Flight and Flying, Monday, May 9, 2016

[sith_happened]

Anakin, clad in Jedi robes, stood in front of a massive flight simulator, a tiny smile playing across his face as he scanned the students before him. "I'm Anakin Skywalker," he began, "and this is a class to teach you how to fly atmospheric- and space-based aircraft. Hopefully all of you are from cultures where air flight is not a new concept. If you aren't, this is going to be a rather steep learning curve. As it's our first class together, we're going to be doing a bit of information gathering with your introductions, so please give us your name and your favorite aircraft, even if you've never flown it personally."

"What we're flying today is called an X-wing. You might've seen these around the island before." And Jaina was not at all bitter that she didn't have hers here right now. Really. Shut up. "Where we come from, they're a common starfighter, equipped with weaponry, navigation, and hyperspace capabilities. They also fly with the help of an astrometry droid, who pitches in to help in flight, or who can make some emergency repairs if you take a hit in battle. They're generally pretty handy outside of a ship, too."

"If they ever stop yelling at you about piloting choices," Anakin grumbled. His relationship with Artoo had been an interesting one. "We have two different scenarios that let you take advantage of either the X-Wing's shooting prowess or its speed." He smiled. "Jaina and I have set some pretty impressive records on the sims, if we do say so ourselves, so don't feel like you need to compete with them. Just get a feel for how the X-Wing works, and how the simulator reacts. Remember that simulations let you try things that would absolutely kill you in the real world, so feel free to push it a bit."

This was why Obi-Wan hated flying with you, Anakin.

Jaina sighed a little, foreseeing a summer of being the simulator bad cop. "But try not to crash, okay? Humor me."

Comments

Sign in 5/9

[sith_happened]

Flying, whee!

Re: Sign in 5/9

[notfinnyet]

FN-2187

Re: Sign in 5/9

[snipsnspecks]

Ahsoka Tano

Introductions!

[sith_happened]

Who are you? What do you fly?

Re: Introductions!

[notfinnyet]

"FN-2187," FN-2187 said, and then remembered that civilians were a little more wordy in presenting themselves. "Is me. Uh. I've never been authorized for flight training, but I guess if I were I would probably be flying a TIE fighter?" Because yes, yes he was still wearing his stormtrooper cadet armor, minus the helmet, with the cheery 'HELLO! My name is: FN-2187' sticker still on the breastplate because he hadn't been able to figure out how to remove it effectively yet.

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave the boy a small nod. "You'd probably start in the TIE," he agreed. "If you don't mind me asking, who's the current galactic ruler for you?"

Re: Introductions!

[omgnochecksyet]

Eric was just gonna be over here, facepalming and making a mental note to get on that clothes shopping trip ASAP, because oh my god clearly FN-2187 had not been kidding at all about not having brought much.

Re: Introductions!

[snipsnspecks]

Ahsoka, who completely coincidentally was standing on the opposite side of the group to FN-2187, blinked her big, blue innocent eyes. "I'm Ahsoka and I like beat up old spice freighters, especially if they're always on the verge of falling apart."

RE: Introductions!

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm Rey," she said, "and I've never flown anything offplanet, so I'm not very picky."

Re: Introductions!

[goforthe_optics]

"I'm Tali," she said, waving a hand and sadly breaking theme by being both from the future and from this galaxy, "and I'm not much of a pilot myself, to be honest, but if it's a ship I can fix it when it breaks down. I mean, I've had some lessons, but not much opportunity to actually apply them, so . . . I thought it would be interesting to see what it's like at the controls for once."

RE: Introductions!

[halfaclink.livejournal.com]

"I'm Frank Doyle, and I've yet to fly a thing myself, although I have flown commercially as a passenger from time to time," Frank said. "My preferred vehicle is probably a blimp or a zeppelin. There's a certain level of class and dignity to it, while at the same time it could all go up in literal flames at any moment!"

Frank took a drink because the exact same thing could be said about him, which was why he generally tried not to breathe near open flames.

