Aerial Aspirations

Make sure you are NOT mounted when you grab this quest. it bugged out for me.
Also don't abandon the quest, since the quest giver is now gone and there's no way to get it back. stuck waiting on GM ticket now.

UPDATE: GM said there is nothing they can do and I have to wait until Blizz releases a fix.
UPDATE 2: looks like they fixed it. now the quest has an option to Board him before he disappears and he's actually there for me now.

Mount up and Kua'fon will fly you around for a bit and then dump you in the water. Quest completed.

You will receive "Wisdom of the Wingless" quest. Go back up the hill, turn it in and receive "Dress for the Slide, Not the Ride" which requires you to go back to town, purchase 2 items "barding and a skull".

Now, return to where you were first dumped into the water. Turn in the quest and get the next one (The joy of flight), where you mount and try to fly your bird. If you get screwed up just work your way back up the hill to where the Wingminder and Pa'ku are located.

Turn in the quest, accept the next "Down But Not Out and you will receive your mount. (finally)

It's a shame there's no reason for anyone to come to this page before attempting the quest, as the same just happened to me. The thought that it happened because i was mounted didn't occur to me, but at least I came here to look into if abandoning was a bad idea so thank you for that.