Taxi to runway 24L via Alpha

[Janick Beauchamp]

Oh boy, while Ayda helped me sorted in my mental liabilities somewhat, I know pretty much for sure that the increase in my mental liabilities is not physical in origin, while I wanted some means to keep those flashbacks under control and hence convert liabilities into equity, she thought, while she was at Utapau's airbase to train another person in piloting operations. Hopefully [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] would not mind being subjected to the more rough-and-tumble methods of the ORC Navy, which often allowed veteran pilots to train civilian pilots. Especially the more senior ones, and, in particular, those who seem headed for flag-level rank. Upon meeting with Cassiopeia on the tarmac, she could feel that today's student is a little raw in the Force, but, once again, she had Griet's words from the pre-flight preparations on Utapau ringing in her mind: I pilot largely the same, with or without the Force, and it's likely to be the case for you, too. U-wing cockpit instruments are pretty common for most of the craft non-Imperial pilots would be flying, so the cockpit layout would pretty easily transfer from a fighter cockpit to another, with the big difference being that the U-Wing has two pilot seats while most fighters seat one.

"Welcome to Utapau. I trust you're here for your piloting lessons? You will realize pretty soon, if you haven't already, that there are several screens in front of you when you get seated in the cockpit"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She was going to be trained to fly a fighter. It was exciting, different, and although she was nervous, she was happy that she was going to have the opportunity. She expected large differences between her small freighter and an actual starfighter. One was basically her home - the other, a machine that was meant to kill other ships and the people inside them. She needed to learn, though. It was uncertain times and it was better to know how to defend herself if the time came.

Cassiopeia came in one of her less formal attires - primarily designed to be able to move easily. She made sure her hair was tied into a tight bun. She didn't want her clothe to get her in her way.

She had met [member="Janick Beauchamp"] on the tarmac. She seemed friendly enough upon meeting her. She was going to be her trainer, her teacher.

Nervously, she nodded. "Thank you! I am. Thank you for taking the time to teach me how to pilot a fighter. I'm really excited!" She nodded. She knew there would be lots of screens in front of her - thankfully, her little freighter didn't have too many. It was basic and well, fairly outdated by this time. Not to mention, it was an older model that her father bought to begin with.

"So... Where we do start?" She asked, slightly nervously.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"The yoke. You pull it towards you to climb, push it away from you to descend, tilt it left to turn left, tilt it right to turn right. Also there are four buttons on top of it: the trigger, which is used to fire the guns, the central button to choose which target to acquire when using ordnance and the red button on the left to fire it. The right button on the yoke is to initiate the takeoff and landing sequences"

Before she could get [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] started on the notions of pitch, yaw and roll, as well as the whole notion of VFR vs. IFR, which, in atmospherical flight, pertain to the visibility, she had to get the student started on the instruments onboard. Raw, very raw perhaps, but every new pilot had to at least know where the instruments are. Starfighter cockpits are often part of the rebel lore, as well as part of the imagery people often had of life out there in Wild Space; however, for people in different regions, stepping into one was perhaps more daunting than it would otherwise be. Yes, she could tell Cass was motivated, but sometimes misplaced motivation could be a hazard, especially for a beginner pilot. Just that there are other instruments to take into account before one could even think of jumping to hyperspace with one of those things. And she intended to be as complete in her approach to instrument flight as is possible. Before she could even think of making Cass undergo target practice, she would need to make sure the student understood what the instruments were for.

"There are also some instruments to be mindful of: the attitude indicator, the targeting computer, the navicomputer, the speed indicator, the ordnance indicator and the fuel indicator being the main ones that are important in practice"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She nodded as Janick spoke. She listened carefully, attempting to absorb all the information. Some of it was similar to her civilian craft - some of it was really different. The yoke was probably the most important part of a starfighter - after all, how else would someone navigate. "How does the targeting work? Does it flash or give you some type of warning when it's ready to fire?" She turned a little red, realizing she probably sounded like a complete idiot - and in this regard, she kinda was.

Cassiopeia was grateful that [member="Janick Beauchamp"] was a careful, go over everything type of instructor. That made learning the ins and outs of the aircraft much easier. It really helped that they were starting from the basics, too. Cassi needed a comprehensive overview of the craft before she actually began to fly it. She wondered how different aircraft were between planets, between nations. She had only really been in one and it was fairly different from this one.

