Because Science covers some of the problems of flying like a superhero, and flying like a pegasus on Earth would likely have some of those problems. One thing that everybody writing a PoE with pegasi ought to consider (which he touches on at the end of the video) is FAA regulations--or whatever agency is responsible for airspace in the country the pegasus is in.

A set of superhero stories that I really liked also mentioned in passing that flyers needed to carry professional radio gear and take courses in air traffic control.

It's interesting, although it describe thing a bit outside the scope of a pony fic, with very high speed or altitudes. The last part about limitations is very relevant for PoE fic.

Depending on the size we consider pegasi will give us a actual not fly radius as well.

While flying a Drone near an Airport is very VERY illegal, like a Drone, a Dog sized Pegasi will have plenty more areas where it can fly, then where it can't, even in a major city.

Once you get to Shetland Pony sized however, things become more problematic.

Either way, a helmet with GPS and Radio would be a big help.

Also, I now kinda want a story that has Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash discuss Bird Strike. Because while most Pegasi would easily dodge any bird coming their way, their is significant question about Rainbow Dash's manuverability after a Sonic Rainboom. A near miss with a bird would lead to quite an angry Fluttershy I think.

Thanks for this—I immediately subscribed. His eyebrows are like dancing caterpillars He's very entertaining. And the information was cool.

One thing that would absolutely happen in the event of mass production of Iron Man suits would be total flight automation, because people in general can't even drive, now: how careful would they be in the 'open' air even with guidance? Not enough to make it safe to stand above ground, where all of the debris would rain down...

Also, I loved that Sliver Glow carried so many gadgets to help make her flight-legal, and that she had her own type classification. This pressed all of the Adorable buttons.

6739387
Interesting.
6739482
Reminder; unless you quote there will be no notifications.
6739581
6739747
The points you bring up are legitimately the only points of contention between Biscuit and myself. I tend to nod at what he writes as plausible, but I consider them larger and faster. Also you have to quote reply in order for Biscuit to be notified.

6739754
I loved Silvy's slowly growing pile of flight shit.

What do you consider is the average flight speed of a pegasus?
The opening scene of the movie shows it takes 4 frames for a flying pegasus to pass a walking pony. If ponies are 4 feet long, they were going about 25 mph. In the episode with Sky Stinger, he says he has the record for "fastest vertical acceleration," which was 500 feet in 2 seconds. That's about 340 mph, or half mach 1.

6739754

because people in general can't even drive, now

This is the real reason we've never had flying cars. Plenty of people have invented various compact aircraft that can be landed on say a residential street so long as it's not busy etc. But you have to fly them like a plane, and so you need to be a pilot, and so the average joe will never get one, so they never become common and mass-produced and therefore affordable.

6740595 Yeah, piloting (as opposed to the couch-driving-by-remote of cars that I see so often) is pretty much a key to safe operation of anything that goes from one place to another. With so many people traveling from point A to point B, and even with them being good drivers/pilots, accidents will still happen.

Now take all of those drivers from the ground – where the guidelines are well-laid-out and visible, if not solid – and put them in the open air. Even skilled pilots make mistakes, auto-pilot or not, so I can only imagine how bad things would be without total flight automation. And in the case of accidents, we're now adding gravity into the survival equation, for those in the air and on the ground.

So even if individual flying cars truly become a mass-marketable reality, there's just no way it will really happen on a large scale unless we're willing to entirely give up Control in the name of Safety.

6739482

A set of superhero stories that I really liked also mentioned in passing that flyers needed to carry professional radio gear and take courses in air traffic control.

Which one, out of curiosity?

I think that’s a prudent idea in a modern world, by the way; bird strikes are bad, Superman strikes would be worse.

6739581

It's interesting, although it describe thing a bit outside the scope of a pony fic, with very high speed or altitudes. The last part about limitations is very relevant for PoE fic.

Not everybody limits their flight on Earth like I did (in terms of speed or altitude), and it might be useful information for somebody who’s considering a PoE story with ponies flying very high or very fast. Or other flying creatures, for that matter.

