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Spoiler: Danaerys will freeze to death!
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Spoiler: Danaerys will freeze to death!
#1I was bumbling about in the AsoIaF forums as I am wont to do from time to time, inhaling the fumes of theories, prophecies, and minutiae, and I could not find mentions or thoughts anywhere (and I did some searches) of the physical logistics of dragon-riding.
The Targs may (or may not) be resistant to fire and flame, but what about freezing to death? I predict she will have pneumonia at the very least in TWOW.
Ok, so you don't need to know *anything* about A Song of Ice and Fire series or the Game of Thrones show to comment.
How high is a dragon's "cruising altitude" with a rider on board? Too low doesn't make sense right? So how about something like sixty-seventy feet above the ground as a random guess for the *lowest* altitude. How fast does a dragon fly (with a rider on board) would you say? Thirty mph? Forty? Fifty? Again these guesses seem conservative to me for cruising speed. I'm no scientist but at forty-five miles per hour that wind is going to be shearing your face. There is no way around eventual frost-bite.
Winter is coming. Danaerys is headed from sunny Slavers Bay (eventually!!!!???) to about-to-get-frigid Westeros. I'm just not buying that she can fly her dragon over the lands incinerating some castle or city without FREEZING TO DEATH!!! And not just Danaerys. All the original Targ dragon riders before her too.
Danaerys usually dresses in sexy gowns. Now granted, perhaps "real" (:P) dragon-riders would wrap themselves up in wool and the like with helmets, goggles and what have you, but there is no mention of anything like that (warm garb/gear) in the books. I could be wrong of course, they are vast, but I haven't come across a single mention of anything related to staying warm while flying dragons. Again, the Targs are "cool" with fire (maybe) but certainly don't show any immunities to good old fashioned cold.
So I put forth the following crackpot theory: Danaerys will catch a really bad cold and die. WINDS of WINTER. A song of ICE and FIRE.
As a Twitter guy once said to the Game of Thrones folks...
"Everyone at the Wall should be dead!! When it is THAT cold, people wear HATS!!!!! I live in Russia and every idiot here knows that you wear a hat when it is cold! And these people are 700 feet above ground!! How does no one between the producers, writers, and directors realize this?? They need HATS!!
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Re: Spoiler: Danaerys will freeze to death!
#2Dragons are a broad scope as there are different kinds so I will go with your average, generic dragon that is probably only average and generic in my mind.
That said.....lowest would probably be half its wingspan as a generic guess. Once you get that low you get into a phenomenon known as the ground effect where there is a sweet spot for lift and drag. (Hence birds being able to glide just above the water for long distances with little effort...also very stable for aircraft at that low of height....so figure dragon would be able to do that with ease. But it has to be solid ground, not trees or jaggedness). Half wingspan should give room to flap and accelerate in the ground effect and gain speed easier for a launch back up. Normal cruise, between 2k and 4k would be my guess. Most of my flight lessons were at 3.5k and that was a beautiful height to hang out at. Room to play, toil about, plenty of room to recover in case of issues, excellent vision of the ground. For a dragon alone, much higher. Have to assume their vision is as good as an eagle's, at least, and they can fly at around 1k and spot prey over an area 3 miles square. So figure that one out, probably 1.5 to 2 miles with acute vision for small prey...so 10k feet and they can still spot a rabbit below them.
How high with a pile of meat on their back?...well, above 7k feet a human starts feeling the effects of lack of oxygen. If I remember my lessons, above 10k it is required to have forced oxygen. But many birds can easily climb over 15k feet. There is a vulture that can go upwards of 37K and has been spotted by airline pilots. So height is pretty much as high as you want, never see it and it would just drift in the winds.
For speed, putting your face outside the car at 45mph isn't a big stretch. Temperature drops about 3.5 degrees F per 1k feet. So at 4k you drop about 14 degrees F which isn't bad on a hot day. Take into account wind chill, a bit colder. But definitely doable. I would say 35mph...90kph for normal cruising. That is about what a hang glider goes per my scientific research of google. Depends on the efficiency of lift created by the dragon's wings and its weight, which will actually drive the speed. When you think of wing suits you can get going around 60-120mph or so. (Guiness has it at 225mph record for a wing suit) Might take that into account. 140mph is about terminal velocity. All scientifically calculated from google and wikipedia.
So all that science to say...yes, she will freeze her ass off unless dragons are breathing fiery breath on her the entire way!! Frick'n Winter is Coming!!
Hats are over rated anyway. It is a fallacy that you lose 140% of the heat out of your head. You lose the same off your head as any equivalently exposed body part. But if you had a hat and bared your chest of equal surface area....you would STILL freeze your ass off. So, like I said, long live hats!!!
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Re: Spoiler: Danaerys will freeze to death!
#3Wow, was I off on the numbers!
You've ruined my "feel smart" day :P
Yet, we reached the same conclusion. And I learned new things! (birds flying low over water...)