Insanity has arrived!

[Madrias]

Hi!

Figured now that I started poking around the rest of the forum, not just General KSP Discussion, I should introduce myself before people start trying to remember me and break something.

So where to start? Been playing KSP since 0.17, though didn't enjoy it until some time into 0.18. I suck with rockets, but give me enough time and I'll get anywhere with purpose built spaceplanes. I love mods, and I'm slowly learning how to make stuff for KSP (so far just by config bashing, but I'll get there eventually).

As mentioned, I'm new. I showed up a few days or weeks or something after the forums came back up, mostly just poking around when I realized that there was KSP discussion. One of the threads at the time, the one that drew me in, was referring to something like "Have you ever had an accidental orbital collision?" and I'd literally just had one. I'd flown my shuttle into orbit, dumped my spent fuel can, and sent said spent gas tank hurtling into my space station. I've filled orbits with debris, and I've created fields of green on Minmus with stranded Kerbals.

And if you've read this far, just call me Mad. Everyone else does everywhere else.

[Godot]

We all welcome insanity

[Traches]

Brother, insanity has been around the whole time. Promise.

Welcome to the forums!

[Madrias]

Thank you! Visiting the forums tends to inspire me to build crazier spacecraft than usual, so I can tell there's been some insanity here from the start.

After all, where else could I get the idea in my head to try launching a mission to the Mun using nothing but solid fuel boosters? It exploded about 4000 meters up, but that's cause I'm not good with rockets. I can build many spaceplane variations, even built an SSTO that gets to my station, docks to a fuel can, refuels, then takes off, carrying the Rockomax Jumbo-64 under the belly, but my roughest time in Career mode? Having to launch rockets to get plane parts.

Of course, the forum has also inspired me to be a little more active in the KSP community.

[Starwhip]

How is it possible that you can't build rockets, yet you can go anywhere with spaceplanes? For me, it's the other way around. Are your planes really big and do they even look like planes?

[Madrias]

I've built R/C airplanes before, so I've got a reasonable grasp of basic aerodynamics. Some planes are big, others as small as I can make them, and most look like planes or some futuristic derivative of them. Rockets, on the other hand, tend to flip out of control, run out of thrust at the wrong moments, create chaos with staging mishaps, and when they do work properly, take an age to turn in any direction.

[Starwhip]

I FINALLY made my FIRST SSTO! It's at about 100,000 meters and has (probably) enough fuel to return.

It's unmanned, but is a step forward.

[Madrias]

Plunk a docking port on there (either replace the nosecone or use the inline one), stick some fuel tanks in Orbit as a space station, and fuel won't be a problem. Just a friendly hint for you. After that, you're only limited on places to go to by the number of relay/refuel stations in orbits above planets.

[Starwhip]

No problem: Got this thing in orbit:

I've got no fuel problems, but I could stick a little more fuel on the SSTO.

[Madrias]

When I'm not putting spaceplanes in orbit, I'm testing things I've done by config bashing... Thanks to another modder on here, I've learned a neat trick for bashing models together and making one whole part out of it. What did I make with it? An engine.

What did I do with it?

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Decided to see how low I could fly to the concrete water (complete with a few requisite low-altitude victory rolls) with one of the Orange Three on board. Wanted to put 2 there, but Jeb's manning my refueling station and Bob's on the Mun driving a rover, so Bill had to take the task alone. And yes, Bill survived to fly another day. Although, undoubtedly, he'll need a new flight suit.

For the record, second to last image holds my altitude record. And yes, that plane's not easy to control, and it gets worse with fine controls on. You need quick reflexes to handle a Devastation Incorporated Forcefyer prototype engine at full thrust.

My next crazy plan? Strap two of 'em to something...