pt flight for himself, either on a
machine fitted with dual controls, or with the watchful instructor on
the pounce to save him from dangerous mistakes. If he prospered well,
the great day soon came, which, however carefully it may have been
prepared for, is always a thrilling experience and a searching test of
self-reliance, the day of the first solo flight, sometimes ending in a
too violent or too timid landing--that is, in a crash or a pancake. The
training was almost wholly directed to producing airworthiness in the
pupil. The various activities which had developed at the front, such as
artillery observation, fighting, and bombing, had no counterpart as yet
in the training establishment. Most of the pupils were eager to fly and
to get to France; they endured workshop instruction as a necessary evil.
Most of the instructors were unable to answer the questions of a pupil
interested in the science of aviation. They knew, and taught, that when
a machine is steeply banked the rudder and the elevator appear to
exchange functions, so that the rudder directs the machine up or down
and the elevator turns it to this side or that, but they could not
always explain the reason of this mystery. Nor could they explain why in
a fog or cloud the compass of an aeroplane is suddenly possessed of a
devil, and begins to spin around. But although they were not all well
versed in technical knowledge and theory, they were all fit to teach the
most important lesson--the lesson of confidence, resource, and
initiative.

There was no special school for the systematic training of observers
until the spring of 1918, when the school of aeronautics at Bath was
formed with that purpose in view. During the greater part of the war the
instruction given to observers in the schools at home was occasional and
desultory. From 1916 onwards a certain number were sent to Brooklands
to learn wireless telegraphy, and a certain number to the machine gun
school at Hythe to learn aerial gunnery. This school had been formed at
Dover in September 1915, and two months later had been moved to Hythe,
where firing from the air could be more freely and safely practised. In
the earlier part of the war the observer's duties were usually
undertaken by officers or non-commissioned officers who volunteered for
the business. When they joined the Flying Corps they already had some
considerable acquaintance with the things to be observed--the
disposition and appearance of the