January 6 [Poetry Class]
January 6
Tuesdays are slow days for me. I only have one actual class, which is poetry. I like poetry; it's like a song that you make up the music to yourself. A lot of ponies write poetry, so I should do very well.
Our teacher is called Conrad Hillberry, which I think is a type of grapes that humans grow. He's old; he might be the oldest human I've ever seen, but he has a nice friendly face.
There are a lot of different kinds of poetry, too. Some of it has a very strict structure or meter, and other types are more free-form.
We don't have a proper book for this class, because the instructor said that a lot of the poems would be online, which means I have to see it on my computer. However, my helpers got me several of the books which he recommended in his syllabus. We were encouraged to do that so that we could keep the books when we went back home, and it will be nice when I'm back in Equestria to be able to read them whenever I want. Plus there are a lot more poems which we won't be reading for the class at all in the books.
I have the afternoon free. I don't know what I'll do with all that free time in the future, but for today I got to spend it with Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn. They came and picked me up in Sienna, and we went to the airplane station. I had a meeting with a man who works for the FAA. (Humans like to make abbreviations for things because that makes them sound more important.)
It was just like a class lecture, but not as fun. Mostly he and Mister Salvatore talked, and I listened to what they had to say. Then he showed me a big chart of restricted airspace, where I wouldn't be allowed to fly at all, and he also gave me a big book of rules. Before I am allowed to fly any higher than buildings, I have to read all the rules and take a test.
Mister Salvatore protested, saying that ultralights and powered parachutes don't have to follow all those requirements, to which he said that those weren't the same, and anyway they did have rules that they had to follow, too. Then they got into a bit of an argument whether I could be considered an experimental aircraft or a helicopter, and just when they started to get a bit shouty, Miss Cherilyn said that if anything, I ought to be classed as an ornithopter.
That got him to shut up for a minute, and he sort of changed his tune. Well, first he said that ornithopters didn't actually exist, and Mister Salvatore got a smug look on his face and just pointed at me.
So he came up with a compromise. He said that I was still limited to a thousand feet max, couldn't fly in controlled airspace of any type until I read the book and passed their tests, and that I had to wear a high-visibility vest with a beacon if I was going to fly anywhere off-campus. He said that the campus police could come to their own decision about where and how high I could fly on campus, but reiterated that it was not to be above a thousand feet regardless of what they said.
I was kinda disappointed by that, but rules are important for everypony's safety. Sometimes for weather patrols, we have to wear identifying vests if we're assisting in other pegasuses' patrol territory, just so that everypony can keep track of who's who. That's especially important during Winter Wrap-Up, because so many nomadic pegasi come along to help. It makes things more efficient.
And when I read the book and pass the test, I'll be able to fly wherever I want to, so I was going to do that as quickly as I could.
They offered to buy me dinner before they dropped me off on campus, and they asked what I liked. I told them that I had pizza the night that Peggy arrived and that it was really good, even though there weren't enough vegetables on it, and so we went to a little restaurant called Bilbo's. It was right near another university which was called Western Michigan, and I found out that their mascot was a bronco, which is a kind of wild horse that they have on Earth.
Their pizza was better than the one Peggy had ordered. We talked about how things had been going so far, and I said that it had been great and told them a little bit about my classes and the people I'd met so far. Mister Salvatore had a beer with his dinner, and when he was halfway done with it he looked over at me and asked if I had ever had beer before, and then Miss Cherilyn gave him a dirty look and he just shrugged and said that he was curious. That was very strange. Then they had a whispered discussion about me drinking which they obviously didn't mean for me to hear but it was hard not to (human ears might not be as sensitive as pony ears; for one, they can't move, and for two they're not very big).
Miss Cherilyn said that I probably shouldn't drink beer, and she wasn't sure if I was old enough anyway. I said that I was and then they had a little more of a debate, and she finally said that I could have it if I wanted to, but that I should be responsible. Then she said that I ought to be careful if I wanted to drink at parties because sometimes men put roofies in drinks and did bad things.
I assured her that I would be careful, and that I was aware that drinking and flying and landing on roofs uninvited was not smart. So they decided that I could have one, and Mister Salvatore suggested that I ought to have an Oberon because that is the most important beer in Kalamazoo, and he said that we had driven right by the brewery on our way into town.
