stant risk. It is the thoughtful, considering frame of
mind, particularly in a pupil, which is the safe one; but this must
not be taken to imply a type of man who lacks power of action.
Initiative, and a quick capacity for action, are most necessary in
aviation. New problems are being faced continually, and the brain
succeeds which is the most active and original.

CHAPTER III

FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH AN AEROPLANE

(AS DESCRIBED BY MR. GRAHAME-WHITE)

After a period of ballooning, which offers experience for an aviator
in the judging of heights and distances, and in growing accustomed to
the sensation of being in the air, I devoted a good deal of time and
attention--more indeed at the time, and in view of my other
responsibilities, than I could reasonably spare--to a study of the
theory of aeroplane construction, and to the making of models. This
was prior to 1909; Bleriot had not yet flown the Channel in his
monoplane. But when he did I put models aside, and determined to buy
an aeroplane and learn to fly.

At the end of August, 1909, so that I might inspect the various
aeroplanes that were then available, and they were few enough, I went
to Rheims, in France, and attended the first flying meeting the world
had seen. At the aerodrome I met and talked with the great pioneers:
with Bleriot, fresh from his cross-Channel triumph; with Levavasseur,
the designer of the beautiful but ill-fated Antoinette monoplane,
which had, through engine failure, let Hubert Latham twice into the
Channel during his attempts to make the crossing; with Henry Farman
who, fitting one of the first Gnome motors to a biplane of his own
construction, flew for more than three hours at Rheims, and created a
world's record; and also with M. Voisin, whose biplane was then being
flown by a number of pilots.

Finally, after careful consideration, I made a contract with M.
Bleriot to purchase from him, at the end of the meeting, a monoplane
of a type that appeared first at Rheims, and of which there was not
another model then in existence. This machine differed considerably
from the one with which M. Bleriot had flown the Channel. His
cross-Channel monoplane was a single-seated craft fitted with an
air-cooled motor of about 25 h.p. The machine I agreed to buy at
Rheims, and which was known as Bleriot No. XII., would carry two
people, pilot and passenger, while it had an 8-cylinder water-cooled
motor developing 60 h.p.--an exceptional power