rate, but feel free to post yours.

We won\'t judge you

Honestly...

[grawl]

My most common mistake is forgetting to make a proper staging.

It generally ends up in boosters decoupling while not empty yet, or the lander decoupling instead of the 1st stage.

Another quite disappointing mistake is forgetting the chute and realizing it while reentry lol

[Imandreas]

Used to not know crap about orbital mechanics; I burned everywhere to move. Above the Mun (direct launch pointing there) I would try to slow down for a landing. My orbit would form whenever I slowed, though. When I found that pointing at it in a certain way made me lose the periapsis, I burned towards the Mun. I hit, but at almost 1 k/s.

[Australian Sloth]

Ahhh yes gravity...

Ever tried doing your braking burn from 1000m/s at 20 k\'s with a low delta v engine.

Long story short there\'s some interesting crates on the mun now.

[leopardenthusiast]

My primary launch system relies entirely on its own vectored engines for control once it leaves the atmosphere. And there\'s not a lot I can do about it, I need all the RCS fuel on my lander.

[Dizzle]

Already mentioned in another thread, but here \'goes.

>Build Rover.

>Fly it to the moon.

>Lands in a crater within a crater on steep hill.

>Detaches from lander, which then starts sliding towards it.

>Matrix-dodge wreckage, continue uphill for 35km.

>Find arch.

>WOOHOO

>Take off.

>Make it back on course with Kerbin with a tank and a half to spare.

>Re-enter Kerbin.

>Forgot to add decoupler between rover and command pod.

Oh my.

[Fifflethecat]

My biggest stupid mistake is going through about 30 minutes of building a space plane only to see it crash without even lifting off the ground!

At that point, I rage quit. ;D

[deadshot462]

My most common mistake is to not put a decoupler between my capsule and the rest of my return ship. I then have to land with a parachute and rocket engines firing, hoping that will overcome the weight as I try to land in one piece..

[Pleborian]

the mistake I repeat more than anything is leaving one decoupler placed in the wrong stage... it has cost me alot of good craft

[cardgame]

Ahhh yes gravity...

Ever tried doing your braking burn from 1000m/s at 20 k\'s with a low delta v engine.

Long story short there\'s some interesting crates on the mun now.

I\'ve done that once or twice. But I have a topper: not burning retrograde at all. First time I hit the Mun, I landed at roughly 1.6km/s...

[TerLoki]

Hitting the spacebar by accident when I want to accelerate, separating the capsule from the rocket.

[Bioman222]

(Look at attachment and signature below)

[PeriapsisPrograde]

When I did all my calculations in smoots (~1.7 m), slugs (~14.6 kg), and seconds.

Another is confusing m with mass. Ended up with an energy instead of a velocity...

[VincentMcConnell]

I generally write up a checklist for my mission. It is specific to each objective on my flight plan so there\'s no foul ups. When I take this approach, I usually have a 100% nominal mission. Any problems can sometimes be related to MechJeb bombing out and then I have to take manual control of the flight. I can still do it, though.

--EDIT--

But the lamest mistake ever is usually forgetting to bring ASAS. You find out real soon during launch ascent...

[Dizzle]

One that I\'m sure has killed a lot of us: Sticky Keys

Killed me several times before I just disabled the thing.

[Candre]

One that I\'m sure has killed a lot of us: Sticky Keys

Killed me several times before I just disabled the thing.

1000 times yes.

The jewel of my recent failures: in another thread I declared that I would never kill another Kerbal. And I was serious. First thing I do is build a faulty rocket and crash 3 seconds into the flight. FUUUUUUUUU

[cardgame]

Hooray windows 7/mac osx

no sticky keys ;P

[Vanamonde]

Leading cause of death among humans: heart disease. Leading cause of death among Kerbals: the M key is next to the spacebar.

[Australian Sloth]

The leading cause of death for my kerbals is unstable rockets. The kind that decide they don\'t want to be a rocket but rather an acrobat at around 10k\'s

[Newt0570]

Leading cause of death among humans: heart disease. Leading cause of death among Kerbals: the M key is next to the spacebar.

sigged. (if you don\'t mind)

[Vanamonde]

Mind? I\'m flattered!

[TheGripenSaidWhat?]

Forgeytting that symmetry is turned off when you go back to add bigger/better engines to your rocket, and immediately go to the launch scene. Timber, indeed.

[Bluejayek]

My most recent common mistake is immediatly going full throttle afer jetissoning a lower stage. On my most recent creation this results in a massive fireball as the upper fuel tanks/decoupler heat up from the rocket plume and inexplicably explode. The solution of course is to burn at very low thrust for a second or two to disengage.

[bomb765]

Forgetting parachutes, and my most common problem, I forget to stick some lights on the bottom of my mun lander and I headed toward the dark side. I couldn\'t see the mun\'s ground. R.I.P Steve Kerman. :\'(

[Vanamonde]

From page 143 of So You Want to be a Crew Chief: a KSP Maintenance Training Manual: 'After inverting the plane to work up-close on the landing gear, there is one more critical step to remember before starting the next test flight... '