Mar 06 20:01:24 108 PA - Learning to Fly, Near Center
From Chronicles
Mar 06 20:01:24 108 PA.
LANDING STRIP
The afternoon is actually pleasant, though the Landing Strip is ugly with black slush pushed off to the side in mounds. There's an unusual amount of air traffic today. Jets, helicopters, prop planes, hover vehicles. Like an annoying but not stinging beehive. Gabriel is already running around, bouncing around and jumping around with little tiny jets of thrust that he learned during his last lesson.
Erica comes flying over the landing strip at a good pace with her jet pack. She flies over to where Gabriel is messing about and she lands on her feet. "Hey." She says using her bionic radio. "Ready for the lesson for today. Going to be easy at first. You will blast straight up and then using your jets you will make a controlled landing. You should be adept enough with your jets after practicing the three jet jumps. Got it?"
Gabriel, quite unusually, is taken by surprise at Erica's abrupt arrival, spinning on his heel... but maintaining an upright stance. Even though he has to tap on armor, he greets her not with a proper greeting word, but rather a finger poke beneath his left clavicle. "I got a gyro-compass installed! I'm not confused or anything! My brain's intact!" Okay, that last one was obviously a joke. "Be honest, did you think I'd really do it?"
Erica shrugs her armored shoulders up and down. "Well I was hoping so. That way you wouldn't get turned around in mid air. Should increase your chances of survival for sure." She nods her helmet at Gabriel once and move up close to him. "Alright one time together and then you will do it yourself. Hold on tight." She says as she readies her jet pack to launch straight up.
As a stray wind whips through his graying hair, Gabriel grins at Erica, though he's placed his helmet on his head at the moment so that he can't break his skull - making a grin unlikely to be seen. Not seeing anything to exactly grab onto, he hooks his left arm through her right arm as if gender roles were switched. There are a couple of tiny "puff puff" sounds from his own pack, then, "Ready, Erica."
Erica activates her jet pack pushing the thrust up high to compensate for the added weight. She lets the jet pack go for quite a few seconds. When she reaches about 750 feet she lets the jet pack idle and their ascent continues for a second more before they start falling. She continues to idle the jet pack until about 200 feet and then reengages the jet pack to slow their descent. They reach the ground with a light landing.
Only with a little wiggling does Gabriel manage to make it back to ground. Perhaps he's not only learning, but learning how to learn, as well. "Last time I was up that high, I was yanking on a parachute line, Erica. Kind of fun, if you're into that kind of thing. But, ah.." he unhooks his arm and points to the controller in his other hand. How do I know how long to pull without overshooting. You've got kinematics going here, and that's not the kind of thing I do in my head right now, y'know. Even with the cyber-thing in my shoulder." He gives another tiny "puff" of thrust that bounces him off the ground. Seems to get a kick out of that.
"If you haven't learned anything about thrust yet then you obviously haven't been paying attention. That is what all that practice was about. You should know how much thrust will result in what acceleration. That is why I had you jumping about all over." Erica says with a shake of her helmet. "I mean you did practice on your own right?"
Gabriel shrugs. "Of course I did. I've just never gone much farther than fifty feet or so. All I'm saying is that's a lot of thrust." Perhaps to illustrate his point, he executes one of the maneuvers where he jets up to fifty feet, sags back to thirty, jets to fifty again, then lands back on his feet - not without wobbling, but pretty well. "Just because you can fly a trainer with a prop doesn't mean they're going to put you behind the stick of a jet, right?" His armored head nods and he crunches a gauntlet against his chest. "C'mon, I'll try, but you have to come along to catch me if something goes wrong." WHHOOOOF! Gabriel is going vertical.
"For fuck's sake. You whine more then anyone ever." Erica says over the radio. "Just fucking practice your thrust up and down and try not to do somersaults. It isn't freaking hard. Go up and then use your thrust to slow yourself down." She says while watching Gabriel go up. She idles her jet pack in case she needs to go catch Gabriel.
