Notes: Yes, I did play with my Wii for a few hours the day before writing this with the primary intention of "Make Link fly and watch his position and how he moves with his bird." I did quite a bit of this observation before going to beat the stuffing out of a multi-armed brass statue (yay Ancient Cistern on Hero Mode). Yes, Link really does have this weird crouching position when he flies in case you haven't been paying attention.
After purposefully diving off cliffs a few times, I also noticed that most (if not all?) of the Skyloft Rescue Knights pilot gray birds. I was basing my "Grays go to warriors" after seeing a shot of Eagus on one on Zelda Wiki, but it looks like my assumption really worked out there. Grays being soldier-birds made sense to me.
LOFTWINGS AND RIDERS:
A Basic Guide to Skyloft Bird-Riding Culture
Part II: Riding and Stance
When children make their first bonds with their birds, there are no rules to mounting and riding. When a Loftwing chooses a partner, the bird will stay with their charge for a few days, following him or her around ground-borne and sleeping outside the family home until the fateful moment comes when the two develop enough trust in one another that the bird crouches down to allow the child onto its back for the First Flight. Occasionally, this happens within the first day and, much rarer, within the first hours or minutes.
First Flights are often clumsy, but there are no fatalities or even injuries from a First Flight on record. However, it is not uncommon for a child to come back from their First Flight whimpering and crying in fear. While it is common for parents to take their young children with them on their Loftwings for short flights and small errands, to fly alone is a very different experience. Bolder children often find their First Flight thrilling and joyous. New riders will be allowed to ride freely for three or four flights in order to develop the Loftwing-Rider bond. These flights are characterized by ignorance and instinct. The child will inevitably just clamber up to sit upon the bird's neck with his or her legs dangling over the edges of where the wings join the body and will either sit there like a sack of rocks or will splay themselves out flat against the bird's back, holding the neck-feathers or even the skin of the poor animal in a grip-for-dear-life. While this is tolerable while a rider's body is still small, such methods of riding will become dangerous for their bird as they grow, which is why training at the Knight Academy happens early-on.
Not everyone who attends the Skyloft Knight Academy becomes a knight (and not everyone wishes to) – but our institution is responsible for training all of the young people in Skyloft the proper riding and care of their avian partners. Only those who continue with us and choose to enroll in the Knighting Program have the chance to become knights - the rest receive the basic education, which, unlike the Knighting Program, is free to all new bird-riders. Some of our senior knight-students assist in the basic educational program, particularly those in the veterinary side-program.
These are the young knights responsible for wrestling uncooperative birds into a passive position to be fitted with their first riding-belts. The riding-belt is an essential tool of the Loftwing-pilot as it allows one to grip fast to one's mount without causing discomfort to the animal. Loftwings belonging to nervous children are often nervous themselves and require some rather harsh assistance to be fitted with a belt. Birds belonging to children with calm or particularly brave dispositions may be fitted with no trouble. The belts occasionally need to be adjusted if the bird has any change in size, but as only adult Loftwings choose riders and they rarely have any dramatic gains or losses in weight (such a thing is cause for taking one's bird in for veterinary attention), belts rarely need to be re-fitted. Many adult and young adult riders, after having built trust with their mounts, will swap out the bird's first belts for something custom-made to fit their own sense of fashion. If you see a bird in the skies above or beyond you that winks a little in the sun, that's a bird with a custom belt of metal or lined with gems. Some of Skyloft's wealthier residents enjoy showing off their status in how they dress their birds.
Once a bird has been belted, a young person can then learn proper riding-stance. These lessons begin with the ground-borne position – that is, the bird must have landed and then must be signaled to crouch down by its rider. The rider is then shown the proper way to grip the belt. After that, the rider is told to stand in a crouching position, as follows:
Both hands on the belt (base of the bird's neck). Knees in. The toes and the balls of one's feet perched upon the bird's back, as close to the edges of the wings as possible and to the sides, not to the center.
If that sounds like an uncomfortable position, that's because it is, but it is a position that puts the least stress upon the Loftwing. It keeps one's center of gravity in line with the bird's when it is in flight and spreads out one's body-weight. While a person weighs the same no matter what position he or she is in, a rider in the crouched position actively carries some of his or her own weight and distributes it over a wider area. If one is sitting on one's bird as one would in a chair, the full weight of the body would be centered upon a single area, putting stress upon that part of the bird's spine. This makes the rider more difficult for the bird to carry.