She nodded and repeated, quietly and under her breath, what Janick pointed out. She had to be careful of all these different indicators. They would be some of the most important items to pay attention to. She made a careful look at them - the baseline. They were grounded, there was no targets, and they were not going at any speeds. It was a good baseline. She thought, at least. "Is there warning systems in place in case something goes... Wrong? What about glitches, I mean?"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"The targeting computer will signal the readiness of ordnance to fire, and also ping you when a target can be fired at"

[member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] might be familiar with ray shields and particle shields and what they are used to defend against. But most intriguing to her was just how much attention Cass paid to the baseline readings on the instrument panel that had no targets, no speed, and on level ground. As is usually the case on airbase tarmacs. Comprehensive, perhaps, just that Janick had no idea what Cass did or didn't know; most pilots that entered the ORC Navy had at least an idea of the yoke and the instrument panel, as well as of the various warning systems. Just that piloting a fighter vs. a capital ship is, well, quite different; a fighter pilot will also need to be its own gunner, while a capital ship pilot will need only be concerned about flying the ship. And even then piloting a capital ship is much slower and much more massive, with a different kind of feel to piloting each ship: Janick's CO would tell you as much. As for the question of which warning systems were installed onboard, she tried to answer the best she could, while not quite going into more detail about how they actually worked.

"Collision avoidance systems are standard on ships, civilian or military. In addition, if your systems took hits, there will be messages on your instrument panels regarding system damages. Also, there is a lock-on warning system so that you know when to use electronic countermeasures or flares, whichever is available"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She nodded as she listened. Okay, that made plenty of sense, really. She knew that. At least, she thought she thought she did. In either case, that was the point of enrolling in this training. She needed a comprehensive knowledge of the systems.

She did have to wonder how much maneuverability these ships had, which prompted her next question. "How sensitive are the controls? If I move right, is it sharp, slight right?" She would need to understand how sensitive the steering was or else she might accidentally wreck the craft.

She nodded. Electronic countermeasures or flares. At least there was a way to get out of being lock-on. Presuming it worked, she guessed. "Does the countermeasures usually work? Or does it depend on the situation?"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Control sensitivity tends to scale with a ship's maneuverability: A-Wings' controls are more sensitive than U-Wings', which, in turn, are more sensitive than any cruiser, destroyer or battlecruiser you can think of. There is a reason why U-wings are popular among the ORC Navy for training beginner pilots: they offer a balance of control sensitivity"

So Julie was at her best in a battlecruiser cockpit? Cockpits, on destroyers or battlecruisers, are usually in the CIC, or the bridge when the CIC and the bridge are separate. The less sensitive the controls, the better for her, she thought, while realizing that cruisers, destroyers and battlecruisers, and even more so the heavy varieties of each, have insensitive controls that makes it difficult for a fighter pilot to successfully transition to a much larger ship; the First Order lost two frigates that way on Dagobah. That said, the question that [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] asked about flares or ECM was an interesting one. She never made much use of flares; most enemies she fought thus far preferred to rely on guns. On Utapau she was able to kill a few Mando craft by using ion torpedoes. Maybe that was them using antiquated craft, but with today's craft there are no excuses. Just that a flare that can address both magnetic signatures and thermal ones would likely be a pyrotechnical decoy that is ion-rich and exothermal that can get the charges moving at an appreciable rate, she thought, recalling on her knowledge of chemistry as applied to flares.

"Flares vs. ECM: I have to say that flares are more appropriate when facing munitions whose guidance mechanisms rely on thermal or magnetic signatures, in which case there are two varieties of flares: thermal and magnetic, while ECM is more for scrambling sensor-guided munitions. That said, if you are locked on, you can always engage in evasive maneuvers, with or without flares or ECM; even with the best guidance systems, even if it can follow you without bleeding speed, a missile will shorten its effective range in an attempt to stay on course to hit you"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She nodded as she listened. Made sense. Her freighter was terrible with sensitivity. It looked like the one she'd be training with one that offered a good balance of control sensitivity. That made Cassiopeia relax a little. The last thing she wanted to do was take off and accidentally blast through people because she made too much of a turn. She let her hand over the yoke, although she was careful not to do anything that would accidentally cause something to fire. She was just mentally imagining herself for a moment.

