fandomhigh | Flight and Flying (Friday, July 14, morning)

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."

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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.

Anakin smiled. "Not bad for a first try," he said. He lowered his voice. "I managed to stall the thing out at the starting gate when I was racing." In a more normal tone, he said, "You have to start preparing for the turn right when you see it coming--you're moving so quickly that you only have about a three-second window before you're canyon goo and that's hard to explain."

He grinned. "Want to try it again?"

"Yes!" Molly said with a huge grin.

As she waited for the simulator to reset, she worked the controls again, practicing for the turn again. "Prepare for the turn when I see it coming," she repeated.

Once she was comfortable, she hit the power button again and took off with another whoop. Again, she kept the podracer at full throttle for the straightaway, but this time she managed to slow down enough to make it through the first turn.

"Woo hoo!" she yelled happily, but forgot about the natives shooting at her. One of them hit one of the engines and the simulation ended as the pod spun off into another racer and they both exploded.

"Man!"

"It's tough," Anakin admitted, "but you're doing really well."

"Thank you," Molly said with a grin. "I think I could get to the end if it was a straight run. Maybe. It's the turning and avoiding the walls and the other racers and then dodging the gunfire. I need more practice."

"It takes a certain finesse, yeah," Anakin said. "You have to be focused on a lot of things all at the same time."

"Yeah," Molly said. "I just have to get used to it. I've never even driven a car before. But, this is more like a video game anyway since you don't have to worry about the inertia so much."

"Right," Anakin said. "Next week's you will, though. It all depends on how the sim's set up."

He smiled. "This way you don't get bugs in your teeth."

Molly giggled. "Yay, no bugs!" she said.

"What are we doing next week?"

"Space flight," Anakin said with a grin. "Jedi starfighter. My personal favorite."

"Oooooo! That sounds like fun!"

Anakin beamed. "It is. Nothing to run into out there," he said.

"I can't wait!" Molly said excitedly.

Anakin grinned back, pleased to see someone as excited about this as he was.

Flight and Flying (Friday, July 14, morning)

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers