Pegasus Flight School (Phgasos pthsh hcoleio) Part 3

Pegasus Flight School (Pegasos ptisi scholeio)

Part 3

“That is the reason why I say that not many people ever get the hang of fully manual flight.” he whickers then says back to me. As he feels my legs relax a bit as I calm down, he continues ; “There are too many things to think about and too much of one thing and not the other can bring about disaster. I have a few things that let me know where the center of gravity is at any time. Almost like a judges scale, I can tell if it is to one side, forward or behind us. This is how I judge how much of which we need. What you just felt is called slipping. A uncoordinated turn is dangerous for the rider and also for the mount. I can stall my wings by doing this too, but I will talk about that later. For now, just know that it is not good!”

“Oh look!” Pegasus cry’s out as he points his muzzle in the direction of a few clouds drifting in a line. “This is a gift for me!” Pegasus chuckles and slowly banks so that he is pointing directly at the clouds. “This is a thermal drift. It is wonderful for us flying horses, birds and those crazy humans with gliders.” Chuckling as he flaps his wings, he maintains his speed as he begins to climb towards the clouds. “You see how high we are to the clouds? Watch this!”

Pegasus again flies level, the horizon line just touching the top of his head. Looking upwards I see the clouds coming closer, still gaining altitude as he passes beneath. Coming out the other side from beneath the clouds, he begins to sink, the “ceiling” getting farther away from me, only to come closer as he passes beneath the next cloud. Pegasus whickers happily as he just keeps his wings steady, enjoying the stress free flying for the few miles that the clouds take him.

“On long trips, I look for these.. Its free lift! Gives me a breather ! The unfortunate thing is that you are more than likely find these right on the edges of storm fronts. This could be very bad if you are not moving fast enough to get out the danger areas.” Pegasus gives a loud squeal as he continues.

“We can also do something called ballooning or swelling. We add the added lift of my wings to the lift of the thermals and really have a high rate of climb. We can get very high, very quickly!” Pegasus banks and turns towards the clouds again, his wings flapping fast, scooping the wind as he climbs as fast as he can. Just as he gets beneath the cloud, I suddenly feel a strong sinking weight in my belly, the clouds zooming towards me as he rides high on the subtle updrafts from the heated air. Cloud after cloud, he continues finally to a height where it seems like I can almost reach up and touch its base.

Pegasus whickers happily, his wings curling slightly to increase the surface area that the air is passing over. The quick moving air roaring beneath his wings sends trembles and vibrations throughout his entire body and through my seat. Slowing down, the howling wind subsides to a fraction of the level of noise of a few seconds before. As I look down I can see the landscape below, the familiar houses and buildings are reduced to tiny blocks that blur into the haze that hugs the ground.

“One last thing before we finish is to have a little fun.” The wind continues to slow, its sound nearly a whisper as it blows past our heads and bodies. I begin to feel Pegasus’s body moving about, quick movements of his wings and flanks making me feel as if he was squirming in flight. The ground seems to stand still, making it seem like we are being left hanging in the air as the clouds seem to speed ahead of us, being blown quickly by the winds aloft. Arching his wings even higher, he seems to fight the urge to flap them. I can see that he is really struggling now when I then the smaller feathers near the trailing edge of his wing begin to lift and swirl about.

Panting with the effort, Pegasus speaks, “This is called a stall. It is one of the more dangerous things we can do other than flying blind!” He squeaks for a moment as a gust of wind blows across the two of us, turning him into a slight bank. Feeling his muscles tense, he quickly recovers from the wind gust then continues speaking…

“The reason why this is so bad is because I have very little control over what happens. My wings are at a point where they are barely holding us in the sky. This state is called MCA or, ‘minimum controllable airspeed’ ”

I then begin to feel a slight shaking, a vibration that travels down one of his wings, through his body and mine, then across the other wing.

“In this state, I can still maintain flight, but if I ask my wings to do anything we will stall ! A stall can happen at any speed if you ask too much of them. At high speed, it is called a “departure stall” as the wind departs from the normal curvature of my wing. We wont do any of those as it is very violent! In a normal stall, like what we are going to do in a second, the condition that we end up with is determined by what we do right before the stall. The last fractions of a second will mean everything. If we are unbalanced when we stall, we will fall in the direction of our relative gravity. That’s why it is so important to have coordinated turns. Can you imagine what would happen if we stalled in a bank? That’s why it is so unsafe.. So.. Hold on TIGHT!”