6739747

Depending on the size we consider pegasi will give us a actual not fly radius as well.

While flying a Drone near an Airport is very VERY illegal, like a Drone, a Dog sized Pegasi will have plenty more areas where it can fly, then where it can't, even in a major city.

Most likely. There are probably some circumstances where you can fly a drone near an airport, but I’d imagine that you’d have to have appropriate licencing and a radio so you could notify other air traffic where you were and what you were doing, and there would probably be some restricted areas still, since ‘see and avoid’ is unlikely to work with something as small as a drone.

Outside of airport controlled space, the general rule in the US that I’m aware of is a minimum altitude of 1000 feet above urban areas and 500 feet above rural (barring special exemptions, such as for crop spraying)--in general, I’d think that a pegasus would be reasonably free to fly below aircraft minimums, since there shouldn’t be anything up there to hit her.

Either way, a helmet with GPS and Radio would be a big help.

Silver Glow had plenty of flight equipment: normally, a radio, high-viz vest, blinking light, and an altimeter. Later on, she got a GPS watch and a second radio, and she also often wore a GoPro and a Camelback, although those weren’t safety equipment. She also at one point had to wear an EPIRB, in case of a water landing.

Also, I now kinda want a story that has Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash discuss Bird Strike. Because while most Pegasi would easily dodge any bird coming their way, their is significant question about Rainbow Dash's maneuverability after a Sonic Rainboom. A near miss with a bird would lead to quite an angry Fluttershy I think.

If Rainbow hit a bird at Sonic Rainboom speeds, the bird would be dead, no question. Rainbow might or might not survive, depending on how her flight magic works (she did, after all, Rainboom a barn).

6739754

Thanks for this—I immediately subscribed. His eyebrows are like dancing caterpillars He's very entertaining. And the information was cool.

He does lots of sciencing of superhero and fantasy stuff (and as I recall, some mundane stuff, like why you wouldn’t want to be tossed into a volcano). It’s very interesting, and I think any writer thinking of getting into those genres might want to consider what he has to say on the subject, at least from a realism perspective.

One thing that would absolutely happen in the event of mass production of Iron Man suits would be total flight automation, because people in general can't even drive, now: how careful would they be in the 'open' air even with guidance? Not enough to make it safe to stand above ground, where all of the debris would rain down...

You’d pretty much have to, and ballistic recovery parachutes wouldn’t be a bad idea, for when the suit malfunctioned. IRL, of course, such a suit is impossible unless we develop some new kind of magical fuel. If memory serves, the best currently-available jetpacks have flight times of only a few minutes at best.

Also, I loved that Sliver Glow carried so many gadgets to help make her flight-legal, and that she had her own type classification. This pressed all of the Adorable buttons.

6739845

Interesting.

I thought so, too! And I knew most of that stuff going in (which is why some of Silver’s limitations were in place), but realized when I watched the video that other people might not know. I’ve got the advantage of a brother who’s a flight test engineer and literal rocket scientist, so I picked up a lot of this stuff along the way.

The points you bring up are legitimately the only points of contention between Biscuit and myself. I tend to nod at what he writes as plausible, but I consider them larger and faster.

Realistically, they’d have to have magic to fly anyway--as drawn in the show, they’re not aerodynamic at all, their wings are too small, etc. With magic-based flight, of course, all things are possible.

I’m not opposed to larger ponies; I think that’s up to the author to decide, since we have little actual evidence of how big they are. The shot of EqG riding pony RD could be used, but then Equestria Girls doesn’t exactly match actual human anatomy.

And there might be mundane solutions to at least some of the problems. There are some IRL birds that can fly at 30,000 feet; presumably, they’ve got the lack of oxygen and lack of lift figured out.

I loved Silvy's slowly growing pile of flight shit.

In an upcoming story, the pegasi are going to have more equipment, although a lot of it’s going to be integrated into a flight pack.

6739387
The old Whatley Universe stuff. Wildly varying quality between 'Amazing' and 'I can't believe I'm reading this', and on occasion problematic as heck, but they put a LOT of good thought into powers and the worldbuilding and such.