Silence for whatever reason greets Erica as Gabriel doesn't exactly do what he's told. Instead of a thrust up, fall down, he thrusts up to the target altitude - overshooting by about a hundred feet - and does his best at hovering, which despite his best efforts continues to involve a small bit of bobbing. Over the radio crackles, "You okay today?" Then he finally slips back toward the ground. Falling at a constant gravitational acceleration. So close. He engages his thrusters just slightly too late, and his feet impact hard, his knees collapsing, and his hands ending up catching his torso against the ground. He seems to find an upside. "Well, my bones are intact. Joints are in the right place. That's something, right?"
"Yah I am fine." Erica says over the radio as she watches Gabriel up in the air. She keeps her jet pack idling in case she needs to catch him. She watches him land with a thump and nods her helmet. "See there you go. Now what were you afraid of? Just keep some constant thrust and vary that as you need. Try flying up, falling then go up again make yourself yo yo try to get a feeling for how much you need to vary your thrust for the acceleration you need."
"Got it." There's a small pause - possibly Gabriel catching his breath after the impact - then he's up on his feet, frame sturdy and rectangular as instructed weeks ago. "Elevator going up." WHhhhooosh! He jets up, but obviously still with a bit of binary mentality; all or nothing. Once more he overshoots his altitude target by a good hundred feet, then bobs... then comes to a pretty decent impression of someone who knows how to hover. Certainly not perfect, but after this many weeks a "pretty good" should be expected. This may have no meaning today, but he offers with what is obviously a laugh, "Second floor, ladies' lingerie. Going down." He slips down, apparently accidentally releasing thrust sooner than he'd anticipated. Yet this time he catches himself - too high, but too high is better than too low. The older man still ends up on the ground - butt-to-ground contact this time - but it's an intact landing. "Closer!"
"Did I say hover? No I said go up and down. Yo-yo!" Erica calls out over the radio. "Come on go up and down." She says with a little sigh. "You need to get used to thrust amounts." She watches him land on the ground and shrugs her shoulders. "You are going to need to do this quite a few times. You need to really get a good feeling for how much thrust you need."
Again, silence, but Gabriel's thrusters engage immediately this time, and he juts up again. Still missing the target, but by a lesser amount. As if needed to be said, "Cutting out," his pack disengages, and he begins to slip back. However, he's holding his controller out, maybe as if he's trying to keep an exacting eye on it. The unfortunate effect is to rotate his body at an angle, rather than perfectly vertical. Perhaps because of the new cyber in his body, he manages to roll back forward, but the distraction causes his boosters to once again engage too late, and he lands with a lighter crash.
Erica lets out a little sigh as she watches Gabriel do some rotational thrust. She powers up her jet pack quickly and flies up to catch him. She grabs him as he reaches close to the ground and helps to ease his landing. "Why are you staring at you controller? You need to get a feeling for the thrust not lose what you are doing. Don't spin head over head. Be glad you had the gyro compass. You need to thrust up and fall then thrust up and fall. This is all you need to do." Try to focus on how your speed changes with the amount of thrust you are using. You have to memorize this otherwise you will have issues."
Nod nod. "Okay. I'll try not to mash it this time." Gabriel lifts off... not so fast as he'd been doing before, but still at a good clip. Perhaps the impact-method teaches well. He may not be Superman, but he does a good job. Slow and steady, which is pretty much the way he lives, so perhaps very poetic. He levels out only perhaps twenty feet above the target altitude of seven-fifty, and dips down... below the target, unfortunately, necessitating another bob. But much better. This time, though, he remains rigid, barely moving anything. Then he disengages the thrusters and falls. Possibly because of some jitters after the earlier impact, he pumps the thrusters a few times, but at least it results in a fairly nice landing.
