THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



95 



ially hospitable to aviators en panne 

 (lying to, descending). 



Coming back yesterday evening, the 

 sun was pretty low and the air absolutely 

 calm — nothing but the drone of the motor 

 and the wind ; the only movements neces- 

 sary an occasional slight pressure on the 

 joy-stick to one side or the other to keep 

 the proper direction. I came very nearly 

 going to sleep, it was so peaceful up 

 there ; several times closed my eyes and 

 swayed a bit. 



As a matter of fact, one is perfectly 

 safe at that altitude — anything over a 

 thousand feet — because the machine, at 

 least this particular type, won't get into 

 any position from which one cannot get 

 it out within 200 meters at most. But 

 nevertheless I haven't tried any im- 

 promptu falls as yet. 



This morning I repeated the same 

 identical performance, because for some 

 reason we have to do two "petits voy- 

 ages," and had much the same kind of 

 a time as yesterday. On the way home 

 one cylinder quit its job and threw oil 

 instead, covering me from head to foot 

 and clouding up my goggles so I had 

 to wipe them off about every minute. 

 When I got back the mechanics decided 

 that that motor had died of old age and 

 would have to be repaired, so I am again 

 without a machine. 



Have watched a beautiful afternoon 

 pass by from the barracks, when with- 

 out my luck I'd be working. But with 

 a machine and weather I can be finished 

 tomorrow ; two triangles to do, about 200 

 kilometers (125 miles) each, and I can 

 do one in the morning and the other in 

 the evening and then I'm breveted. Per- 

 haps by day after tomorrow I'll start 

 perfectionne on Nieuport. I hope so. 



FXYING IN A NIEUPORT 



September 9, 1917- 

 Since my last to father, I have had 

 some very interesting times. First, I fin- 

 ished my brevet with very little excite- 

 ment, made all my voyages, and only got 

 lost a little bit once. Then I saw two ma- 

 chines on the ground in a field, made a 

 rather dramatic spiral and steeply banked 

 descent midst a crowd of villagers, and 

 got away with it; then found that the 



machines belonged to two monitors who 

 were bringing them from Paris and had 

 effected a panne de chateau. 



Being demanded what I was doing, I 

 fortunately found a spark plug on the 

 burn and got that repaired, and "alley 

 oop!" The rest of it was very easy — a 

 bit of flying in the rain which stings the 

 face a bit, but is not bad otherwise. 



Since I have been on the Nieuport. 

 There are three sizes of machines on 

 which one is trained, starting with the 

 larger double-command and going to the 

 smallest. At Pau we got another even 

 smaller, about as big as a half a minute. 

 Four times I went out without a ride — 

 bad weather, crowded class, and hurted 

 machines ; the same old story. 



Then last night I had my first rides 

 with a monitor who is rather oldish, 

 crabbed, and new at his job — a brand- 

 new aviator. As you know, when an air- 

 plane takes a turn, it does not remain 

 horizontal, but banks up — comme ca (if 

 you can interpret that illustration ; it 

 shows signs of remarkable imaginative 



power). Alors, one banks to 



(trees), takes a turn, and uses the rudder 

 only a very little because the machine 

 turns along when banked. There is a 

 sort of falling-out feeling the first few 

 times, until one becomes a part of the 

 machine. 



To get back to the story : This monitor 

 does not like to bank his machine, and 

 sort of sidles round the corners, keeping 

 it quite flat and almost slipping out to the 

 outside of the turn. I have done many 

 fool things in a machine and made many 

 mistakes, but never have I been so scared 

 in anything in my life as when riding 

 with this monitor. A monitor is sup- 

 posed to let the pupil drive as much as 

 he is able, but this bird never let me make 

 a move, and when we got through told 

 me I was too brutal. 



I was never madder in my life and 

 cursed nice American cuss words all the 

 way home. There's a 15-kilo ride in a 

 seatless tractor back to camp to improve 

 a bad humor. 



"the maddest man I ever saw" 



Well, this morning I saw some more 

 rides impending and didn't like it, so 



