Emergency Procedures!

[Boomerang]

I used to build all of my planes with cockpits that could be decouples, pushed away with separatrons and later deploy parachutes, which of course came in handy while testing and such. But for a while now I've just been using the VNG ejection seat part. Saves big time on part count and the pilots can parachute to the ground on their own.

I've also got a version of my standard cargo spaceplane that just carries huge quantities of MP for it's size. There isn't a whole lot of room for error on ascent with it and if I should have to abort docking to a station and unloading the MP, it's too heavy by the nose to land with a full MP load and dry fuel tanks. So I've been playing recently with the Klockheed Martian Smart Parts pack. Deleted everything but the two fuel dump parts, so that in the case I laid out above, I can vent the MP from the cargo bay, which allows for an easy deadstick landing.

[Wanderfound]

If you're bothered by part counts, TAC/FB will let you dump fuel with no extra parts, BTW.

[Boomerang]

Yeah, I just enjoy having the parts. I suppose it feels a bit more justified that being able to magically dump fuel. The TAC mods are awesome though, I can't play without Life Support and Self Destruct. The latter of which sometimes plays into emergency procedures too!

[Jr6150x]

Space bar, Space bar, Space bar! Fixes it every time.

[Wanderfound]

Space bar, Space bar, Space bar! Fixes it every time.

...until your still-lit SRBs hit the capsule.

[Sanguine]

I pretty generally have my 0 action key bound to launch all engines on the lander/emergency capsule, and deploy landing legs, ladders, pretty much everything that sticks out which can prevent a stray SRB from hitting the capsule. Any 'experimental' launches I do with a new type of ship, I use this system - it's fairly simple, however, and this is especially true in the case of the landing legs, it has terrific outcomes.

[DasValdez]

Only have a single unthrottled SRB, and on course a Munar impact?

TIME TO IMPROVISE. (Video)

Heh. Good times.

[Vallius]

That takes me back to my first landing on the Mun, way back in 0.21 I think it was. This was before I knew I could use EVA to push a spacecraft. In those days, that was dicey anyway, because kerbals tended to bounce off the command module when you tried to grab a ladder.

Jebediah had just gotten back into orbit after his historic first landing, and he initiated the burn to head home. The problem was that I ran out of liquid fuel leaving my periapsis at about 600 km from home.

"No problem!" I figured, "Maybe I can close the gap using my RCS." About 30 seconds later, I was still 300 K out, and out of RCS. Now I was really desperate, when I can a crazy idea. What if I could activate my abort system (seperatrons on the top of the command module), to push me the rest of the way home. I rotated the craft to the proper direction, crossed my fingers, and set off my last stage.

The rest is history reminiscent of a combination of Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. There was cheering, a goofy victory dance, and a lot of fist pumping.

So to make a short story long, redundancy and creativity are how I get my kerbals safely home (usually).

[Archgeek]

Heh, much the same as most here. My OctoBail escape tower sub-assembly from before the NASA pack is actually beefier (if less violent and efficient) than NASA's, and goes atop anything chunky enough to need it. Abort action is mapped to kill all main engines, decouple the pod/can/etc, and fire the escape tower. Action group 0 gets to decouple the escape tower and fire the chutes. Though if a lander is capable enough or it's a funky powered return module of some sort, I'll forego the tower and have the abort light those engines to get away from the underlying catastrophe.

I've started sneaking linear RCS ports under capsules in lieu of getting out and pushing now that they have accessible internal mono stores, though I should check if that will consume the kerbals' supplies or not.

[Wallace]

Launched a 12-hitchhiker Munbase in 4 sections, to be assembled into a rectangular base, along with a shipment of basecrawlers and various skycranes and tugs.

After they were on their way to the Mun, I decided to test the parts on Kerbin, and found the basecrawlers were useless at bringing the Clampotron Sr ports into alignment, and that the skycranes were defective due to balance problems.

So I assembled the entire base in orbit, the base crawlers became landing gear and the tugs becmae the new skycranes with the defective skycranes as mere fuel tanks. I had to transfer fuel between tanks (no TAC, just stock fuel transfer) during the decent but the whole kerboodle landed right next to the Neil Armstrong memorial.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Wallace

[SorryDave]

On an early minmus mission I landed a small craft about 6km from the base I was hoping to land near. So my jeb decided to use his eva rockets to fly there.

He hit the ground fast and slid on his face "successfully" most of the trip to the base.

[CorruptDB]

I pretty generally have my 0 action key bound to launch all engines on the lander/emergency capsule, and deploy landing legs, ladders, pretty much everything that sticks out which can prevent a stray SRB from hitting the capsule. Any 'experimental' launches I do with a new type of ship, I use this system - it's fairly simple, however, and this is especially true in the case of the landing legs, it has terrific outcomes.

Why not just define them in the "abort" (backspace) action group instead? I like using abort more than the numbered action groups because my backspace is a bigger key and thus is easier to hit when I am in a panic and it doesn't waste my numbered groups to use it.

[TimberWolffe]

Used EVA to get a kerbin encounter after passing by Duna, then more EVA to get a super shallow reentry angle at periapsis so my entry speed was only something like 120m/s, which further slowed down to 60 m/s by the time he hit. Almost made it, gosh darnit

[GreeningGalaxy]

[edit: whoops, wrong thread!]