Is Mal a pilot?
POSTED BY: spock74
UPDATED: Friday, June 20, 2008 15:28
VIEWED: 10455
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There is supposedly a massive difference in driving a automatic car and an 18 wheeler truck with tens of manual gears.
I think Mal is a qualified Pilot. I doubt "they" would have let Mal fly away from the repair yard at the end of Serenity if that was not the case.
Zoe may also know a little piloting (but not as likely as Mal - i doubt she would want to spend time piloting even when Wash was alive - she would either be with him, or doing something else.). Inara probably does (she always says Mal could not fly the shuttle as good as she can and she is supposedly an educated woman), and so does Jayne. (hear how he got away from Higginsmoon the first time?) None of these may be especially good pilots though. None as god as Mal, let alone Wash - a pilot who was also good in special circumstances such as running away.
About river as pilot - Not on my watch. Lets for an instance assume she can totally master it; She is still clinically insane. The crew (including Simon) would not allow her to be piloting unsupervised. She could on the other hand "help out" (or hinder depending on the situation and circumstance) the actual pilot.
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I don't think Mal flew away in Serenity at the end of Serenity becaus ethe craft at the time of purchase was unflyable.
and somebody above said that River was the new pilot, but it was Mal who was sitting in the Pilot's chair and River in the Navagator's chair.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rallem:
I don't think Mal flew away in Serenity at the end of Serenity becaus ethe craft at the time of purchase was unflyable.
I should have been clear - I meant at the end of the movie after the repairs, where Mal was in pilots chair, River in co Pilots. (and arrangement I do not going the other way around...)
That was an official repair yard. Probably with official papers needed for everything. Including a valid licence. (Mal does do some flying in the series too... at the end of Serenity the Pilot episode...)
Quote:
and somebody above said that River was the new pilot, but it was Mal who was sitting in the Pilot's chair and River in the Navagator's chair.
Yep, Mal was the Pilot. River did take off sequence though. Rather quickly for Mal's liking too I think. He took over as soon as he could get the tongue out of his mouth.
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Yeah, there's no way River would be full time pilot as a schizophrenic. However, I do think that she would eventually be the pilot under most circumstances, just constantly supervised and under proper medication. Summer talked about wanting to be the pilot, and I think Joss was giving us the beginnings of that idea by having River help fly Serenity at the end. We see she has a gift for it, and, like others, I think Mal has a barely functional knowledge of flying ships. He's also good at using what's of use to him, as Simon pointed out, so why would he pass up the opportunity?
--
"My way of being polite, or however...well, it's the only way I have of showing you that I like you. Of showing respect." Simon Tam, Jaynestown
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Isn't it part of the deal that the Owner and Master, as a Captain used to be called, of a ship , or airplane, or space vessel, is also qualified to operate it?
Not that the corporate owner of the Queen Elizabeth 2 could drive the darn thing, or the title holder of an oil tanker could dock the Exxon Valdez safely, and not that Mal could fly Serenity as well as Wash could, but isn't that what it means to own a smallish vessel like that.?
Besides which, we see Mal taking the controls at the end of the pilot, when Wash is going to be occupied tearing Zoe's clothes off...
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I think piloting the flying mule would be much like the ATV mule, largely unregulated. Anybody who is shown how can do it, like today's rules with ATVs (skip the helmets).
Piloting shuttles would need licensing, like a car today, including "parking" it at a docking seal and such.
A ship like Serenity would require more, like a major ship license, semi-tractor, or todays Airline pilots.
I think that Wash has all licenses.
As owner/cammander, I think Mal must have gotten himself the training and certification, but he's no Wash - Mal can do it, he just has other things to do.
Mal would expect Zoe to be certified and capable to pilot all the vehicles - I would be surprised if she wasn't. She pilots the Mule in DBM, and tries to do the shuttle in War Stories.
Inara can do shuttles, not likely Serenity.
Book probably could have back in the day, but is probably long out of practice and not familiar with all the newest doodads since his time.
Kaylee can probably do the mule, but not liely the shuttle or bigger.
Jayne can do the shuttle and mule, not the ship.
Keep Simon away from the mule.
River picked up everything from her absorption of physics, mechanics, energy, and reading Wash, Mal, and every other Pilot she's ever been in reading distance of. She can do anything, including any other ship they ever want to steal or borrow.
From Out of Gas, I think maybe Mal had Wash train him (and Zoe), it doesn't sound like Mal knew how to drive it before he found Wash. Of course, Wash would be able to do many kinds of ships. Mal, Zoe would be only certified on a Firefly class and other simple generic similar craft.
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YAY! 
I'm a statistic! 
(isn't working)
Here's to all us statistics!
Anybody who disagrees with any of this violently can do so. But no matter what you do, "You can't take the sky from me".
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This is an interesting thread, because I have always wondered, when in War Stories Zoe tells them to leave the quadrant if she doesn't come back, just who would fly Serenity out. You have Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, Book, Simon and River, and at that point no one knows River can pilot, not would they trust her, I'm thinking.
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On further thought, I don't see a bunk in the cockpit (or bridge), and I don't think Wash stays up for 24 hour periods. Some shift rotation must occur, likely with Mal and Zoe on some regular basis. When in transit for days or weeks, not much else to do but pilot, so Wash would get somebody to spell him for breaks/sleep. When the action is going to happen Mal and Zoe have other things to do and they've scheduled/rotated Wash into the pilot's seat for those times (that's when film is rolling so we can see). Other times Wash is wandering or playing about the ship while autopilot is engaged ("we're all gonna crash - who's the pilot, oh yeah, that would be me"). Perhaps they have trained Jayne over the years, but I don't think he got certification.
Pretty sure Mal is in the pilot's seat at the end of the pilot episode, when he's dealing with Simon.
Quote:
Originally posted by homespun:
This is an interesting thread, because I have always wondered, when in War Stories Zoe tells them to leave the quadrant if she doesn't come back, just who would fly Serenity out. You have Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, Book, Simon and River, and at that point no one knows River can pilot, not would they trust her, I'm thinking.
I would think that Book and Inara would get it done. If Inara isn't already trained, she has the skills and Book likely can remember the rest, even if they're not licensed.
With all the effort that Jayne put into sounding dumb/untrainable in Ariel, it's hard to think he could get certification. Although he seems smarter in the pilot interrogating Dobson, the scene from Ariel had to be for good reason. lthough watching them all pretend to have difficulty remembering lines was quite funny - I don't recall a blooper where Adam (or Jewel)forgot his lines, but all the others did.
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Mal is definitely *sitting* in the pilot's chair at the end of StP, but I'm pretty sure the ship is on autopilot--I think Mal went up to the bridge just to get everybody out of his hair. He's had a tough day.
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