Positive Feedback

Posted on Sun Nov 30th, 2014 @ 8:10pm by Lieutenant Lynsi Mason & Cadet Senior Grade James Anderson

Mission: Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Thieves
Location: "Claymores" Flight Deck, Briefing Rooms

[ON]

Another sortie was in the books, and like so many before, it went off without a hitch. There was something to be said about the excitement of an uncooperative ship, or the occasional fugitive trying to get away. But Blaze liked the easy ones too. Well, really any time she was behind the controls of her fighter, she enjoyed herself. If you didn't love your job, then it was time for a career change.

But now the birds have come back to the nest. Lynsi had to move on to the next part of her job. As Squadron Leader, she needed to debrief the pilots on the sortie and go over any concerns, problems, issues, suggestions, etc., that the Flight Lead may have noticed. On this particular flight, that was also her, so it tended to make the debrief go a little faster. Normally, at least. Today, she had a new pilot to break in.

The pilots out of their cockpits, the birds were now under the jurisdiction of the mechanics and deck crew. The just as important but usually less glamorous side of the air wing kept the birds in the air. They'll move them to their storage spaces, drain excess fuel and run it through filters and back to the main fuel tanks. They'd remove the micro torpedo magazines and check power cells for the phasers. Interiors and exteriors would be cleaned, and any and all maintenance would be done to make sure that each fighter was back at peak operating condition by the next time they were ready to fly. It was a complex orchestration, but just another of many symphonies of activity needed to run the air wing.

But that would be done without the pilot's supervision. Their job with the fighters was over, at least for now. There were always meetings to attend to when not on a mission, such as planning mission objectives, or going over the mission results. That's the meeting that Lynsi Mason was preparing for now.

"Firefly," Blaze called over to the female pilot who had been on their flight. "I've got to go get our flight data. Show the Rookie to the debrief room. I'll be there shortly."

"Sure, Blaze. We'll see you there." Firefly flashed a smile. She turned to find the cadet. Ensign Tegan Veillon was a few years younger than Blaze. In contrast to the latter, who wore her long blonde hair in a low pony tail most of the time, Tegan's dark brown hair was cut in a short bob. She had a friendly smile and brown eyes. "Hey, Rookie! We're heading to the debrief room. The boss wants you to join us."

James turned his attention from Blaze to Firefly. The ensign stood only a few feet away, still wearing her flight suit, no doubt waiting to see how James was going to respond. That he really didn't know all that much about this woman other than what he'd heard over the communications channel during their patrol seemed glaringly obvious in that moment. It was clear from the way they interacted with one another that she and Blaze had flown together long enough they knew one another pretty well. James imagined the same was true of pretty much everyone in that squadron except for himself.

"Alright," the young cadet affirmed. This was clearly turning out to be one of those baptism-by-fire full immersion experience deals, not that he was complaining. Blaze had, in fact, managed to get him out of at least a day in the simulator. Therefore, he didn't see any reason not to continue going along with it. "Where to," he asked.

"We have some conference rooms just off the hangar where we do some briefings and debriefings. There're some bigger briefing rooms nearby too that we use for full squadron meetings sometimes, but those are a bit overkill for individual flight debriefs," Firefly explained. She gestured towards a set of doors to the side of the hanger, where another pilot had just entered. "Follow me, we're just off this way. You look pretty lost, I'm guessing it's your first time in the 'Claymores' hangar area."

The observation seemed pretty obvious, but James realized this was probably just her way of trying to break the ice a little. Stating the obvious sometimes had a way of making it less...well...awkward. Now he knew that she was okay with him being a little disoriented still which meant James didn't have to act like he knew what he was supposed to do all of the time. "Yeah," James replied as he followed her across the hangar, "You'd think it wouldn't be all that different than working with shuttlecraft, but I see now that's not the case."

Tegan smiled. "You would think that, but they are far from similar. Shuttlecraft launches still need to be carefully controlled, but it's not like orchestrating a whole fighter squadron. We work on carefully designed schedules, and we have to make sure that every fighter is at peak capability on every flight. A shuttle can take a few dings and still do its job, but if one of the birds is damaged you may not be able to maneuver as well. And in a fire fight, that could get someone killed."

