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

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!

[notfinnyet]

"Supreme Leader Snoke, sir," FN-2187 answered promptly.

Unless you counted the new Republic, who were usurpers etc., etc.

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin blinked. "I'm not familiar with that name," he admitted.

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!

[notfinnyet]

What? It was called a uniform, Eric, that was kind of the point?

Re: Introductions!

[omgnochecksyet]

Maybe in a military school. Which this was not. "Psst," he hissed, trying for a subtle wave.

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: Re: Introductions!

[solo_sword]

"I'm kind of partial to those myself," Jaina said with a little lopsided smile. "Got a lot of experience with those?"

Re: Introductions!

[snipsnspecks]

"Some," Ahsoka said. "My M-...brother had one for a few years." And then there was her scrapheap in the junkyard.

RE: Re: Introductions!

[solo_sword]

When you trip over things like "my brother," Jaina knew not to touch that sort of thing in front of the class. "Well, maybe we can throw something like that in."

RE: Introductions!

[thatwaslucky]

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

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

"Hello, Rey," Anakin said, smiling at her. "Have you seen ships capable of flying offplanet?"

RE: Re: Introductions!

[thatwaslucky]

"Of course. I just don't have the opportunity to get in them, really." And she wouldn't go even if she could, unless it was with very siscufhc people.

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: Re: Introductions!

[solo_sword]

"And it's always good to see what all goes into the work," Jaina agreed. "It can help you understand it better."

Re: Introductions!

[goforthe_optics]

"That too," Tali said, nodding. "Knowing exactly how to fine-tune the drive core is well and good, but knowing why I do it, and how that helps the pilot? That would make me more effective. Besides, I'm always interested in other worlds' technologies."

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!

[sith_happened]

Anakin blinked. "Uh...huh. Oh, no open beverages near the instrument panel. It could make a mess."

RE: Re: Introductions!

[halfaclink.livejournal.com]

"Not a problem!" Frank declared. And it wasn't, because the glass was now empty. "Now, let's fly a make-believe space plane or two, shall we?"

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!

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "My last name's Skywalker, so I think my ancestors had similar dreams."

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."

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

"Fair enough," Anakin said. "We're in school, after all, and there's no fun in taking a class where you already know everything. We can try to fly a commercial aircraft at some point, if you'd like."