[OOC][PLOT][ARC 1] Planning for Season 1 - The Retcon

[robkelk]

As long as we're retconning...

I just noticed that the AzuDaioh girls arrive at LAX aboard a flight from Singapore. Google says that a flight from Manila costs approximately 2/3 as much as a flight from Singapore, and the girls were aboard a PT boat before they were delivered to an airport. (Yes, Kaorin and Yomi would think crossing that much of the Pacific in a PT boat would be a Hell of a ride.) Also, the flights from Manila are often late by up to a half hour, which would be the cherry on top of the sundae as far as Sebastian is concerned.

Just saying...

My intuition is that you're wrong on this, because airlines are astonishingly efficient at moving cargo that wants to go fast.

Fuel consumption of any version of these engines was exceptionally heavy. A PT boat carried 3,000 US gallons (11,400 l) of 100 octane aviation fuel, enough for a 4M-2500 equipped boat to conduct a maximum 12-hour patrol. Some 200 US gallons (760 l) an hour were consumed at a cruising speed of 23 knots (43 km/h), increasing to 500 US gallons (1,900 l) per hour at top speed. Hull fouling and engine wear could both decrease top speed and increase fuel consumption materially.

source

760 L/h * 720 g/l= 547.2 kg/h

By comparison a Boeing 737-800 uses 2530 kg/h of fuel -- though this varies based on weight, and weight varies based on how long you've been in flight.

I'm not sure exactly where the boat appeared in the setting, but Manila to Singapore is roughly 1300 Nmi away -- if they're returning to Thailand anyway, any distance out there would be extra anyway.  Let's say it's somewhere near Palawan, so something like 250 Nmi away, 500 extra in round trip.  That's 200 gallons / 23 Nmi * 500 Nmi * $2/gal = ~$8700.  Somehow I don't think the airline costs are going to be that much more for 7 people.  And ~10 hours each way.

Of course if there's cargo, especially contraband, the economics change a lot.

I honestly didn't think about any of this when writing it, and kind of picked the place randomly.  Now I know a little more history, and know that the South China Sea is in fact a perfectly cromulent place to put a lady pirate.

Okay, yeah, bad idea. What Funtom saves in the airline tickets they (probably) lose in the PT boat fuel costs.

Unless, as you said, the Black Lagoon has a not-legal cargo along with the passengers.