6739896

What do you consider is the average flight speed of a pegasus?

I don’t know.

In Silver Glow’s Journal, her cruise speed was 30-40 mph; however, she also mentioned more than once that her magic didn’t work as well on Earth.

The opening scene of the movie shows it takes 4 frames for a flying pegasus to pass a walking pony. If ponies are 4 feet long, they were going about 25 mph. In the episode with Sky Stinger, he says he has the record for "fastest vertical acceleration," which was 500 feet in 2 seconds. That's about 340 mph, or half mach 1.

I could buy that first number (and it wasn’t a pegasus at full speed necessarily, was it?). The second is extremely unlikely for any normal flying creature . . . but again, if magic’s involved, really anything is possible. Somebody did physics on RD’s sonic rainboom/pony rescue, and as I recall some of the g-forces she would have had to pull would simply destroy anything man-made, and are far beyond what any living vertebrae can survive.

6742832
You know, it never actually occurred to me the EqG humans might be a different size? Being smaller is actually an advantage in a lot of ways since you use geometrically less resources... :p

6740595

This is the real reason we've never had flying cars. Plenty of people have invented various compact aircraft that can be landed on say a residential street so long as it's not busy etc. But you have to fly them like a plane, and so you need to be a pilot, and so the average joe will never get one, so they never become common and mass-produced and therefore affordable.

It’s also worth mention that they’re generally both lousy cars and lousy airplanes, so you pay a lot of money for something that isn’t fun to drive or fly. They’re probably more expensive than a good car and a good airplane would be, since it has to be both road legal (crashworthiness, emissions, etc.) and flight legal. You can do a one-off and not have to have it certified as either, but if a company were to start mass-producing them, they’d have to meet a lot of regulations, and probably couldn’t actually do it. Also flight school is expensive, too.

Would you drive (or fly) this?

6741468

So even if individual flying cars truly become a mass-marketable reality, there's just no way it will really happen on a large scale unless we're willing to entirely give up Control in the name of Safety.

There’s virtually no chance, unless they’re fully-automated, and bulletproof reliable. And there’s no reason to do it; there’s almost no chance that any significant number of people will ever want to spend that amount of money for virtually no actual benefit.

6742842

The old Whatley Universe stuff.

Thanks!

Wildly varying quality between 'Amazing' and 'I can't believe I'm reading this', and on occasion problematic as heck, but they put a LOT of good thought into powers and the worldbuilding and such.

Sounds like a lot of my stuff.

You know, it never actually occurred to me the EqG humans might be a different size? Being smaller is actually an advantage in a lot of ways since you use geometrically less resources... :p

We just don’t know. They could be smurf-sized, or they could be thirty foot tall giants. Or anything in between.

6742875
Now you've got me thinking about it...

Things fall at the same rate (ish) so we can assume similar gravity. The trees are a good reference, and I'd possibly say they aren't TOO small, but possibly at a slightly smaller scale than earth humans if the Everfree is anything to go by.

6742813
That story has been on my Read it latter list for a while, and right now I am not reading anything. I think its time to read it latter.

And yes, I agree, if RD Hit a bird the bird would be dead, which is why I said a near miss. But the ensuring outcome between RD and Fluttershy isn't likely fun and instead rather painful for everyone involved. After all, of all the Mane6 they are the oldest friends. (Baring A Simpler Time which is clearly cannon))

If a Bird passes within a foot of RD, I think its possible the turbulence will injure the Bird without killing it. Especially wingtip vortices which can last for minutes after the passing Plane, and have been known during takeoff (when they are strongest) to roll smaller planes that attempt to launch after them.

And in all likelihood, Rainbow Dash wouldn't even notice the bird caught in her actual wake. (I think that is the first time I have used that expression to actually mean Wake Turbulence)

6742875
Angel Bunny is about half Pony Shy's height. If she's ~4' then he's ~2'. Angel is shorter than H!Shy's shin, which maths out to make the EQG gals ~6-8' in height. They're really not very human proportioned or sized.

6742935

Things fall at the same rate (ish) so we can assume similar gravity.

