Garuda And Going Bird

Coincidentally, I posted about Christopher Holm "going bird" just as I began to reread the passage in SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers about the airship, the Garuda. I also forgot some details about Chris/Arinninan, who:

has short hair like all gravbelt fliers;
prefers personal flight to an aircar although the latter is much quicker;
of necessity, checks every part of his unit before a flight;
is under Ythrian law and custom, not human law;
tells orthohumans that joining a choth widens and purifies his humanity;
like other human beings, lives at ground level although the city of Gray on Falkayn Bay also has highrises for ornithoids;
flies with other members of Stormgate Choth to a regional Khruath in the Weathermother.

High is heaven and holy.