I'm currently reading Arthur Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. Rama is a 50 km long, 16 km diameter cylindrical alien artifact that is rotating fast enough to provide a 0.6G artificial gravity on its long inner surface. The characters in the book enter Rama through an air lock at the hub at one end of the cylinder's central axis, where they are weightless; they then descend a series of ladders and stairs, getting heavier as they go, until they reach full weight at the surface.
One character has a flying contraption with him. He sets off from the hub, weightless, with the intent to ride along the axis the entire length of Rama. He is warned not to drop down towards the surface, as lowering at all will increase the weight (or centrifugal force) he feels. But I'm not sure if this is true.
Centrifugal force is not like gravity, which reaches out to pull you down. If there is nothing pushing him along the rotation, he shouldn't feel any centrifugal force at all, right? Of course, the air itself is going to be moving along with Rama's rotation, but would the air near the hub be moving fast enough to exert a serious sideways force on him, causing him to take part in Rama's rotation? Theoretically, if there was no air, he could lower himself almost all the way to the surface (which from his vantage point would be moving by very fast), and still remain weightless the entire time.
So, am I thinking about this entirely wrong? Or is Clarke?
Best Answer
It's been a while, since I read the book, but I believe that his flying contraption runs at low air speed. And of course the atmosphere rotates with the can (give or take a little).
That being the case as he moves out he picks up roughly the same speed that he would have standing on a surface at the same "height" and consequently experiences roughly the same pseudo-gravity. He can alter that a little be flying spinward for extra pseudo-gravity or anti-spinward for less. But low air-speed makes this a relatively small effect.
Next you should ask yourself how a device designed to fly in a gravity field will maneuver in the absence of one. Or more importantly how a pilot used to flying with gravity would handle the situation. I'm betting that he'd intentionally move down to where he had enough pseudo-gravity to orient the craft. That shouldn't take a lot and he can adjust his control surfaces for less lift but at least the craft will fly like he expects it to.