Who wants to burn fuel evenly anyway?

[Cmmndrme]

Hey I'm fairly new so sorry if this has been asked before

I have a lifter with asparagus staging that I have used effectively before but whilst using it to take up a heavy lander I have been having issues with one of the stages burning asymmetrically. One of my mainsails in the stage is chowing through fuel faster than the other. The whole thing is perfectly symmetrical. Also I find when I cut the throttle one of the inner engines keeps burning, sending me into a uncontrolled spin. So... I have no idea whats going on. any help would be wonderful

Edited October 8, 2013 by Cmmndrme

[allmhuran]

Check your flight log (F3). What's probably happening is that part of your rocket is breaking off. Look for a message saying "structural failure on linkage between <some part> and <some other part>". Probably a decoupler or rockomax jumbo 64 fuel tank.

When columns on heavy lifters break off they are often captured by structure or payload above them, so you can't see that anything is wrong. The broken off rockets even continue to provide the vehicle with thrust as they push up on some other part, and it will seem like everything is still OK - for a while.

But in actual fact, Your "not-going-to-space-today-ness" has already been determined: Since the broken off pieces are no longer connected you can no longer control the throttle of the engine, and there will no longer be any fuel crossfeed from the broken-off piece. This means fuel will be used unevenly, and your rocket will eventually spin out of control due to mass and thrust imbalance.

Edited October 8, 2013 by allmhuran

[Cmmndrme]

Thank you very much, now how do change the prefix?

Edited October 8, 2013 by Cmmndrme

[allmhuran]

I think if you edit your orignal post and then switch to the advanced editor you can change the title, but I could be wrong...