_Two-thousand Feet above Point Loma._--Carrying out my suggestion as to investigating the “woolly,” the pilot drove the machine straight for Point Loma and those unseen aërial breakers. Suddenly there were two distinct “wallops” and I felt the fuselage beneath me respond as if struck by a stuffed club. There was evidently first a surge then a drop, and it was the descending current of air that deprived the airplane of the supporting medium, hence the shock. Point Loma itself, from this altitude, and seen directly from above, looked very like a barracuda’s backbone--long, low, and ugly. Although this peninsula (see Fig. 21) is less than 500 feet high it so effectively deflects the prevailing northwesterly wind that the upward surge has been noticed by aviators at an altitude of 4,000 feet. It is no wonder then that these descending winds, called “woollies” (from their churning the water into isolated masses which look like tufts of wool), are dreaded alike by yachtsmen and birdmen. They have been known to carry away topsails from too closely venturing schooners and student aviators always give the vicinity of Point Loma a wide berth. _No Winds Aloft._--We had not changed our direction since leaving the ground, but after passing over Point Loma the airplane was put sharply on a port course. I had been expecting this and must confess, somewhat dreaded it, innocently thinking that a 30-mile wind added to our 70-mile rate of speed would “heel” the craft to an uncomfortable angle when the course was changed from northwesterly to southerly. What was my astonishment to find that the putting about was unaccompanied by any of the nautical motions such as tilting or canting. Theoretically one may be ever so well grounded in physical laws but it seems to take actual experience to bring their truth home to us. Of course there can be no wind in the air; when we entered the air it was moving 30 miles an hour in relation to the earth but as soon as we were free from the earth the velocity of the wind had no effect on our flight. No matter how strong the gale, so far as it concerned the airplane, if the wind be steady no difficulty is experienced; the aviator is concerned only by wind-shifts. _The Velo Cloud Seen from Above._--In kindergarten days I remember that one of the first questions I asked was “Are clouds smoke?” And this early query was really first answered in the air. Fog on a mountain top may be cloud, but somehow cloud free from close proximity to the earth seems different.