Atmospheric operation of small craft, incorrect assumptions

[rust]

The most impressive pilot stunt I witnessed only looked like an attempt
to get rid of a few planes.

During one of the NATO maneuvers we had a few British pilots with their
Jaguars as guests, obviously experts in NOE flight. After a few days we
had grown used to their antics, but our company sergeant had been away
and so had missed their attempts to fly ever closer to the ground.

On the day when he returned I had to report to him, and just when I en-
tered his office our British guests obviously intended to break the record
with one of their mock attacks on our airfield, coming in even lower than
ever before.

So, while I saluted and started my report, the company sergeant sudden-
ly looked out of the window, cursed, and jumped under his desk, where
he lay trembling and awaiting what he considered the crash of two Jagu-
ars right through his office's window ...

 

[rinku]

Actually, how contragrav works is NOT clearly defined in MGT. Various versions of how it works have been used in previous editions. Ships in MGT simply have "gravitic drives". Looking at how things are defined in the Vehicle supplements, however, it seems clear that gravitics do provide direct thrust, though there is a simpler lift only version available.

(Myself, I quite liked the TNE version, where CG simply reduced the gravitational vector's percentage by 99% (and thus gave the same effect regardless of local gravity), allowing the ship to hover and maneuver on its reaction thrusters)

 

[rust]

And I thought fighter/bombers flying between cooling tower and coal plant (but BELOW the coal plant rooflevel) was aggressive flying (Plant is about 100m high)

If I remember it right, the official limit of our British guests was a height
of 15 meters above the ground at 800 km/h, but on the day I mentioned
I am almost certain that they were much closer to 10 meters.
A member of our watch battalion told me that they would not have had
the shadow of a chance to fire at the Jaguars, the planes were there and
gone again before they realized what had happened.
During the maneuver our "losses" consisted only of a number of broken
windows, but if these planes had carried bombs ...

Which, to get back to topic, is an example of what a high degree of agili-
ty can be good for, because the planes had to "jump" over a forest be-
fore they could use the airfield's level terrain for their attack, and then to
"jump" over a couple of buildings to get away from the site.

 

[dreamingbadger]

And I thought fighter/bombers flying between cooling tower and coal plant (but BELOW the coal plant rooflevel) was aggressive flying (Plant is about 100m high)

If I remember it right, the official limit of our British guests was a height
of 15 meters above the ground at 800 km/h, but on the day I mentioned
I am almost certain that they were much closer to 10 meters.

The correct height is two NATO standard pine trees