When we were done with dinner, we went back to campus and they dropped me off, and just as I was leaving Miss Cherilyn remembered that she had Aquamarine's telephone number and address, so that I could write to her. She said that there were a couple of other ponies that lived not too far from us, and once she had their telephone numbers and address, she would let me have them if I wanted to call them or write to them.
I probably should have done that last night, but I started reading the book the FAA man had given me, and after a while I got real tired and decided to go to bed.
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That and most of us can't be bothered to remember/say the whole thing. We're a lazy bunch. (Although considering how many organizations and agencies there are out there maybe it is inevitable that they will get shortened out of convenience.)
Cute, again.^^
Ah ornithopter... it's been too long since I've come across that word.
...And spell check still doesn't think it's real.
Honestly, I would just have pegasi obey the same safety regulations helicopters are bound to (minus noise regulations, of course). No having to file flight plans for casual flying or short-range deliveries, but maintaining awareness of restricted airspace and ingress/egress lanes for nearby airports would be a must. Safety lights at night, too.
Honestly, that story description peaked my interest. But... I'm not a fan of the Dated chapters-- which I'll admit should have been an obvious thing since it's a journal. I also noticed that some of them weren't too long.
I'm an avid reader, which also means I tend to read faster than most people. When chapters are that short... they're extra short for me. I feel bad to have to pass up such an interesting story description, but I feel off put.
If you're wondering, "why not just ignore the story then?"
I dunno, I just feel obligated to explain to the author why I skipped their story. Just add my two cents, you know?
It's been years since I worked on my pilot's license, but after you've taken your test and gotten ground school out of the way, (there used to be at least) twenty hours of co-pilot with a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) before you were permitted to solo, then twenty hours of solo before you could get the real license. Admittedly, my experience was back in 1981, so there may have been a few changes since then. We have this newfangled thing called 'radio' now (snerk). She probably should be more properly classified as a paraglider/glider or hang-glider, which is a little less paperwork to get licensed. IIRC, she should be fine using VFR (Visual Flight Rules) without an instrument rating (the mind boggles at the mechanics involved with that) as long as the ceilings are 1,000+ feet AGL (above ground level) and visibility is 3+ miles. In fact, the parachute club (there's one at most colleges) may be more than pleased to take her with them on some of their drops. She doesn't even have to pack her chute. (Airspace around parachute drop areas is closed to regular aircraft, so it should be safe for her to stretch her wings too)
Restricted airspace is no joke. Also, really horrible things happen to pilots who fly below 1,000 feet AGL above a populated area. It's known as getting your wings clipped. The FAA doesn't muck around then or now.
6991441
I think the FAA would be less concerned with a Pegasus flying close to the ground than with one wandering into the flight path of an aircraft. If you thought a bird strike was bad...
6991032
(1) Ok I'll read those. Adm Biscuit seems to research a lot, but it's just not coming through in the story here.
(2) Just because dictatorships lied to the populace using Marx's ideas which they had no intention of actually implementing, that hardly seems to be Marx's fault. Any system can be intentionally perverted. Or are you saying that Marx's proposed system is much more prone to opportunistic perversion?
Yeah, what's up with Jesus, right? His teachings are setting children back!
6991096
I certainly hope Adm Biscuit actually goes into angles like this. I'm fine with the protagonist being simple and naive, but if the story stays this simple and naive any longer I'm done. Truthfully, nothing even remotely thought-provoking is happening right now. Everything interesting is happening in the Comments!
I'm dying to know what kind of poetry they're reading
What would a pony make of Milton? Would they see Nightmare Moon in the Fall in his Paradise Lost? Now I wonder what sort would be most cogent and similar to what she would be used to.
I think ponies would like Longfellow. Metrical, musical, occasionally whimsical, and it's easy to imagine his verse being palatable to small colorful horses for some reason.
Just... Please don't introduce ponies to Ginsberg :(
The FAA thing is kinda nuts. The debate on what to classify her as is what kills it. She's not a vehicle, she can't be treated as the operator of a mechanical conveyance, and they don't have anyone qualified to certify her as fit to fly. The only way the FAA gets involved with the conduct of a pegasus in the first place is if someone higher up has already drafted regulations putting sapient flight-capable aliens under their jurisdiction. That's the kind of insanity that the government is capable of pulling off. This? This is the kind of insanity of an overzealous agency that is going to get some very angry phone calls from a few diplomats, intelligence agencies, and probably a congressman or twelve demanding why the hell they're trying to create an incident.
6991591
It is a same-day rush job so they can prevent an accident. Pegasi are otherwise classified as hobby drones.
