fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yo, man. How's it going?" Cameron asks as Barry goes show off his glasses to Barney.

"Well," Peter replied with a grin. "How about you and your friend? What's with the glasses?"

Cameron rolled his eyes. "He insisted on having beer yesterday and now he's hung over. I think he tried to come on to Veronica."

"You have a hung over gnome?" Peter repeated, laughing. "I think they're generally fans of the ladies. Parker and Cordy were also swarmed yesterday in the cabin. I think Parker might have been almost afraid of them."

"Oh man, I'm sorry I missed it," Cameron laughed at the image. "She isn't the only one to be scared of them. Sam yesterday looked like the thing was about to jump up and strangle him."

Peter looked at the gnomes who were looking particularly ugly. "I can't imagine why he'd think that. They're perfectly harmless as far as I've been able to tell."

"They're just mostly annoying," Cameron agreed. "Barry actually helped us in class yesterday and he seems to like to hug."

"What'd he do?" Peter asked. "I think Barney was afraid of Professor Harrington's cat. He was pretty quiet in there."

If Cameron thought it weird that they'd both named their gnomes, he didn't say anything. "He was anything but quiet. He seemed very insistent to start the fire up for us. Which is a good thing because I had no clue how we were going to get that going with just a flint and a piece of steel."

"We apparently should have switched classes yesterday," Peter said with a grin. "I can start a fire with flint and steel anyday, but we got these little computers in my workshop that I can't make work for the life of me."

"Sounds like it," Cameron chuckled. "If you need a hand...?"

"I may take you up on that," Peter replied. "I'm sure it shall be useful once I stop only being able to find a map of Canada over and over."

"It's gets easier the more you use it," Cameron assured him. "You'll be playing computer games in no time."

"I actually tried one yesterday," Peter said, grinning. "Willow's showing me how to use her computer. She had a game with Stickbugs throwing pies at their enemies. It was brilliant."

"Sounds like it and very fitting too," Cameron chuckled. "Willow? That's Marie's roommate, no?"

"Right, the redhead," Peter replied.

"I haven't actually met her yet," Cameron said. "Just heard about her and I really should grab her one day but I don't think we're in the same workshops at all."

"I've not met Marie yet either. But Willow's a great girl," Peter said with a grin.

"Must be if she's letting you play with her computer," Cameron said, amused.

"I'm well aware of the honour," Peter replied, still smiling. "She's very concerned about that computer."

"Oh, computer geek?" Cameron grinned. "She must like you a lot then."

Peter? Blushing? Couldn't be.

"I suppose so," he said. With a change of subject, Peter might have thought was smooth he nodded at the simulation, "have you flown one of these before?"

Cameron noted the blush and stored it away for later references.

"No, I don't think so. I've flown one of the sims from Anakin's world before, but it wasn't this particular model."