Reasons that you jettison a heat shield.

[KerbMav]

14 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

You are releasing it too soon.

That's what ... ahem, I thought.

But yeah, I am always nervous about my chutes ripping when completely opening, so I am inclined to jettison weight during their "drogue phase".

[Loskene]

3 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Expect water landings, if water landing and fragile capsule it makes sense to ditch it. 

Yeah I've found that only parts blowing up on land contact actually slow down the craft a bit when they explode. For splashdowns they just disappear and the part behind carries on at full speed. ie there is lithobraking but no aquabraking for return capsules, ditch the shield and slow down over water.

[FahmiRBLX]

On 7/12/2019 at 12:05 AM, KerbMav said:

But yeah, I am always nervous about my chutes ripping when completely opening, ...

You can just look at your Stagings tab to your left. The colours on the icon has a meaning :

 Safe to deploy / At rest.

 Unsafe to deploy. This is when you're at high speeds.

 Deployed when unsafe. That if you're lucky...

 ... which will ended up destroyed by aero forces etc. This is when yours destroyed.

 This is when you're somewhere between "Safe"and "Dangerous", where risk of parachute ripping occurs. If your landing site is a lowland, you'll be safe, but if you're landing on a mountain, it's basically kinda a close call. This is however goes only for a short while before your parachute is safe.

 This is kinda less important. From left to right; Semi-Deployed and Fully Deployed. Kinda useful if you didn't have parachutes in sight. Such as during IVAs, etc.

But if you knew about this already, you may disregard this.

Edited July 12, 2019 by FahmiRBLXian
Tpyotptotptotpto

[magnemoe]

20 hours ago, Loskene said:

Yeah I've found that only parts blowing up on land contact actually slow down the craft a bit when they explode. For splashdowns they just disappear and the part behind carries on at full speed. ie there is lithobraking but no aquabraking for return capsules, ditch the shield and slow down over water.

Yes on land stuff below your capsule works as an crumble zone, you can survive 100 m/s impact if you have an rocket with multiple tanks below you, in water this works far less well. Not as bad as in 0.9 there parts just got removed without slowing you at all but still far less than on ground.