Mechjeb drops my landers

[Yeet Yeet]

Every time i try to land a lander without a parachute using the mechjeb janding guidance tool, as soon as i click autoland it permanently locks me out of all controls other than SAS (no manual steering) and throttle (but i can only use maximum or 0 thrust because for some reason the shift+ctrl keys dont do anything after that). Also, once it gets within about 500-1000 meters of the ground it cuts all the engines and drops my lander like a rock. Can somebody help me fix this please?

[PrathamK]

Mechjeb is a autopilot, you should get in orbit, and start the landing guidance. It will automatically set the SAS off, burn to decelerate, correction, and plane change, and will auto warp till braking burn, where till the SAS will be on. As of you are above target, it will kill horizontal velocity and fall vertically, until at last point, where it will slow down, till 0 or till touchdown speed. Mechjeb may fail if untargeted landing is attempted, as my 1lander and 2 probes crashed on Minimus.

Be safe and active don't ignore it, while it is on, keep a watch.

[Yeet Yeet]

7 hours ago, PrathamK said:

Mechjeb is a autopilot, you should get in orbit, and start the landing guidance. It will automatically set the SAS off, burn to decelerate, correction, and plane change, and will auto warp till braking burn, where till the SAS will be on. As of you are above target, it will kill horizontal velocity and fall vertically, until at last point, where it will slow down, till 0 or till touchdown speed. Mechjeb may fail if untargeted landing is attempted, as my 1lander and 2 probes crashed on Minimus.

Be safe and active don't ignore it, while it is on, keep a watch.

That's what it's supposed to do, yes. What it's actually been doing is deccelerating to 0 vertical speed about 500m above the target and then cutting the engines and killing my controls. Thus my lander free falls about 500m to it's inevitable destruction.

[Gargamel]

I've found similar issues over the years with MJ.  Rebuilding your ship from scratch usually alleviates the issue, meaning there is something weird in your ship design that is making MJ act wonky.  I dunno what, cause all the ships looked fine to me.

If you are 500m above the surface, with 0 horizontal velocity, and upright, you should be able to turn off the autopilot and land it safely on your own at this point.  Another option would be to turn off the target landing system, and turn on "land anywhere".  You're close enough to your target you really don't care, you just want it down safely.