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[Wicked]

I have just hit my first cavern. An up/down stairway came out into open space 4 z levels above water.
 
Having read the wiki, I am now terrified of fliers, and would like if possible to block up the hole I have made in the cavern roof until I am more ready (like I have a functioning military). > How do I do this?

When I am ready, I intend to dig down somewhere else until I am level with the cavern floor, then tunnel into it. Is this the approved method? If not, what?

If I had come out above dry floor instead of water, is there some way of going directly down? ie building some kind of staircase hanging from the roof? If so how please?

Any other advice greatly appreciated

PS:   I just tried putting in a floor over the up/down stairs, and had a miner trapped on that level. He wouldn't put in a stair up to the next level and stairs down from that level  didn't seem to get to the space he was in. But when I put a stair down from the level up a few squares away, then stairs up from them, he then dug over to the new stairway and out. What was going on there please?

Anyway, is my rough quartzite block floor over the hole in the cavern roof now impervious to nasties?   

[grody311]

There a few forgotten/mega beast flyers, so I suppose there is a little cause for concern.  The floor will contain them.  Assuming, of course, that the trees and rocks don't already contain them in some trapped corner of the caverns, which can happen pretty often.

I mention that because the caverns aren't nearly as dangerous as the wiki would have you believe.  It's dangerous for dwarves to be wandering down there by themselves collecting webs, but one competent squad stationed down there a few months out of the year will be more than enough for you to pacify the entire cavern.

Alternatively, you can just place some cage traps down there and reap the benefits of that.

The point is, don't panic.  It's fairly mundane down there. 

[0cu]

If you want to build down from your existing stairs, just construct up/down stairs with d-b-c-x IIRC right under your dug stairs. You have to construct them one at a time though. If you want to block off access, place a hatch cover over one of your stairs. These cannot be destroyed by critters from down below.

A safe way is to dig a tunnel into the caverns somewhere else.

[Mushroo]

The safest way (IMHO) is to dig your exploratory stairs down to the cavern outside of your main fortress entrance. That way, your military who are protecting your front gate against goblins will also be protecting your fort against creatures wandering up from the caverns. Too many beginners build their stairs down to the cavern from their dining room or dormitories---not smart!

To answer your specific question, a hatch cover is all that's needed (as mentioned above) to block any cavern creature. A dwarf will need someplace to stand while installing the hatch cover, so dig out an adjacent square (with d, d). Once the hatch cover has been placed, press q, o over it to close it tightly so animals and enemies can't get through. (But watch out---dogs and stuff will sometimes get trapped using this method.)

A decently-trained and equipped military squad will do a good job pacifying the caverns. I also really like using Hunters for this purpose, but make sure they are trained up before you send them down to the caverns (it doesn't take long at all to train a Legendary hunter) and watch out for the civilian dwarves who will rush down to the cavern to collect corpses/trash/socks/fallen dwarves. It helps to understand burrows and military alerts so you can confine your civilian dwarves to safe areas.

[Aquathug]

Too many beginners build their stairs down to the cavern from their dining room or dormitories---not smart!

Urist McFuckingeveryone cancels eat. Interrupted by cave crocodile.

[kingubu]

To block the bottom of the stairs, construct up stairs over the dug out up/down stairs, instead of floors.

This blocks access from below and doesn't trap the builder.