Do we actually know that? We’d have to assume a scale for the ponies in order to assume rate of acceleration due to gravity, at least I think we would. But I’m a liberal arts major, so I don’t really know much about actual science.

The trees are a good reference, and I'd possibly say they aren't TOO small, but possibly at a slightly smaller scale than earth humans if the Everfree is anything to go by.

The thing with plants is that they look kinda the same at any scale--broccoli resembles an actual tree, for instance, and in the model railroading world, weed stems are often used for tree trunks. So I don’t know if that could be conclusive, either. I think leaves kind of scale, too, from really tiny ones to really huge ones. And I’ve got some miniature daffodils that look exactly like the big ones, but they’re small.

6743107

That story has been on my Read it latter list for a while, and right now I am not reading anything. I think its time to read it latter.

Unless you’re into marathoning, pace yourself. Don’t try to read it all in one go; it wasn’t meant to be read that way.

If a Bird passes within a foot of RD, I think its possible the turbulence will injure the Bird without killing it. Especially wingtip vortices which can last for minutes after the passing Plane, and have been known during takeoff (when they are strongest) to roll smaller planes that attempt to launch after them.

Yeah, the turbulance around a sonic rainboom would be severe, and it’s possibly also bad at things like Wonderbolts shows. Depending on how pegasus flight magic works, general flight might not make much of a vortex. Smaller aircraft don’t make significant vortices as far as I know, whereas the big ones cause problems for littler ones.

FWIW, Silver Glow gets knocked out of stable flight by the vortex from a landing aircraft at one point in the story.

And in all likelihood, Rainbow Dash wouldn't even notice the bird caught in her actual wake. (I think that is the first time I have used that expression to actually mean Wake Turbulence)

If she didn’t see it when she went by, no, she probably wouldn’t.

That does make me wonder, though: dolphins and boats can take advantage of wake to get a speed boost, so might this also apply to pegasi? Could other pegasi get a speed boost by flying through wake turbulence in just the right manner?

6743332

Angel Bunny is about half Pony Shy's height. If she's ~4' then he's ~2'. Angel is shorter than H!Shy's shin, which maths out to make the EQG gals ~6-8' in height. They're really not very human proportioned or sized.

Yeah, I’m not really sure that Angel scales the same across the universes.

If EqG girls are human-sized, ponies are pretty tiny. If ponies are larger, humans are huge. Without spending a lot of time with that particular image, it certainly looks like EqG Fluttershy is two pony Fluttershies tall, and that doesn’t scale well with humans.

Putting EqG Fluttershy at average human female height (5’4”, according to Google), that would put Fluttershy at 2’8” at the tips of the ears.

I tend to make rough approximations of their size off of both G1, which did have humans, and my pony/human action figures.

6744190

Yeah, the turbulance around a sonic rainboom would be severe, and it’s possibly also bad at things like Wonderbolts shows. Depending on how pegasus flight magic works, general flight might not make much of a vortex. Smaller aircraft don’t make significant vortices as far as I know, whereas the big ones cause problems for littler ones.

FWIW, Silver Glow gets knocked out of stable flight by the vortex from a landing aircraft at one point in the story.

From what I gather, the Vortexes are at their worst during takeoff and landing. I don't know enough about the Physics of the situation but that maybe caused by the rapid chance in direction during takeoff. And you are right its a size ratio thing, so if the size difference between Pegasuses (spelt that way because Silver Glow) and Birds is small enough it won't be an issue.

Given Rainbow Dash's ability to change direction at Sonic Rainboom speeds on a dime, its possibly most of the time her Vortexes are very small, but at those corners it gets fairly insane. Its also possible that by completely ignoring Momentum as she can, she doesn't have periods where the Vortexes are large.

That does make me wonder, though: dolphins and boats can take advantage of wake to get a speed boost, so might this also apply to pegasi? Could other pegasi get a speed boost by flying through wake turbulence in just the right manner?

It is believed that Geese and other Migratory Birds fly in the V formation to do just that, so IN THEORY we have seen the Wonderbolts take advantage of it multiple times.