Pegasus lowers his head as he abruptly finishes speaking, the horizon lowering slightly below his head. The more it lowers, the farther up his wing his feathers stand on end until I feel a sickening vibration shooting from side to side across his wings and body. A few seconds later, I see all of his wing feathers stand straight up, exposing the strong but delicate looking bones of his wings. My head spins for a moment, the sensation of free falling making my stomach suddenly jump into my throat! Looking forward, I see the horizon is very high above his head. A quick look to the side shows that I am falling towards the ground in a near 45 degree angle! I scream in panic ! Pegasus doesn’t do anything, maybe he can’t hear me? His wings are stretched out as far as they can go, waiting for the familiar embrace of the wind to grab a hold of him. As the speed of his fall increases, I can see the ground slowly rotating before me, swinging like a pendulum from side to side. I hang on even tighter. Slowly the swinging slows and mutes, his feathers laying flat down against the framework of his strong wings again.

When Pegasus feels that my seat is firmly down against his back again, making me feel safe and re-assured once more, he starts flapping his wings in powerful strokes. The wind begins to pick up as he regains control of his flight. Before the sound of the wind becomes deafening, he cries out to me...

“Alright! Enough of this boring stuff! Lets go and have some real fun! Velcro saddle pads may have been a good idea! I’m going to show you what this ancient creature can do!” he chuckles.

Pegasus flaps his wings hard, the powerful strokes slapping furiously at the wind while he increases his angle of descent. The sound of the wind turns rapidly from a blowing, through a whistling to a roaring then finally a deafening howling. My goggles are pressed firmly into my face, tightly pressing against it as the wind speed increases. I now understand why Pegasus asked me to bring them and insisted I used them, my eyes would be surely dried out and uncomfortable by now. Despite the speed, the ride is not uncomfortable at all. The slow vibrations are replaced with a very smooth steady glide. I can feel my own hair blowing about and as I tuck my head down against his neck, causing Pegasus’s blowing mane to teasingly tickle me along my face and neck. The ground is getting closer, at first it doesn’t seem to move much, but as Pegasus goes faster and flies closer to the ground I begin to have some idea at just how incredibly fast he really is going. Small details in the houses and trees quickly enlarge and solidify, my rising excitement now making my heart race inside my chest.

Looking ahead I suddenly see the tree tops of a small grove that he had been apparently diving towards, and shut my eyes, instinctively bracing myself for the impact !

Pegasus’s flattened wings suddenly stretch outward at the last moment, a deep groan escapes from my lips as I get pressed hard into his back and neck as he levels out to clear the trees by only a few inches ! The sound of the howling wind flutters and pulses as he goes over the patches of trees as the air pressure changes mutes my ears momentarily.

Squealing in happiness, Pegasus follows the contours of the land, climbing and sinking as necessary to maintain his tree-hopping altitude. Up ahead I can see the banks of a river quickly approaching, the high levee walls holding back the flood of water that threatens to overflow them. Pegasus’s wings bank slightly, gracefully turning us as he pass over the river bank walls. Leveling out above the river’s waters, Pegasus’s wings begin to flap up and down, gracefully, undulating in full sweeps as he maintains his speed. Sinking slowly towards the water and looking downwards I watch as a deep depression forms in the water from his body’s down wash ! Like a fountain, the waters collapse behind him, splashing upwards in an arc that seems to foam and spray like an extension of his own high outstretched tail !

Pegasus has obviously done this many times before, his wings holding steady as all of his muscles tense, bracing himself for what it to come. Gliding at high speed, he gracefully banks around the bend of the river. I can see the rivers end now approaching quickly, a steep drop where the rivers massive waters falls into a deep ravine. Squealing loudly, as if giving a warning to me, his body begins to bank and roll, turning nearly perpendicular to the waters beneath us.

Pegasus’s body begins to sink towards the water as if he was going to dive beneath it’s translucent surface !

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