Long ago, people used to craft saddles for use on Loftwings like those which were used on the ancient animal species known as the "horse." It is said that our ancestors once rode horses on the larger islands and they play a role in the legends about the Surface. The horse was a ground-borne quadruped animal roughly the size of a Loftwing without the wings, but quite a bit weightier. Men would sit upon their backs, though some would use a jouncing technique in time with the animal's pace. Saddles did not work well for Loftwings precisely because of the problems inherent in the rider sitting in one place. Early experiments with reins did not work well, either, given the nature of the Loftwing's beak, which would either sever the lines or be damaged by the metal bit.
The crouched position of the rider with his or her hands on the riding-belt is the optimal position for working with a Loftwing. Crouching allows the feet to gain a firm grip into the bird's sides. Leaning one way while gently tugging on the riding-belt encourages the Loftwing to move in that direction. If the Loftwing moves independently, due to danger or a change in the air-current, the crouched position allows the rider to lean into the bird's turn. To change altitude, all a rider has to do is to tug up on the belt to indicate a desire to ascend and to press down onto the bird's neck to indicate a desire to descend. To slow one's animal; a rider is to pull back sharply on the belt. Do not worry; this does not hurt the bird, though it may surprise it a little. Speeding up is a matter of digging one's toes into the bird's sides, both feet at once, and issuing a little call – "Hiya!"
This is all in addition to the vital telepathic/emphatic connection, of course. Master bird-riders and use their minds and hearts alone to ride their bird. Some have even mastered the art of balance and can stand upright on the back of their personal Loftwing when the air is gentle.
There is also the technique of the spin-attack, but that is only taught to Knight Academy students who are on the cusp of full-knighthood and is one of the last tests they must pass to achieve the title and their lifelong jobs as protectors. The spin-attack flight-style is necessary for fending off certain kinds of air-borne monsters and is particularly dangerous because it involves the bird doing a swift barrel-roll maneuver. Even expert knights have slipped from their birds and have fallen to their deaths while employing it in battle. Every decade or so, one of our students will be tragically lost in the training exercises or final test. It can be dangerous for the Loftwing, as well – a few birds have cracked their skulls open doing a spin-attack into a rock, requiring standby-rescue for their riders. Once the move is enacted, it cannot be pulled out of. In the year 1008 SR, the Skyloft Knight Academy lost both a student and his bird in training. The bird was injured and the boy got his hand caught in the riding-belt. They both fell below the clouds. Names are not listed here out of respect, but Sir Eagus has a record of every fallen Skyloft Knight, including students who died trying for knighthood. As such, the technique for training one's bird to spin-attack is a secret teaching. It is far too dangerous for the civilian rider to even attempt.
Cliff-mounting is an essential move for every knight student to learn. It is also the preferred method of mounting for civilian bird-riders. While Loftwings can be mounted and dismounted on the ground, it is far easier on them (and far more exhilarating!) to mount from a dock. This is where the emphatic connection between bird and rider becomes most vital. A rider should never leap off a dock if he or she does not sense his or her bird in the skies nearby. If the bird is far away, it will not catch the rider in time. Once one hits the Sea of Clouds one is lost and, as far below as it is, it is roughly a five-minute-fall. While birds can sense their riders nearby, every rider has a whistle-call for his or her bird. This signals to one's bird that one has jumped and is ready.
The thrill of a mount swooping up to catch you! Those that have tried this method almost never go back to cumbersome ground-borne mounting. Trust is high between Loftwing and rider when this becomes a regular method.
Many riders, too, have opted for the aerial-dismount. This is the preferred technique of Skyloft Knights as they have won their place and have earned their Sailcloths in the Wing Ceremony. Underclassmen knight students and civilians very often craft their own sailcloths so that they might use this technique. The dismount is very simple – one flies their bird low over the patch of ground they want to land on, then, steadying oneself, gets out of the crouch and jumps. Some people keep their sailcloths in their pockets and can reach for them readily, others choose to take the cloth out while they are still riding to hold in one hand before jumping for an easy-unfurl. The cloth catches the air and rider drifts down.
Learning to ride one's Loftwing is more a matter of practice than in straight instruction. Happy Flying!
Next Section: Diet, Grooming and First-Aid