6991288
I wish people would stop doing this.
Anyway, whats happening is that the EU is coming apart because of petty squabbles and selfishness, a majority of people is beginning to think that starting wars is a good idea and the death rate in the UK will soon go up because of Mr Cameron's policies. And the conservatives here in my little Denmark are ruining the country's famed social services, the economy and our international reputation.
I know you didn't really ask for this info... but I'm in a grey mood today and thought I'd spread it around a bit.
Now I'm going to read the new chapter to cheer me up.
Idk why but this whole paragraph made me laugh.
All she needs now is for someone to tell her how long a foot is, and how to measure a thousand of them.
Altimeter strapped to a foreleg? A new fashion statement amongst Earth visiting pegasuses...
She'd slay all comers at the Red Bull Flugtag.
By the time she's carrying enough avionics to fly safely in controlled airspace, she won't be able to get off the ground. Problem solved!
That made me chuckle. Nicely done Ms Cherilyn and Mr Salvatore.
In the near future, altimeters and position lights will be all the fashion rage with the Clousdale upperclass. Or think of RD with an altimeter. The two are made for each other.
6991611 Because a not-the-first-pony exchange student was a completely unexpected thing that they had no way of knowing was coming in advance.
Like I said, something isn't adding up quite right here.
At first I was like "wait, how did she get to Italy?"
6991439
On the length, look at it from the other direction: even when you have very little free time you'll still be able to keep up with this story.
I have to agree that something's off with the FAA stuff. It seems like they should've settled the pegasus problem the moment they realized that said problem existed, and if college courses in pony language exist, they've clearly known about the problem for a while. And even if they waited until pegasi actually showed up in the country, there's been a whole previous wave of pony transfer students. Yes, there aren't very many pegasi in the program, but "not very many" is still a lot more than zero.
Aside from that logical disconnect, a very nice chapter.
6991032
Except that Marxism has always been most popular amongst the extremely impoverished. The Russian revolution was the work of a overwhelmingly rural, dark age style, peasant based society with a significant auxiliary of urban labourers living and dying in cramped filthy conditions. The same is true of the Chinese revolution.
We're ten years since the victory of the Nepalese communists over the monarchy. In the modern day, Marxist peasant guerillas fight in the forests and Jungles of India and the Philippines. It's very inspiring to see these people who're hunted night and day, who sleep in ditches and trees, never give up and never compromise. And they're educated people, it's easier to find a copy of Marx or Lenin's work in a Naxal camp than it is to find it in a Waterstones.
In both sheer numbers, and in deeds, the impoverished exploited masses have always massively outnumbered SWP joining western university students. There's simply no comparison.
6991681 Don't forget the part where many people didn't wan't the UE in the first place, a few country imposed it to their populations despite referendum saying otherwise. That's a big factor comming into play.
6991382
It seems to me that that changed somewhat recently (sixties, maybe?). Lots of older news articles had full names for things, and now it's all acronyms.
6991387
6991391
Luckily, gDocs knows it is a real word. As an aside, I used to play Words With Friends, and I got so mad when it didn't allow jitte.
6991826
Its a first applied (non theoretical) case, someone may be trying to push a precedence through.
6991407
6991591
6992091
The short version in the FAA debate is that there aren't any official rules yet, and the local office is justifiably concerned with the prospect of her taking a wrong turn on the way to Denny's and winding up flying through the approach to Kalamazoo airport while Delta 4516 is trying to land. He's also concerned about making an exception that someone else in the future might exploit.
That having been said, I certainly could have done better in the text.
This part was amazing. It's highly believable, and yet very, very silly.
Oh no. I had not considered how dangerous and/or annoying a drunken pegasus could be. I'll definitely need to keep this in mind for my own stuff. I'd always kinda figured that a drunken unicorn was mostly harmless, though, as I imagine that any complex spell they tried would just fizzle.
6991591
One possibility is that Congress has passed some basic provisions giving agencies like the FAA authority to regulate ponies in their domain, but cultural exchange has been limited enough that they haven't decided on the rules yet. Kalamazoo might not be a big hub for ponies, but I think Silver mentioned that they only had one pony the previous year.
I'm reminded of the slow, cautious approach the U.S. is taking on self-driving cars and commercial drone flights.
