The Cockpit
The TIE Class shares more than their technology; the cockpit where the pilot actually flies the craft is extremely detailed and has it’s exact uses. However, the controls are pretty consistent throughout all of the TIE class, so moving from an Interceptor to an X-1 or even Bomber may not be as troublesome as one would imagine.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/FMJR/VEN%20Academy/TIEController.jpg
(This is not what the controller would actually look like, the colors and way it is formed is to simplify it to a point where it is understandable to us- the purpose behind all of this is to allow you to be effective in your writing, so take a glance through all of this and see if you can't make out what we're saying. The actual version of what a TIE pilot uses is shown at the bottom of the page in the image of the TIE cockpit.)
Buttons: Green button is used to trigger missiles while the red initiates cannon fire.
Switches: The switch to the left of the red button toggles between the single fire, strafing mode of cannon fire and the linked burst. The switch the left of the green missile trigger arms the weapon when switched up and disarms when pulled back down. The missile is given an off option to ensure its precious explosive package isn't wasted.
Knobs: The center knob chooses targets and click stops, ensuring it will stay on the same target rather than slide to another accidentally. The two on the outsides and to the top with green outline designate direction of cannon fire while the one between them with blue outline actually chooses the point at which they meet. The missiles lock on and need no targetting by use of these knobs.
Others: The grey areas around the knobs are blocks to keep them from being accidentially turned when in combat. The yellow areas indicate where the fingers should be placed to slide the knobs. The black areas at the bottom corners of the controls are where the palms rest and the even further grey areas are where the corners of the hands sit to keep from falling off the controls in the heat of battle.
The TIE Interceptor is normally flown by use of both a control yoke and foot controls. The foot controls simply accelerate the action of the control yoke by adding an extra cut in turn radius, like the rudders of a jet fighter. The control yoke itself sits directly in front of the pilot with a rectangular console containing several knobs, three switches and two buttons. The two buttons are on opposite sides but sit in the center of the console; the right is the trigger for the cannons while the other deploys missiles or whatever secondary weapon is attached. Now, the switches located to the left or right of either of those buttons clicks between the first choice and the auxiliary mode of the weapon. In the case of the cannons it moves from single shot for a strafing style of fire to a linked version that devastates anything it touches. As for the missiles, the switch just activates them, ensuring when the switch is turned off that there will be no accidental triggering of the heavy weapons. Also, the cannons can be fired while the missiles are being deployed, but that is usually unwise considering it could trigger an explosion directly in front of the TIE.
Just in front of the control yoke and about the same size is a rectangular screen displaying a wire frame representation of the target with a pair of crosshairs in the center and intermittently visible text providing tactical information. To the right of the screen there are two rotating control knobs, and another one to the left. There are two small red indicator lights above and below the leftmost knob. The two on the right control options about what is displayed across the screen like whether or not all the tactical information should be even show up… Some people prefer to just get a straight look at their enemy.
The walls of the fighter are covered with triangular tiles, the ones above and in front of the pilot littered with red LEDs (light emitting diodes). Within the darkness of the cabin, it just looks like lines of red lights, but to the trained pilot, these are very important. They are lights that give the status on anything a pilot would ever like to ask about. It can be set up so that the lights are used to alert someone of engine problems or shielding distortions or even trivial matters like electrical problems within the com system. When set to their default though, at least one of the rows of lights warns the pilot of missile locks and normally sends a message to the computer within the TIE to let off a warning beep.
Above and to the left of the view port is a rectangular screen with a sensor display for viewing attackers from directly behind. This sensor is also a wire frame representation rather than an actual image from a camera. It is normally used to perceive the position of an enemy’s cannons so the pilot in the TIE knows which way to roll when the ship begins firing.
Directly above the pilot and on either side, protruding from some tiles are clusters of rods a little over a half foot long. These rods affect emergency sequences in the fighter such as detachment from a wing or wing. These emergency sequences are sometimes extremely life-threatening and that is why they are only used in extreme circumstances and are hard to nudge from their positions.
Behind the pilot is a view port of an extremely strong, thick and clear material for a direct view behind the pilot in case the sensor array goes out. That’s right- a window, not the engines as some people manage to confuse from looking at pictures of their favorite TIEs.
The primary hatch is on the middle of the aft face of the fighter. It is circular, includes the stern window and is hinged at the top. Within the cockpit, at the bottom left and right of the window there are pneumatic (air compressed) piston devices which are part of the mechanism to open and close the hatch. There is a handgrip above the hatch off to the port side; this aids a right-handed pilot exiting the craft. On the TIE's exterior, the hatch hinge mechanism is prominent on the upper aft part of the hull above the window.
The view port itself is about three inches thick at the point it meets the frame and about an inch in the center. Now, TIEs have been known to fly though Bespin’s atmosphere, which means that the thermal properties of the transparisteel are superior or comparable to the hardiest hulls of the most primitive space faring civilizations. This is unsurprising, but the response of a TIE window to blaster fire is sometimes misunderstood… If someone were to shoot a blaster rifle at a TIE’s view port from any angle other than dead on, it would be absorbed or refracted without shattering or damaging the transparisteel. However, if one were to shoot a perfect shot at the transparisteel with a heavy enough weapon and from a close enough range, it could crack the transparisteel. It’s almost unheard of for a hand weapon to actually shatter the transparisteel of a TIE, though.
Now, lets see if you can point out some of the structures we indicated above...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/FMJR/tiefintlarge.jpg