She perked a brow at the additional explanation from [member="Janick Beauchamp"] regarding flares & ECM. Dang, this woman knew her stuff. Cassiopeia never would have been able to guess half of this stuff. It was especially nice that she explained it so well. It made sense, there was no real follow up questions except for Cassiopeia making something that didn't really make sense.

Evasive maneuvers. She shivered a little- it was a little scary to think about having to do that versus using a flare or ECM. It just seemed more intense.

In either case, she nodded. "I'm guessing we will be practicing some evasive maneuvers," she asked cautiously. Not that she didn't want too, but she wondered how exactly they would practice - fake shooting or something? Maybe she was really overthinking some of this stuff.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Before we can even think of practicing evasive maneuvers, we have to make sure that you can perform the basic maneuvers. The thrust lever is opposite the yoke"

So Janick left a favorable impression on [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] as far as piloting and dogfighting are concerned? Usually when one needed to perform evasive maneuvers over flares or ECM, it was when one was facing more than one variety of threats: the prototypical example of that is when one is simultaneously under attack from two or more targets, at least one of which has fired missiles and the others have fired unguided weapons, such as fighter guns, quad-lasers or other weapons of that nature. She nervously watched, one hand on her yoke, ready to correct the course if Cass makes one bad move that may result in stuff like a crash or other nasty stuff. So it was time for Cass to actually perform her first takeoff. Takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory; hopefully she knows where the automated liftoff sequence button is, and the autoland button is usually right next to it, she thought, while flashbacks from her very early days of flying were reoccuring in her mind as she watched Cass make an attempt at taking off. In addition, landings were much trickier to perform than takeoffs for beginner pilots.

"You might want to initiate the takeoff sequence, but be mindful of the pitch, that is, not having the nose pointing too far up in this case. Sometimes there is an automated liftoff sequence button"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She nodded, she could agree with that. Basic maneuvers. Make sure she could actually fly the star ship first. If she wouldn't fly it, then she really shouldn't be expected to do evasive maneuvering.

She took a breath as she let her hand rest on the yoke. She was ready. She was terrified, but she was ready. She looked across all the panels etc. She knew that [member="Janick Beauchamp"] was probably nervous about her flying the fighter. Heck, she was nervous about flying the plane.

She nodded and initiated the takeoff sequence and slowly began to move the fighter - she moved it more down the runway, very slowly. She was a little to nervous to actually begin pulling up. She should only move it up just a little bit, though.

She took a breath as she began to pull back, beginning to push the plane forward and slowly going into the air. She gave a big grin, "I think I can do it."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Now that you have an idea of how to perform a takeoff, you will now attempt to maintain straight and level flight. Keep an eye on your attitude indicator: the baseline for the atittude is what you're aiming for"

With the pitch being about 5-6 degrees, it was still within acceptable range for a craft based on an airbase with large aprons, especially those long enough to actually amount to a runway, but that method of taking off just wouldn't cut it in a hangar, ground or space-based. Rumors have it that Sith and Imperial factions have to rely on EMALS to launch TIEs from hangars and recovery is then made using tractor beams. In fact, with them, it was commonly said among the ORC Navy, especially post-Dagobah, that Sith/Imperial elite starfighter pilots are roughly at the same level as LS-faction regulars, maybe a little better, but nowhere near LS-faction elites. To say nothing of Sith regulars. Yes, she could feel that [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] was a little nervous. Just that there was a chain of lessons to undertake, such as straight and level flight, turns, and other basic stuff like landings. Janick knew that someone needed to fly before they could engage in target practice, knowing that close-air support was usually the domain of pilots whose shooting skills aren't the best but still decent.

"I think you might have had a question in mind about when to perform evasive maneuvers: it's often made to avoid enemies firing at you, especially when they are firing stuff against which ECM or flares don't work, such as quad-lasers or fighter guns"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She moved the fighter forward faster, and up into the air. She took a deep breath as she did so - it was a nervous move. She needed to do more than just carefully move in the air, she needed to actually learn how to fly the fighter. Being cautious was good, but being too cautious meant there would be no growth. At least the takeoff sequence worked fairly well as they lifted off.

She nodded as she kept her eye on the altitude. It seemed to be going fine, although she did realize she began to tip the fighter too far up. The nose was getting a little high, so she fairly quickly began to pull down on the plane. It caused a small sharp drop. It caused Cassiopeia to turn a little red as she glanced towards [member="Janick Beauchamp"].

