Flight & Flying [Tuesday, June 9, 4th period]

[sith_happened]

Anakin was checking his chrono, then his comlink, as the students arrived. "Today we're flying capital ships," he said, flicking his hands toward the screen set up in the corner. "Specifically this or the first minute and a half anyway capital ship. It was called the Invisible Hand and when I was flying it, half of it had already broken up in the atmosphere, the rudder that steered the ship had been in that half, and the thrusters weren't firing enough to stop us. The equipment was also set up for a species other than human and I couldn't read the controls."

Anakin had landed anyway. He was just that good. There wasn't a pilot in a million that could replicate what he'd done.

"Since I was working under rather...strained...circumstances, we'll do something a little easier to live through," he said. "You'll have the entire ship, and the back half will be on fire. The controls will be set up for your species and you'll be able to read the controls."

Yes, he thought that was cutting them a break. Anakin was odd. "Begin!"

Comments

Practice run

[sith_happened]

Figure out how to move a really kriffing big ship. It's 1100 meters long. It's not going to turn on a credit.

Re: Practice run

[momslilassassin]

Ben sat in the pilot's seat, glanced over the controls and took a deep breath. He'd seen beings keep the Anakin Solo flitting through the stars but this wasn't his area of expertise at all.

"Um," he said coherently.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"Don't think starfighter," Anakin advised with a tiny smile. "Think small moon."

Re: Practice run

[momslilassassin]

"These aren't supposed to land on a planet," Ben said. "That's what the space docks are for."

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"We were in the middle of a rather large space battle and the escape pods had been jettisoned," Anakin said dryly. "We were out of options that didn't end with 'die in the cold of space.'"

Re: Practice run

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri didn't even get as far as the pilot's seat before she was doing the bug-eyed gaping thing.

"I think I'd rather have something with a cognition hood . . ."

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"Like the Vong?" Anakin asked, frowning.

Re: Practice run

[weetuskenraider]

"Yuuzhan Vong," Tahiri corrected instinctively -- give her a minute and she'd feel bad about correcting him, "but yeah. It's . . . less confusing."

And more, in some ways that weren't directly relevant to attempting to fly a ship. A huge ship.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"How so?" Anakin asked, instantly interested.

Re: Practice run

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

At least the controls were easier to understand than the ones on an Asgard mother ship. Or one of Thor's.

Didn't stop him from crashing. Repeatedly. Almost like he was doing it on purpose.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"Are you crashing on purpose?" Anakin demanded. "I'm not teaching you how to be a suicidal idiot."

Re: Practice run

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

Jon stopped crashing and actually tried to steer the thing. "Oh, I already know how to do that. Being a suicidal idiot is a lot harder than it looks."

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"It's really not," Anakin snapped. "Any moron can die. Millions do it daily. Be a pilot, not a useless teenager. Pay attention."

Re: Practice run

[bitten_notshy]

Jack eyed the instrument panel dubiously, then, very very hesitantly, started adjusting the controls to launch the ship.

It shuddered forward six inches or so, and he looked up to Anakin to see if he was doing it right.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "You're going to have to go a little further than that," he teased lightly. "You're a big kriffing ship. Most people will get out of your way."

Re: Practice run

[bitten_notshy]

Jack flushed slightly. "Especially if it's on fire, I'd imagine," he said, jerking forward on the throttle again and moving ... oh, three feet this time. "It won't break up like in the film?"

Re: Practice run

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone scrunched up her nose. Well, it wasn't exactly configured for her species - she hadn't thought to bring her drugs - but she was originally human (even if she hated admitting it) and human-oriented controls would work fine.

"No neural interface?" she asked anyway as she settled herself in pilot's seat and started a checklist of her instruments. "I bet if you did a direct linkage, you could improve the response time, even on a big girl like this."

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

"The original pilots were droids," Anakin said, "so it pretty much was a direct linkage for them. I wasn't supposed to be flying the ship."

Re: Practice run

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone looked at him with something akin to horror. "Well no wonder the ship caught on fire," she replied. Since the only droids she'd ever really come across had been in sims generated by Anakin, this made perfect sense to Anemone; they were dumb and blew up, and that was about it. Anticipating freak events was very much not in their programming.

She muttered something soothing to the controls as she started the practice run. "Do droids do all your routine flying, or do people still run ships like this too?"

Re: Practice run

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"How the -" Rose touched the controls almost hesitantly. She sat in the pilot's seat with a frown and reached for them again, trying to push the ship forward. With the power of her mind. Sadly she wasn't a Jedi and so it didn't work, Rose.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

Anakin watched her for a moment. "Telekinesis on the fritz?" he finally asked.

Re: Practice run

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

She jumped and started the checklist before trying to ease the ship out of the dock. "No. It's just really - big."

Re: Practice run

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Zayne took a seat at the controls and trusted the Force to guide him.

He managed to turn the climate control up to a warmer temperature. That was about it.

Re: Practice run

[sith_happened]

Anakin hid a wince behind his hand. "Need some help?"

Re: Practice run

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"Could I say anything to convince you that I don't?" Zayne checked.