Flight certification

Posted on Thu Feb 27th, 2025 @ 12:27pm by Camron Wayne & Lieutenant JG Deezell Vox

1,662 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 120 - Guardian at the Gate
Location: Main engineering

James walked into main engineering looking Lt Vox. He had been told that Vox was one of the few people who was able to certify pilots that was not part of flight operations. It was a bit puzzling but he figured what the heck as long as he was able to get certified that was all that mattered.

Dee noticed James walking into engineering. She wasn't aware at the time that it was her he was looking for.

"Can I help you?" She enquired approaching him.

James took one look at the officer in front of him and almost dismissed her out of hand but at the last second thought better of it. After all she did out rank him. " I am sorry to bother you Lt but I am looking for Lt Vox. They told me in flight operations that he could certify me on the stations runabouts." Said James calmly

"Oh I see, well She most certainly can certify you on the stations runabouts. I am Lieutenant JG Vox. "

" Oh umm ok when would you have the time. I am hoping to be certified on all the runabout classes on the station. After all it would look pretty bad if the stations chief auxiliary craft pilot could not fly the stations auxiliary craft." Stuttered James awkwardly

"We are quiet at the moment, I have time to take you out on, maybe, two types of runabout, Would that be OK for you? We can the arrange to continue with the rest." Dee replied.

" That would be perfect as far as I am concerned. Anything is better then nothing." Said James getting over his surprise and getting his head back on straight.

"Excellent, Meet me in the main hanger in 15 minutes. I need to change into my flight suit."

Dee replied.

"Alright see you in 15 minutes Lt." Said James it would take him about few minutes to get there himself as he turned and headed out of engineering.

Dee arrived in the main hanger in her white flight suit. She waited for Janes by one of the Danube Class Runabouts.

James saw her from across the flight deck he had been checking out one of the Warhammer runabouts. He quickly crossed the flight deck and without a word began to go over the exterior of the runabout looking for anything that might cause a problem in flight. Truth be told he did not expect to find anything but it was a good habit to get into when you had the time. After finishing the external check James arrived at the entry hatch and opened it. " ladies first." Said James with a very slight bow and a hand gesture.

"Thank you. When I was joined to Raekwon, I made sure I did the same kind gesture to all women." Dee commented as she stepped aboard the Runabout.

"I saw you checking out the Warhammers. Pretty sweet aren't they?."

" yah they are. Honestly when I took this path at the academy my thought was to become a fighter pilot. Unfortunately for me I did not make the cut that the marines wanted, so piloting shuttles and runabouts was the next best thing." Said James calmly as he slide into the pilots seat and started going over the preflight checklist.

" I have to ask. Your an engineer by profession how is it that flight ops said you were one of if not the best pilot on the station and the only person certified to certify pilots on every runabout classes in the fleet.?" He asked as he worked through the pretrip

"Well, I'm a joined Trill and more than one of my previous hosts had advanced flight training and experience and as a result, when I took my flight training after being joined, I had that past experience and knowledge to guide me. I didn't think I was the only person who could certify pilots on every Runabout class. Interesting. There are only five types of Runabout. "

"I know about the Danube, argo, Warhammer, huron, mustang, and delta flyer. Those are the classes i ran through in the simulator." Said James as he finished up the preflight. "Well ready to departure on your orders Lt." He added

"Very good. Take us out of the hanger. "

James powered up the thrusters and carefully guided the craft out of the hanger bay and into the larger internal docking bay.

"Good. Now, I'd like you navigate your way to the main outer doors using RCS thrusters only. " Dee requested.

Since the main bay was below and 180 degrees from the main doors he knew this would take a few minutes. "Yes sir setting course for the main doors RCS thrusters only." Said James calmly as he pushed the thrusters to full power and started to carefully weave his way through the massive internal bay keeping an eye on the sensors and scanning the area around him with his eyes as well head always on a swivel.

It took about 5 minutes and dodging several worker bees and smaller starship but they arrived at the massive main doors. " exiting main starbase in 3, 2, 1 and we are clear." Said James as he piloted the runabout away from the main flight path into the station.

"Okay, we have a small testing area for runabouts and other small craft, plot in the course and we can go through some manuvers."

They soon arrived at the testing area. Stretching out at head of them where marker bouys.

"The idea here is to navigate around the markers but as you can seem, each of them are colour coded. " She put up on the screen the colours and their meanings. "As your can see, each colour tells you how close you can pass them. To close and you loose marks. I will let you study the colour codes and then we get started, ok?"


James did not say a word he simply switched to the manual control pushed the runabout to half impulse and started running the course. He would crowd the markers for every foot he could get without getting close enough to set any of them off.

What started as a simple easy circuit soon became harder with tighter corners forcing James to get creative. He would take one corner wide to setup for the next turn to be taken tight. Then come out of the turn and stand the runabout on its tail to climb over the next set of markers.

The grin on his face at the end of the run would take a warp core breach to erase. Truth be told he had run this course dozens of times but he was not about to actually say it unless asked.

"Something tells me you know this course way to well, Ensign. Your creativity on the fly is quite impressive. Have you ever considered trying out one of the fighters?"

"Ma'am there is something you should know. Since I joined SB400 as the chief support craft pilot I have flown this course in every craft I was rated for. In other words I have about 500 hours of flight time logged on this course.

The main reason i came to you was because of a glaring oversight in my training and my last station. They did not want to train me on anything biger then a shuttle so they did not." Said James somewhat angels. " I trained myself using the flight simulators but wanted real time flight that I could only get if I had a trainer teach me." He added

"Oh, I totally misunderstood the situation here. " Dee replied.

"As for the fighters while I would love to get some flight time in them I can not even access the simulators without the rank of Lt.jg let alone the actual craft. So I will wait when I make jg the first thing I intend to do is start running Sims in every fighter class the station has. Said James passionately

"I see. So what exactly do you need from me? You seem quite capable of flying runabouts."

"To make it official I needed a certified trainer to sign off on each class of runabout that I wanted to fly. I know it is antiquated but they apparently want the certification in my file. As you saw I know how to pilot this ship both manually and with computer aid. I do not see the point myself but that is what they wanted so that is what they will get.

Just sign off on my training that I am fully capable to pilot each runabout class and we are good. You can either just sign off from your desk or you can sign off after a flight with me that is your choice." Said James calmly

"Gladly. I can do it from my desk as you are clearly qualified." Dee replied.

"Either way we are nearing the salvage yard and I kinda want to have some fun. With your permission how about a full impulse run through the yard. No markers just full impulse speed manuvers. This is no fighter but I bet I can make her dance." Said James lightly

"By all means, Ensign. Sounds like fun. Engage." Dee replied, bracing herself.

James pushed the runabout to full impulse and headed into the salvage yard. He already had a idea for the run first skimming the venteral side of a saber then between the nacells and along the port side of an excelsior class. A weave through half a dozen fighters before finishing up with an inverted run along the dorsal side of a galaxy class before shooting straight up and out of the yard with a barrel roll finish.

" Hope you enjoyed the flight ma'am." Said James as they headed back to the station about an hour and a half after they had left. James piloted the runabout back into the station and to the docking bay they had departed from.

END.

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