If you could only have one item on your in-flight checklist...

[Zild]

...what would it be?

Mine:

Quote

Before final stage separation and/or burning for entry into atmos: Collect data from science modules

The number of times I have flown a perfect mission, only to touch down and realise I left my precious science in space - or worse, burning up in Kerbin's atmosphere!

How about it everyone? What's the one in-flight (not VAB/SPH!) task you forget time and time again that always leads to a *headdesk* moment?

[Snark]

Actually, I've found that I hardly ever have oh-crap-I-forgot moments in flight.

I have tons of them in the VAB, I accidentally launch ships where I forgot something crucial (and don't discover until far, far too late) all the time.

But if I actually manage to launch with all the needed hardware aboard, all the necessary contracts accepted, etc., then once I leave the pad, I generally do pretty well.

Not sure why that is... maybe it's because there are many more things to forget in the VAB than there are in flight.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

"Deploy solar arrays and ensure they are receiving sunlight."

[Kermanzooming]

Pre-launch checklist

1. Are you sure you are not supposed to have an antenna?

This mistake gets me every time. As I'm not using RemoteTech, I don't need to include antennas except for science purposes. So if the mission is a Kerbin return one or one without science as a goal, I always forget antennas.

In fact right now I have a drilling station attached to an asteroid in Kerbin orbit that's only missing an antenna for fulfilling a very lucrative contract 

[Alshain]

Pre-launch checklist

1. Write a better pre-launch checklist.  Include more than one item!

[Zild]

13 hours ago, Snark said:

Not sure why that is... maybe it's because there are many more things to forget in the VAB than there are in flight.

See? This is why I specified in-flight rather than pre-flight - pre-flight (typically construction) problems threads abound on the forums already (and this already seems to have turned into one!)

I think the reason problems there are more common is because there are many more options, many more things to consider, many more stages to plan for... At any point during flight the options available and important things to check are relatively few in comparison.

Still, am I really the only person struggling here? Should I put on hold my plans for an in-flight checklist generator mod?

7 hours ago, Kermanzooming said:

Pre-launch checklist

1. Are you sure you are not supposed to have an antenna?

I actually put an antenna on the main command pod of every ship I make - even the test bed for launch-pad based missions gets one. This, the Kerbal Engineer chip part and (for manned pods) a parachute of course! This is mostly for story reasons: Jeb's got to stay in touch with ground control or he'll go insane - well, more insane! On some of my early game designs this antenna makes the craft a little unbalanced but this actually helps with the gravity turn - so much so that I even reposition it when doing a polar orbit!

[Red Iron Crown]

1. Did you remember to check the staging?

Every. Time. You'd think I'd learn after a few years of play. And I make it worse by rearranging it on the pad instead of jumping back to the editor, so the next time I go to the pad after making some edits, guess what happens?

[lodger]

9 hours ago, Kyrt Malthorn said:

"Deploy solar arrays and ensure they are receiving sunlight."

Oh yes. And that happend to my mission just a few days ago ... turned my Minmus probe into another piece of debris orbiting Kerbin.

5 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

1. Did you remember to check the staging?

Every. Time. You'd think I'd learn after a few years of play. And I make it worse by rearranging it on the pad instead of jumping back to the editor, so the next time I go to the pad after making some edits, guess what happens?

I share your pain ...

[adsii1970]

1. Are there any obstacles blocking the airlocks that could prevent EVAs?

It has been about a month since I have done this, but nothing will put a dampener on a mission than for your Kerbal not to be able to perform a spacewalk, especially when some of the scientific experiments require one. Yeah, at that point, you've sent a kerbalnaut into space on a joyride...

[RocketBlam]

Are the PARACHUTES in the FIRST STAGE?

I don't sound annoyed do I?

[MaxwellsDemon]

"Hit Z before triggering launch."  I'd be embarrassed to admit how many times I've sat there wondering why my rocket is still sitting on the pad despite the noise and smoke, before I've realized that the throttle was still at 40% or so.

[Zild]

47 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

"Hit Z before triggering launch."  I'd be embarrassed to admit how many times I've sat there wondering why my rocket is still sitting on the pad despite the noise and smoke, before I've realized that the throttle was still at 40% or so.

Finally a valid entry for this thread!

Does anybody ever not want maximum thrust for blast-off? Ever?! Even if you dial it back when hitting excessive drag you still want to get to that point as quickly as possible.

[Red Iron Crown]

1 minute ago, Zild said:

Finally a valid entry for this thread!

Does anybody ever not want maximum thrust for blast-off? Ever?! Even if you dial it back when hitting excessive drag you still want to get to that point as quickly as possible.

Sometimes I have a rocket which is a liquid fueled core and radial SRBs, I want the core lit for gimbal control but not full throttle until the SRBs are burnt out. A bit of an edge case, but there are cases where 100% throttle isn't ideal.

That said, I'd agree the default position would be better at 100% or 0%, 50% is rarely desired.

[Zild]

Thanks, I did see that mod whilst looking yesterday...

[Tyko]

18 hours ago, Kyrt Malthorn said:

"Deploy solar arrays and ensure they are receiving sunlight."

THIS..I've screwed up more launches that way. I always put a few flat solar panels on my ships now just in case I forget to open them. I really try to remember to open them as soon as I surpass 70Km just to be safe.

[kBob]

Maybe "think twice, burn once" as I have a bad tendency to start burns with very little delta v in the stage because I forgot to just jettison it and of course that fouls up my "perfect burn" but really I'm with snark on this one 90% of my mistakes are pre-launch (or just after when I suddenly realize I've forgotten x...which is why I do use check lists in SPH, VAB and launch pad).

[ImmaStegosaurus!]

Is it a list if it has only one thing listed?

Mine would be to check that ALL the crew is located in the command module. Before I started to use proper checklists I flew a Soyuz to a rescue mission on LKO. Jebediah returned alone, while the other guy burned up with the orbital module.

[Guest]

Make sure no one sneaks inside unwanted or goes AWOL before launch.

[septemberWaves]

Check all MechJeb parameters before enabling autopilot.

This is because I usually turn on autopilot and then turn off the UI to get clear screenshots, and there have been a couple of times (not too many thankfully but still a few) when something has gone enormously wrong because I neglected to, for example, ensure that the intended orbit altitude is above the atmosphere when trying to autonomously get to orbit.

[ag3nt108]

Solar panels,  I keep forgetting solar panels.  Indeed recently I launched 6 probes into a deep orbit with the intention of sending them off to bodies and settling them as satellites around Duna, Eve, Moho, Jool, Dres, and Minmus.  I figured once I had them all in place accepting "recover or transmit science from space around XX" would be free money.  When the window came for the first planetary transfer the probe was dead as the batteries had ran out.  of course all 6 were the same.