EVA mishap! Whiskey Tango...You get the idea.

[jchad]

Wel lets start. In Career Mode I had a ship in Low Munar Orbit. When I figured "Hey, why not EVA and get some science, what can go wrong" Well, let me tell you. EVERYTHING can go wrong! I hit EVA, and all the sudden, my Kerbal goes spiraling out of control flying away from my ship. Im hitting R, Space bar, and all the control keys. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I would have to hit R several times to get the stabilization phase, and after that no controls at all. So now I have a Kerbal and a pilotless ship heading out to an encounter with minmus and then into deep space. Any thoughts?

Thanks

John

[Vanamonde]

Do you any parts placed where the Kerbal's head or feet might be overlapping the part when he emerges from the capsule? That causes spring-loaded badness which can send him flying. However, I've always been able to recover from that by turning RCS on, but you say that didn't work?

[Taki117]

You have to leave RCS on for a while before it will actually do anything to stabilize your Kerbal, but as Vanamonde said, if you have something overlapping either the hatch or ladder this can (And usually will) happen. Your best bet now is to either

A) terminate the flight in the Tracking Station

Leave him in an orbit around Kerbol until a rescue mission can be staged

C) Attempt to get back into your ship and circularize/free return from Minmus.

[longhornchris]

You forgot rule number 1 before starting an EVA... Quicksave! Transition to EVA has screwed me a few times... or for some reason my Kerbal is off the ladder and starts floating away.

I feel your pain, I too have lost Kerbals on EVA because I suck at EVA RCS driving except on planets (Mun, Minimus) where I have a reference frame and can always let gravity take over.

[Nano606]

You cant have any direction key pressed when you hit R, or else the RCS wont kick in. That has caught me out a few times when the kerbal has been spinning out of control.

[Jananton]

Another thing to note, always hover your finger over the F key before doing an EVA. From time to time the kerbonaut fails to grab the capsule automatically when coming out the hatch with all problems you can imagine if you don't press it quick enough.

Greets,

Jan

[Dogface]

Q: after you hit "R" to turn on RCS, do you have to hit a direction key to get it working (as you do to get walking started, from a laying position)?

and for people who dont know...

F5 = Quicksave

F9 = load quicksave file

[Steve-S]

Sometimes I've had this happen when the ship is off axis to how the camera wishes to view the Kerbal on EVA. It will seem to twist him around to match the camera angle and possibly clip him into something and send him spinning. One time I had this happen and the Kerbal was put into rag doll mode and R would not work. He finally came out of rag doll and I got him back to the ships but it was kinda close.

[Kasuha]

Sometimes I've had this happen when the ship is off axis to how the camera wishes to view the Kerbal on EVA. It will seem to twist him around to match the camera angle and possibly clip him into something and send him spinning.

That's an interesting idea. Cameras do have tendency to turn Kerbals around. Visiting South pole of a planet, then switching to Orbital view is ... fun.

[Taki117]

Q: after you hit "R" to turn on RCS, do you have to hit a direction key to get it working (as you do to get walking started, from a laying position)?

[snip]

Nope. You just have to hit 'R' If your kerbal is spinning out of control it will use RCS to try and corret this, and it might take a while depending on how fast he is spinning.

[Cranium]

Nope. You just have to hit 'R' If your kerbal is spinning out of control it will use RCS to try and corret this, and it might take a while depending on how fast he is spinning.

That's incorrect. EVA RCS will not start correcting direction until you press a direction/translation key.

[Taki117]

That's incorrect. EVA RCS will not start correcting direction until you press a direction/translation key.

I've always had it start correcting as soon as activated to orient with the camera.