Suppose we have an automobile, running at the rate of ten miles an hour, and the chauffeur turns the steering wheel ten degrees. He can do so with perfect safety; but let the machine be going forty miles an hour, and turn the wheel ten degrees, and it may mean an accident. In one case the machine is moving 14 1/2 feet a second, and in the other instance 58 feet. If the airship has a lever for controlling the angle of flight, he must study its arrangement, and note how far it must be moved to assume the proper elevating angle. Then come the means for controlling the lateral stability of the machine. All these features should be considered and studied over and over, until you have made them your friends. While thus engaged, you are perfectly sure that you can remember and act on a set of complicated movements. You imagine that you are skimming over the ground, and your sense tells you that you have sufficient speed to effect a launching. In your mind the critical time has come. ELEVATING THE MACHINE.--Simply give the elevator lever the proper angle, sharp and quick and up you go. As the machine responds, and you can feel the cushioning motion, which follows, as it begins to ride the air, you are aware of a sensation as though the machine were about to turn over to one side; you think of the lateral control at once, but in doing so forget that the elevator must be changed, or you will go too high. You forget about the earth; you are too busy thinking about several things which seem to need your attention. Yes, there are a variety of matters which will crowd upon you, each of which require two things; the first being to get the proper lever, and the second, to move it just so far. In the early days of aeroplaning, when accidents came thick and fast, the most usual explanation which came from the pilot, when he recovered, was: "I pushed the lever too far." Hundreds of trial machines were built, when man learned that he could fly, and in every instance, it is safe to say, the experimenter made the most strenuous exertion to get up in the air the first time the machine was put on the trial ground. It is a wonder that accidents were not recorded by the hundreds, instead of by the comparatively few that were heard from. It was very discouraging, no doubt, that the machines would not fly, but that all of them, if they had sufficient power, would fly, there can be no doubt. HOW TO PRACTICE.--Absolute familiarity with every part of the machine and conditions is the first thing. The machine is brought out, and the engine tested, the machine being held in leash while this is done. It is then throttled down so that the power of the engine will be less than is necessary to raise the machine from the ground.