Jeff replied to me: > > And stabilizing a weightless flyer in gusts close to the ground > > might be tricky, too. Think of a hovercraft at slow speed. > > The Segway and other automated systems demonstrate that sort of fine > control can be done, plus the farm application grav vehicles can be > fitted with gear to engage the ground in really high winds for safety.
The Segway has two wheels to the ground, it doesn't drift with the wind. That does make a difference. > > On the plus side, there are no wheels or suspension. > > Does this imply they move horizontally by reactionless thruster? If so, > they ought to be able to handle any farm-country weather short of a > tornado, and could easily outrun one of those. In Vehicles, reactionless thrusters are just a way to generate thrust. They don't HAVE to provide high thrust or fine control, even if TL8+ usually means decent computers. It would be simple to write a grav vehicle whose "sail thrust" (calculated by 1/6th of the total surface area and the spirit of the sail rules, if not the letter) exceeds the reactionless thruster thrust. Such a vehicle would be uncontrollable in high winds. My harvester should have enough thrust to fight gale storms, even if one shouldn't fly it near the ground under those conditions, but that is because I gave it enough engine power, not because of the technology. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
