Flight and Flying [Tuesday, June 23, 4th period]

[sith_happened]

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

"This is an X-Wing starfighter," Anakin said with a smile. "Today we're going to end the course by practicing flying in combat."

He waved at a droid-shaped hole on the back of the sim. "This is where your R2 unit would sit," Anakin, smiling. "Or whatever the droid number is these days. It's your copilot of sorts who can get to mechanical problems while you're flying. For example, fixing shields that have been damaged by laser fire. Since we don't have a real R2 droid here--right now, the sim will take care of that for you. It'll also scream at you if it thinks you're going too fast."

On cue, the sim let out an electronic wail. 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 shuttle or the podracer, obviously It's more like the fighter plane, but 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 showed them how to make the ship speed up, slow down, turn and spin. "Obviously, this moves much faster than anything else we've flown," 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." A glance at the TA. "Feel free to use the bunny for that if you must."

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. 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 the class 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

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

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

As usual, the learning part took a lot of concentration due to not being able to read the controls. Eventually, though, both Firekeeper and Blind Seer felt confident enough to try the real course.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[weetuskenraider]

It would not be a lie to say that Tahiri was somewhat relieved that there wasn't a real astromech in the sim. She at least had some familiarity with X-Wings, if not enough flight time logged to be worth counting. She wished she'd gotten around to setting up those lessons with Jaina sooner -- oh, well, maybe this way she'd have more of a sense of what she'd have to work on.

She was quiet and focused all through her practice runthrough, mostly concentrating on committing the instrument panels to memory and then getting herself acclimated to the speed. 3700 Gs was a lot of acceleration, especially when you were the one at the controls.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[bitten_notshy]

This wasn't so different from what they'd done the last six weeks. It took some concentration, but after a few jerky tries, Jack could get the plane into the air and turn it the way he wanted to go.

Now he had to try it in an obstacle course.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

This was one Anemone recognized, and it was less learning how to fly it than re-learning what the limits of the X-Wing were as she put it through its paces.

And cheerfully ignored her screaming droid.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[momslilassassin]

Ben slid into the cockpit with a happy grin. He wasn't exactly used to the feel of the ship--Mara and Luke hadn't exactly let him climb all over their Stealth Xs if they could help it--but this ship was in his blood almost as much as the Force was.

He had it running through its paces in practically no time.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

Once he figured out the instrument panel, flying the X-Wing was fun. And it didn't take long to figure out that yeah, spinning too much would be a bad thing.

Ignoring the droid was a bit hard though.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[spiritandsword]

Annja listened to everything Professor Skywalker was saying and then took her time to get familiar with the controls.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Between light training on Jedi starfighters back on Taris and the jet class earlier, Zayne didn't feel terribly uncomfortable in the cockpit. He was taking it slow, though. No spins or anything.