who would learn to fly, and it is here that a man who has
motored a good deal, driving his own car, is at advantage at first
over one who has not. But otherwise, and writing generally, any man of
average quickness of movement, of average agility, can learn without
difficulty to control an aeroplane in flight. It is wrong to imagine
that exceptional men are required. An unusual facility, of course,
marks the expert pilot; but we are writing of men who would attain an
average skill.

There has been discussion as to the age at which a man should learn to
fly, or as to the introduction of age limits generally in the piloting
of aircraft. But this introduces a difficult question; one which
depends so entirely on the individual, and regarding which we need the
data that will be provided by further experience. Some men retain from
year to year, and to a remarkable extent, the faculties that are
necessary; others lose them rapidly. The late Mr. S. F. Cody was
flying constantly, and with a very conspicuous skill, at an age when
he might have been thought unfit. But then he was a man of a rare
vitality and a great enthusiasm--a man who, though he flew so often,
declared that each of his flights was an "adventure." Taking men in
the average one may say this: the younger a man is, when he learns to
fly, the better for him. Much depends, naturally, on the sort of
flying he intends to do after he has attained proficiency. If he is
going to fly in war, or under conditions that impose a heavy strain,
then he must be a young man. But if he intends to fly for his own
pleasure, and under favourable conditions, then this factor of age
loses much of its importance, and it is only necessary that a man
should retain say, an ordinary activity, and a normal quickness of
vision and of judgment.

Flying is not difficult. It is in a sense too easy, and this is just
where its hidden danger lies. If a pupil is carefully taught, and
flies at first only when the weather conditions are suitable, he will
find it surprisingly easy to pilot an aeroplane. That it is not
dangerous to learn to fly is proved daily. Though hundreds and
thousands of pupils have now passed through the schools, anything in
the nature of a serious accident is very rarely chronicled. This
immunity from accident is due largely to the care and experience of
instructors, and also to the fact that all pupils pass through a very
carefully graduated tuition, and that no hazardous fligh