sith_happened: (Anakin: flying is fun!)
Anakin Skywalker ([personal profile] sith_happened) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2009-06-23 12:11 am
Entry tags:

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."

Re: Talk with the TA!

[identity profile] missed-the-gate.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
While he was completely adorable, he was also cranky and prone to rush those who angered him with headbutts.

Granted, he really wanted in the sim, so if someone would lift him up, he might let them scratch between his ears the way that made his back leg thump the floor. Just don't tell Jaina.

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[identity profile] kestrelswolf.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
Image [who would both say that wolf names are essentially call signs, if they had any idea what a call sign was]

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[identity profile] kestrelswolf.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
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: Obstacle Course #1

[identity profile] kestrelswolf.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
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.
weetuskenraider: (Um - Rubbing Neck)

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[personal profile] weetuskenraider 2009-06-23 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Tahiri Veila, who you'd think has a call sign that isn't "Sand" long before she's 30, but WHO KNOWS?
bitten_notshy: (broody in leather)

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[personal profile] bitten_notshy 2009-06-23 12:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack Priest, who has no idea what a call sign is.
weetuskenraider: (Not Quite Smiling)

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[personal profile] weetuskenraider 2009-06-23 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
bitten_notshy: (Default)

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[personal profile] bitten_notshy 2009-06-23 12:50 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
bitten_notshy: (vaguely bemused)

Re: Obstacle Course #1

[personal profile] bitten_notshy 2009-06-23 12:54 pm (UTC)(link)
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)
weetuskenraider: (Concentrating (Use the Force))

Re: Obstacle Course #1

[personal profile] weetuskenraider 2009-06-23 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
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?

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[identity profile] death-of-hope.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Anemone, which is already her call sign.

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[identity profile] death-of-hope.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
weetuskenraider: (WTF Skeptical)

Re: Obstacle Course #2

[personal profile] weetuskenraider 2009-06-23 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, no, no shadows of legendary exploits hanging over Tahiri's head here, really. Nope. None at all. She'd heard the story, oh yes, and the lack of pursuing TIEs was somewhat balanced out by doing this by herself because obvious joke is too obvious. She wasn't an ace pilot, and she wasn't even an outstanding Jedi. None of that was reassuring either. As she adjusted her crash webbing and went through her preflight check, she firmly told herself that her main objective here was to make it through the trench, and try to get the job done.

Engines in the green. Deep breaths. She fired up, locked S-foils in attack position, and headed for the trench, losing precious seconds by waiting for her targeting computer to confirm a lock on the first of the laser turrets, then losing even more time when that gave the second turret an opportunity to get a good bead on her. She managed to escape that shot without too much more damage than a lot of carbon scoring and an engine going offline (though her simulated R2 took care of that); the problem was that her evasive maneuvers meant backtracking to take out that second turret and get on course in the trench again.

. . . the even bigger problem was that Tahiri wasn't nearly a good enough shot in an X-Wing to take out all the turrets with her cannons. She was a little more than halfway down the trench when she realized she had no proton torpedoes left to even take a shot at the exhaust port, and that momentary distraction was enough for the fourth laser turret to hit her with a shot that punched through her already weakened shields, slagged two engines, and came way closer than she liked to taking out her port strike foils. If not for Jedi reflexes, she'd have been a long smear on the side of the trench trying to break off from the engagement; as it was, she clipped a laser cannon on the trench lip on her way out, tumbled inelegantly for several seconds while she fought with the controls (and her stomach), and told herself waiting for a theoretical rescue craft was better than getting vaped.

She was still annoyed with herself, though.

Like, a lot.

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[identity profile] asgardcreated.livejournal.com 2009-06-23 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Jon O'Neill and whatever handwavey call sign he had in the Air Force
momslilassassin: (Default)

Re: Sign in [6/23]

[personal profile] momslilassassin 2009-06-23 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Ben Skywalker who will get saddled with something useful like "Legacy" or "That Other Skywalker"
weetuskenraider: (Contemplative)

Re: Chat with each other!

[personal profile] weetuskenraider 2009-06-23 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, Tahiri was going to be over here looking a little exhausted, having a bit of trouble undoing the laces on her boots so she could get the stupid things off her feet already.
momslilassassin: (Ben: eye closeup)

Re: Learn to fly the X-Wing

[personal profile] momslilassassin 2009-06-23 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

Page 1 of 4