Requesting IFR clearance to Korriban

[Klesta]

She was a party to the defeat of the Black Tie Syndicate on Alexandria and where Sith involvement was more than obvious: she even was responsible for patrolling a sector where three Sith Lords were in one place. Nevertheless, if there was one thing her sorties on Yutan and Alexandria taught her, it was that air and space combat was almost entirely neglected by the Sith. She often hears about the terms VFR and IFR (respectively Visual and Instrument Flight Rules) as applied to piloting, yet the jeweler sergeant that got arrested for PUI told her that the whole notion of VFR and IFR is actually applied mostly to atmospherical flight; VFR is usually associated with low-altitude flight or short-range engagements, IFR to high-altitude flight or long-range engagements. Here she was on Ziost, with the prototype of a stealth fighter for which she was collecting these stygium crystals on Maramere all this time, armed with two lateral 20mm hypervelocity cannons, loaded with HEIAP rounds capable of muzzle velocities up to 3 km/s and capable of penetrating up to 100mm of duracrete armor. Now that she is on Ziost, freezing cold, in a rental flight suit, with [member="Myles Vylumnar"] close by, for her first flying lesson... she crosses her fingers not to crash the prototype in the frozen wastes of Ziost, as she begins the pre-flight sequence.

"Stand by for pre-flight check"

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

Myles stood nearby in the cockpit, leaning against the wall. He watched her every move, making sure all the switches were flipped properly and that she'd adjusted her altitude thrusters for takeoff.

"Alright, kid, looks like you're good for lift. Go ahead, slowly... Wouldn't wanna see you crash this beauty." he said. Myles had first met [member="Yula Knezevic"] not too long ago. She was a bit younger than him by a couple years, but the age difference almost felt like more. Although it would seem like Myles was one of the best pilots in the galaxy, in truth, he was young and still had years of experience ahead of him. All the skill in the universe can never outvalue experience. Regardless, he was a damn good pilot, and this would be his first time teaching someone else how to fly.

He had learned himself years ago with his old mentor, but those days were long past. Now, he would be passing on the knowledge to another.

"Easy now, keep it stable." he said as Yula lifted the aircraft. Myles was just as worried as she was about crashing, but he kept it to himself. He knew that if he showed a lack of confidence, so would she.

 

[Klesta]

"Better not go full-power to take off then"

Altitude thrusters? Once she has learned what each button inside that cockpit was for, she realizes that there are four screens, the left one for navigation, the center one for targeting, as well as the right one for systems displays. The jeweler sergeant told her about the screen that had a HSI, an attitude indicator, an airspeed indicator and an altimeter, all rolled in one, that usually was located below the targeting screen. Of course, there is a joystick and a few buttons on the joystick's top: the trigger to fire the HVCs, the red button on the joystick's left to fire ordnance, the right button to lock on a target for ordnance. The thrust levers would be on the left, there is a button for repulsorlifts for takeoff (and should be left activated for anything within a gravity well) and that's probably what [member="Myles Vylumnar"] means by attitude thrusters. The Watchtower TCAS with which this fighter is equipped is able to help avoid collision and can even, in atmospheres, act as a weather radar. She decided to push the throttle as hard as she could, and also to fly low, almost as if she was ordered to enter a strafing run. Was the Force ordering her to strafe? she thought, wondering what exactly there could even be to strafe in the first place.

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

On the inside, Myles was slightly amused at how she was handling herself. [member="Yula Knezevic"] almost gave off the impression that she was attending a formal flight school where they would teach you to fly TIE fighters for the military... This was no formal flight school. Like most other scoundrel-types, Myles learned things his own way.

"Woah, I didn't know we were going on a bombing run..." he'd say, being taken aback by her sudden thrust of speed. The ship would fly quickly, cutting through the snowstorms and just missing nearby mountains. Myles looked over at her attitude indicator, which he'd just noticed it worked in combination with her altimeter and airspeed indicator.

"Hey, you might wanna slow down in this weather, the storm's kicking up and there's a cluster of mountains in the area... And pull up, you're veering downward." he advised. Taking a further look around, he noticed this ship was slightly different than most.

"Check your attitude indicator. You should be able to notice all the mountains we're passing by." he'd say. On the attitude indicator, one would be able to see a virtual recreation of the horizon. Some hills and mountains would float by, and a small cluster of them would be approaching.

