Flight and Flying [Tuesday, May 12, 4th period]

[sith_happened]

Anakin stood in front of the door of the flight shed and waited for the workshop students to arrive, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his dark robes.

"Welcome," he said, giving them a nod. "I'm Master Skywalker, and I'll be your instructor for flight this session. I'm from a space-based culture, so my expertise is primarily in those sorts of aircraft, but we'll also be working with the way people fly on this planet. We'll begin with simulators and if you convince me of your attention to detail and your ability not to die in stupid ways, you'll eventually be allowed to fly the real things. Before we begin in the simulator, though, you need to recite the following pledge: I solemnly swear, upon threat of detention and possible bodily harm, to listen and follow Master Skywalker's instructions, not to bring food or drink within ten feet of the simulators, and to absolutely never start a fight anywhere inside the flight shed, as Master Skywalker will let my head get cracked open on something metallic, like I deserve, and then throw me into detention for the entirety of my time at Fandom High."

He was dead serious, too.

After the pledges had been recited to his satisfaction, Anakin waved a hand lazily at the doors and they slid open to reveal two podracing simulators sitting side-by-side.

"All right," he said, pointing at the controls, "everything you need to fly a podracer is located on the handlebars. You push them forward to go faster, pull back to slow down, and pull one or the other towards you to turn." He pointed at the buttons in the center of the console. "That controls the engines," he said. "You push the big button to light them up, and on these two models, you can push it again for an extra burst of speed." He looked at the class. "Which burns your fuel very, very quickly, so save that until you need it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Normally, these are attached to enormous engines--6 or 7 meter long engines--but these aren't real, and the simulator won't really give you the noise that's normally associated with the podracer. But the simulator has been programmed to go very, very quickly." He pointed to the simulator on the left-hand side. "This one, properly piloted, can get up to 950 kilometers an hour. The other can get up to 900. To fly a podracer at those kinds of speed requires iron nerves and split-second reflexes."

He clasped his hands in front of him. "Today you can take a turn learning how the simulators work, then pair up to fly against each other." He gave them a slightly predatory smile. "If you choose, you can fly against me. I built the real version of this podracer," he patted the left-hand simulator, "and used it to win a race when I was nine years old. And I won't give you a head start."

Comments

Sign in [5/12]

[sith_happened]

Like you're not terrified by this teacher.

Re: Sign in [5/12]

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Zayne Carrick

Recite the pledge!

[sith_happened]

"I solemnly swear, upon threat of detention and possible bodily harm, to listen and follow Master Skywalker's instructions, not to bring food or drink within ten feet of the simulators, and to absolutely never start a fight anywhere inside the flight shed, as Master Skywalker will let my head get cracked open on something metallic, like I deserve, and then throw me into detention for the entirety of my time at Fandom High."

Hope he doesn't make you do this every week.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Zayne recited the pledge.

Honestly, he was kind of surprised that Master Lucien didn't make him recite something similar before he did anything.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri dutifully recited the pledge, but yes, she was hoping he didn't make them do this every week.

As if she'd start a fight inside the flight shed -- she'd seen what happened to John and Gavin that time.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper recited the pledge... not quite word for word, but the effort was certainly there.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[momslilassassin]

Ben didn't roll his eyes as he recited the pledge, but it was a near thing. Trust his grandfather to have codified his insanity.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[bitten_notshy]

Jack thought this was completely absurd, but he would play nice. He repeated the pledge and managed not to smirk too much while doing so.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[spiritandsword]

Annja had seen what happened when people messed around with planes and helicopters so she recited the pledge.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"I solemnly swear, upon threat of detention, being banned forever from the sim, and serious bodily harm, to listen and follow Master Skywalker's instructions, not to bring food or drink within ten feet of the simulators, be nice to the tech, not to do anything abysmally stupid, and to never start a fight anywhere inside the flight shed, as Master Skywalker will let my head get cracked open on something metallic, like I deserve, and then throw me into detention for the entirety of my time at Fandom High."

