#learning to fly

Rise

We aren't made for the ground. The great blue above is our land. It seems so frightening to be separated from Earth, but your sky is much closer than it looks, and your wings will take you all the way there. I know you have the strength inside to free yourself from gravity. Take my hand; it's a great day for flying. Art by, as always, Linked-Memories

I haven't done a WIP Wednesday in *forever*, and so today I want to share an excerpt from a 5+1 fic I've been fiddling with for a while. It focuses on a moment from Skyfall that lives rent-free in my head: the bit where Moneypenny says that Q is afraid of flying, and Bond says, "Of course he is."

I have...a lot of thoughts...about this moment, more of which I may share later on. I've also seen lots of fics tackle this piece of canon well, from leaning into reasons Q may be afraid of air travel, to explaining why this was all a pretext in the first place. So for now, suffice it to say that I was ready to dive in with a fic of my own, featuring five times Q lied to Bond about why he didn't fly to Macau--and one time he told him the truth.

This is one of my favorite flavors of fic to write: two parts crack fic to one part deep emotion that comes at you once your guard is down. 😁 Teaser below the cut!

the blue spirit (and others) parts 2

Cold sweat ran down Iroh’s back. He had no reason to think twice about Zuko turning in early last night, citing feeling under the weather. Iroh had assumed he was sleeping in when he hadn’t arrived for breakfast. How could Iroh make such a mistake? It had been quiet the past few days! Zuko never let his failures hold him back long. Iroh had mistakenly believed Zuko wasn’t acting impulsive on his own anymore, and now was blindsided by whatever harebrained scheme Zuko came up with while Iroh foolishly thought he was sulking. Iroh shook his head, pasting on an amused smile all while his heart raced. “I’m afraid this is a wasted trip, Admiral Zhao. We hit a rough patch of weather a few days ago, and Prince Zuko has been feeling sickly. He’s in no state to get out of bed, let alone travel all the way to Pohuai Stronghold and stage a prison break!” “Well, I’ll just have to see after the prince’s health myself, won’t I?”

After Aang and Zuko's eye-catching, aerial escape from Pohuai Stronghold, Zhao is pissed and eager to catch Zuko before he gets back to his ship...

I totally wasn't paying attention and it passed last week!!! ;A;!! So to celebrate and get me back into LTF headspace, I'm opening writing prompts!!!

First Solo Cross Country: Dundee - Edinburgh - Fife

First Solo Cross Country: Done ✈️

So this is the big one. Not just flying solo, but navigating my own way across the country with it. No instructor, no second pair of hands, just me, a Piper Warrior, and a route from Dundee down to Fife.

The highlight has to be transiting through Edinburgh's controlled airspace and tracking past the Forth bridges. Three bridges, three completely different eras of engineering, and I got to see all of it from the cockpit of an aircraft I was flying on my own. I came into aviation from years as an offshore engineer, so structures like that hit a little different for me.

Then Fife decided to make me work for it. An offset approach for noise abatement, wind spilling off the golf course, thermals coming up off the town. A properly sporty landing to round it off.

And because I'd rather be honest than look slick: I fluffed a radio call on the way in. Gave my position, completely forgot my intentions. I left it in the video. That's the whole point of documenting this stuff, the real version, mistakes and all.

If you're a student pilot staring down your own first solo cross country, you've got this. Plan it well, talk early, stay ahead of the aeroplane, and don't chase perfection.

The full flight is on the channel now.

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.