Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin was leaning against the reconfigured flight simulator when the flight students arrived.

"Today we're going to do something a little different," he said, walking over to the television from his room and pushing a few buttons. A three-dimension projection of a world rotated in front of them. "We're going to complete an entire military mission. This planet is being slowly starved to death by the blockade set up by these donut-looking control ships and their army of droids."

Anakin gestured to the projection. "Working in pairs, your job will be to take off from the planet's surface, fight past the enemy's droid fighters and destroy the control ship." On the projection, the target glowed red. "The only way to destroy the ship, unfortunately, is to blow it from the inside--its shields are too powerful for the starfighter's torpedos to take out from space." He put his hands behind his back and paced. "You're up against a deadline as well. On the surface there's a battle taking place: your people against a droid army that doesn't get tired. Taking out the control ship also powers down those droids. Take too long to blow it up and you won't have a reason to go back to the planet--the enemy will have won through battle what they had been trying to achieve through blockade."

He pointed at the simulator. "You'll be flying the Naboo N-1 Starfighter," he said. "They're a little more sensitive than the F-16 from last week, but not quite as twitchy as the Jedi starfighter. And remember that once you break atmosphere, you won't be fighting gravity any longer so you don't have to yank on the controls quite as hard. The droid starfighters are faster than you are--and there are a lot of them--but they're also pretty stupid. Watch each other's backs and you'll do fine."

He grinned. "And in case you're wondering, yeah, this was a real battle. And the exercise can be accomplished." He tossed two deeply silly-looking helmets into the flight simulator. "Those will allow you to talk to each other. Plus, they're terribly stylish."

He put his hands together in front of him. "When you successfully complete the exercise, you get a donut to make up for the ugly one you've just removed from the sky." He gave them all an excited look. "Oh, I hope to see you all on Sunday for the field trip to the Air and Space Museum, but more importantly, I've heard from home. I'd asked for permission to have an actual Jedi starfighter brought here so you could get some non-simulated flight experience."

He smiled. "They've done me one better--inviting you all to come with me to Coruscant for a few days and see how the simulated stuff measures up the real thing." He turned serious. "Of course, I'm not going to bring you all to a new planet and have you blow up because you weren't paying attention, so this week--and next, which will be an actual flying experience--I'm going to be watching your technique to see if you're ready to fly an actual starfighter."

He waved them towards the simulator. "So impress me, all right?"

Comments

Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Before you work with your partner, get a feel for how the controls work on a run where no one's shooting at you.

You still have to wear the stupid hat, though.

Re: Practice run

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair had no problem with the stupid hat. He did seem to still have a problem with keeping his starfighter unspinny. Or at least, some might see that as a problem.

"Whooo!" Blair called happily. "I love flying."

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin grinned. "I can tell. I like that in a person."

Re: Practice run

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Cool." Blair grinned at Anakin happily and bounced, the controls jumping a litle.

Re: Practice run

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory thought the hat was awesome, actually. She happily jammed it onto her head, and very carefully began to run through the simulation.

Again with the flying way, way too slowly, though. Oh well.

"Wheeeeeeee!"

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin bit his lip. "Not bad," he said. "Make sure to watch out for the droids in the next run--they'll be all over you if you're moving that, um, sneakily."

Re: Practice run

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"They might completely miss me," she pointed out. "They'll be so distracted by the things moving quickly that they won't even notice little bitty me."

Re: Practice run

[can_be_more]

All right, the hat's stupid, but she'll take it, having heard everything else Anakin had to say. This is closer to the feel of what she's used to flying, too. It is a good day.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Nicely done," Anakin said, smiling.

Re: Practice run

[can_be_more]

"I may ask for one of these for Chrissmass," she decides.

Re: Practice run

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Stupid hat? Check. Though really, it wasn't any stupider than the helmet that went with Peter's armour.

He'd been thinking about flying quite a bit in the past few weeks (in those spare moments not taken up by swords or the World Cup) and it probably showed as he was much better at finding that hairsbreadth of control between spinny and non-responsive. Not there weren't a few spinouts immediately after getting out of the gravity.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Much better," Anakin said, looking pleased.

Re: Practice run

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Peter replied with a grin. "This is ace!"

Re: Practice run

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

Cedric examines the hat thoroughly just because he's never seen anything such as this before. He nods, shoves it on his head and starts the simulator.

He's getting better every week and, this time, does quite decently.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Well done," Anakin said, smiling.

Re: Practice run

[pure-blooddraco.livejournal.com]

Draco put on the hat (which was wasn't that bad considering his other hat choices) and began the sim. He did quite well, though he didn't go as fast as he wanted to.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Nice," Anakin said, smiling. He pointed at the relevant controls. "If you push these when you finish up a turn, you'll be able to get away a lot faster," he suggested.

Re: Practice run

[demonbelthazor]

Bel didn't like the stupid hat, but it was better than tinsel. He put it on and did the practice run. He still liked shimmering better, but he was beginning to get the hang of this flying thing.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Not bad," Anakin admitted grudgingly. He passed Bel a printout (http://www.tk421.net/character/darthmaul.jpg). "Why you surprised me the other day," he muttered.

Re: Practice run

[demonbelthazor]

Bel looked at the printout. "I'm prettier," he said.

Re: Practice run

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron doesn't seem too bothered about silly hats as long as he can fly something. The fighter seems to be a nice medium between the starfighter and an F-16 and after a wonky start, Cameron gets the hang of it.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Good job," Anakin said, smiling.

Re: Practice run

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Cameron replied as he climbed out of the simulator, completely forgetting about the helmet. "Good job on getting us a real fighter to fly in."

Re: Practice run

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Stupid hat, stupid helmet--it was all the same to Sam.

She climbed into the cockpit and settled herself into the seat. It took her a few minutes to get used to the controls, and the adjustment to the lack of atmosphere was still not as smooth as it could have been, but in general she had pretty decent control and was trying to evaluate capabilities as she flew it.

Re: Practice run

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Nice work," Anakin said. "If you hit the break between atmosphere and space a little faster, the feeling isn't quite as jarring."