Normally in Animalia, most of the flight lessons for those that became bird or bat Animalians was done in the spring and summer, when things were warmer and the flight instructor could help the new Animalian get the basics behind flying outside and have mats ready to provide for a soft landing, and to a degree the first conversions into Pterosaur Dinotopians had had the same sort of schedule, and with Norrie had involved having the Bat Animalian flight instructors give the lessons given that bats and pterosaurs were both quadrupeds on the ground. Norrie then helped Sophie and Roland with their flight lessons when they converted, and Sophie then taught Hazel. It was effective and rather easy, particularly as Pterosaur Dinotopians could feel their way through the air in ways that Bird Animalians couldn't.
But at present, many things weren't "normal." Not only was there still a pandemic going on, and the arrival of a new strain of it in America, but the new Dinotopian came from an area that was generally a bit warmer than Lyre/Animalia was, and if Sophie were still at the SMU campus in Dallas, temperature wise, things could be okay. Though, there, she'd also have to deal with the fact that the city really wasn't used to beings that didn't need a machine to fly. She and Roland did get some time to occasionally tour the city through the air and got some surprised looks from business people in the skyscrapers when a pair of Pterodactylus Dinotopians flew past their windows, and thus it'd be unlikely they'd have the mats needed to teach flying to this new Dinotopian. That in turn meant that the new Dinotopian had to come to Lyre/Animalia and despite being on Christmas Break, Sophie and Roland had "homework."
That presently had Sophie and Roland working out the schedule for these lessons over the course of Christmas. Some things, that were fairly normal were had, in that they managed to get some days where they could have some private time together, something the freshman dorms weren't going to allow for that easily, and with both of them having roommates, arranging things for when the floors were open to all visitors was difficult. Thus Sophie looked forward to being with Roland and Pauline looked forward to being with JC, and their parents seemed to accept that. From there there was arranging to have mats brought inside the Claw Coliseum to be there for the man's flight lessons, thought required some waiting on its own. The man, Buzz Rainfield, didn't convert until December 26th and only called to inform her that he'd converted and could get a flight to Animalia Lyre until January 2. Sophie sighed and accepted that, and told him that he would need to arrive as soon as possible on the second and they would begin flight lessons the same day and would go until she had to return to college for her spring semester.
"Do you think he'll find the place well enough?" Sophie wondered to Roland, "the Coliseum isn't as big as the Dino Dome... but it is the biggest individual building in Lyre/Animalia."
"I wouldn't think he'd have a problem," Roland answered, "he did tell you that he had an email address?"
"And a number to text him at," Sophie answered, "and that included updating on when he would fly here from Texas... and he also left a text on he expected to land when he left Texas... and that was supposed to be an hour ago."
"Then he's probably just checking in," Roland assured her.
Sophie nodded and they proceeded to wait. After a few moments, a lone figure appeared coming across the parking lot and stood out from many of Animalia's other residents. Namely that he was a Dinotopian. There were a few that hadn't moved to Dino City, some because their jobs were in Animalia and others because they had other reasons to stay and those might be temporary. Sophie and Roland half expected to move to Dino City when they finished their college education and she knew that JC and Pauline were ultimately looking at Vilcabamba. However, this figure wasn't one of the other Dinotopians living in Lyre/Animalia, and was rather new and had features that were loosely similar to Sophie and Roland. Except his beak had no teeth and his crest rose from the back of the head while on Sophie and Roland it was a sort of half circle on the upper part of the beak just before their eyes and moving to the tip.
"This must be him," Roland commented, noting the Pteranodon Dinotopian shivering a bit inside a Dallas Cowboys windbreaker or light jacket.
"You're Sophie and Roland, right?" the newly arrived Dinotopian asked.
"Yes," Sophie nodded, "let's go inside before you freeze to death."
"Don't know why we had to do this here," the male grumbled as he followed Sophie and Roland to the doors, "Texas is warmer."
"Yes... yes it is," Sophie agreed, "but this is where Roland and I live and where our families live, so when Christmas break started... Mister..."
"Buzz Rainfield," the Pteranodon Dinotopian answered, "but call me Buzz."
He then walked in and as he went by, Sophie and Roland could see some of the clear differences between them that went beyond coloration with much of Buzz's coloration being a silvery blue while hers was more a drab gray and white while Roland had some blue in his coloring. Buzz was also a bit taller than them. They didn't know if Buzz had gotten taller when he converted, but his eyes were a few inches taller than where Roland's eyes were and his longer crest added about a foot in height, keeping Buzz in line with the fact that Pteranodon was, until the discovery of the giant Azhdarchids like Quetzalcoatlus, was the largest known Pterosaur.
"This is better," Buzz spoke as he felt a bit warmer and stopped shivering, "though..."
"We won't be flying in the lobby," Roland told him, "we'll get started on flying in the main court area... we've scheduled to have mats set up there and it will have enough room to maneuver and have a high enough ceiling to gain some altitude."
"And Roland and I will try to stay close, should you fall or loose control," Sophie answered.
"There are plenty of places I'd like to fall," Buzz smiled, while glancing back to Sophie's chest.
"Roland is my bond-mate, my boyfriend, or whatever other term you wish to use," Sophie spoke with a frown as she walked around Buzz and approached the front desk, "if you want to win a woman's heart... it'll need to be with someone NOT already in a relationship."
They then checked in and Sophie than lead Buzz from the lobby to the main court area. Roland glanced to see Buzz look in with some surprise to see the large mats that seemed to raise up to the waist and covered an area that looked to be a bit larger than a basketball court. From the roof of the room, there were basketball hoops rotated up so that they were held parallel to the ceiling. Buzz was still looking up at this as Sophie and Roland tossed their coats onto one edge of the mats. Buzz heard this and approached and pressed on the mat and found it to be rather soft.
"It's soft..." Buzz said slowly.
"Yes," Sophie said from on top of the mat, "It'll help while we're just starting with flying and getting you used to your wings. We'll be starting with low altitude flights from one end of the gym to the to the other and we won't be going over the stands... but it'll get you better used to things."
"Low altitude?" Buzz asked slowly.
"Just high enough that you can flap your wings without them touching the ground," Roland answered, "once you get used to that... we'll move into things like changing direction while in flight, going higher into the air, and so on... If we get a warmer day and you'll get to practice to feeling air currents, air pressure changes, thermals, and all sorts of other factors affect your wings... but that's a big part of how pterosaurs fly. Our pycnofibers are not as thick as a bird's feathers and provide some measure of tactile response to the air."
"And it's essentially how WE learned to fly after we became Pterodactyl Dinotopians," Sophie added.
Buzz nodded and set his light jacket on the mat and then climbed onto it. He followed Sophie and Roland toward the end of the mat, which went up to a wall on the south side of the "court." He was a bit curious on how all this would work. The mat seemed to squish and sink under his weight, which would make for a soft landing should he "crash," but he was still trying to grasp on what was to be done. Though there were things that he was still wondering on...
"How will this go?" Buzz wondered, "Do we just jump?"
"More like a launch," Sophie answered and turned to give Buzz a view of her back and then flexed her wings.
Buzz got a good look to see the muscles at the base of the wings flex and looking quite powerful, more powerful than Sophie's arm and shoulder muscles. She then looked back over her shoulder and flexed wings to continue the answer.
"Because mundane Pterosaur's were quadrupeds on the ground, they evolved that they would use their wings as a sort of catapult launch and essentially "jump" with their wings," Sophie explained, "and while as Animalians we aren't stuck as quadrupeds... that method of take off does seem to carry over. I have good leg muscles, but they aren't as good as my wings for that launch."
"That sounds weird... particularly when I can stand just like I did when I was Human," Buzz answered.
"Perhaps," Roland commented, "but it's also one of those things where I don't think even the Horizon Scientists fully know the how or why of those issues. The Bat Animalians have a similar sort of take off launch as well... and that will be part of what we'll start with."
From there Sophie began demonstrating the motions of how she beat her wings while flying and how she would transition from the launch to actually flying. Buzz seemed to follow along with some things, but often asked a few questions about specific details. Some of which were things that he should have gotten when going into the research on Pteranodon. It struck Sophie as a bit "dumb," but she wasn't going to comment on that, particularly when Heather had also told her that this guy had apparently also blinded himself in some incident with hand sanitizer. She did her best to answer those questions and go through the demonstrations before finally getting into the actual practicing, including the launch and flight across the mat.
It went fairly well, all things considered, though Buzz did crash a few times in the initial attempts, though this may have been more the result of his inexperience with trying to fly. For he did get better with each practice run in getting into the air and then landing. It was a simple start, but it's what would be needed and Buzz did slowly catch on. By the end of the session, Buzz was able to keep up with Sophie and Roland and they didn't need to come to his rescue as they flew from one end of the mat to the other. That made for good progress, and Sophie figured that if Buzz could keep up the work, he'd be doing well enough to fly on his own before she had to go back for her spring semester.