#it's cuz I'm the single weather and natural disasters nerd here it's me XD

[razzek]

On the one hand, yeah, I can sort of see that as a limitation on Anne not killing characters (who weren't uppity women besides her main leads; seriously Crystal Singer is hysterical in that regard). But on the other hand I think it can be argued that a fighting force with literally thousands of years experience should be that good and if they weren't it would be pretty suspicious to hold them in any regard. Going back to the fire fighting analogy, if we saw death rates like those of fic written dragonriders among fire fighters, we'd probably have gotten rid of the system causing it and tried something less detrimental.

Speaking just as a reader, I find that characters dying in every Fall just cheapens the whole thing. It feels every bit as unrealistic as Anne's ideas about certain sciences but it also robs true dramatic moments of their punch. Thread just starts to feel silly when every third character dies or I can't follow the plot because I'm distracted by yet another half a full weyrling class dying between on the first day. It's a delicate balancing act that perhaps Anne did not do so well with (though, again, after thousands of years I would be disgusted if casualty rates were still so high) but fic writers (and Todd to some extent) have gone in the opposite direction to equally or more story diluting results.

More Pern thoughts, tl;dr: Threadfall is probably not as exciting as people think, proper Wing formation is like goose flocks in flight, and I think writers who kill a bunch of dragons in every Threadfall and Weyrling class have things waaaaay wrong.

Honestly the most efficient way of fighting it is probably pretty boring to watch. It falls from a static height and the aim is to catch as much of it as possible as high up as can be done. To do that effectively, you really just need to have your Wings flying in a more or less steady formation that forms a line along that leading edge. I imagine it's a lot more like forest fire fighting than any sort of aerial combat.

Regarding how the Wings are structured, I have always assumed they fly in a V formation. The reason geese do this is so that the lead goose generates lift for all the geese behind. So you put a bronze and a few more bronzes or browns at the point of the V to fly most of the fall, with blues and greens fanned out to the side and staggered behind to take advantage of that lift. Your strongest, most agile, most successful dragons make up the topmost Wing with as many other Wings below them to catch anything that's been missed. Instead of high action flying, it's more like 6 - 8 hours of firefighter dispatch meets airport traffic control. Which I think is cool but I'm just Like That. :D

Also! There is no way in hell a Weyr looses a bunch of dragons in every training and every Fall. That would be a failed system in every way and unsustainable. Even one serious injury that puts a dragon out of action every Fall would decimate the ability of the Weyr to do its job. I think a lot of fan writers got too excited about the drama of loosing a fighting pair or a number of Weyrlings without really thinking things through. Todd McCaffrey absolutely did. If your max fighting force is 600 dragons (and I think that's an overestimate on how many one weyr can hold), you are going to need every one of them you can get to keep the spores that eat everything in a 200 foot radius upon landing from hitting the ground at all. Come to think of it, to really do the job well, there probably needs to be a few teams flying scout at a distance to send general reports to the riders on the front line.

Also I don't think a dragon is going to bond with someone who will get them both killed the first time they try to go between. If they can smell your gender pheromones and tangle their consciousnesses with an alien species via eye contact, I think we can assume they're cognizant enough to Impress someone who will maintain their survival when using one of their most basic, innate abilities.