fandomhigh | Flight & Flying [Thursday, July 26, 3rd period]

Anakin never bounced. It was undignified. But he was awfully smile-y today.

And no, he wouldn't explain why.

The flight simulator had been reconfigured again--this time to something that should seem a bit more familiar to Earth-based students: The F-16 Flying Falcon.

Anakin clasped his hands behind his back and began speaking. "This is one of the aircraft used by the militaries of this world," he began. "It's good in air-to-air combat as well as air-to-surface attack, can go more than 850 kilometers before it needs to be refueled and can withstand up to nine G's--pretty high tech for this world's standards."

He opened the simulator door and gestured to the controls. "As you can see, it's configured differently than the systems we've been using in the last few weeks, but the joystick and the trigger button are located in the same place. The F-16 just isn't as sensitive as the starfighter--you'll have to yank harder at the joystick to get the same reaction."

The way his lips quirked up made it a little obvious that he wasn't entirely oblivious to the innuendo that might've been found in that statement. "You'll also be dealing with the Earth's gravity, so turns won't be as fast, and if you make the plane go up too quickly, the machine's been equipped to simulate G forces, so you might pass out. That's not exactly what I had in mind for today, so please don't do that," he concluded quickly.

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Classic dogfighting. You are up against three airplanes that are heavier and less maneuverable than you are, but they have longer-range weapons.

Try not to die.

Bollocks.

He needs to get better at the whole 'in-flight fight' thing. He's not too good at that.

(Something tells him he's always going to be a better fighter with a weapon in hand and his feet on the ground)

So, he manages to shoot down the first airplane by sheer good luck more than anything else; he leans too hard on the control stick and tilts the F-16 hard enough to miss the shot, and takes it down with a couple of shots.

The next two manage to get him with a couple of shots, too - a couple of shots each, and Roxas swears, words that he's sure his mother would smack him around the ear for using, and climbs out of the sim with a sour look on his face.

Anemone had to stomp down very hard on the urge to toy with the three incoming aircraft. Old habits died hard.

They still didn't stand a chance. Laughing, Anemome rejoiced as her Falcon screamed through the atmosphere. Reflexes, sight, hearing, all the modifications. Changes and tests and medications...this was the reason behind her being. This is why she was the way she was. For this.

She darted up behind the first one, taking him out before the other two could react. Longer-range weapons weren't going to do them any good if they were going to be stupid enough to let her get in this close.

She peeled away from the pummeling plane as the other two opened fire, heading directly at the aircraft on her left. He obviously wasn’t expecting Anemone to play chicken with him, and she eliminated him with one of the missiles.

Her last opponent wasted no time in shooting at her again. Repeatedly. Anemone laughed, eyes narrowing. “Finally. Someone who wants to dance with me. It’s about time.”

Resisting the desire to draw the hunt out was *hard*. A lot harder than Anemone had anticipated. Frowning in concentration, she forced herself to engage her last adversary seriously. A few moments later it was over, and Anemone was very obviously the winner.

Feeling just a tiny bit smug, she hopped out of the simulator. She was totally going to treat herself to something tasty as a reward for that run.

Sam didn't do so bad at maneuvering out of the way of the weapons, but shooting back was more of a problem. He shot up quickly to try to avoid a shot, and realized it was a little too quick when he started to get light-headed. As he drifted back down, he managed to shoot one of the airplanes, but got taken out by one of the other two.

Okay, this? Might prove a bit difficult.

Adam was good at avoiding the shots directed his way and he even managed to take down two of the planes. Sadly, the third one proved more difficult to get and in the end, Adam was taken out by it.

Okay, this was go time. Rikku may not have a lot of experience fighting in a plane, but she certainly had scrapped enough in her time, and being the bouncy quick one with the knife strapped to your hand meant you knew how to evade, duck, dodge and beat the crap out of things way bigger (and slower) than you.

There were a couple of close calls, and some language slipped out when one of the shots grazed along the side of her tail, but she was still airborne and that meant these punks were going down.

She survived. Her victory dance was ... elaborate.

And this was where Blaze ran into his weakness in this class. Given enough practice time, he could fly the machines well enough. Not with the same fluidity and style as he could with a motorcycle, granted, but well enough to start experimenting a little with moves.

But when it came time to fighting other pilots, he did very poorly at the task.

So when faced with three larger planes, Johnny grabbed the opportunity to get out of the way by dropping into a dive, and pulling up to emerge behind them. He let out a burst of gunfire, missed completely, fired again, and managed to down one of the planes on the second try.

By this time, the two remaining heavier planes had managed to get turned around, and came chasing after him. The one on the left fired one of its distance weapons, and Johnny had to do a sudden half-roll to get out of the way. He pushed the speed higher and headed for the mountains in the distance, but the other planes also managed to catch up and tail him.

The other plane locked on to his F-16 and fired. Johnny tried to do another dive to get out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. The explosives blew off one of his wings, and he found himself in a death spiral towards the ground, where the plane exploded in a magnificent fireball.

Johnny leaned back from the simulator's controls and swore. Three weeks in, and he still didn't have the hang of this.

Flight & Flying [Thursday, July 26, 3rd period]

Exercise 2: Air to Air

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Re: Exercise 2: Air to Air

Re: Exercise 2: Air to Air