6992675 That makes even less sense, you know that right?
6992878
The debate on how to classify her is kind of crazy, yes (but for different reasons than you seem to be implying; it's really kind of dumb not to just outright create a classification of "pegasus" and give her a custom set of rules to follow until that's done), but it's worth noting that the point is not to determine whether she's airworthy – it's to determine where she's allowed to fly, for safety reasons. This is a reasonable concern.
And you can bet someone in government is going to be making sure she doesn't get hit by a plane, because as you alluded to, they're really not trying to create an incident. Who better than the FAA, which already handles the regulations and procedures for all aircraft in the United States? Any paperwork required to give them at least some initial provisional power in this regard would absolutely have been completed by the time a student exchange program could be set up.
So, in short: The FAA would absolutely handle this, but her species needs its own classification, and trying to shoehorn her into a preexisting one, even temporarily, is dumb.
Believably dumb, though. I could see an FAA official who's way too used to dealing with scripted regulation pulling this.
Anyway, I'm curious: would you happen to work in government or aviation (if you feel comfortable answering that)? I'm a pilot, myself.
6993070 My brother. Flight instructor for too many years, started as an airline pilot these past few months. I gave him use of my couch one week he was stationed nearby. I also have a cousin nearby hosting an exchange student and I have a grasp on how much effort and forethought go into that, too. The FAA is absolutely the go-to for constructing no-fly zones and instructing pegasi about what hazards to them and others exist. My problem is that drafting those regulations is dependent on classifying pegasi and until any of that happens, the FAA has no official grounds to get involved. Further, because of the enormously huge leadup to this situation, the idea that those regulations haven't been drafted yet are absurd.
6993350
Neat! I wish your brother many years of winning good trips, and a swift ride to the captain's seat.
And those are both good points; the FAA should definitely be farther ahead than this, though I wouldn't assume they'd have everything all set up and ready to go. While there's been a lot of lead-up, they're still clearly in a transitional state, what with the rarity of ponies on Earth and Silver Glow's extremely limited knowledge even for being a foreigner, and especially with there apparently having only been a couple pegasi on the planet before. They shouldn't be working from scratch right now, but they wouldn't have their crap together yet, either.
6991965
I suppose you could say that.
But, too bad for me because when I read I usually have hours to do so.
I do see how that could work for other people, though.
6994008 I knew there was a reason I liked you!
Besid you being a great writter that is!
6991439
I'm considering changing that. Expect a blog post this weekend explaining my reasoning.
Well of course you're free to make your own judgement as to what you want to read. The bad news here is all the chapters are going to be short; the good news is that there will be a lot of them, if things work out like I hope.
6991441
There's a lot of stuff which can be ignored in her case. Obviously, she wouldn't have to do any flights with an instructor (although it would be hilarious if the instructor rode her, or was towed along behind in a wagon). Likewise, it's possible she could skip most of the weather stuff.
The things that I feel the FAA would want to make sure that she got right, though, was radio discipline if she's going to consider someplace where she needs to have radio contact as an option (and it wouldn't be that hard for her to carry a handheld aircraft radio), and that she had a complete understanding of restricted airspace.
My thought was that pegasus ponies coming over on a tourist visa would be easier to manage; you could make sure that they understood that they were not supposed to fly above a certain altitude, and that they cannot fly in certain areas; if they do either, their visa gets pulled, and they have to go back to Equestria.
The other thing that would be important to the FAA is not accidentally granting an exception which could be exploited by someone else for whatever reason, which is why the FAA representative was discussing how to classify her (plus, that's the kind of thing bureaucrats do).
The subject is going to come up more in the future, because that's an important consideration in a realistic PoE setting.
6991486
Somebody who's good at math could figure out what the result of a small commercial jet (say a CRJ-600) at takeoff speed hitting a stationary, 100 pound pegasus would be. I assume that the plane would likely be fatally damaged (as would the pegasus).
And I still dont know what terripae means.
6991552
I promise e.e. cummings. He was one of my poetry professor's favorites.
That's a good question. They wouldn't get the religious bit of it, that's for sure. Or maybe it would mean more to them, since many of them have seen Princess Luna.
Religion in Equestria--if they have it at all--would be very much different than it is here on Earth.
Also Walt Whitman would speak to them, I think.
But she's a total badass!
artlaw.foxrothschild.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2015/10/Notrious-RBG.gif
(oops, wrong Ginsberg)
6991681
I feel like I can get away with it, since one-third of my family tree is rooted in Germany. (the other thirds are France, and England/Wales)
And yes, much of Europe is having some issues of late, but then again over here in the US of A, we're not exactly shining beacons ourselves lately.
