How high do dragonriders fly when fighting Thread? In Triad?
This has piqued my curiousity. Any thoughts?
The DLG has a pretty picture of the dragon's min and max fighting hights, but there are no numbers attached to it.
In ATWOP, the dragons could hold their breaths for 20+ min, so it wouldn't be a dragon issue, i'd be how high the people could go. :D
Quote from: "Cali"In ATWOP, the dragons could hold their breaths for 20+ min, so it wouldn't be a dragon issue, i'd be how high the people could go. :D
Put me down as a vehement opposer of
all Anne's (later) ridiculous draconic ability ideas. Telekinesis, indeed! Hurumph!
Well, it wasn't really a telekenesis issue, it was them teleporting into space and holding their breaths. But yeah, I don't like the telekenesis bit either. If it had been there from the beginning.... but it wasn't. You can't just discover you can do something 2000 turns later. :p
I'd say they'd be less than a 1,000 ft. Oxygen's an issue for the humans, as well temperature. And really, how high would they NEED to go? But that's just my opinion.
Is there a reason you need to know a specific number, or is it just for curiosity?
Really? That low? This site says that humans can up to 10,000 feet though some have trouble starting at 5,000.
http://www.free-online-private-pilot-ground-school.com/Aviation-Weather-Principles.html
That seems really low to me.... I mean, the empire state building is 1400 feet. There just doesn't seem to be enough room to maneuver, especially going fast like diving down for the thread and what not.
Taking into account terminal velocity, and a base value of 90m/s (since I have no idea how much a dragon weighs), it would only take 3 1/2 seconds for a dragon to smash into the ground when it was diving after thread :compress:
I bet Eimi just forgot a zero :D
I just threw out a number, thinking they wouldn't go so high as 5,000ft because then you're getting into altitude headaches and shortness of breath. So compromise at 2,500ft or 3,000ft. They would only go as high as they need to and no higher. And that number would probably change from Weyr to Weyr and from territory to territory (since some locations ground level will be thousands of feet above sealevel to start with).
I honestly don't think there is one number. But whatever it would be, it would be less than 5,000ft in my opinion.
Well, I've done bike riding on Trailridge Road in Colorado and that's right near 14000 feet and I didn't have any oxygen issues. Now my uncle passed out while hiking on Pike's Peak and that's 12000 feet.
And I just called my dad who is a pilot, and the FAA requires oxygen if flying above 12500 for more than a half hour and oxygen for any time above 14000 for pilots, 15000 feet requires oxygen for passengers. This is in an unpressurized cabin btw, airlines fly higher because they have presurized cabins.
The FAA RECOMMENDS oxygen at 5,000ft. Altiutude sickness most commonly occurs above 8,000ft.
And I used to live at 6,000ft, and it does effect you as your body gets used to it, and again when you come down to sealevel. It effects everything - cooking times, how things are packaged, how you breathe... Even going over a pass at 3,000ft people will experience pressure in their ears, so there's that problem too, especially with the constant moving up and down in altitude...
There also the fact that their bodies wouldn't have the time to adjust to being at that altitude. Driving up a mountain is much slower than flying straight up to that height, so your body had time to adjust to the changes.
They would only go as high as they have to in order to have space enough to manuver between the wings. It just wouldn't be worth the risk to go any higher.
Civilian airlines are pressurised to what the atmosphere would be at 8,000ft and that's fine for most people.
I've flown around in an open aircraft (no doors!) at 12,000 and been okay but been short of breath on the Klein Matterhorn at 12,500 while walking.
Anyway, it was just a character I had an idea for but the heights are too low for it to work so I shall discard that idea.
Here's a site with info on it: http://www.aerox.com/reference%20pages/faq%20text.html (http://www.aerox.com/reference%20pages/faq%20text.html)
Eimi, that site did specify oxygen recommendations at 5000 feet but it specifically stated at night time.
This is fascinating. I never really thought about this before!
Quote from: "Eimi"... Even going over a pass at 3,000ft people will experience pressure in their ears, so there's that problem too, especially with the constant moving up and down in altitude...
There also the fact that their bodies wouldn't have the time to adjust to being at that altitude. Driving up a mountain is much slower than flying straight up to that height, so your body had time to adjust to the changes.
Good point. But they don't fly up to altitude, they appear there from /between/. It's a wonder they don't habve more ear troubles! And nobody with any sort of sinus blockage could fly at all! Lotsa plot points. LOL
Well, the reason why it's at night time I think, Amanda, is because your vision is already imapred by the darkness so they don't want anything to effect it further. But it shows that it CAN effect it. And when you're trying to fight something falling straight on you, you don't want to take a chance at having your vision impared by the slightest even in the daytime. And then there's also the issue, again, that you might have already started out at a couple thousand feet elevation. So there may be times when they are flying at altitudes that exceed 5,000ft, but with the ground only a couple thousand feet below them. They wouldn't want to get any higher off the ground than they have to.
That's true Jane. Prolonged pressure in the ears can lead to hearing loss and possible eardrum rupture, not to mention throw off your equilibrium and you're probably just feeling lousy enough you can't think or react very fast. A flu racing through the Weyr can cause a lot of problems.
Ooo, a flu! Plot idea!
I recently reread Dragonflight, and the impression I got is that the Queen's wing fly so low that their bellies brush against tree tops. Of course, the golds don't manouver like the other dragons.
Just adding my five sents to the soup.