How do you fly dragons?

[JFK_360NoScope]

I've used the Bend Will shout and have ridden Odahviing and Sahrotaar. I have tried to ride several normal dragons but when I climb on them they just fly in circles (one time my cursor got locked in one spot) how do I actually ride a dragon

[MysticMalevolence]

That's it. That's dragonriding. That is all it entails.

Well, it lets you fast travel with very little time change, but otherwise, yeah. Circling is all you can do.

[jle30303]

So it seems the question really isn't "how" but "why"...

[FauxFurry]

Originally posted by jle30303:

So it seems the question really isn't "how" but "why"...

Fast travel in Survival Mode, performing bombing runs on bandits, dragon-to-dragon combat and an Achievement.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by jle30303:

So it seems the question really isn't "how" but "why"...

It was put in to get to Alduin's lair, where you enter Sovngard. They used it in Dragonborn DLC for fighting Miraak. And that's about the only reasons it's in the game, it's cumbersome and unweildy, and in my opinion poorly executed.

People use it because they are convinced that if they get the hang of it, then it will become fun, personally I doubt you'll find it fun unless you loved it the first time you did it. And even then the novelty will wear off.

There might be mods that improve it to the point of enjoyability, but I've played games in the past that did it better, and would rather not spoil their memory. (but that's my personal quirk, go find them and enjoy them if that's your cup of tea)

[jle30303]

You can kill the bandits SO much faster by simply landing and smacking them. Dragon breath is surprisingly inefficient at killing mooks from the air, and by the time you get to the point of riding dragons, you don't need it... I mean, it would be useful in Survival Mode for fast travel IF you actually got it early enough in the game, rather than 95% of the way through the third and last expansion... and IF the dragon you had tamed would actually stick around, because if you use it to fast-travel to one place but then stay there for long enough to do anything, it flies away so you have to get *away* from that place the normal way...

[Solomon Hawk]

I vaguely remember something was posted by somebody .. maybe here, maybe elsewhere on the web, but there is a way to allow "free flight" with dragons. It allows you to fly a dragon across Skyrim.
It might even be an old .. maybe outdated mod.