Flight and Flying [Friday, May 25, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

When the students arrived at the flight shed, they'd immediately notice that the sim had been completely reconfigured.

A couple of them would find the new shape very familiar.

"This is an X-Wing starfighter," Anakin said with a smile. "Today we're going to practice flying in a zero-g environment."

He waved at the door and Artoo rolled into the shed and tweetled politely, then came over to the sim and plugged himself into the droid-shaped hole on the back of the sim. "This is Artoo," Anakin, smiling. "He's your co-pilot of sorts who can get to mechanical problems while you're flying. For example, fixing shields that have been damaged by laser fire. He'll also scream at you if he thinks you're going too fast."

Anakin had learned to ignore that sound early.

He pointed into the inside of the cockpit. "There are a lot more controls in the X-Wing than the podracer, obviously. Here you need to regulate atmosphere, gauge fuel and weapons' levels, as well as communications, landing gear and assorted other bells and whistles."

He smiled at them. "But don't worry too much--you're not going to be tested on this." He sat in the cockpit and handwavily showed them how to make the ship speed up, slow down, turn and spin. "Obviously, this moves much faster than the podracer," he said, "and the sim has been programmed with the grav you'd have in your cockpit, so if you spin yourself too fast, you will make yourself sick. And then you will be cleaning out the sim."

Anakin clasped his hands together. "Okay. You'll each get a chance to try the sim out to learn how it works. You'll be in a program set way out in space so there's nothing for you to hit if you can't figure out how to steer right away and stuff. Once you feel more comfortable, there'll be a choice of two courses to run through--one that's strictly testing you on mobility, the other than also allows you to use the laser cannons."

He gave Luke, Gavin and Jaina a cocky smile. "Before you came in, I set a new record on the sim for time and accuracy. See if you can come close."

Comments

Sign in [May 25]

[sith_happened]

Name and call sign!

Re: Sign in [May 25]

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke Skywalker, Wormie Siegfried Tiger Rogue One.

Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[sith_happened]

Spin and get sick and Anakin will make you clean it up.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke swung into the X-Wing with the ease of long experience. "Ready to show 'em how this works, Artoo?" he sang out.

Artoo whistled a happy affirmative.

He didn't really need to learn how the controls work, so he took the sim for a quick spin purely for the joy of flying.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[abhorsentobe.livejournal.com]

Sabriel stared at all the controls, buttons, bells and whistles. "...I'm going to die."

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Johnny took more than a few minutes to familiarize himself with the controls, and even then he was not totally confident that he could fly it accurately.

He tested his abilities as he maneuvered the starfighter, getting the feel of it as he took it for a test run.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

It took a while for Mel to get used to the controls, but once she figured out how to spin and go extremely fast you really couldn't stop her from doing both at the same time.

"Ooooooooh yeah, baby!"

She might be trying at this point to make Artoo scream.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I missed you," Gavin said, sliding into the seat. Hands were already working, finding controls and buttons with a comfortable familiarity.

"Sorry about last weekend, Artoo," Gavin said before starting the X-Wing up. "Don't take it out on me here."

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel took some time getting used to the controls. There was one spin, but fortunately she didn't get sick.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[solo_sword]

This was absolutely no problem for Jaina. She'd flown one a few times, and at least one of those times Luke was mean to her. "Hi, Artoo," she greeted him, already flipping switches and starting the X-wing for a practice run.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John couldn't believe he was in space. This was better than anything he'd imagined. He took his time, getting himself used to the different controls and gravity.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[ambassadorinara.livejournal.com]

Inara climbed into the X-Wing a little hesitantly. "Hello, Artoo," she greeted the little robot-droid thing. He greeted her back.

She wasn't big on spinning, and was going slow enough as she learned the controls (since she was already familiar with the sensations of space-flight) that Artoo didn't scream, even if he might have been longing to get out and push in spots.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

Robin was bouncing with excitement. weetiny cockpit?

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

The first thing Billy did when he got in the cockpit, was make sure he knew where everything was.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

[narglette.livejournal.com]

"Hello, Artoo." Luna greeted as she entered the cockpit.

