xp_logs | Scott & Dori: Learning to land

x-cyclops.livejournal.com posting in

Scott takes Dori up in a simulation of the blackbird and teaches her to land a jet.

Scott hummed as he leaned against the wall of the danger room looking over the last minute adjustments to the program he was loading. He nodded to himself as he pressed the final button on the control panel to save the program on the control panel. The Blackbird training program was all ready to go for his training session with Doreen; He had been warned to be careful today, but seriously, how bad could Doreen be.

"Hi!" she called out as she came in. Hopefully she wasn't to late, "What are we doing today?" It was going to be sheer awesome, she knew it.

Smiling at Dori, Scott pressed a button and walked out into the danger room. "I figured we'd take the Blackbird out for a spin." he replied as the walls of the Danger Roon shimmered into the form the the X-men's hanger, complete with a copy of the Blackbird.

Dori lit up like a Christmas Tree, "Oh YES! FINALLY! This is going to be SO AWESOME!"

Scott stepped back in surprise at the enthusiasm of Dori's reaction, "I trust you've been keeping up with you're simulations?" he asked as he gestured towards the open ramp of the plane, "Ladies first"

"Oh, I have," Dori said, but no one seemed to want to do it more than once. She couldn't figure out why. And when she asked about it, it was always about having someone else do it. She giggled all the way up the ramp.

Scott followed Dori onto the plane shaking his head; skipping, he was sure he saw her skipping onto the plane. "Buckle in captain" he said as he pulled up the ramp and made a beeline for the co-pilots seat.

Dori did, though it took a minute. These things were hard to work with claws and though she did file them down some, she didn't nearly as much anymore. But after a few seconds of tough negation with the belt she was buckled in.

"Ready for take off!"

Scott strapped himself into the co-pilots chair and looked over at Dori, "Don't forget to run the checklist" he reminded her as he ran an eye over the dials in front of him. "Once you're ready happy then take her up."

"Oh yeah," Dori said, "Don't worry, I've been practicing on a couple of flight sim games you can get for the computer," she said proudly, "...what one do I do first again?"

Scott stared at her in disbelief; he did, however, manage to to stop his jaw from dropping. "Computer games?" he asked raising a hand to his temple. "Well it could be worse" he comforted himself while passing Dori the checklist. "We normally start by turning the plane on," he teased.

"Oooooh yeah," Dori said. She knew that. In that respect it was just like a car. And at least this part wasn't the part that everyone seemed to turn green over. She went through the checklist well enough.

Scott double checked the list as Dori went through it, so far everything seemed to be in order. "Ok Captain,@ he said, "Everything seems to be in order, take her up" he smiled at the eager trainee.

The next part was where everyone blanched, the take off, "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" To her credit she didn't instantly stall the jet. This time. But Dori did tend to fly like she moved around off the ground, fast paced and with a lot of turns.

Scott leaned back in his chair, as the gee forces pushed him backwards; whoa!! His mouth creased into a grin, he hadn't gone this fast in a long time; no-one ever let him drive the Blackbird this fast on missions. Glancing over at the screaming Dori he decided to throw caution to the winds, "yahooo" he echoed her laughing. "That's a nice take-off" he managed to get out once he had managed to calm down.

"Really?" Dori said, beaming, "No one's ever said that before!" she still flew the plane like a crazy person, but with a decent amount of control. She had been practicing after all. Even if it was only on flight sims that took time away from her MMOs and Blogging. But it had apparently ALL been worth it.

"Yes indeed" Scott replied, he looked down at his hands. They were gripping the armrests of his flight chair so tightly they looked like white claws. He made a conscious effort to force them to let go of the chair. "Perhaps we can leave the... interesting...flying to the danger room?" he asked, "I'm not sure our teammates would be quite so appreciative of your flying style" he finished with a smile.

Scott turned to the Blackbird's on-board computer, "Let's see what we have today" he mused. "Ok, we've been asked to fly a shipment of medical supplies to LA, vaccines for an epidemic they're having." He glanced back towards the back of the Blackbird before turning back to Dori, "It looks like we're going to be facing some stormy skies, so it will make for some challenging flying." He gestured to the controls in-front of them, "take it away" he offered with a grin.

"Awesome," Dori said happily. Despite a penchant for sudden movements and turning the plane all too much like she liked to move, she was doing a lot better than the terror of some of the people who had tried to teach her this really justified, "This is so much fun."

"Glad you're enjoying it" Scott replied as he sat back, "Too many people forget the joy of flying, and no-one lets me push the real Blackbird anymore" he confided as he massaged the blood back into his hands, pointedly ignoring the irony of his actions. "Ok, if you set us on course, we can fast forward a bit ... unless you eel like spending a few hours down here?" he asked.

