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."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Under each other for thread-collapsing-ness.

Which is totally a word.

"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."

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.

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

...if you must.

To show that I'm finished.

Molly signed in!

Marie signed in

Bridge signs in

"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."

"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."

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.

"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."

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.

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?"

Anakin tried not to gape at someone who'd never been on a plane before. "Welcome to class," he said.

"The other racers are kind of evil bastards," Anakin commented.

"Yeeeah, I noticed that," Bridge says, making a face. "Maybe next time I should try it with the gloves off," he wiggles the fingers on one hand. "Might improve my reaction time."

Anakin nodded. "It wouldn't hurt," he said. "I've actually programmed this for human reaction times. The real race moves much, much faster and isn't intended for our species at all."

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.

Anakin grinned when he saw Rory out of the corner of his eye. As soon as class was over, he walked up to her. "Hey."

Peter signed in.

"Bonjour, mon cheri," she chirped. "I brought you a Parisian treat. How'd it go?"

"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."

"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!"

Page 1 of 7

Flight and Flying (Friday, July 14, morning)

Sign in

Introductions

Individual tries in the podracers

Paired up races

Talk to Anakin

OOC

Re: Sign in

Re: Sign in

Re: Sign in

Re: Introductions

Re: Introductions

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Introductions

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Introductions

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Individual tries in the podracers

Re: Talk to Anakin

Re: Talk to Anakin

Re: Sign in

Re: Talk to Anakin

Re: Introductions

Re: Individual tries in the podracers