Sadly the movie only really communicates this with a line said almost in passing.
The original Rogue Squadron game has a mission where you fly the canyon path the way Luke did. Get gold on that and you’ll get an idea of just how good of a pilot Luke already is before he ever touches an X-Wing. And on the topic of the X-Wing, it is arguably the most advanced fighter ever made at that time, yet another untold portion of the movie that was intended to already be part of the lore lol.
Luke also used to shoot womprats while racing his T-16 around the canyons, and womprats are smaller than the Death Star’s exhaust port. Combine all that with his latent force power and the trench run is actually not a far fetched feat for him at all.
Sadly the movie only really communicates this with a line said almost in passing.
The original Rogue Squadron game has a mission where you fly the canyon path the way Luke did. Get gold on that and you’ll get an idea of just how good of a pilot Luke already is before he ever touches an X-Wing. And on the topic of the X-Wing, it is arguably the most advanced fighter ever made at that time, yet another untold portion of the movie that was intended to already be part of the lore lol.
Luke also used to shoot womprats while racing his T-16 around the canyons, and womprats are smaller than the Death Star’s exhaust port. Combine all that with his latent force power and the trench run is actually not a far fetched feat for him at all.