"Well, would it be a few hours actually flying or just keeping the plane in a straight line?" Dori asked, trying to keep everything straight right now, and managing it.

Scott reached out and flicked on the Autopilot before leaning back in his chair. "Well pretty much like this. The computer takes care of the minutia of the basic flying, if you had to do it manually you'd have to keep your attention focused for hours which is hard for anyone."

"So, flying is actually mostly boring?" Dori asked. That wasn't what she expected at all.

"Transport flying is," Scott agreed. "Large amount of watching the computer punctuated by moments of excitement."

"...That sounds like it would really suck," Dori noted.

"I don't know about that," Scott mused, "Transport flying may be boring but flying in general, the sense of freedom you get just you at the controls and a clear blue sky stretching all around you. There really is nothing to beat it."

"I guess," Dori mused. Maybe she was too used to her video games where there was always something trying to kill you/shoot you down/blow you up or otherwise destroy you that the idea of calm flying seemed totally boring.

Scott noticed the disappointed look on Dori's face, "I guarantee that if you ever do en up piloting the Blackbird in the near future then it's going to be very exciting. And probably include panic, fire and probably people trying to blow you out of the sky." he told her with a smile.

"Yeah but would you really let me pilot it for real for real?" Dori asked.

"Maybe if you aced all the training and got certified," Scott replied. "But all X-men need to know how to fly the Blackbird in case something happens on a mission. If something happens to the pilot you'd have to know how to get home and land the plane."

"Yeah...landing the plane is a bit of a problem," Dori said sheepishly.

"Really?" Scott asked with that trademark evil Summer's glint in his eye. He reached forward and punched a code into the flight computer. The view outside shimmered and morphed to reveal a airport approaching in the distance.

Dori squeaked and dived for the controls, "I can't do this!" she pointed out.

"Sure you can," Scott replied as he reached for his own controls, "We'll just take it slow and steady. The computers will do most of the work."

"No...I always end up crashing!" Dori noted, trying to hit the right buttons on her side, "Just as Kyle!"

"You've never had me here before," pointed out Scott as he measured the distance to the runway. "Just keep her straight and level now"

Dori bit her lip, trying to keep the plane straight and not quite managing it, it was totally different than actually flying, "I'm going to crash!" she squeaked.

Scott pulled back on his stick helping Dori to level out the plane, "Relax you're doing fine," he assured her. "You should have seen my first attempt."

It still seemed really terrifying to her with the ground rushing up like that. Dori was in part expecting a huge ball of fire or something, "I bet it wasn't as bad as this," she said.

"It was pretty bad," Scott confided with a small smile. "Even the best pilots have to start somewhere, even Maverick and Ice Man started off as new pilots at some point.

Dori made some sort of agreeing noise, too focused on trying not to crash the plane which was going slightly better than she had feared. But only slightly. "Are you sure I can do this?" she squeaked.

Scott smiled easily at Dori, "Of course I am, I wouldn't be letting you do it if I wasn't," he assured her. "Just keep doing what you're doing and we'll be fine, there's no reason to panic. If anything does happen I'm right here with the copilot's controls."

"Okay..." Dori said, the ground was really rushing in now and she resisted the urge to close her eyes. <i>Don't let me crash. Don't let me crash. Don't let me crash...</i>

Scott leaned back in his chair, surreptitiously checking his seat belt, they were going to be fine. "Level your noce off a bit and don't forget your flaps," he reminded Dori as he rested his hand on his controls.

"Oh yeah," Dori said, flipping the switch for that. It was a bit rocky, but at least they weren't going down in flames. She waited though for the inevitable hard, hard bump when the plane hit the ground.

Scott braced himself in his seat as the plane touched down on the runway. "Not exactly light as a feather there," he commented with a smile as he peeled his hands off the arm rests, "but I don't think anything is falling off the plane. Not a bad job."

Dori took both her hands off the controls to raise her arms in a victory pose, "Yes! We didn't die a horrible death! I ROCK!"

Scott couldn't help but laugh along with Dori, "You know not dying isn't really regarded as the greatest achievement," he teased.

"Well, I think it's awesome," Dori returned, sticking out her tongue. She was little miss maturity.

Scott quirked an eyebrow as he looked at Dori and gestured to the controls of the plane. "Want to take it up again for another run?"

"Sure!" Dori said brightly, "Just have to be done in time for dinner with Kyle," at least she no longer giggled insanely whenever she brought up her boyfriend.