much
his talent that we should admire as his determination. He was more
successful than others because he wore himself out during the whole of
his short life in trying to do better--to do better in order to serve
better. He worked more than any one else; when he was not satisfied with
himself he began all over again, and sought the cause of his errors.
There are many other pilots as gifted as Guynemer, but he possessed an
energy which was extraordinary, and in this respect excelled all the
rest.

And there were no limits to the exercise of this energy. He gave his own
body to complete so to speak, the airplane,--a centaur of the air. The
wind that whistled through his tension wires and canvas made his own
body vibrate like the piano wires. His body was so sensitive that it,
too, seemed to obey the rudder. Nothing that concerned his voyages was
either unknown or negligible to him. He verified all his
instruments--the map-holder, the compass, the altimeter, the tachometer,
the speedometer--with searching care. Before every flight he himself
made sure that his machine was in perfect condition. When it was brought
out of the hangar he looked it over as they look over race-horses, and
never forgot this task. How would it be when he should have his own
airplane?

At Pau he increased the number of his flights, and changed airplanes,
leaving the Bleriot Gnome for the Morane. His altitudes at this time
varied from 500 to 600 meters. Going, on March 21, to the Avord school,
he went up on the 28th to a height of 1500 meters, and on April 1 to
2600. His flights became longer, and lasted one hour, then an hour and a
half. The spiral descent from a height of 500 meters, with the motor
switched off, triangular voyages, the test of altitude and that of
duration of flight, which were necessary for his military diploma, soon
became nothing more to him than sport. In May nearly every day he
piloted one passenger on an M.S.P. (Morane-Saunier-Parasol). During all
this period his record-book registers only one breakdown. Finally, on
May 25, he was sent to the general Aviation Reserves, and on the 31st
made two flights in a Nieuport with a passenger. This was the end of his
apprenticeship, and on June 8 Corporal Georges Guynemer was designated
as member of Escadrille M.S.3, which he joined next day at Vauciennes.

This M.S.3 was the future N.3, the "Ciogognes" or Storks Escadrille. It
was already commanded by Captain Brocard, under whose o