Here's my answer to the Pilot/Ship's Boat dilemma:

Pilot and Ship’s Boat

Ship’s Boat is a subset of Pilot that only applies while piloting a ship in M-Drive. Pilot is required to pilot a ship through a jump and also applies when piloting a ship in M-Drive. If a character earns ranks in both skills, the levels should be added together and listed as Pilot skill.

So Ship's Boat skill lets you pilot any space craft in system and for landing and takeoff, but Pilot skill is necessary to pilot a ship into and through jump.

Frank

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xxxxxx@simplelists.com [mailto:xxxxxx@simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Rupert
> Boleyn
> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2020 7:19 PM
> To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
> Subject: Re: [TML] Pilot position
>
>
>
> On 28Jun2020 1347, Evyn Gutierrez wrote:
> >
> > Sure make me go read the various iterations of Pilot and Shipsboat.
> > The biggest difference is in handling.
> >
> > Note in one of the early adventures air/rafts in zero g required
> > Shipsboat skill to operate.
> >
> > Also note the skill acquisition tables pilot generally on the advanced
> > education table (edu8+)
> >
> > Shipsboat also talks more about aerospace operations, while Pilot
> > briefly discusses atmospheric flight, it primarily allows the
> > operation of the Jump Drive..
> >
> I think the breakpoint being 100 DTons is arbitrary from an external POV, but in-
> universe it makes sense - it's the point where a ship can be jump capable (give or
> take). That's why anything smaller is a boat, and anything bigger is a ship even if
> it doesn't have a jump drive.
>
> This is such a big distinction that it colours how everyone thinks of space vessels,
> and thus even a 100 DTon intra-system barge is called a 'spaceship', and is given
> ship-style control systems, instrumentation, and so on. A 95 DTon shuttle is a
> 'boat' and has the controls, sensors, and instrumentation appropriate to a boat.
> Thus, even though that 95 DTon shuttle is closer to the barge in size than it is to
> a 20 DTon launch, you fly it like a big launch rather than a slightly smaller barge
> because that's how the controls are set up and that's how it reacts to command
> input.
>
> In keeping with this, it's also how licensing is regulated. The authorities
> recognise two grades of space vessel licence, 'Ships Boat'
> and 'Pilot'. I would argue that while a Pilot is licensed to fly small craft, at Pilot-1
> (and thus effective Ship's Boat-0) this only allows them limited non-commercial
> flight (a restriction probably observed more in the breech in most systems), and
> only at Pilot-2 is it the full equivalent of Ship's Boat in terms of what you can
> legally fly.
>
> When it comes to what you learn, Ship's Boat simply leaves out everything
> related to jump space insertion, etc. while Pilot tends to be a bit thin on
> interface operations.
>
> I would allow someone with Ship's Boat-1 or better to undertake Pilot checks for
> interface and orbital operations as if they were Pilot-0 (so they avoid any
> penalties for being unskilled), but that would be it.
>
> Finally, as far as I'm concerned Pilot-1 (or Pilot-0 in an emergency, but don't let
> the traffic cops catch you!) is good enough to Pilot a ship of any size. They all
> have the same sort of instruments and controls, and manoeuvre in the same
> way - the bigger ships are just slower to roll, pitch, etc., but flying an Ashanti
> High Lightning into a gas giant for refuelling is no different from flying a Type-S,
> or wouldn't be if the designers had bothered to streamline the AHL properly.
>
> Remember, on the scale of most ship operations in Traveller, a 75 KDTon
> Atlantic-class heavy cruiser with 5G acceleration is /more/ nimble than a 100
> DTon Type-S scout with 2G acceleration. Only when docking and the like would
> the Atlantic's great size make it seem clumsy.
>
> --
>
> Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
>
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