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Do dragons whiffle?


Jaak

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As in, a habitual maneuver in their gait repertoire?

A whiffling eagle:

http://pamswildimages.com/Pams_Wild_Images/Eagles.html#3

Other birds also whiffle. Like geese:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/5353933/Goose-photographed-flying-upside-down.html

So, do dragons?

I see an obvious problem with whiffling: Bird wings are covered with stiff feathers, and possess permanent camber. It is therefore a good idea to increase drag by turning the wings the other way.

Bat wings, by contrast, are thin skin membranes. They acquire temporary camber under the wind pressure. Therefore a bat whiffling would simply have an opposite camber, so should not gain much drag.

Do bats actually whiffle, or not?

Jabberwock certainly did whiffle: it came whiffling through tulgey wood.

Targaryens have chains to affix themselves to saddle. When they neglect to affix the chains, like Joffrey or Daenerys, that´s dangerous.

How does it feel to ride a whiffling dragon?

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It obviously does make a difference. For birds, whiffling is a standard maneuver for rapid descent.

If dragons habitually whiffle, that´s an important reason to make sure to saddle your dragon and fasten the chain/s. Meaning bareback riding, like Daenerys, is either dangerous - or if the dragon cares not to endanger the rider, handicaps the dragon by denying it its preferred flight maneuvers.

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Sorry, I shouldn't have made fun of it. From the Oxford English Dictionary website:

Move or cause to move lightly as if blown by a puff of air: 'the geese came whiffling down on to the grass'

This seems to indicate that whiffling, as it is such a gentle movement, wouldn't be a very big problem when compared with the other difficulties of flying (winds, the dragon's bucking, enemy action, etc).

 

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As in, a habitual maneuver in their gait repertoire?

A whiffling eagle:

http://pamswildimages.com/Pams_Wild_Images/Eagles.html#3

Other birds also whiffle. Like geese:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/5353933/Goose-photographed-flying-upside-down.html

So, do dragons?

I see an obvious problem with whiffling: Bird wings are covered with stiff feathers, and possess permanent camber. It is therefore a good idea to increase drag by turning the wings the other way.

Bat wings, by contrast, are thin skin membranes. They acquire temporary camber under the wind pressure. Therefore a bat whiffling would simply have an opposite camber, so should not gain much drag.

Do bats actually whiffle, or not?

Jabberwock certainly did whiffle: it came whiffling through tulgey wood.

Targaryens have chains to affix themselves to saddle. When they neglect to affix the chains, like Joffrey or Daenerys, that´s dangerous.

How does it feel to ride a whiffling dragon?

Those who experienced it without safety belts never got the chance to write about it.

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A lot of people have been described as riding dragons bareback. Daenerys has so far survived.

Does an unchained rider seriously handicap a dragon?

Tyrion has designed saddles for self and for Bran. And he has read a lot on dragons. Could we see a Tyrion-designed saddle on a dragon? Especially, compare maneuverability of a properly saddled and chained dragon against a dragon handicapped by need to keep on a bareback rider?

 

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There are a lot of fruit bats here. I'm not sure if it is strictly whiffling, but they do a lot of hanging upside down when sleeping/feeding, so their take-off manoeuvre involves turning right way up.  And they land upside down.

The 'whiffling' part is done by collapsing a wing and kind of pirouetting around it, like an ice skater spinning. The take-off is done at slow speed, and their manoeuvrability is not so good at that point, so it is hard to tell if they are flying or falling onto your head in the night when you unsuspectingly walk underneath their trees. I'm pretty sure they are flying, though. Not been hit by a falling bat yet.

Dragons, though ... they would need a taller tree.

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Jabberwock certainly did whiffle: it came whiffling through tulgey wood.

An excellent point.

So, if dragons, do end up whiffling, would that mean that they also burble?

And that the only way to defeat them is with a vorpal blade, going snicker-snack?

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