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

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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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.

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

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.

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.

"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."

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

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.

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.

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.

Robin was bouncing with excitement. ~~weetiny cockpit?~~

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

"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.

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

Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing!