Flight and Flying (Friday, July 14, morning)

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin stood in front of the Flight Club shed with his hands hidden in the folds of his robe, looking every inch the confident Jedi. He didn't realize that he was imitating Obi-Wan's way of standing.

He gave a short nod to the class as they assembled in front of him. "Welcome," he said. "My name is Anakin Skywalker, but most of you know that. You can call me Anakin or Master Skywalker--I don't really care." Secretly he was hoping someone would call him Master Skywalker, but he wasn't going to mention that. He looked at the students and continued. "Today, we're going to fly podracers." He cleared his throat and opened the door. "Well, in a simulator, anyway." He gave Peter a small smile. "The last one I built was made for, um, much smaller people."

Inside the shed were two 6 foot-long simulators sitting side by side. Anakin walked over to one with evident pride. "Okay," he said, pointing at the controls, "everything you need to fly a podracer is located on its handlebars. You push them forward to go faster, pull back to slow down, and pull one or the other towards you to turn." He pointed at the buttons in the center of the console. "That controls the engines," he said. "You push the big button to light them up, and on these two models, you can push it again for an extra burst of speed." He looked at the class. "Which burns your fuel very, very quickly, so save that until you need it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Normally, these things are attached to giant engines--like 6 or 7 meter long engines--but these aren't real, and the simulator won't really give you the noise that's normally associated with the podracer. But the simulator has been programmed to go very, very quickly." He pointed to the simulator on the left-hand side. "This one, properly piloted, can get up to 950 kilometers an hour. The other can get up to 900. To fly a podracer at those kinds of speed requires iron nerves and split-second reflexes."

He clasped his hands in front of him. "Okay. Today you can take a turn learning how the simulators work, then pair up to fly against each other." He gave them a slightly predatory smile. "Since there are nine of you, the person without a partner will get to fly against me. I built the real version of this podracer," he patted the left-hand simulator, "and used it to win a race when I was nine years old. And I won't give you a head start."

Comments

Sign in

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Under each other for thread-collapsing-ness.

Which is totally a word.

Re: Sign in

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly signed in!

Introductions

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"As I said, I'm Anakin Skywalker. I graduated from Fandom in May and I've been flying since I could walk--both land and space-based vehicles."

He turned and pointed at random. "How about you?" he said. "Name, year in school, flying experience." He smiled. "And if you have one, your favorite thing to fly."

Re: Introductions

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

"Molly Hayes. Sophomore," Molly said with a grin and a wave to Anakin. "I've never actually flown anything, but back home we have a ship named Leapfrog that doesn't really fly, but he takes big enough jumps that it's almost the same thing. I also got to ride with Alec on his swoop bike. That was a lot of fun, but it was only once and I didn't get to drive myself."

Re: Introductions

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Bridge Carson, Junior... I've had a few years flying experience thanks to Zord piloting classes at the Academy, as well as some basic shuttle training."

Re: Introductions

[untouchableskin.livejournal.com]

"I'm Marie D'Ancanto and I'm a freshman," Marie said. "I flew the simulator once and that's it. I've never even been on a plane."

Re: Introductions

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Peter Parker, junior, and limited flying experience that consists entirely of a weekend a few months ago when I was small and some video games. I am very familiar with... let's call it 'high-speed controlled falling' around New York skyscrapers, but that lacks a vehicle, so it's really not the same thing."

Re: Introductions

[multiplez]

"Z Delgado, junior, and I don't really have any flying experience. I've been in shuttles a time or two, but we didn't even leave atmosphere."

Re: Introductions

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

"Dean Winchester, sophomore," Dean said. "Flying experience is pretty much zero, which was how I thought I'd keep it until someone," He shot a dirty glance Alec's way, "signed me up for this. I'm still pretty sure I'm happier with both feet firmly on the ground."

Re: Introductions

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Alec. I'm a Junior and I have training and pilot certifications for several types of aircraft," he said, grinning. "But my favorite's probably the F-16."

