‘Following the first flight,’ says the author of the article from which we have quoted above, ‘there are numerous trips in dual-control machines, that is to say, with the ordinary pilot’s control-stick and steering-bar duplicated, and both couples working under the same controls. Thus, gradually, the _quirk_ becomes used to the handling of the craft and accustomed to the sudden drop of wind, until eventually, without his knowledge, the instructor allows him to fly the machine himself. Sufficient progress made, he is allowed to make flights alone, and when he has learnt to bank left and right, and land the machine in a safe and seemly manner, permission is given him to attempt the Royal Aero Club’s certificate; for which an altitude flight, a distance flight, and landing on a given spot are the only tests that are necessary. This, let it be said, is but the starting-point of his flying education. Flying fast machines, wireless operating, machine-gun firing, bomb dropping, navigation and map reading are still to be mastered. Only one who has been in the air and seen that queer panorama of jumbled green, grey and blue, stretching away for miles on either hand behind him, can appreciate the difficulties of an air pilot endeavouring to make a true course from a mist-bound earth; or when one’s hands are frozen to the bone, and the ice-cold wind whistles by one’s ears, the extreme difficulty of manœuvring the control-stick and working the machine gun at one and the same time.’ As for flying at night, ‘when sky and earth are alike indistinguishable,’ that is a science needing far more than the average degree of courage. Such flying is only entrusted to experienced and skilful pilots. How few persons know the _full_ meaning of the achievements of the heroic airmen who have attacked German airships and caused them to fall flaming to the earth! CHAPTER IX FLIGHT-COMMANDER WILLIAM LEAFE ROBINSON, V.C.