of accidents at a later date, due principally to a lack of real
sound knowledge, which they should have gained during the period of
their tuition. One must learn to walk before one can run, and this
takes time; and the remark applies aptly to aviation. It is very
necessary for the pupil to spend as much time as he can on the
aerodrome. Much is to be learned, by an observant man, apart from the
actual time during which he is engaged with his instructor. If he
watches men who are highly skilled, he may gain many useful hints,
though he himself is on the ground.

CHAPTER II

TEMPERAMENT AND THE AIRMAN

As aviation passed from its earliest infancy, and a number of men
began to fly, the temperament of the individual pupil, and the effect
of this temperament on his progress as an aviator, began to reveal
itself. And temperament does play a large part in flying; as it does
in any sport in which a man is given control of a highly sensitive
apparatus, errors of judgment in the handling of which may lead to
disaster. It is not, as a rule, until he has passed through his early
stages of tuition, and has begun to handle an aeroplane alone, and is
beyond the direct control of his instructor, that the temperament of a
pupil really plays its part. Up to this point he is one among many,
conforming to certain rules, and obliged to mould himself to the
routine of the school. But when he begins to fly by himself, and
particularly when he has passed his tests for proficiency, and is
embarking, say, on cross-country flights, then this question of
temperament begins really to affect his flying.

All men who learn to fly--numbering as they do thousands
nowadays--cannot be endowed specially by nature for their task. There
is indeed a wide latitude for temperamental differences--always
provided that nothing more is required of a man than a certain average
of skill. But if a man is to become a first-class pilot, one
distinctly above the average, then the question of his temperament, as
it influences his flying, is certainly important.

A rough classification of the pupils at a school--just a preliminary
sorting of types--shows as a rule the existence of two clearly-marked
temperaments. One is that of the man who is deliberate, whose
temperament guards him from doing anything perfunctorily or in a hurry;
the other is that of a man--a type frequently encountered
nowadays--who while being quick, keen, and intelligent, mars these
goo