So it wasn't quite word-for-word, but Anemone was trying.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

Jon recited the pledge and wondered why they didn't make the pilots at the F-302 training facility do this. Maybe they would have ended up with slightly less insane pilots.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[dakota-hero.livejournal.com]

Virgil didn't think Master Skywalker was serious. Suddenly he had a sense of de ja vu. He mumbled half the pledge, but managed to speak up when it counted. Basically when Master Skywalker was looking in his general direction.

Re: Recite the pledge!

[likethestore.livejournal.com]

K-Mart recited the pledge dutifully. And actually wasn't worrying about Anakin's sanity for it.

Introductions!

[sith_happened]

Name and flight experience, if any!

Re: Introductions!

[weetuskenraider]

"Tahiri Veila," she offered, feeling a little silly since she knew a good chunk of the class and saw several of them regularly in Flight Club. "I've, um, mostly run the simulations from Flight Club, and a speeder bike once, for a little bit, and . . ."

She hesitated, then added vaguely, "I've flown starships a couple of times." Not very well, and they'd been Yuuzhan Vong ships, so she didn't really want to count them. And that was awkward, so she fell back on her old standard and tried to crack a joke.

"If we're podracing today, does that mean I have to shoot at people?"

Hey, it might not have been as much of an event in her time as it used to be, but the Sand People took their oral history seriously.

Re: Introductions!

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Am Blysse," Firekeeper said. "And he, Blind Seer," she nodded to the large wolf by her side. "Where we is from, only things that is flying is wingéd folk, and we is not these."

Re: Introductions!

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"I'm Zayne Carrick. I've had some basic training on smaller starships, like starfighters and transports," Zayne said. "And I've spent a lot of time on swoop bikes."

Re: Introductions!

[momslilassassin]

"You know who I am," Ben replied. "Most of my experience is with transport shuttles, though I've also gotten to fly my mother's ship."

He'd kill to get inside a StealthX, too.

Re: Introductions!

[bitten_notshy]

"Jack Priest," Jack said, when it was his turn. "My world's a bit different" -- no, really, the Victorian suit would never have given Anakin that impression -- "but we have transoceanic zeppelin flights, and I spent some time with the crewmen talking about how the ship worked when we emigrated a few months ago. I've never flown anything on my own, though."

Re: Introductions!

[spiritandsword]

Annja had watched Annakin Skywalker in Flight Club, so she knew there was no way that you could get away with anything in this class.

"I'm Annja Creed. I have experience with planes and helicopters and some of the programs in the simulators due to Flight Club."

Individual flight

[sith_happened]

Anakin has cut you absolutely no slack on the first simulation. It's set for the way he raced it years ago--and for reflexes that no one else has.

He's making a point--listen to his instructions or die ugly.

The second run-through has been slowed down and set for more normal reaction times.

Re: Individual flight

[momslilassassin]

Ben directed a dirty look at his grandfather's back as he smashed spectacularly into a canyon wall on the third turn. He was good, but that maneuver was impossible.

The second run through went much better.

Fly against each other

[sith_happened]

Pick a partner and race against each other. Feel free to mod canyon walls and Tuskan Raiders shooting at you. First one across the finish line wins. Fly dirty if you like--it's traditional.

Re: Fly against each other

[weetuskenraider]

Oh, she was totally crazy enough to want to try this. She blamed the craziness on actually making it through the second run.

General chatting

[sith_happened]

There's only two sims and a full class. Feel free to spend the time you have waiting around to meet your classmates.

Re: General chatting

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri was hanging around, of course -- she still wasn't quite as relaxed as usual, but less tense than she'd been yesterday. It was weird not having the snack table set up, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. Should've brought her datapad or something.

Talk to Anakin

[sith_happened]

Especially if you've been, say, assigned as TA.

Re: Talk to Anakin

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Never a fan of paperwork, John hadn't paid much attention to his TA summons until the office claimed it was too late to make a change. Someone out there had a really terrible sense of humor.

"Professor Gramps! It seems we've been teamed up."

OOC

[sith_happened]

Ping down here if you're cruising for detention. He's dead serious about listening to his instructions and he loves the flight simulators more than he loves most people. If he feels you're blowing off his advice, he'll be Unhappy.

Re: OOC

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about whether Anakin would notice the clone thing.