Parachute doesn't open on first rocket

[Tim Heider]

I feel dumb but I've tried a lot of different things. I'm confused!

I have done both of the trainings for basic construction and flight and the chute works when I do that.

When I fly my Flea with a MK16 chute the chute never actually opens. It makes the deployment sound but I never see the chute and my little guy just crashes.

This is on PS4. 

Has anyone else encountered this?

[LekkoBot]

how fast are you coming in, you might have torn the chute out because you were moving so fast.

[Tim Heider]

I press the stage button at the very top of the flight where the speed relative to the surface is 0 m/s. Also I have the chute is stage 0 and the flea rocket as stage 1.

 

[drpunk]

How high are you going?

Staging the parachute won't (necessarily) make it fully deploy. Parachute will only fully deploy at the altitude its set to (defaults to 1000m). 

Staging at top of flight you will be going slow enough but from that point onwards you are accelerating back to the surface. If you've picked up too much speed on your fall then you will be travelling too fast for the parachute to deploy when you hit the altitude set on the parachute.

This typically happens if you fall prograde (pointy end first). Not enough air resistance from pointy end to slow you down and you keep accelerating. You ideally want to fall retrograde so that flat surfaces stop you accelerating at a point.

You may also want to adjust the power of the booster (and the amount of fuel) so you don't go too fast to start with.