A swoop is a form of hoverbike or speeder-bike with the engine built up to maximum and the non-engine framework cut down to minimum. Wherease speeder-bikes are built to emphasize stability in flight, swoops are purposely designed for instability, requiring practice merely to mount and dismount without injury. A swoop can quite literally turn on a dime; in fact, the main trouble with swoops is to -prevent- them from turning, in nearly any direction you care to name.

Swoops are made so maneuverable because the sport- or art- of swoop racing is about more than raw speed. True, cutting down superstructure makes for less inertia and higher acceleration, but that isn't the purpose. Swoops are specially designed for stunt-driving, and swoop racing centers around stunts, almost to the exclusion of completing the actual course.

As in all racing, swoop racing consists of completing the designated course in the lowest possible total time. However, the racers do not all proceed at once- rather, each one makes an individual timed run through the course, which usually consists of a route from point A to point B with several spots designated as 'stunt zones' away from the shortest distance between.

Prior to the run, each racer must declare what stunts in which zones he plans to perform. By declaring a stunt, the racer is in effect risking a certain number of seconds (the time required to enter and leave the stunt zone). If he pulls off the stunt perfectly, the judges will deduct a predetermined number of seconds from his time based on the difficulty of the stunt. If the racer skips a stunt he has declared, he is disqualified. If the racer does not, in the judges' eyes, perform the stunt perfectly, he gets fewer seconds than the pre-determined maximum. If he exceeds the stunt (say, performing a quadruple spin instead of a triple in a controlled vertical stall), he does not get any more seconds than the maximum rated for that stunt beforehand.

A swoop run is usually over in under five minutes, with recorded times substantially lower. In swoop circles, 'sub-zero' is a reference for the most elite, those whose stunts are so spectacular that their times are measured in negative numbers. They are quite rare. More common winning times are between two and four minutes.

Sanctioned swoop races are quite rare. Although there is a professional circuit, swoop racing is prohibited in any form on a majority of Federation worlds. Since most swoop races are held in public places, property damage is a constant worry. The single greatest concern, however, is rider fatality. There are few sports with a higher injury or death percentage- the Earth sport of rodeo being among those few. The most common cause of injury is not being thrown from the swoop, but rather being caught -underneath- it when attempting a flip, roll or spiral.

COMMON SWOOP STUNTS

THE JUMP

All swoops are ground-effect vehicles, i. e. they hover at a pre-set limit above the ground. Swoops are inspected prior to races to insure that modifications to allow controlled vertical lift have not been made to the vehicle. This is done for basic equality in the most fundamental swoop-racing stunt, the jump.

Jumps are simple attempts at distance at altitudes higher than the ground-effect level of the vehicle in question. They may be made either to cover distances (say, gaps between buildings) or to overpass obstacles. Stunt zones set up for jumping usually have a minimum set by circumstances, i. e. buildings or deep drops, which the racers are expected to exceed or accept the consequences.

Time awarded is based on the distance predicted by the rider, and shortfalls result in deductions. These awards are the lowest for any stunt and usually do not amount to enough to justify entering a stunt zone except for truly spectacular jumps (on the level of, say, jumping Cuayahouga Gorge). Points are also deducted for loss of control at landing; bouncing off the ground is permitted, but the rider is expected to keep going in the proper direction afterwards.

ROLLS AND SPIRALS

The danger in rolls and spirals is that both maneuvers place the rider between the swoop and the ground. In a logic which makes sense only to racers, swoops equipped with protective repulsorlifts for upside-down riding are universally banned as "giving an unfair advantage to the rider." On the plus side, even a single 360 roll can double the value of any jump.

Rolls are only attempted during jumps. Spirals, which involve not merely turning but lateral motion of the swoop, may be attempted either in jumps or in the highly dangerous 'ground-effect spiral,' which consists of running at a diagonal towards a wall or staircase, turning the swoop so that the repulsorlift works off of the vertical structure, and combining control vanes, momentum, and repulsorlift thrust for a broad spiral maneuver. Ground-effect double spirals are incredibly rare, and the GE Triple Spiral has never been successfully achieved in competition... although many have died trying.

FLIPS

A flip is a backwards vertical roll. (Forward flips are never attempted- not only does the nature of repulsorlift resist nose-down maneuvers, but such maneuvers are suicidal.) Flips combine all the dangers of rolls and spirals with the additional hazard of zero momentum- that is, at the apex of a flip the rider is essentially in free-fall.

