Do you make checklists?

[DeepSpaceDutch]

Am I the only one writing down checklists with flight stages and action groups for my more complex craft? Besides not forgetting stuff it actually feels more realistic

Below is the checklist for my (failed) Duna Lander. Unfortunately incorrectly placed engines (no symmetry used) caused a fuel imbalance and a spectacular Duna crash. For now I'm sticking with setting up my Kerbin-Munar Base logistic infrastructure until I feel I'm ready to play with the big boys (planets) again

DUNA LANDER

PRE-FLIGHT

* CONTROL TO BOOSTER

1. LOCK GIMBAL

2. RCS TRANSFER MODE - LANDER OFF

SUB-ORBITAL

3. EXPAND SOLAR PANELS TUG

ORBITAL

4. THRUST FWD

5. THRUST AFT

PRE-LAND

6. RCS LANDER MODE - TRANSFER OFF

7. UNDOCK LANDER + EXT. GEARS

LAND

8. CHUTES

POST-LAND

9. EXT. STAIRS

[Karriz]

I suppose that would be a good idea. Way too often I've forgot to deploy the solar panels and ran out of power.

I also tend to forget putting an ASAS on my ship while building it.

[Pontiac]

I should start. My full ship has multiple command modules. The primary points horizontal and rolled 45'. If I don't pick the probe on top of the ship, its absolute misery getting the ship above 1k.

Back in 0.19.2, When I was prep'n to get my Mun Mobile Base, code-named Unity, up to the Mun, there we so many checks I had to do before, during, and after ascent, then there was prep'n for the landing. I did manage to get Unity down, but then 0.20 came out.. and well... back to the drawing board. :] (Plug in problems and I couldn't wait for the fixes)

I wonder if a mod could be made to include a checklist on a per-ship basis? I can EASILY write a Pascal program to do this kind of thing, but, I think it'd be more cooler in-game.

[42undead2]

I make checklists:

FULL THROTTLE

SPACEBAR

EXPLODE

That's how my Notepad looks every time. Not every rocket goes by that plan, but most of them.

[Spatzimaus]

I have two sets of checklists. The first is a design checklist, all of the things I need to verify before I leave the VAB/SPH. Things like "Add RCS jets and monoprop fuel", "Add an ASAS or Avionics", "Put an unmanned control node on it even if it has a cockpit" or "Add an RTG or solar panels". Most of these things will be blindingly obvious when you actually launch; I do a test flight with all of my designs (launch and then dock with one of my stations) before sending them anywhere important, so very little slips through.

The second is a list of my action groups. Normally, this would be specific to each design, but that'd require way too much writing, so I keep my lists as consistent as possible. For instance, all of my spaceplanes use this list of toggles:

1> Turbojets

2> Most of the intakes (to reduce drag at low altitudes or on descent)

3> Primary rocket engines (usually an LV-N)

4> Secondary rocket engines (my best designs add a few inefficient boosters for getting to orbit)

5> All the sensors and other one-time activations. (My main spaceplane has a second set of landing gear on the back, for landings on its tail; this toggles them, too.

6> Ladders, or anything else that activates once you're halted on a planet surface (like kethane drills)

The remaining four numbers will be for things specific to each design. For instance, one variant of my spaceplane was designed to launch ion-powered mapping probes, so group 9 deployed the solar panels and such on the probes once they separated.

I don't do a mission profile checklist, like you gave in the OP. This occasionally causes issues, like forgetting to stow the ladders after leaving a planet, but those are minor.

[Astrobug]

I do actually keep a small checklist of surface to LKO operations. Nothing terribly noteworthy. Roll to lessen aerodynamic stress, begin gravity turn at 10K, drop ascent stage, solar panels out, so on and so forth.

More embarrassing is one time when my roommate walked in during a crew exchange mission to my orbital station. I was completely lost in voicing both sides of mission control/capsule communications. There was a fair amount of chatter going on as I was covering the last 100m or so until dock. Lots of RCS corrections going on.

All silly feelings aside, though, it was a great feeling. I don't thing I've gotten so caught up in the role play aspect since I was but a wee lad playing with my Lego figures...

[NeoMorph]

I always forget what I have set the action groups to so I log them down religiously. The problems begin when you dock with another craft and you end up joining action groups together so you HAVE to watch what you are doing. On several large multi-part crafts it is so bad that I have to lock the action groups down because the one time I hit the number 2 by mistake (meant to hit F2) and caused a space station cascade of parts flying off and exploding. Looked cool but omg was I glad I had hit F5 not long earlier.