 

[Klesta]

She chuckled when Myles mentioned that they were going on a bombing run. Yes, that fighter had a Guernica bomb bay, which counted for two standard bomb bays, enabling her to carry double the amount of bombs (or other ordnance) normal fighter-bombers could carry. But really? Yula is going downward? Luckily [member="Myles Vylumnar"] warned her about terrain before the TCAS would scream Pull up, terrain, and also to slow down. Clearly this was flying under IFR weather conditions, as typical for Ziost. With that said, she would pull up. However, once she did pull up, she began to feel the painful effects of numb feet, and then her vision becoming monochromatic. Once she realized that she shot up perhaps a little high, she would level off, this time around finding herself well above any mountains in that region, and a little above any clouds, but she hasn't left atmosphere. Now I realize how painful it is to fly fighters - while Sith often pride themselves in their ability to use pain to their advantage, they never thought of dogfighting as a tool for hunting down Jedi, she thought, while the pain subsides so long as she maintained level flight.

"That was a close call but I got to pierce the cloud cover"

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

All the while, Myles would retain a half-stoic expression on his face. He clutched the wall with his hand as [member="Yula Knezevic"] would pull upwards, flying over the mountain ranges and into the clouds. Perhaps it was wise to go somewhere else for this sort of thing...?

"Phew- Alright, you're doing good, but you need to pay attention to how and where you're flying. Be aware of more than just your panel; You can see through the cockpit for a reason." he'd say. The ship pierced through the cold, white skies. They were not for from exiting the atmosphere, though not too close to the ground either.

"Since we're up here, I think it's a good idea to work on your maneuvering. The turn indicator is really important, and so is your horizontal sit-indicator and your vertical speed indicator... You're gonna want to use these in combination with the rest of your panel, and always keep your eyes wide open..." he continued.

"Remember, stay low but not too low. See if you can do a few standard turns and loops... Then we'll get into the fancy stuff."

 

[Klesta]

Relax, I know there are a lot of instruments to watch out for, but this is what a glass cockpit is about, she thought, upon having to keep her eyes open for so many parameters, both within visual range and on the instrument panel, as [member="Myles Vylumnar"] told her to do. She was always told: reduce your speed if you need to make tight turns, but there was a reason why the jeweler sergeant on PUI didn't do that much with her. There's nothing preventing Yula from getting theoretical instruction from that jeweler, just that his condemnation precludes the jeweler from providing any practical flying training. This time around, she'd rather let the Force guide her movements this time around. She would simply make a plain, banked turn, once left, and once on the right, before deciding to jam the directional pitch up so as to make sure not to crash into any mountains; before she knows it, she flies the inward loop, but once the inward loop is over, she feels the same kind of numb leg pains as she did when she pulled up so rapidly that she broke the cloud cover. But she is a beginner as far as dogfighting is concerned. Maybe, if I trained Sith some day, I would make them pilot fighters and undergo high-G training, she thought.

"I've still got a lot to learn about piloting..."

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

"That, you do." he stated. Though Myles never really asked why [member="Yula Knezevic"] was in search of a piloting instructor, he was eager to teach someone new. Not that he gained much benefit out of it, but that he held a passion for this sort of thing. Myles lived and breathed ships, but he still was not a teacher by any means. There was sure to be growth between both of the young pilots.

"Okay... We need to work on the basics. Remember, it's always important to watch your vertical gauge to maintain a steady height." he advised once more. By vertical gauge, one would assume he was talking about the vertical speed indicator, which displayed the latitude of an aircraft in sub-atmospheric situations. However, it wasn't much use in space combat.

"Also, you gotta keep an eye on your horizontal situator. Use it to keep yourself level when you're flying straight or coming out of a maneuver." he added. The horizontal situation indicator displayed a virtual image of the ship on an X/Y axis. Pretty straightforward.

"Let's work on those turns again..."

 

[Klesta]

"Copy"

Vertical speed indicator? She noticed that, during the loop, the VSI oscillated between two values, being maximum when the pitch was plus or minus 90 degrees. Now she understood what the horizontal situation indicator was for: she could use the Force as some sort of sensor array and the instrument panel as a backup. She finds it more difficult to determine how much attention to devote to what lies outside the window vs. the instrument panel, but she isn't worried to be workable early in the learning curve. Yet Yula feels compelled to turn right because a freighter is making its final approach towards New Adasta's spaceport on her left. This time around, she pays what she feels is appropriate attention to the horizontal situation indicator, and thrust vectoring plays, in spacecraft, the role of the control surfaces on more primitive aircraft that are unable to fly in space. Here, before she could land, she still managed to fly an 8-shaped circuit at what she believed was the corner speed of the fighter, more or less level, thanks to the embankment of the turns involved.

"Oh, it seems that most Sith Lords have no interest in dogfighting, or even strafing/bombing, which I think is easier than dogfighting" she told [member="Myles Vylumnar"], after returning back to level flight.

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

"Hey, that was pretty good. Alright, I think you got most of the basics down." he said, genuinely pleased with [member="Yula Knezevic"]'s progress. Myles looked onward through the cockpit, watching the spaceport nearby.