Flips may be made in three fashions. As part of long jumps, they can be heart-stopping to behold. In special 'flip zones', they can be astounding, as rider and swoop spin vertically like a wheel. Most spectacular of all, however, is the flip-combination performed by running up to a vertical surface, pulling up the nose of the swoop, and riding up the building until engine thrust and momentum can no longer lift the vehicle, then flipping over and over backwards until landing right-side-up at ground level and taking off again.

CONTROLLED VERTICAL STALLS

Swoops have, in essence, two engines- the repulsorlift which keeps them off the ground and the thrusters which propel them forward. By using them in combination, in the same manner as mentioned above in spirals and flips, a very skilled rider may hover vertically, balanced on the thrust of his engines, and perform a certain number of specialized tricks in the air.

The main problem with stalls is that entering a stall involves matching depletion of momentum with maximum thrust of engine; a ground-effect ascent can leave a swoop a -lot- higher than its engines can hold it aloft, and too much altitude can make a controlled stall impossible to achieve and deadly to attempt. Even in a perfect stall, balance can only be held for a few seconds before the repulsorlifts, the thrusters, wind, or Coriolis effect force a landing.

Common variants of the controlled stall include the spin or twist (a roll made during vertical travel, either going up or coming down), the 'pogo' (goosing the swoop's throttle to vary altitude during the stall) the dance (wiggling the swoop away from true vertical, back and forth) and the simple timed hover stall (how long can you stay up?).

The most dangerous aspect of the controlled stall, of course, is ending it. While stalled, the pilot has very little control over the vehicle; he can rock it backwards and forwards slightly, but he cannot turn without some momentum, foreward or backwards. The normal means of dismounting from a stall is to pull back and perform a half-roll before hitting the ground; planning a stall so that one may tip forwards and proceed to the ground is much safer, but yields lesser rewards. If the swoop malfunctions, or if the rider allows the stall to deviate too far from true vertical before aborting, both rider and swoop fall several stories to a very messy landing.

OBSTACLES

In addition to all of the above stunts, there is the negotiation of obstacles. These range from the very simple, such as 'slalom' courses, to the more dangerous, such as overhanging limbs or rails to be ducked, moving objects to be avoided, etc.

Possibly the most daring obstacle runs, engaged in almost exclusively in outlaw races, is the building run, where the rider attempts to negotiate a path through a (hopefully) abandoned building, or two, or more. Such runs require the quick turning of slalom, the skill of jumping between buildings (either via roof access or from window to window) and the greatest of control in the tight corridors and doorways the racers must go through. Points are deducted for structural damage incurred to the buildings (except for breaking windows, which is only expected).

PROFESSIONAL SWOOP RACING

The big-leagues of swoop racing is the venerable Galactic Pro Swoop Association (GPSA), founded over a century prior to Earth's First Contact. Membership on this circuit is based on invitation, and invitations are in turn based on performance either in GPSA events or in the several lesser circuits which allow open entries. Membership in the GPSA is limited to a hundred individuals at the start of every season, with any vacancies which come thereafter left unfilled until the next year.

Winners in swoop racing's pro circuits win belt buckles, usually gold or platinum. The largest buckle, that for GPSA series champion, is only slightly larger than a Federation ten-credit note, and the prizes are, compared to other sports, similarly understated. Very few people, even in the GPSA, make a full-time living off of swoop racing; for most racers, it isn't the money or the winning, but the sheer thrill of defying death to achieve that one perfect trick.

--- Redneck

Peter Eng
--
Cry 'CHEEBLE,' and let slip the hamsters of war!

... except that gravbike racing, which is almost identical, is hugely popular on some Japanese colonies, which is where Gryphon developed his taste for it (as seen in Crossroads). The main difference is that GB racing doesn't involve stunts as a matter of course - it's more like Wipeout on bikes. (Some GB classes do involve weapons, but those circuits are illegal.) The handling differences between repulsorcraft and anti-gravity vehicles are subtle but telling, and the cultures of the two types of racing are markedly different, but to the uninitiated observer they do look an awful lot alike.

There are other types of levitational and semi-aerial racing as well - Wipeout-like hoversleds are popular in some quarters, and the Royal Salusian Armed Forces' armored cavalry units sometimes hold hovertank steeplechases, which are quite a thing to see. And of course there's thruster chariot racing, better known to the general public as podracing - the punch line there being that the first thruster chariot was built not as a race craft but as a desperate kitbash to escape a terrible situation, and its originators had no idea that it would eventually spawn an entire sport. That's a story I really must get around to finishing one day... :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Redneck