Re: Introductions

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

"I'm Alanna Trebond, going to be a Senior and I have never flown, not even in those things, um planes. I don't really want to fly now that I think about it can I just stay on the ground?"

Re: Introductions

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

"My name's Zack Addy," he said. "And I don't even know how to drive, I think I signed up by mistake."

Individual tries in the podracers

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

You're going in a giant circle in the middle of a desolate desert planet. There are cliffs and canyons, angry natives shooting at you, and fellow (simulated, naturally) pilots trying to run you off the course.

Please try to squash yourself against a canyon wall.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly skipped over to the simulator and hopped in. She played with the controls for a bit to get a feel for how they moved before hitting the button to light up her engines. Once they were nice and warmed up, she pushed the controls all the way forward and took off with a whoop of excitement.

She kept the speeder at full throttle all down the first straight away and looked to be good heading into the first turn. Except she forgot to slow down and ended up slamming into a canyon wall.

"Aw, suck," she said when the simulation ended.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge bounces, happy to *finally* get a chance in a podracer- he'd missed out during weetiny weekend, after all. He starts up the engines and takes off through the course.

He makes it around the first couple of turns- though the second one was a close call- and is so busy avoiding being shot at that he misses the other podracer slamming in to him in an effort to knock him off course. It works.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

Peter was absolutely geeked out at the opportunity to fly one of these again, even if it wasn't real. He hopped into the simulator, pressed the big button, pushed the handlebars forward, and took off.

Fortunately for Peter, his reflexes were incredible and he was slightly familiar with podracers from when he was weetiny. Unfortunately for Peter, a simulation meant that he was in no danger and his spider-sense wasn't working. Still, he probably should have been able to avoid the inside wall on the second turn. But he didn't. And so his race was over.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[multiplez]

It was kind of like video games, which Z had played more than her fair share of in various foster homes and slightly seedy arcades. She could do this, she thought. She managed to dodge the first few potshots at her and avoid a racer trying to drive her off course, but this meant she missed the turn and slammed into a wall. "Darn it!"

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec got in the sim, looking forward to trying it out. He took hold of the controls, pushed the button for the engines and even hummed very quietly to make up for the lack of engine sounds, waiting as they warmed up.

Straight out of the starting line he was nearly shoved into the wall by a rival podracer, but recovered easily thanks to quicker than human reflexes. He seemed to have not too much difficulty with most of the turns, but was taken out by a well-placed shot from on high and crashed into the ground in the final stretch. "Damn," he said, annoyed at not even making the finish line.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean climbed into the simulator, deliberately trying to take slow deep breaths to fight the urge to hyperventilate.

No big deal, he told himself. It was just a giant video game; his butt wasn't leaving this seat and this seat wasn't actually leaving the ground, no matter what it looked or felt like.

He could do this -- he'd always been good at video games. As long as he kept looking at this as just a big game...

Still, Dean had an excess of adrenaline running through his system as he started the run, which led to his attempt being rather like a podracer version of panicked flailing, that through probably more luck than skill managed to get him almost all the way through the course before smashing into a wall.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Alanna was very relieved that her body was going to stay firmly on the ground. To say that she was bad was an understatement. It's kind of hard to fly well when you're going at five miles an hour.

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack meeped underbreath and fiddled with the controls. "So how fast do these things go?"

Paired up races

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Pick a racer, find a partner, try to win the Boonta Eve Classic. It'll be fun.

Re: Paired up races

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly chose the podracer on the left-hand side and waited for someone to race.

Talk to Anakin

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

...if you must.

Re: Talk to Anakin

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory showed up near the end of class, wearing a beret and holding two iced cappuccinos, as well as a small paper bag.

She tried to look unobtrusive and kind of French as she waited for Anakin to finish and the workshop to wrap.

OOC

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

To show that I'm finished.