I could see Rainbow trying to fly high enough that the altimeter stopped working.
6994142 Takeoff speed as in before V1? A loud thump, severe bodily injuries to the pegasus, and about a 50/50 chance of a crash, although not the kind that involves a large crater, but more likely sheared off landing gear from where the takeoff was aborted and the aircraft rolled into the grass at the end of the runway or just a lot of smoking brake shoes if the pilot was alert. Cruising speed at altitude? Dead pegasus, caved in windshield and loss of aircraft if it hit on the nose, loss of an engine and an emergency landing if it caught a wing/engine pod with a fair chance of pranging the landing. They do test commercial aircraft for bird strikes using a chicken gun of all the weird real-world things, but a pegasus would out-weigh a goose and do more damage.
6991721
Thanks!
6991750
Yeah, that's something she really needs to know. It shouldn't be all that difficult to get her a reasonably-accurate altimeter; I've got an app on my phone which is pretty close. Certainly good enough for her purposes.
Hell, they'd probably sponsor her.
6991769
"Here's your radio, and your transponder, and your emergency location beacon, and your set of anti-collision lights. Once you have those situated, we're going to show you your new avionics package which you must carry with you at all times, along with your charts and logbook."
6991880
pictures.dealer.com/l/lhmtoyotascioncs/0155/8af63d93ca4a72ea2a2e4ca92611bc60x.jpg
6992496
Thanks!
Oh yeah, a drunken pegasus would be bad news. Having a drunk pounding at your door is one thing; having them knocking on your bedroom window is even worse. Or running around on the rooftops. . . .
Probably, but a very skilled unicorn might manage to successfully cast. Imagine what devastation a drunk Twilight could accidentally accomplish.
6994182
Sorry, should have been more specific. I was thinking climb speed, not V1.
I'd think that any hit on the fuselage or tail would be catastrophic (at least on a CRJ); wing root might be able to take it. An engine hit, and at best you'd be making a single-engine landing--I'll assume that the engine wouldn't have an uncontained failure.
Hell, I know how much damage a deer can do to a car, and the structure of a car is stronger against that type of impact than an airplane.
6994164 ee Cummings is a badass of peace. Did your professor mention the Latinate influence on Cummings? Man was a superb latinist and you see the old Latin poets in a lot of his crazy syntax and phrasing.
Milton was also writing rather scathingly of internecine conflict--I think ponies might see Nightmare Moon/Celestia there pretty strongly. Now you have me wondering how Milton's unorthodox theology would translate. This will bother me for like hours.
Paul's 1st and 2nd Canterlot were obviously the lost epistles
6991256 ISIS went to Equestria one day. The girly pink everything killed them and they died from exploding internally from rainbows. The End!
6991313 We have lots of them still!
Discord's brother, Bob the Jersey Devil, lives here too!
weirdnj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/JerseyDevilIllustrationFinal.jpg
You can see the strong family resemblance.
6994220
It really would depend on exactly where she hit. If she hit the wing or empennage leading edges, that could possibly be fatal. Hitting the windshield could be fatal, if both pilots got taken out or the surviving one didn't come to his senses in time.
As far as an engine ingestion, I don't know about a CRJ, but a larger aircraft can ingest a human and not suffer an uncontained failure. I know this because I stumbled across a forum post where a Continental Airlines ground crew member got sucked into an engine. The forum post had pictures. I do not recommend a Google search.
Edit: When I say "fatal," I'm referring to the aircraft. The pegasus is definitely going to die, unless you assume cartoon physics.
6994133
A skydiving altimeter should be pretty good.
dropzone.com/images/safety/8/10448-work-alti2-galaxy.jpg
It'll drift away from true as atmospheric pressure changes, but as long as she does short flights and zeroes it on the ground it should be more than sufficient.
Law and the Multiverse covered self-flying superheroes here: http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2010/12/27/superheroes-and-flying-i-air-safety-and-registration/ They concluded that since a superhero with flight power isn't a "contrivance" and as such is not subject to the Federal Aviation Regulations. Note, though, that while the authors are lawyers, they're not pilots. The second post in that series stated that you always needed to file a flight plan, which isn't remotely true--it's merely recommended if you're flying VFR.
If there was a close call between a Pegasus and an aircraft, it won't take long for Congress and the DOT to fix that.
So how did the beer taste?