Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

The flight simulator looked radically different than it had last week.

For one thing, there was only one. It was also longer, sleeker, and painted maroon and white.

Anakin leaned up against it, waiting for the class to arrive. When they came in, he put the box of cookies from J,GoB on a table and turned to face them.

"This is the training sim for the Delta-7 Aethersprite Interceptor," Anakin said, patting it. "It's better known as the Jedi starfighter. Today we're going to use it to practice flying in a zero-g environment."

He pushed a button and the door to the simulator swung open. "Because it's a trainer, it's designed for two people--a pilot and an instructor--to fit. The real things only have room for one being on the inside and an astromech droid," he looked at the class, "um, think of it as a robotic co-pilot of sorts who can get to mechanical problems while you're flying. For example, fixing shields that have been damaged by laser fire." He pointed at the empty socket on the simulator. "Obviously, I don't have an astromech with me, but the sim's been programmed to make up for that. And for very elementary maneuvers like we'll be working with today, you don't really need to learn how to work with the astromech."

He pointed into the inside of the cockpit. "There are a lot more controls on the starfighter than the podracer, obviously. Here 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 handwavily showed them how to make the ship speed up, slow down, turn and spin. "Obviously, this moves much faster than the podracer," 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."

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 and stuff. 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 smiled. "Have fun. Oh, and Cedric and Draco? If you could stick around after class, I'd appreciate it."

[OOC: Wait for the OCD, plz... Come play!]

Comments

First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Learn the controls. Fly around in circles. Try not to get sick.

Give Anakin a shout if you want him to sit in the instructor's chair--if not, he'll just let you learn by trial and error.

Re: First run in the Sim

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

This is a little more Cedric's style, a little more freedom and no things to run into. He still feels boxed in and he does several rolls that make his stomach turn but manages to learn the controls rather quickly and ends up doing all right.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Nicely done," Anakin said, smiling. "You're a natural."

Re: First run in the Sim

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

"There was nothing to run into," Cedric explains. "We'll see how I do in the next simulation."

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I've seen people mess up flying a straight line," Anakin said, grinning. "Don't sell yourself short."

Re: First run in the Sim

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair bounces into the sim and proceeds to maneuver the controls with all the grace of a hippo doing needlepoint. "Whoa, trippy."

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin tried to hold in a wince. "If you don't push so hard on the controls, you won't spin out quite as much," Anakin said. "It makes it easier to stand up once you've landed, too."

Re: First run in the Sim

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Spinning is bad, right?" Blair toned down the wild jerks on the controls and flew straight. "Is that better?"

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Spinning can be good," Anakin said, "but spinning as the default way of flying will get you sick." He smiled in approval. "That's much better."

Re: First run in the Sim

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter was fairly tentative at first, but he soon mastered the basic controls. The fact that he had three-dimensions to fly in seemed to escape his notice until he accidentally put himself into a spin.

Ooops.

Luckily, he has a strong stomach and was able to pull himself out of it after just a bit of flailing.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Fun, huh?" Anakin asked, then looked at Peter's face. "Or maybe too many spins..."

Re: First run in the Sim

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Both, definitely," Peter replied, shaking his head to clear it. "I'm not entirely sure how I did that. Or stopped it for that matter."

Re: First run in the Sim

[can_be_more]

This helps Aeryn's day a little. She's not used to the ship, exactly, but she knows the basic style, so that's easy enough for her.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin had a pleased smile on his face as he watched Aeryn run through the simulation. He liked having his ship taken care of by someone who knew what she was doing.

Re: First run in the Sim

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron climbed into the sim and took a moment to familiarise himself with the controls. It's definitely more complicated than the podracer, but at least there's no wonky left control. Once he got more confident with it, he sped up the fighter and tried some more fancy moves.

He however hadn't realised that Barry had crawled into the cockpit with him so when he ended the simulation, Barry waggled out, holding his hands over his mouth and ran off looking decidedly green.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin watched the gnome run past him, eyebrows raised. "Land based species, I'm guessing?"

Re: First run in the Sim

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I think so," Cameron watched as Barry disappeared behind a corner. "I'd almost feel sorry if he hadn't kept me awake with his snores the entire night."

Re: First run in the Sim

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

There was something oddly familiar about these controls, and Rory surprisingly enough didn't have any trouble with them.

Though she did spend her entire first try attempting to figure out where the déjà vu was coming from.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Nicely done," Anakin said, smiling.

Re: First run in the Sim

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory returned the smile. "I don't suck, yay."

Re: First run in the Sim

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

It took Sam a few minutes to get acclimated--she wasn't used to the aircraft and she wasn't used to flying without atmosphere.

Consequently, she ended up going much faster than she meant to at the beginning, but she quickly gained control and indulged in some dogfighting maneuvers she hadn't done in a while. "This is so slick."

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"You like it?" Anakin looked pleased.

Re: First run in the Sim

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam grinned at him, eyes bright with excitement. "Oh, yeah."

Re: First run in the Sim

[pure-blooddraco.livejournal.com]

Draco was a little bit better with this sim than the one they had last week. He does a few sharp turns but he stays away from trying anything fancy.

Re: First run in the Sim

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Very good, Draco," Anakin said, smiling.