Iroh awoke on something very hard, and not too pleasant to the nose. He heard voices whispering as well as the sound of rushing air. He sat up slowly but his vision still spun and he felt nauseous. He found a railing to lean over but his nausea was worsened by the sight below. Hundreds of feet below.

"Oh good, you're awake. You've been out for almost a day. The spirit world must be really tiring at your age without being the Avatar"

He recognized the cracking voice and its owner's furry friend they were riding on. The Avatar and he were on Appa, but where the elderly firebender had no clue.

"Master Avatar, before I went out, I could have sworn I heard Zuko calling for me."

"Please, you know I prefer Your Noble, Mystical, Everpowerful and All Knowing Master Avatar" Aang laughed. "Zuko found you in a field, he wouldn't tell us why you were there though. Didnt do him any good though, benefits of being the Avatar, the Spirits can talk to you. I know about your Avatar's quest, and as the only airbender alive, I suppose we should get started on your quest. Thats why we're headed to the Southern Air Temple."

"I am honored by the offer Master Avaa-Aang, but I cannot interupt your duties to the world to spend the time teaching me. Also, if I am to learn the elements, I want to learn from people who have found true harmony with their element. Teachers who let their element guide their lives, not control the element. I mean no offense, my young friend, but I do not feel you are the right teacher for me."

"Oh, well, there aren't any other airbenders to teach you. I suppose I could lend you Appa ever so often so you could learn, but there really arent many options."

"Yes, this is quite the predicament. Though, I have heard of some people in the Northern Air Temple who have learned to fly. Perhaps I could somehow learn from them."

Aang was slightly depressed that he would not get to return the favor of teaching to his aged friend, but understood all that Iroh had said. "I know who you mean at the Northern Temple, but they don't fly. They glide on artificial air currents. They dont bend the air, they just ride the hot air. Though there is a boy there who you should definitely meet, Teo. He really has the heart of an airbender. If only he had been born a bender he would definitely understand the element. He lives to be in the sky."

"It sounds as though he may have mastered what he could of an element he does not control. I would like to meet him. While perhaps he cannot teach me bending, it might be a start."

With that, Aang pulled Appa's reigns gently and they changed directions, heading from south to north. "I know that you don't think I'm the right teacher for you, but while I take you to the Northern Temple, I could teach you some of the basics. Manipulating the air and whatnot. The second element is always easy for a bender because it is usually the closest to their style."

As they flew for the next few hours, Aang showed Iroh the basics of using the spinning force of an airbender's body to pull the air from around and direct it as a firebender chooses the direction of the fire blasts. It was a different feeling to manipulate an element that did not come from his own body. Due to their limited space in Appa's saddle, and because balance was difficult on an airborne Sky bison, Iroh was only able to learn how to move the air in clumsy blasts. Aang spotted an island and they landed for the night so Appa could rest. Aang began to teach Iroh the basic stances and the nature of how an airbender moved in their circular fashion to gather and direct the wind. Once Iroh got over the awkwardness of controlling existing energy, not creating it, he began to grasp it all and soon was able to control all the air around him. Though his first attempts at the air scooter did not end very well, his old body making the falls worse. They decided to pack it in for the night.

Iroh woke early as always and left the small camp to practice his air bending. The circles were very different from the straight and powerful movements of his firebending forms. Using his firebending stances, he could create much more powerful and aimed air blasts, but they did not do much more than push the air around. It felt more like blowing through a tube than airbending. Aang awoke soon after and went to his temporary pupil.

"Its all about flowing. You don't tell the air where to go like you do with fire. Sometimes you pull it from its natural current and redirect it until it naturally goes where you want it to. Other times you just blow it in a new direction so it interupts other currents, but either way, you're just creating new currents. Think of it like when you redirect lightning. You take what is there and you use your energy to push it elsewhere without really controlling it."

Aang had a brilliant idea. "You've always understanded the other elemets by relating them to your own. But now, they're all your own. So lets try relating them all to each other." Aang walked over to the ocean and into the foam while still on the sand. "In earth and firebending, you have to force your element, you control its movements with your own. But in air and water bending, its all about redirection.
Aang shot a straight fireblast out over the sea with a fast punch, then stomped at the ground and a spike of rock jutted out. Then he leaned in towards the waves and pulled back as the wave came in, pulling the water up and into a long ribbon which he spun around himself and put back in the water. "Now air is hard because you cant really see it to know what you're doing. Come into the water and the effect the air has on the water should show us what's going on."

Iroh stepped into the water and began swinging his arms in a controlled circle, trying to direct the moving breeze to come towards him, turn around his body, and continue changing directions while still flowing around him, not away from him like a fire blast. Soon he had made an invisible ball of winds around him which blew the water away from him and left him in an invisible hole in the ocean.
He then made an arc with his arms and released all the air to flow away as it wound itself out of the sphere, along its new current, and then into a straight line, forming a channel in the sea.

"I think you've got it. Well we better go. Its still a few more days to the Northern Air Temple."

"Thank you Aang. I see that you have truly understood the balance of the elements and their connections."

They spend the next few days flying on Appa. Once, Aang attempted to teach Iroh to use the glider, but the concept of bending the air without body motions just did not register with Iroh who fell quickly and had to be saved by Appa. Flying was something that came absolutely naturally to Aang so he had never paid attention to his lessons. Unable to teach it, they decided to wait until Iroh could ride pre-existing currents instead of making his own.