It took a while, but once she got the hang of things she quiet enjoyed flying.

She carried on a conversation with Artoo as they went if that's ok?. Heaven knows what they found to talk about.

First obstacle course

[sith_happened]

You're flying through a asteroid field. Duck, dodge, and spin to avoid being squished like a bug.

Don't cut it too close or the R2 unit will scream his head off.

The average pilot can get through the course in 12 minutes. The average Jedi can do it in about 9.

Anakin's new record is 7:30. Artoo was not happy.

Re: First obstacle course

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"What was his time, Artoo?" Luke asked as he strapped in.

Artoo told him.

Luke frowned.

"We can do that," he said as he throttled up the engine and relaxed into the Force, then smoked close enough to a couple of asteroid to get Artoo screaming along behind him.

"Relax," he soothed. "I know what I'm doing."

His first attempt got him very, very close to his father's score: 7:45, complete with a turn sharp enough to almost ding the left wing.

Re: First obstacle course

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Concentrating, Johnny didn't go as fast as he would have liked, which probably made Artoo happy. But he did cut sharply...alot...to avoid hitting asteroids.

Even with being an exceptional pilot, Johnny finished in at 11:00 minutes flat. With practice, he was sure he could manage a better a time.

He went throught the first course again, upping his speed and managing to clip the left wing as he dodged a second too late. Quickly correcting the starfighter, he finished his second run through at 10:25, bettering his average by 35 seconds. It was probably as good as he was going to get.

Re: First obstacle course

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Mel was varying between going too fast, dragging to a stop and then spinning around like a maniac just for the hell of it while Artoo bleeped various complaints.

"Stop whining you little trash can!" Mel said gleefully as she narrowly avoided an asteroid.

She finished around 16 minutes

Re: First obstacle course

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

"Nice and easy," Gavin said, pushing the X-Wing through the asteroid field. Artoo, behind him, warbled incessantly. Gavin tried not to let himself be distracted. "Shut up, Tiger."

That only made Artoo louder and the noise was enough to make Gavin cut a sharp turn that made an asteroid whoosh over the X-Wing.

Gavin finished the course at 9:55. Not too bad.

Re: First obstacle course

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

On her first try Isabel went squish against an asteroid about 15 seconds in. Artoo let her know what he tought of that with an indignant bleep. "Yeah, I know. Sorry."

She narrowly made it through the second time. But it was certainly no where near a course record.

Second obstacle course

[sith_happened]

You're flying through the trench run on the Death Star, a course full of sharp turns. There are five laser turrets shooting at you that you must destroy, as well as a thermal exhaust port at the end of the run that needs to be taken out.

Luckily, there are no TIE fighters coming in from behind. Not that Anakin wanted a rematch on this particular scenario.

An average pilot can go through the run in about 12 minutes. Anakin smoked it in 6 minutes flat.

Re: Second obstacle course

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Without the TIEs?" Luke's smile almost split his face. "Piece of rhyscate."

Artoo's warble didn't sound quite as convinced.

Luke blasted through the course in 6:15, taking out the laser turrets and hitting the exhaust port exactly.

Of course, he'd done this before.

Talk to Anakin

[sith_happened]

He's around, if a little distracted.

Talk to each other

[sith_happened]

If you'd like.

Re: Talk to each other

[fantastic-torch.livejournal.com]

Johnny was brooding. He had wanted to do better in the course runs. Maybe he could get in some weekend practice, if it was allowed.

[sith_happened]

My parents are in town for the long weekend, so I'll be mostly afk, woe. Feel free to mod Artoo's screams and the course as you'd like, but if you're not a Skywalker/Solo, you won't come close to beating Anakin's scores.

He spent hours reaching his level of Marty Stu skillz.

Take as many tries as you want going through the trench or the asteroids, but remember that canonically, everyone but Luke and Wedge died in the trench. It's not video game easy. I'll mod the sim accordingly if I think you're making it seem too simple.