Do you retract station solar panels before docking?

[Oddible]

Or do you cowboy it? And... if you cowboy it, how many panels have you broken? And, do you have your panels attached to couplings so you can replace them when you bust them up?

[regex]

Really depends on where the panels are on both craft. If there's a risk of colliding I'll stow them, otherwise I don't bother.

[Benie]

I trust MechJeb's Docking Autopilot to not crash into one of my panels of attempting to maneuver itself.

I've only broken 1 (one) panel because of it. That's when I started to reconfigure my stations to move the panels away from my ship docks.

[acealeam]

I haven't crashed into any so far. Fingers crossed!

[Sapphire]

Ever since I cannonballed through two set of solar panels on my first space station docking, yes.

[nettcod]

I cowboy it. I haven't broken any so far.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I once had to somersault an 80-ton SSTO spaceplane through/over a forest of solar panels when I realized RCS wouln't stop me in time and I would waste too much time turning engines back on. Barely cleared everything, and approached to dock from the other side of the station. Despite that experience, I usually keep the panels open, unless they are in the way of the docking craft. So far, only one panel broken during docking operations, by an EVAing transfer pilot. I'm fairly gentle with the approaches.

[Tw1]

Yes. I tend to do it when going on EVA as well.

But not always, and then it's "Bill! Get back from my solar panels! You need those."

[Uncle Mort]

Of course, I'm not stupid and it's nowt to do with courage.

[N_Molson]

In real spaceflight, you can't retract solar panels, so I never do. Never had problem, it just takes to approach the station at a reasonable speed and let a kilometer of separation when planning the rendez-vous. Not a matter of stupidity, just how things are.

[Scotius]

I place solar panels well away from docking ports, so i have no problems during docking. EVA'ing crew on the other hand...When one of the guys goes jetpacking, i always hide the panels (and cross my fingers )

[magnemoe]

Really depends on where the panels are on both craft. If there's a risk of colliding I'll stow them, otherwise I don't bother.

This, I retract pannels close to the port not the ones 10 meters away, this is unless I have an key to toggle all, then I just use it.

[Tiron]

Retract the ones on the side the ship will be flying past if it has to overshoot to get to the port it's supposed to dock at, otherwise I don't really bother.

Also, the stupidity stat is backwards! Ingame, High Stupidity/Dumb means they're smarter... IE: Bill, with 0.8, versus Bob with 0.1

[softweir]

Since I managed to knock half the panels off my most recent 0.20 space station, yes, I now retract them. I may be stupid and courageous, but I'm not so stupid that I can't learn by experience!

[rryy]

Most of the time, I just leave the solar panels out, but if there is a risk of colliding into them, I would retract them.

[Kerbal01]

ORDA does it automatically.

[Anton P. Nym]

I try to design my stations/craft with the docking ports well away from the solar panels, so I don't normally retract them to dock but I wouldn't call it "cowboying" as I'm way too chicken ordinarily.

I used to be a lot more fussy with solar panels (retracting them before burns, etc) until I got more confident with my abilities and more familiar with what they can take. (Gigantors make for impressive displays when shredding upon re-entry, no?)

-- Steve

[FEichinger]

I usually have two sets of panels facing in either direction and a couple of radially mounted ones, so I just retract whatever is in danger and keep the rest for power.

As for broken panels... Yeh, that's kinda why I started doing that

I think I broke four or six in total, three of them on my first try.

[ramses]

I cowboy it. I haven't broken any so far.

Same. Docking has never really been a problem for me.

[Sardonyx]

I usually design my craft with modules that can operate independently if needed. It usually means some of the solar panels have to be pulled in to clear the docking ports and can't be extended while the docked module is in place. The docked module usually has some of it's own solar panels as well.

That said, I always retract them. My docking ability isn't that precise yet I'd totally destroy them.

[FITorion]

My arrays are pretty far form the docking ports. I'd have to screw up pretty badly to hit them.

also F5... use it.

[Tiron]

If all you've done is break the panels, I'm pretty sure kerbals on EVA can repair it. If you've exploded the base of it you're SOL.

[Dortmunder]

I just leave them open.

Unless for some reason there's one really close to the port I am trying to dock with. Then I might close it.

I don't think I have ever had to though, and never accidentally smashed into whatever I am trying to dock with

[Bacterius]

I tend to put my power modules (with all the solar panels attached) pretty far away from the station's dockings ports, so retracting them is usually not needed. I came horribly close to smashing into my panels a couple of times, and I clipped one panel once due to pilot error where I had to negate 35 m/s with rcs only...

Now EVA is a different matter, for some reason my kerbals seem to gravitate towards my solar panels and always end up bumping into them, fortunately they aren't that brittle (the panels, I mean, not the kerbals).

[Oddible]

If all you've done is break the panels, I'm pretty sure kerbals on EVA can repair it. If you've exploded the base of it you're SOL.

Wait what? There is a repair ability on EVA Kerbals?