Re: Introductions!

[notamascot]

"I'm Kaylin Neya and the only things that fly in my world are insects, birds, and the Aerians. But they don't have machines, they have wings."

She smiled. "I've always wished I had wings of my own."

Re: Introductions!

[omgnochecksyet]

"Hey," Eric said, giving a little wave. "Eric Bittle. Um, I mostly... fly coach, to be honest. I've never actually been at the controls of anything." Well, at least he didn't have an alcoholic drink in his hand? "I guess that makes planes kind of my default favorite flying craft, since I didn't really know there was much beyond that until coming here."

Simulation #1: Navigation

[sith_happened]

Fly through a simulated asteroid field! Dodge around small, medium and entirely too huge rocks so they don't collide with your snubfighter. There are five illuminated rings you have to fly your ship through as well, in varying sizes from really large to almost too small to fit.

The average pilot can make it through in about 20 minutes. A Force-enhanced one can do it in 15. Jaina did it in 12 flat. Anakin took another minute and is still sulking about it.

Re: Simulation #1: Navigation

[snipsnspecks]

"Don't feel like you need to compete, right," Ahsoka repeated to herself as she familiarised herself with the controls, which were familiar enough to fighters she had flown there shouldn't give her any trouble. There were only a few other things he could've said that would've made her more likely to.

Anyone with the familiarity to tell would have noticed that her flying style was remarkably similar (terrifyingly so, if your name was Obi-Wan) to Anakin's.

Right down to her time.

Re: Simulation #1: Navigation

[goforthe_optics]

Right, Tali didn't have enough piloting experience to feel like she wanted to try the other scenario just yet. As it was, getting used to actual analog controls would be enough of a challenge -- not in a bad way, necessarily, since the giant engineering nerd in her was looking forward to what it would be like having that kind of tactile feedback.

Also, this was a much smaller ship than she was used to, and that was a little unnerving. She could just hear Joker giving her a hard time about it . . . which was amusing, but the reminder of how Shepard was lost rescuing him from the rapidly-disintegrating Normandy somewhat tempered that.

It took her about 25 minutes, all told.

RE: Simulation #1: Navigation

[halfaclink.livejournal.com]

Frank did not crash! That was the most positive thing that could be said about his simulation.

On the other hand, he had sneaked a shaker into the simulator with him, and that drink was well prepared now.

Re: Simulation #1: Navigation

[notfinnyet]

Okay, so FN-2187 was not by any stretch of the imagination a natural flying talent. He felt like he had a better understanding of why he had never been authorized for flight training before now. But it was a lot of fun, if vaguely terrifying!

Re: Simulation #1: Navigation

[notamascot]

Kaylin? Was going to do a lot of crashing.

Simulation #2: Shooting

[sith_happened]

Fly through a Death Star trench of dooooom giant metallic trench. You must disable ten different gun turrets as they shoot at you, and then hit a two-meter target located on the ground.

If you seem particularly talented, Anakin will add in a couple of TIE fighters chasing you to keep it interesting.

The average pilot can make it through in 30 minutes not you, Porkins. Sorry. A Jedi can do it in 20. Jaina did it in 17. Anakin blew up from a TIE and is NOT TALKING ABOUT IT.

Re: Simulation #2: Shooting

[snipsnspecks]

"Oh, come on!" Ahsoka was certain no one else got that many TIEs.

Ahsoka's time was just on the wrong side of twenty. Because she had to blow up all those TIEs, Anakin.

Talk to Anakin or Jaina!

[sith_happened]

They are here to help! More so Jaina than Anakin, but yes.

RE: Talk to Anakin or Jaina!

[solo_sword]

Jaina was indeed here to be helpful! Also it totally figured that the semester she came back was when people from her universe ended up in her class.

OOC

[sith_happened]

La!

Re: OOC

[goforthe_optics]

Totally not pointing and laughing at Anakin in the simulation narrative except I maybe kind of am . . .