Yeah, but it’s only ever senior staff who gets to that, and the federation ships have an Enterprise rent-a-car full of Warp-4 minivans that apparently need very little skill to pilot or resources to operate over long distances. None of that is much of a match for the tenders, lifeboats, and helicopters on your average Navy ship.
It is only senior staff that we see do that. The Enterprise D is designed to act like a mobile logistics hub for deep space missions and it routinely has Federation staff coming on board and leaving based on the mission profile.
Deep Space 9 showed that runabouts could be operated almost entirely by voice control (Odo was able to pilot one without much difficulty). I’d imagine shuttles would be just as easy or easier to pilot given their more limited equipment loadout.
Yeah, but it’s only ever senior staff who gets to that, and the federation ships have an Enterprise rent-a-car full of Warp-4 minivans that apparently need very little skill to pilot or resources to operate over long distances. None of that is much of a match for the tenders, lifeboats, and helicopters on your average Navy ship.
It is only senior staff that we see do that. The Enterprise D is designed to act like a mobile logistics hub for deep space missions and it routinely has Federation staff coming on board and leaving based on the mission profile.
Deep Space 9 showed that runabouts could be operated almost entirely by voice control (Odo was able to pilot one without much difficulty). I’d imagine shuttles would be just as easy or easier to pilot given their more limited equipment loadout.