"Of course- they're Sith Lords. Don't think they really need that kinda stuff... What about it?" he'd ask, not really having a clue about Yula's intentions with the Sith and their aircraft. Myles yawned, scratching his head.

"What do you wanna work on next?"

((Sorry for short post. Kinda busy))

 

[Klesta]

"Most Sith Lords don't realize that airpower is useful to defeat Jedi, especially since there are Jedi who keep mostly to a lightsaber. And there are Jedi who also engage in dogfighting. Because this fighter fires high-speed slugs, capable of penetrating up to 100mm of duracrete, it is a better proposition to engage Jedi from above than ordinary fighters. As for other things I would like to learn, perhaps some low-altitude flight, like landing sequences"

To use airpower against Jedi/Sith in a strafing run, however, attack craft equipped with HVCs firing high explosive armor-piercing, 12-20mm rounds are best, at least to her. Not only slugs are better against lightsabers than laser cannons, high explosive makes it so that, even if they did manage to block a slug fired at 3 km/s with a lightsaber, the blast from the bullet explosion is big enough to knock them back and hurt them. But before moving on to the landing sequence, she decides to pull pitch up to maximum until half a loop has been done and then to re-establish level flight once the half-loop was made; she now suffers from some headaches because of it. Luckily there was no traffic close enough to trigger the traffic advisory signal on the fighter, but that might be a function of Ziost having relatively little traffic. And, once she is back to level flight, she finds out that she is flying at an even higher altitude. She'd better tell [member="Myles Vylumnar"] about that:

"I think I might have to corkscrew my way downward"

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

"Jedi... Sith... I don't really care. Just do your thing. If you want, we can work on low-altitude flight when these snowstorms die out." he responded. It was true and honest that Myles cared not for one's alignment. He never really had an alignment himself, really. He could never really share the same ideals and opinions with any one group. The Sith were too isolated with themselves and too hostile toward others; The Jedi were too conserved and restricted with their teachings. Sometimes, people just had rules that Myles didn't want to follow. He'd never try to restrict himself to any one teaching or ideal, so he mostly kept to himself or with others who felt the same.

"Huh? What d'you mean?" he'd ask. He didn't really notice the change in altitude. This was all normal to him, and he didn't seem to notice [member="Yula Knezevic"]'s headaches either. It hadn't crossed his mind that maybe she wasn't quite used to sudden changes in altitude like this.

"Oh- If you wanna lower the ship, just take her down easy. Go ahead and try something fancy if you want, so long as you don't crash and get me killed in the process. Oh, and you'd better be quick about it. With winds like these, the flow will just throw the ship off-balance if you're not fast enough, so keep that in mind." he said as the winds started picking up. If the ship was kept with more surface area against the wind for too long, it'd just stall...

 

[Klesta]

"The weather is too dangerous for me to fly in, I'll just accelerate as appropriate and land it"

Because the gusts were picking up, and she was flying into a nasty headwind, she needed to accelerate as fast as was possible just to maintain a viable airspeed that will prevent it from stalling. She struggled to prevent stalling, but these headaches are still present as the fighter shakes sideways. Perhaps she feels as if she doesn't have a choice but to land in heavy crosswinds, while maintaining best forward speed, which wasn't much - it was even slower than the maximum safe speed for low-altitude cloaking. In the cloud cover, she needed to pay close attention to her surroundings, before she reached the docking bay. While she readily accepted that [member="Myles Vylumnar"] may not be much of a believer in Force-religions, Yula disliked the mainstream Sith because they had very little care about what it means to actually maintain control over any planets they conquered, and they nearly always tried to spam Force-lightning or other Force-powers at short range and then using lightsabers at point-blank range; even a somewhat decent strafing pilot could kill a few Sith in one go. Attack craft can be tricky to land, but that's what the repulsorlift is for, while getting the craft to its parking position and its parking brakes being active.

 

[Myles Vylumnar]

After a short struggle with the forces of nature, the ship was eventually brought in to land at New Adasta's spaceport. Myles breathed a sigh of relief after returning to safety. The winds were getting so bad that even he might have struggled a little bit. While not exactly teacher-material, he was intent on doing his best to teach [member="Yula Knezevic"] to fly. He thought it'd be a new and interesting experience for him. After all, the best way to learn something is to teach it.

"Alright... Well, that wasn't too bad... You've got a lotta work ahead'a you." he'd say as he patted Yula on the shoulder. For a brief moment, he reflected. It was years ago when his old mentor said nearly those exact words to him, and now he was reciting it. Myles was just a young prodigy when he'd received his first lessons. Even as his teaching was cut short, he eventually grew into himself as a young man. Though young, he'd now realized the years of experience under his belt. Though incomparable to other veterans, it was something he could at least be proud of.