At least it was an easily fixed mistake. The altitude indicator seemed fine, at least.

She perked a brow as she explained evasive maneuvers, "Is there usually like methods or is it pretty much just avoid being shot?"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"There are several maneuvers but each of them is, in fact, situational in its use. On the whole, it's still pretty much avoid being shot"

Pretty much par for the course for a beginner's first flight: better get the jitters out now in an environment where there are no would it be worth mentioning how deficient Mandos are in training their pilots, or even Sith? she thought, while the pitch wildly fluctuated for a few moments, with [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] at the controls, before straight and level flight could be achieved. But thus far there has been no real damage, no collisions, just a few fears. Janick might want to do a thing or two, such as turns, before even thinking about target practice. With also the practice targets being among Utapau's landfills. Just that the targets among the landfills, mostly wrecked Mando fighters, and debris sheared from Mando ships, but also contain some derelict containers. However, that kind of target practice is only good for CAS, hence why pilots that are not far enough into the curve to be fully operational are best kept for CAS. But was the objective to get Cass up to CAS-level of operational status or to full operational status? Perhaps multiple sorties would be required for the latter, while this one sortie would probably be good enough for the former.

"Now you will try turning left, stay straight and level for five second, and then turn right"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She grinned a little. There was situational uses but ultimately, it was avoid being shot down. That made sense for the most part.

It wasn't a terrible start, at least. Even [member="Janick Beauchamp"] didn't seem to be freaked out, panicking, or preparing her last wishes. That made Cassiopeia feel less like she was about to kill them both in the brutal flames of an explosion.

With a glance towards her, she began to speed up even more. She was level, at least according to the altitude indicator. Stable, level.

But then Janick wanted her to move to the left. Then stay straight. Then go to the right. She nodded a bit nervously. She was fairly happy going in a straight line. But, they'd have to turn around eventually.

With a deep breath, she moved the yoke to the left. Unfortunately for them, a bit too sharply as the fighter made a very quick left turn. It made her own eyes go wide as she was pulled to the left before stabilizing the plane in a straight direction again. "Well.. That could have gone a little better," she muttered. The turn to the right, was much slower although it was actually not a jerk. Relatively okay.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Thank the Force for the inertial compensator! You now know the difference between different turn hardnesses: hard turns are the most basic form of evasive maneuvers"

In fact, Janick had no reason to be freaked out by Cass turning left so tightly that it could be usable as an evasive maneuver: she was ready and willing to correct action if something went awry during training. Thus far [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] was shaping up to be at least on the level of Sith regulars; usually she took care of other pilots at more advanced stages of their training. Now I realize that the actual target practice, and combat sorties, are different from basic flight training; to the extent I did more of the former than the latter, I'm not even sure about which one to focus down the road. Then again, it was more than likely that the ability to provide basic flight training was more important to Sith than to the ORC, she thought, while she had memories of just what sort of prior piloting experiences everybody seemed to have among the ORC going in, especially given the spacer-rich environment in which the ORC operates. Wololo being a taxi for the Church of the Force, Griet having been a veteran Jedi Ace in Republican service (and hence entering ORC service as a lieutenant commander), etc.

"If you keep your yoke in a climb mode for prolonged periods, you will go vertical, then find yourself with the head upside down, then on a downward climb and finally back to level flight. This is called a looping. Try to get the looping done"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She grinned wide and nodded nervously, "Yeah, they're a life saver." Probably kept them from getting a concussion, too. What she didn't expect was that she actually did an evasive maneuver. It made sense, after all, but it wasn't something that she really thought of at the time. Maybe she'd become a pro at evading being shot down and stuff.

It was exciting. She wondered how well she was doing - presuming by [member="Janick Beauchamp"] comment, it wasn't too bad. Janick wasn't giving her the impression that she was a terrible star fighter, at least not yet. There would be plenty more times to test her patience, though.

