supergrid, not subgrid. The cockpit is a large grid block on the same grid. It's an old exploit from before small grid open cockpits were a thing. They fixed it, but left it as on option in the game, you have to turn that option on.

i turn on subgrids and still doesnt work

Thanks for the response. Sorry I didn't catch that in the description. Your builds are great!

The Seat is a supergrid block, so you need to turn on supergridding in world options to use it.

Seat doesn't spawn in

Definitely, re: batteries. large batteries are def more efficient in terms of output and storage, and are what I use normally too. I was strictly messing with the small batteries to look for a lower overall weight despite battery inefficiency. The jet ski link looks horrendously overpowered, since it has twice my thrusters -- I'll try flinging it about irresponsibly.

Vermillion's vector thrust appeals to my logic for weight savings on redundant thrusters, but yes, I'm not keen on using rotor thrusters in compact form factors. The vectored thrusters really work best on the longest possible distance from the main body's center of mass, to maximize their leverage for stability -- a minimum of about 5-block arms (small grid) away from a typical minimal body, I've found. Doesn't work as well for me when the thrusters are mounted right off the body.

This one is pretty fun. I've also seen one with just 2 rotor mounted thrusters (one left/right, one forward/backward), but I'm not a huge fan of rotor mounted thrusters in general. I try to build them with large batteries now, because the power/ mass ratio is three times better than for the small batteries.

@Major Jon Your whole speeder bike series is really cool. This one made me think about just how light one can make a bike that's still functional. With the small grid control seat, I stripped one down to 2 atmo thrusters (up, forward), 5 small batteries (will slightly overload if you max out both thrusters), 1 gyro. Just a hair over 3 tons. Requires active use of yaw pitch and roll, of course; setting the forward thruster for on/off on the G-bar while keeping dampening on can really help esp when circling in for a landing.

If it interests you, I'd love to see what minimalist design aesthetics you could work with fewer than all-directional thrusters (2-4)!

any chance for an update with the new small grid control seats?

Activate supergridding in world options. No mods are needed.

when i load this it tells me 1 mod missing and it has no seat!

SUPERGRIDDING!!!! Normally the game wouldn't allow flight seat on a small grid

oh right that makes sense

No it doesn't. The seat is a supergrid block and you need to enable supergridding in the world options. It's an exploit to place large ship blocks on small ships, all without needing any mods.
They disabled supergridding by default with the new update and added an option to still use it.

this needs a mod it doesn't spawn in the seat and says it's unavailable in this world

Very cool, I added an ore detector at it's nose and a spotlight, it makes a nice scout to find ore deposits. Also placed guns at each side attached to thrusters for some protection.
I like it, cheap to make and useful, only down side is runs on Uranium so can't be used on early game.

Nice, but you should try implement this script onto the bike

using supergridding,

how did you place the large ship flight seat inside the other blocks?

Uuuuh a little speeder *.*

Aww man that's cool, love it, thanks!