Rowe's Flight Performance Evaluation

Posted on 24 Jan 2015 @ 8:12pm by Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Crewman Ash Rowe

922 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Starbase 84 - Shuttle
Timeline: MD 05, 0830 hours

[ON]

With several checkrides out of the way there were only a few more to complete. First up on her list for the day was Ash Rowe. Later in the day was Lamar Darius. Once again Dea was standing outside the shuttle she greeted Rowe, "Morning Crewman Rowe. I'll tell you the same thing I told Warrant Officer Sylver yesterday. Since this is a requal I don't expect it to take very long."

"Nice stuff, 'Commander...do I get to race again?" Ash asked with an innocent smile, thinking briefly back on her winning performance during the shuttle race a little while back. Even if the circumstances of her fellow competitors had had something to do with it.

Taking her seat in the copilots chair once the shuttle hatch had been secured. Dea brought up the intended flight path, "This is the course we'll be following. Control of the craft is all yours. You'll notice there are a few sections where the speed requirements vary. You'll be marked on precision as well as speed."

Ash nodded, taking the words in even as she started going through the preflight checks, smiling as she worked with the ease of someone who was used to it. "Precision...I can do precision...."

Dea nodded, "All yours Crewman Rowe. If any sort of emergency arises its up to you to deal with first then ask for assistance. Take us out." She monitored their departure from the starbase.

Ash waited for the confirmation from control before lifting the shuttle, taking her out of dock. She had some pace behind her, but she was accurate and had good room as they left the base.

The first section seemed a basic flight route, no surprises, but with a slower speed limit. It was straight forward enough, but the test for Ash was to keep to the confines of snail's pace rather than push the shuttle and kick in some speed. "We get to punch it soon, right?"

"That's all part of your evaluation you have to follow the signs and indicators posted along the course and on the guide map on the HUD," Dea commented with a smile. While she felt the same as Ash about hight speed flying part of the training was to see how well her pilots were able to follow various forms of non-verbal guidance.

Ash nodded, but with a theatrical sigh, smiling all the same as she worked the controls, taking the little shuttle on a gentle glide around the first section of the course. She sat forward a little with the transition into the next section, her eyes shining at finally being able to kick up the speed and set them going properly. She pushed up to the high end of the speed limit, her body moving slightly in the seat, almost as if with a rhythm of unplayed music, taking the straightest course possible so that she didn't have to slow down with having to turn.

Keeping an eye on Rowe's performance Dea took a few more notes. So far things were going well, nothing to be concerned with. All of Galileo's pilots were held to a high standard when it came to their ability to pilot support craft or the ship itself.

The sounds emanating from the shuttle's engines changed as Ash forced it into a highspeed swing around the 'obstacle' set up in the next part of the test. Ash always likened the sound to something of a 'hold on!' intake of breath. She tsked, laughing softly to herself as she pushed the shuttle hard into the next highspeed turn, knowing she was pushing the limits, but that was pretty much her style all over. She hadn't won her racing titles by playing it safe.

Dea kept quiet allowing Rowe to do her job. Things were looking good. While the limits were pushed it was done in a manner that didn't put them in danger as long as their shuttle continued to operate properly.

As they neared the end of the course, Ash leant back in her seat, relaxed with how it had gone. She hadn't blown them up or anything, so it couldn't be bad. At that moment, the computer started to beep at her.

Frowning, Ash leant forward to see the alert of an engine failure and she quickly eased them to slow down through to a halt, her other hand already setting the computer to search for the problem.

As it ran its diagnostic, the lights flickered, and one of the panels towards the back of the shuttle flashed and stammered with noise.

Ash sighed with irritation at the interruption, but treated it with matter of fact calm as she worked with the computer to try and get a hold of the problem before it became worse.

The disruptions proved to be interconnected as she tracked it down. She was no Engineer though, and all she could do was stabilise power and let the healthy engines take over the work to get them home so the grease monkeys could make her better again.

Closely monitoring the situation Dea nodded, "Good move. You made the right call. Some things can't be solved totally by us as the pilot. In those cases you do your best and find a way to make it safely to a place to land so that engineering can do their job."

[OFF]

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

CN Ash Rowe
Shuttle Pilot
USS Galileo

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