[legodragonxp]

I have a checklist for designing, but I never remember to use it. Item number one is, "Use this checklist". Later I end up in the shadow of a planet, solar panels still folded up, with no battery power left. (see item number 4, 'add batteries for dark moments'.)

-Lego

[The Jedi Master]

*Turn on SAS

*Throttle up

*Press spacebar!

[E. F. Kranz]

DOUBLEPOST??

this internet thing is hard

Edited June 3, 2013 by E. F. Kranz

[E. F. Kranz]

Not physically, but on more complicated missions, yes, a process check list, at least in your mind, becomes necessary.

I also do extensive top-down test missions on all new designs. It's part of the fun.

If you could set the default state of all tanks, engines, rcs, etc. in the VAB, my checklists would be unnecessary.

[Jokurr]

I’ve never actually written anything down but I’ve considered it after I miss something that totally screws up a mission. So far I’ve just made mental notes not to forget something, but sometimes I still forget. Maybe I should start.

[superm18]

Not alone

I got two sheet, one with my actiongroup-setup wich is also my checklist and the other one with the time of the next burn for all my ongoing mission's

[Fourjays]

Nope. I do have a whole Excel spreadsheet with missions done, missions planned, outcomes, objectives, programs, lifters and their capabilities, Kerbonaut rotations, statuses and mission history, and scientific information I've collected. Going to have to add checklists/action group records now too.

[MockKnizzle]

Gimbal lock? Check.

Crossfeed disabled? Check.

KillRot engaged? Check.

Is rocket pointed towards space? Check.

Let's do this.

[Sᴄɪɴᴛɪʟʟᴀᴛᴏʀ]

I don't do checklists for actual flights but I do keep a reasonably complete record of completed, failed and planned missions.

[AmpsterMan]

My checklists are mainly in my head. I like to make complicated ways of reaching the stars however.

[Brotoro]

I have short checklists on post-it notes for some of the complex payloads I made to drop onto Laythe. And for some rockets that I have in place that I don't expect to fly rught away (so I won't forget imoortant steps) such as my SSTO rocket for getting back off of Laythe.

[Wayfare]

For my Mun Base (found here) I actually made a pretty detailed plan for the entire program, including which launch would carry which payload and what the design requirements for said payload would be. Down to minutiae like "don't forget the [bLEEP] RTGs". It all went very smoothly, except for one incident where the skycrane dropped the main laboratory on its side, and a recovery module (consisting of a docking port, some landing legs and a veeeeery small thruster) had to be designed and jury-rigged into place to set it right-side-up again.

It was also massively overcomplicated and the resulting base lags like no tomorrow

The following base on Minmus was designed a lot more off-the-cuff and it's a lot more economical, both in terms of part count and of payloads launched. Right now I'm working on establishing a base on Laythe which will blow both previous bases out of the water without, IMHO, compromising on aesthetic and/or roleplay pleasingness.

I have found, however, that as I get more confident in designing these things without notes, I do tend to end up with more embarrassing design flaws. Maybe it's the drinking too. Nothing quite like flying a highly ingenious sixteen-probe carrier all the way out to Jool only to find that you've forgotten to put control units on the mini-rovers...

[Mercy]

Too lazy to do that.

[Reaper36]

Nope, but it would pay of sometimes.

On my last moon mission I was so happy to notice that I actually get home with the fuel left,

until I noticed that I forgot the parachutes for landing.

I managed to get the crew back home though with a second craft that picked them up in orbit. :->

[Godot]

No checklists für flight procedures (except mental ones) ...

but I note my missions and details about my spacecraft (including action groups) in Excel

and also do certification/testing of spaceships before I send them on interplanetary missions

(with testing for atmospheric landers/rovers being done on Kerbin and testing for vacuum landers/rovers being done on Mun and Minmus)

[roosterr]

Checklists are synonymous with reading a manual. I just don't go there.

Additionally, checklists alleviate problems, like catastrophic failures. That would be no fun

[MarkusA380]

A real Kerbal does it without Checklists!

Until now every craft worked without a checklist, and I got to Mun, Minmus, Duna, Duna's moon(forgot name), Eve, and even Laythe.

Beside that, have you ever used action groups? They make life easier.

[rryy]

No. The Kerean Committee of Space Technology does not use silly checklists or other pre-planning.