Pilot endurance?

D

David Wade

Rear Admiral
So I was looking through my navy aviation medical books. (I got a few from Flight Surgeons I was the enlisted guy) the maximum recommended continous flight time outside combat is 3 hours. So im thinking it would be the same in Wing Commander. Is this a reasonable thing or should I research more?
 
That's a good question! I've never heard three hours before. The FAA says eight hours for a single pilot and ten for two pilots but I'm not sure how civil aviation would compare to the military.

The WC3 manual says the Arrow has life support for up to seven hours, so that's probably a good starting point for imagining Wing Commander missions!
 
I know that in Wing Commander Saga's campaign, there's a strike mission against a Kilrathi heavy carrier battlegroup. As you get to the first Nav point, the CAG (Ranger) says "Anyone who wants to sleep, better do it now!" as the next nav point is quite a long way away if not using auto-pilot. Presumably the writers of that game assumed that pilots in the Wing Commander universe generally don't do a lot while the auto-pilot is on?

That mission then leads to a wonderfully frenetic fight between a large strike force that you're a bomber pilot in, up against a Bhantkara, 2 Fralthi IIs, a pair of light destroyers, and a whole pile of enemy fighters. It's a mission where the game's reliance on the Freespace engine starts to hurt as a bomber pilot, since the default turret logic only allows it to fire at whatever the player has targeted; your turret can't do anything while trying to get a torpedo lock!
 
Bandit LOAF said:
That's a good question! I've never heard three hours before. The FAA says eight hours for a single pilot and ten for two pilots but I'm not sure how civil aviation would compare to the military.

The WC3 manual says the Arrow has life support for up to seven hours, so that's probably a good starting point for imagining Wing Commander missions!
Click to expand...
The broadswords in Academy also seem to suggest they're also designed for longer missions too
 
It's not discussing flight hours, but in WC4 cutscene SC 2510A Hawk talks about how long he's been awake:
COLONEL CHRISTOPHER BLAIR: 46 hours.

COLONEL JACOB "HAWK" MANLEY: 46! It's only been 20 for me.

COLONEL CHRISTOPHER BLAIR: What?

COLONEL JACOB "HAWK" MANLEY: Since I slept.

COLONEL CHRISTOPHER BLAIR: No, I'm talking about how long it's been since Captain Eisen left. He hasn't sent a trans, has he?

COLONEL TAMARA "PANTHER" FARNSWORTH: Not a glitch... Hope he makes it.
Click to expand...
For modern day fighter pilots, a lot of the exhaustion comes from the forces of manoeuvring, even while wearing a "G-Suit" to keep from blacking out. For bomber and airline pilots the limit is how much concentration we can sustain before we get careless.

Which applies more aboard a fighter in the Wing Commander Universe? The capital ships all have artificial gravity that seems reliable and consistent even when ships turn. If fighter cockpits can do the same, they can reduce the tiring effect of tight turns. (While some gravity is good for us, they might well use an amount less than Earth gravity. Ideally the gravity should also "tilt" slightly in the direction of turns so the pilot's inner ear feels consistent with the exterior rotation.)

Does anything in the fiction say if fighter life support includes some gravity?
 
Talking of mental exhaustion for the Intrepid bridge crew, is the same audio alarm and flashing red light support to be running continuously through every moment between these scenes?
  1. SC 1901A (entering the Peleus system)
  2. SC 1990A (Briefing for Peleus J1)
  3. SC 2000A / SC 2000B (Loadout for Peleus J1)
  4. SC 2080A (Blair destroys the jammer in Peleus J1A or J2B)
They don't show up in some of the other cutscenes, like SC 2040A / SC 2050A and SC 2060A / SC 2060B / SC 2060C.
 
I know that in Wing Commander Saga's campaign, there's a strike mission against a Kilrathi heavy carrier battlegroup. As you get to the first Nav point, the CAG (Ranger) says "Anyone who wants to sleep, better do it now!" as the next nav point is quite a long way away if not using auto-pilot. Presumably the writers of that game assumed that pilots in the Wing Commander universe generally don't do a lot while the auto-pilot is on?
Click to expand...

I don't know Saga so well but there is a Wing Commander Academy, The Last One Left, where Maniac seems to be sleeping through autopilot (though it's presenting him as being in the wrong for it).

The broadswords in Academy also seem to suggest they're also designed for longer missions too
Click to expand...

The Broadsword is patterned after World War II strategic bombers which did indeed fly extremely long missions, sometimes eight to sixteen hours to bomb Berlin and Tokyo, respectively. (The B-2 today flies 30-50 hour missions flying from bases in the continental US to targets on the other side of the world... but they're designed to carry two crews that operate in shifts.)

Also Tolwyns flew for a day or so in a Sabre, right?
Click to expand...

Seven days! It's an extreme situation, though (and he's trading off flying and sleeping with Kevin throughout).
 
That would be a lot. There isn't much room aboard the fighters i can see crew swap with the heavy bombers allowing some to sleep in semi-comfort
 
Speaking of Wing Commander Academy, In the very next episode (Word of Honor) Grunt catches some sleep between nav points

"I'm going to grab 40. Wake me if the fur starts to fly, eh?"

Maybe its a bit more one on one off if its a long patrol?
 
I noticed a similar callout in Prophecy last night - when a navpoint is clear, Maestro has "all clear, nap time!" as a comm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top