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

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."

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You're flying through a asteroid field. Duck, dodge, and spin to avoid being squished like a bug.

Don't cut it too close or the R2 unit will scream his head off.

The average pilot can get through the course in 12 minutes. The average Jedi can do it in about 9.

Anakin's new record is 7:15. The R2 unit was not happy.

Firekeeper only got about a quarter of the way through before she crashed horribly.

Blind Seer made it slightly further.

After some metaphorical picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, they tried again.

And again.

And again.

Finally they both made it through. Firekeeper managed in about 16 and a half minutes. Blind Seer had 17. She was never going to let him forget that, even if he had done better than she had on the first run. Better only counted if you lived to tell of it, after all.

Jack's X-wing was damaged by an asteroid before he got very far at all, but he managed to spin out of the way enough to avoid being taken down by it. Fighting nausea and with his hands tight on the controls, he kept going, making it almost to the halfway point before running smack into another asteroid that drifted into his path too quickly to be avoided.

He made it all the way through on his fourth try, although it took him fifteen minutes.

Edited 2009-06-23 13:34 (UTC)

Given the choice between an X-Wing and the Falcon, Tahiri would rather negotiate an asteroid field in a snubfighter any day, especially now that she'd gotten the hang of how to use her Force senses in the cockpit.

Being in all respects relevant to this class a very average Jedi, she made it through the course in just upwards of 9 and a half minutes, and was ridiculously proud of herself for not killing any of the S-foil servo actuators the way she'd had a tendency to do in flight club last semester. (So this hadn't been a combat scenario anyway. Details.)

If there had been a real astromech, it would've given her hell afterward for the several far-too-close calls. And quite possibly, no good things could come of Tahiri getting into an argument with a droid, so good thing it was just a sim, huh?

Ben had long since learned to ignore the sounds of a terrified Artoo unit (and really, you think Artoo would've stopped trying by now) as he whipped the X-Wing over and around (and almost through, he'd missed seeing an asteroid) the objects whirling through space.

He finished in just under 9 minutes and let out a small whoop of delight when he say the time.

Jon crashed around a third of the way through the first time, something which he would completely and totally blame on the droid. He did a better job of ignoring it on the second try, scraping through in just under twelve minutes.

"It's like having a bitchy mother-in-law in the back seat," he grumbled as he looked at the droid.

Annja was not surprised that she crashed on her first try through.

And her second try.

She got a little further on her third try.

By her fourth time through, she was happy with her fifteen minute time -- until she crashed close to the end.

She never beat the fifteen minutes she set herself, but she decided that she would never have a robot in the back seat of anything she flew.

There was good news and bad news as Zayne finished the course in eighteen minutes on his first attempt.

The good news was that he didn't have to worry much about the droid. The bad news was that the droid was decapitated two minutes in by an asteroid. The next sixteen minutes was filled with some of the ugliest flying imaginable. But Zayne survived!

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

Obstacle Course #1

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