The hovercraft analog strikes me as a good fit.  I recently have reread
some of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series.

Very large fusion powered hovercraft. The tanks are over 100 tons. 
Multiple vectored and variable speed fans.  Took an experienced driver
to handle them in combat.

A TLC air/raft is probably much easier to handle than a TL8/9 model. 
More sophisticated computer assisted controls.

I'm wondering which the truly insane grav pilot (i.e. a fairly typical
PC) would prefer.  The earlier models would allow the pilot to do things
the programmers of the more modern ones would consider "unsafe" and try
to block the pilot from doing.  Software governors that probably
wouldn't exist (or are capable of being disabled) on IISS or Imperial
Military models.

Then there are the GravBike racers...

On 6/8/2021 5:58 PM, David Jaques-Watson wrote:
> Dear Folks –
>
> James wrote:
>> Presumably also general purpose vehicles have a wider arc for their
>> 'thrust' to make them more stable, while high performance ones are
>> deliberately tuned to be responsive, but less stable.
>> This would be where the skill comes in driving one, including adjusting
>>   for variable loads and passengers moving around
> I'm with James on this one. Plus the high-speed ones - well, all of them
> really, but especially the high-speed ones - would need computer control to
> redistribute the thrust in the correct proportions (at the very last, so as
> not to rip the vehicle apart from opposing forces).
>
> And totally agree that the general purpose ones would steer like a cow. Ever
> seen Jeremy Clarkson trying to control a recreational hovercraft? ;-)  ;-)
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boS7nyHeULo
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJeIxfkiLU
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw                    xxxxxx@pcug.org.au
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>
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