"Oh," was about all James could say to that. Most of what the young pilot knew about starfighters was limited to anecdotal stories, his time at the Academy, and his experience in the last twenty-four hours. Growing up, it had never occurred to him that he might one day find himself actually piloting one.

"But we have the best deck crew in the business. I've never have any major issues with my bird, and even the minor things get taken care of about as fast as I can fill out the maintenance request." Tegan gestured down the corridor. "Our conference room is right through here."

James entered the conference room and paused. There were all the typical trappings of your basic communal meeting space: a table, several chairs, a couple of viewscreens, and a replicator set into the far wall. Aside from being somewhat larger than he'd expected, there seemed to be nothing unusual about the room.

Firefly and Jinjo conversed privately for a few moments while they waited, but Blaze wasn't too far behind them. She strolled into the room with a couple of PADDs in hand. Heading to the front of the room, she switched on the main viewscreen to show their operating area. On the screen a graphical representation of their sortie appeared on the screen, moving considerably faster than real time. On a second screen she showed a top down view of the fighters in formation as they moved throughout the patrol zones. "Alright, people, let's make this quick. The mission was a standard patrol and intercept. We had a total six meet-and-greets on this flight, all of them pretty standard. I even let the Rookie take on one of them. Not bad for your first one. Flights looked good. Jinjo, I noticed that you were drifting a bit." She said this last one giving the other pilot a glare.

"Sorry, Blaze," the man answered with a shrug. "One of the thrusters was acting up a bit. Nothing I couldn't control, but I had to lean on the stick a bit in level flight. I could have worked around it in a pinch."

"You tell the deck crew?"

"Yes, ma'am. It's on their list."

"Thank you, Jinjo. Firefly, you got awfully close to my backside on one of those turns. I know I look good, but I won't look so good if we got in a fiery crash."

Tegan shrugged. "That? Oh, that was nothing. I was just showing off for the Rookie." She gave James a smile and a wink. "To be fair though, boss, you took that turn a little shallow."

"Yeah, I know. It was next on my list." Blaze gestured with her PADD. "Rookie, how about a little self assessment. How do you think you did?"

The young flight operations cadet shifted somewhat nervously in his chair. It did not come as any real surprise that he was being asked to reflect on his own performance. There were an awful lot of instructors who preferred to teach that way and, difficult as some might have found it, James didn't really mind all that much. The difference here was that he was being asked to do so in front of the rest of the group. It was a little intimidating, to say the least. They were all professionals and he...he felt like nothing but a first time flyer.

"Uhh...I'd say I've definitely got room for improvement," James began hesitantly, "There were a couple of times I drifted out of the formation. I mean, I corrected it right away, but still...we all need to know where each other are. Being out of formation hinders that."

Blaze nodded along. "Sure. Just remember that a fighter can be a completely different animal compared to a shuttle. The thrusters on one of the birds are a lot more touchy, and we're usually moving at faster speeds. Being off by a small angle can lead to a larger drift at high speed. You just need to focus a bit more on not over-correcting. You have to force a shuttle, but the fighter is much more graceful."

"Of course," James replied. He liked to think he took feedback, constructive feedback at least, with some measure of grace. They were certainly coming from an angle that was easier to receive than the training instructor had been. Putting that aside for a moment, James remembered he still had his own assessment to finish. "Our intercept of the Crescent Star seemed to go pretty well, I think," he continued, "They were most cooperative during the screening process."

The squadron commander smiled. "They're one of our regulars. We've never had any problems with them before, so I figured they would make for a good learning experience. We'll have to work on your confidence over the comm though. Remember, good communication is key. Chatter isn't just for passing time. It helps us get to know each other, learn how everyone behaves and acts. Knowing and trusting your wingman can save your life."

James nodded to show he understood. The feedback he was getting seemed reasonable enough. Hopefully he would have another chance to actually make these improvements, whether in the simulator or in the field.

"Alright, people, I think we can call it a day. Get some rest. Rio will be back with us tomorrow. Rookie, I'll talk to your instructor and make sure you get credit for the hours logged. You did good out there. Maybe you'll get a chance to fly with us again soon." She gave him a smile as she gathered up her PADDs. "Dismissed."

[OFF]

Lieutenant Lynsi Mason [P: Von]
Squadron Leader
V/F-37 "Claymores"

Cadet Senior Grade James Anderson
Cadet
Archanis Flight Training Center