Yep. And more generally, extending gear and resting the ship's weight on it create a great deal of wear and tear on both the ship and the ground. I believe that Traveller CG and thruster tech implies the ability to maintain a stable hovering position in the face of reasonable wind and other loads. If that's the case, it's likely that both ship and port operators will prefer to hover whenever that is practical.

When landing outside an established port area, the hovering option is even more attractive. Ships are heavy, and any reasonable landing-leg design is going to produce enormous ground pressure under the "feet". Anything softer than solid rock or very hard-packed dirt is unlikely to be able to support a ship. You'd end up with a lot of situations similar to what happened to Luke's X-Wing on Dagobah. :)

As someone mentioned, hybrid ops are also a likely possibility -- gear down, but also CG in operation to reduce the ground pressure.

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:


On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 3:35 AM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:

I'm certain that a ship could hover instead of setting down, in a way
that addresses all the safety concerns in this thread and so on.  I
just don't see yet what advantages that would offer.

Plot hooks, Tim.  Plot hooks.


"Starport is build on a thinly paved swamp.  Ships with landing gear ground pressure over X tons/m^2  are advised to maintain sufficient CG lift to keep landing gear ground pressure under threshold.  Failure to comply may result in breaking through the pavement, resulting in damage assessment, fines, and possible damage to your ship.  Ships are advised to restrict takeoff and landing g's to avoid breaching the paving.  Failure to comply will result in damage assessments and fines."



 
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