She nodded as she began to drive the fighter straight into the air. It was a terrifying experience, but an exciting one, too. She took a deep breath and punched it forward into the air. The head of the craft went upside down, then shot the fighter back down before getting it back at level altitude. It almost went flawless - except the last bit, where it jerked and shook a little when she tried to get it back on track.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"One more thing about weather, as it pertains to atmospherical flight: you will often hear people talk about VFR and IFR conditions, which amount to high-visibility and low-visibility. In the latter case keeping an eye on the instrument panel is crucial"

Again, nothing a few additional sorties cannot fix, she thought, while [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] just had the end of that loop a little rough. Exciting? As exciting as any novel experience could be for a student, or an instructor, albeit in different ways, since, while both sides of the learning interaction learn something, they don't get the same learning out of it. Terrifying, perhaps, but it was nothing like the brushes with death she had to do in an actual combat sortie, like Dokkalfarsed, Dagobah and even more so Utapau: memories of those combat engagements began flashing in her mind, about the dangers that could befall a pilot in actual combat, especially when the pilot is not in optimal condition. These flashbacks left her... a little distraught; flying like a 3D random walk as constrained by the sinkhole of Pau City is much like conjuring the image of flying on drugs. However, she snapped out of it when she realized that there was one more thing that they needed to do before landing. Target practice. Fixed targets first and then moving targets. In that order.

"Now, a few notes on firing the guns before we have target practice: when dealing with moving targets, make sure that you lead the target. Now, that means that you're not firing where the target is, but where the target will be when the projectile hits. For that you need to have a good awareness of the target's trajectory and of the laser bolt's speed"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She perked a brow as Janick explained atmospheric flight. VFR seemed to be high-visibility and IFR which seemed to be low visibility. Or maybe it was a mixture of the two. In either case, she understood clearly that the instrument panels would be the most important aspect of a flight if she couldn't see where she was going. She really... Really hoped there would not be any practice lessons regarding that. She already didn't like her vision to be impaired when she was just walking around.

The fighter was going in a nice, straight, perfect line. She was content keeping it there for the moment as she processed her nose dive, taking a glance at [member="Janick Beauchamp"]. She would be the one to approve or not approve, after all. She made no change of emotion, it seemed, at the incident but... For a little bit, she seemed like she was somewhere else. Like she was reliving something. It made Cassiopeia curious, but at the same time, she knew not to say anything. She was an excellent pilot and she was sure she was an excellent combatant. Who knows how many times she's taken down a plane, or people.

Her eyes widened at the mention of firing the guns. They would be trying that? She nodded, albeit a little more nervous than before. At least these weren't real and she wasn't having to do anything crazy with the fighter. She'd just lock on them and shoot.

She nodded at Janick's advice. She needed to be able aim it well for where the target would be at, "How fast is this one? Slow, medium, faster...?"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"The target is a little slow"

Griet... she must have busted out one of the captured bes'uliiks, she thought, a little surprised that Griet would deploy a bes'uliik to get a beginner to perform target practice on, while the worn-down bes'uliik was showing up as a target for [member="Cassiopeia Caranthyr"] to shoot at. Fortunately for her, they were flying under VFR conditions. Normally, for moving target practice, other devices were used, such as pro-bots, but the amount of hardware captured from the Mandalorians in the battle was a boon to them in this regard. But, for faster-moving targets, war games were done with a special protocol programmed into the computers of the craft involved, whereby the guns would be brought down to much lower fraction of their normal power, akin to a blaster set on stun, and then a craft would show as "downed" for the purposes of war gaming if it took the number of hits that would kill it in a normal dogfight. And so Janick would watch carefully as Cass got ready to open fire on the bes'uliik, while realizing that she will probably fight better over time, as she flies more sorties - provided she survives said sorties.

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

A little slow... Okay. So it was going to be a moving one, not a stand still starter out.

Cassiopeia took a breath of air and began to maneuver the ship towards the bes'uliik. She was getting relatively use to the yoke and being able to move the ship where it needs to be. Granted, she wasn't a pro but it was steady, stable, and the sensors didn't seem to mind it. They weren't flying off warnings. Plus, [member="Janick Beauchamp"] hadn't called her out on it yet, at least.

She was a bit surprised they used a ship like that as target practice. It did look fairly worn-down, though, so it probably wouldn't be a big deal if it was blown up. It could probably be re-purposed but she supposed this is what they used for practice, then. She had no reason to think anything else of it.

She began to prepare to fire on the ship but decided to ask a question first: "Is it better to get a general lock on the target like this and start firing or get close and start firing at specific areas? Or is it already doing that when it's this far?"