Interesting. Funny. The description in the beginning is really detailed, the story is making notes about very little things about the flying creature and the thoughts of the person in the simulator. That part is interesting, but also exhausting, the details are enchanting but there are so many of them. Maybe it's just me, as I am not especially fascinated by flying. The ending is rather humorous, as the person in the simulator figures what is going on, and realizes that the simulator have been tinkered with. I laughed in the end.

"[...] This means war!"

Not very original, but transmits the feeling in the end perfectly. Nice touch.

Anyway, great little piece, I enjoyed reading this. Good work.

Thank you, sir.

It probably needs another editing pass to even out the feel and flow of the story.

Interesting. I usually prefer inland pterosaur species (mainly because I'm already tired of sea bird like pterosaurs), but this story is quite good. I'd give it 5/5

"I usually prefer inland pterosaur species."

So I see.

I once saw a vid about birds and during the closing titles the background vid was of some large bird that was hovering in front of a cliff face. The bird was close to a bush and would occasionally catch the tip of a branch in its talon and use it as a sort of anchor to help it hold position. The bird was fully suspended by the updraft, not the bush. I thought it was fantastic that it had enough control, even with the variations in updraft, to maintain position that precisely. Of course you could see that it was constantly working its wings and tail, twisting, cupping, spreading its feathers, etc. When the idea for this story popped into my head I wanted to use that and I thought of a seacliff. I also had the basic idea of the sabotage of the simulator by a rival researcher.

I had a lot of fun doing the research. It took me awhile to find the right species. I wanted a big one. Pteranodon and especially P. longiceps is quite common in western Kansas (a state in the US), which was an inland sea ~85 mya. Then I got caught up in the drama of the paleontological community during the late 19th century and decided to heighten the drama in my story by using the direct decedents of those pioneering paleontologists, and this also suggested the title of my story. Then to cast my "monster" I felt I had to find a species that was from ~85 mya, found in western Kansas, and first described and named by E. D. Cope (P. longiceps was first described and named by O. C. Marsh). This eventually led to Tylosaurus proriger, although Cope had originally named it something different, but it was still "his" critter. I would write a few paragraphs, realized I didn't know something, then off I'd go on a hunt for information that would last several hours. The OceansOfKansas.com website was awesome, and so were Dr. Bennett's pages at the Ft. Hays State U. website (he has the full text of many of his published papers). He had a particularly delightful paper titled, Pterosaur flight: the role of actinofibrils in wing function. As an engineer (BSEE) well versed in the basics of physics, that paper spoke to me.

I knew very little about the late Cretaceous when I started.

Perhaps ironically, at the time of the Bone Wars, pterosaurs were regarded as gliders/otherwise poor fliers, but yet your story does show the actual nature of pterosaurs, as agile fliers, pretty much as modern birds and bats.

And also, besides actinofibrils, they seemed to have had air sacs on the wings:

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoo.....g_air_sacs.php

Pretty weird, inflating the wings with air

At first scan, that is an awesome article. I'll have to read through it more thoroughly later. Interestingly, that NASA simulator shows the thickness of the wing has little effect on lift. I used a thin membrane for the sims, but there's a slight advantage to a thicker wing. Inflatable sacks around the bones would solve the problem of turbulence on the lee side of the wing bones. I am definitely adding the article to my collection.

My daughter is an artist and is pushing to get more and more work in the paleontological world. A couple of years ago one of her pieces won an award at an art show hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Another artist had a pterosaur hanging from the ceiling. Pretty cool, but it was a small one--about a three-meter wingspan. I don't remember what the genus or species was.

We ate dinner with her last Friday and she and I discussed Pteranodon structure. My wife and I have a cabin west of Pikes Peak and I've long suggested Tiffany (our daughter) build some life-sized sculptures to place on our land. Friday I suggested she build is a life-sized male P. longiceps with wings outstretched as decoration to go above our gate. She didn't seem too enthusiastic.

"A couple of years ago one of her pieces won an award at an art show hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science"

Belated congratulations for her

You definitely did a lot of research, because it all seemed very natural. And kudos for using prehistoric animals. That's something you don't see very often.

Thanks. IMO it's not proper anthrofiction but cyber-sci-fi, and I don't care.

It's rare to see someone really try to describe little parts of flight..kudos for that.

Thanks.

Wow. Pretty crazy. I'm not sure I fully understood much besides the technological terms ('root-tuber' earned a chuckle), but it was still a good read.

Thanks.

Not a whole lot to crit here. First, a few nitpicking things that stood out: You want "losing" altitude, and "wring" his neck.

Also, this sentence

She swept her wings up as her belly skimmed the surface then brought them down in a powerful half-stroke and immediately rolled hard left, right wing high, left wing nearly level to avoid touching the water.

seemed too long to me, with too much information at once.

I admit some of the details of the flight started to lose my interest, as when you were mentioning exactly how many meters high each wingbeat took her -- but I've always been more of a soft sf person than hard, so my eyes glaze over easily when it comes to technical details. >^_^<

One other bit of nitpicking -- you might want "yeah" instead of "yea." I tend to mentally pronounce "yea" as "yay," as in "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." >^_^<

All in all, though, an interesting start. Even though I found it a little detail-heavy, I really like the concept. It's different, and I'm curious to see if you continue this.

Thanks for your comments.

I caught the "losing" later, but didn't notice the "wring" until you pointed it out. Also, both "yea" and "yeah" are real words and your usage, and pronunciation, is correct. I think I have a lot of editing to do in other stories.

I've simplified the writing around the action bits to keep things skimming along. In other feedback some readers were confused by my word choice. "Configuration" threw one person. She knew what it meant but didn't feel it fit the story--until she got to the end. Another person wasn't sure what "yaw" meant. As a kid I remember the national news guy explaining the terms yaw, pitch, and roll (with diagrams even) because it was the dawn of manned space flight. NASA engineers and astronauts were flinging those terms about and the news folks thought we lay-people might want to know. Cool-beans ejamacation! Anyway, I like "yaw". It's precise, it's short, and it's sweet.

I think I'll run my edited copy through CC. See what they say.