"Alright well that was a good landing. Now can we actually try yo-yoing please. Keep up in the air. Thrust, fall, thrust, fall and repeat." Erica says as she nods her head. "But that was pretty good. Let's try keeping up in the air. Get a feeling for your thrust."
Gabriel launches. Up about seven-hundred feet. The thrust is completely cut, and he eventually comes to an instantaneous halt before beginning his slide back to Earth. He's obviously having a little trouble keeping his body vertical for a good landing, but still, he seems to be learning. He lands softly enough to call it a genuine landing. Then, without waiting for critique, he repeats the upward thrust, going much too high this time. Over the radio, "Sorry, daydreaming!" But he's already sliding down. It's not exactly as instructed. He lands with two additional minor puffs to bring him to Earth safely. But all in all, probably considered a reasonable success. His helmet rotates to his instructor. "How high would you ever jet up like that? Y'know, straight up? Just to get out of the way of something?"
Erica smacks her helmet with her hand as she shakes her head. "Why do you keep landing?" She asks over the radio. "Just thrust up and fall then thrust up. How many times do I have to tell you?" She asks out of frustration. "Stop fucking landing and get a feeling for the air please."
"Oops!" BOOM Gabriel's gone faster than any time previously, perhaps having completely mashed the thrust button. His thrust is cut, and he coasts to around one-thousand feet, slips to about eight-hundred, and it continues this way as if some kind of weird geometric sequence zeroing in on his desired altitude of seven-fifty. Eventually, after a while, it's achieved. A little hover, and he allows himself to slip down to five-hundred, then back way up to one-thousand. "How much of a yo-yo distance do you want, Erica? Because I think that this lesson might be one that I actually get!" The man sounds rather giddy at the concept.
"Just keep going. Try falling different altitudes and see what thrust you need to stop yourself. And what thrust you need to reverse your direction." Erica says over the radio. "Work with different speeds. Just keep yourself a couple hundred feet up, and I'll catch you if you get out of control."
After having allowed himself a brief moment of feet on the ground, Gabriel nods and jets up into the air again. He does a very good job of bobbing or yo-yoing, up and down. He obviously seems to occasionally seek out a target altitude for an attempted perfect hover. No perfect hover is ever achieved, but really, not bad for someone so new to the technology - in so many ways. A large breeze though suddenly drives its way over the Landing Strip when Gabriel is at about four-hundred feet or so. The poor man is flipped over far enough that his jets begin to thrust down, obviously not a good thing. Somehow, perhaps because of his recent cybernetic implant, Gabriel manages to flip over back to a feet-down position. Yes, he impacts the ground again, and hard - but at least it was not on his head. His helmet turns to gaze at Erica. "Well... that was interesting. I don't know if I should be proud, or embarrassed."
Erica powers up her jet pack as soon as she sees Gabriel lose his vertical bearing. She works up to catch him, but he seems to regain control fast enough. She watches him land hard against the ground. "Just be careful generally the winds are more powerful the higher up you go. Now you know why you need the gyroscope."
Zoooom! Gabriel is up near Erica. Not hovering, but bobbing - and getting better. "Yeah, I could... feel... up and down faster than my normal up and down sense would tell me. It helped." His helmet gazes around, and he allows himself to slip and bob to a lower altitude. "I'd rather stay out of those higher winds right now." Puff, fall.. puff, fall.. puff, fall.. "Is there a practical use for this bobbing, or is it just to get me ready to hover in place?"
"Well no like I said a couple of times. It is to get you used to various amount of thrusts. You need to get used to how much thrust you need for different situations." Erica says over the radio. "How much thrust will give you what speed depending on how fast you are moving. That is what I am trying to get you used to."
Gabriel's helmet nods once more, and he bobs over closer to Erica. "Ah.. would you hold onto me so that I can try to lift with a weight? Because if I'm going to be going somewhere with this thing, I'm going to be doing it carrying other gear, too, y'know?"
Erica nods her head as she moves closer to Gabriel. She wraps her arms around him as best she can while not touching the jet pack. "Alright. Be careful now." She says as she monitors her gyroscope and altimeter.
