But there was a lot of stuff that scared me in that time. Hence me strictly using the ADC, unless a ship I bought came without and I had to find a station that had the module in stock...
This is how i was with my brand new, shiny Anaconda (back around mid 2018 iirc) - remarkably enough, i bought it (eventually after saving away just enough from many stacked data courier missions and even significant extra cash from “road-to-riches” pseudo-exploration) and flew it out of the station on the maiden voyage without incident…
Then, having used the docking computer to enter the next station, i loaded up, took off and got stuck in the mail slot and then the cage even i think, as i panicked and oversteered frenetically, not realising the whole problem was due to not keeping the ship “level” on station exit, watching the launch clock seconds tick away… and
boom, there i was with a re-bought ’Conda and not enough cash for even one more rebuy…
So, back to my trusty Python i went, briefly considering selling it for more Conda rebuy (but fortunately realising that that would’ve no doubt been the road to ruin…), then stacking many more data (could’ve also been beer for the Perez Ring Brewery as i did quite a bit of that in the early days) courier missions to build up conda-rebuy cash…
After that i started flying the shiny big new ship again - after all, it upped my cargo capacity considerably and the pirates that seemed to harrass my Python relentlessly had become noticeably quieter since the change of ship - but painstakingly planning every journey so that i would not have to even try fly the beast out through a mail slot
ever again… yep, I’d only launch from planetary ports and go to the lengths of calling in another ship to fly to another port where i could call the conda if i’d had to deliver goods to an orbital station…
Fortunately enough for me at the time, Advanced docking computer, with the ability to launch as well as dock, was released not too long after…
These days i actually fly it through on manual sometimes, just for a bit of a thrill :]