Gabriel nods his head and slooooowly starts upward. Not because of the weight, but because he's probably worried about flying out of balance again. "Sorry this isn't very exciting," he offers upon reaching roughly a thousand feet. After that, the jets are cut, and he slips, and slips... catching the thrusters at around six-hundred feet, then jetting rapidly back to a thousand, then slipping to five-hundred. His voice sounds pleased. "Okay, well, at least I can do that. I'll just add on some weights when I practice alone. Just wanted to make sure that I could do it with a weight that was also capable of catching me if I screwed up." One could her the grin behind his voice.
"It isn't meant to be exciting. It is meant to make you learn by muscle memory what you need to do." Erica says as she watches them gain more and more altitude. "You will need to practice with a rifle in one hand. You also need to practice using your rifle with both hands without triggering the controller. All takes practice, but you are doing pretty good."
"Thanks, Erica. You know that I respect your abilities. I hope you know that." As he continues to bob up and down by about fifty feet, he says, "Ah... is there more than bobbing that you want to teach today? I mean, I'm all up for it if you are. But I want to ask for something before we stop today."
"I know you do. I just wish you would listen to me sometimes." Erica says over the radio. "Oh yep I want you to get lots and lots of practice going up and down. Next time we are going to use the thrust you have become accustomed to to move lateral directions. We will get you used to moving back and forth then diagonally. I'll be traveling with you a lot when we do that. It will help you not get turned upside down."
Gabriel nods visibly. "Well, uh..." his gauntlets "scratch" at the back of his helmet. "I was kind of hoping that before we ended today, before I let you go... would you grab me, just once, tell me when and when not to push things... and take me on a fast horizontal loop over the Strip here?" Even over the radio his voice is bashful.
Erica shrugs her shoulders before nodding her helmet. "Alright we can do that." She moves up close to Gabriel and grabs him in a firm and powerful grip. She powers up her jet pack quickly and turns the thrust up all the way. The powerful nuclear pack thrusts up to a thousand or so feet. She tempers her thrust to keep her at the altitude and then powers herself forward quickly moving up to two hundred miles per hour over the landing strip and along the countryside
Sometimes adults can be children. Gabriel's radio is simply a long string of laughter and amused almost-screams, with a lot of "Woo!" thrown in. "When do I press my thrusters?!?!"
"Don't touch your thrusters, or I will kill you!" Erica exclaims over the radio. She does a wide loop around back to the landing strip, slowing down along the way. She moves slowly to a hover before touching down.
"That was fantastic!" Gabriel shouts after nearly ripping his helmet off. His eyes are big and round, his face split with a smile. "Oh man, you've gotta teach me that. But I think that's good for today. You showed me what to do. I'll practice, I promise." He'll salute a proper salute from a soldier to a soldier of a different army. "Any other tips? Can I buy you dinner as a reward for putting up with me today?"
"Well just keep in mind you won't be able to get to those speeds with that pack. You'll get going pretty fast though." Erica says as she breaks the seals on her helmet and takes it off to reveal her face and a smile. "Get really used to your gyroscope. I would attach a rope to your ceiling and get used to being at different angles. Get a feeling for what your gyro says. And yes you can buy me dinner and a drink."
Gabriel looks rather sad at the mention of reduced speed, but in the end, chuckles. "My ceiling is a tree, Erica. Thanks for the lesson. Let me get this stuff home, put on something a little less constricting and I'll meet you at the Nightingale?" A questioning eyebrow is raised.
"Sure I will need to change as well." Erica says as she shakes out her long hair. She picks up her gym bag and slings it over a shoulder. She starts heading from the landing strip over towards the city gates.
The older man nods and gathers the other various sundry gear that he'd brought. His path takes him toward the highway and into the woods, though sometime in the near future, it will be to the gates. Gabriel will eventually pick this thing up, if it kills him.
