And now for the other extreme! Three mechanics emerged from a hangar pushing a rather ungainly-looking biplane, which bumped over the uneven ground. The pilot was some distance behind, with cigarette in mouth, joking with two or three friends. When the machine was run out into the open ground he skipped quickly up to it, climbed into the seat, started the engine, waved a smiling "good-bye", and was off. For all he knew, that rather rough jolting of the craft while it was being removed from the hangar might have broken some wire on which the safety of his machine, and his life, depended. The excuse cannot be made that his mechanics had performed this all-important work of inspection, for their attention was centred on the daring "banking" evolutions of some audacious pilot in the aerodrome. Mr. C. G. Grey, the well-known writer on aviation matters, and the editor of The Aeroplane, says, with regard to the need of inspection of air-craft:-- "A pilot is simply asking for trouble if he does not go all over his machine himself at least once a day, and, if possible, every time he is starting for a flight. "One seldom hears, in these days, of a broken wheel or axle on a railway coach, yet at the chief stopping places on our railways a man goes round each train as it comes in, tapping the tires with a hammer to detect cracks, feeling the hubs to see if there is any sign of a hot box, and looking into the grease containers to see if there is a proper supply of lubricant. There ought to be a similar inspection of every aeroplane every time it touches the ground. The jar of even the best of landings may fracture a bolt holding a wire, so that when the machine goes up again the wire may fly back and break the propeller, or get tangled in the control wires, or a strut or socket may crack in landing, and many other things may happen which careful inspection would disclose before any harm could occur. Mechanics who inspected machines regularly would be able to go all over them in a few minutes, and no time would be wasted. As it is, at any aerodrome one sees a machine come down, the pilot and passenger (a fare or a pupil) climb out, the mechanics hang round and smoke cigarettes, unless they have to perform the arduous duties of filling up with petrol. In due course another passenger and a pilot climb in, a mechanic swings the propeller, and away they go quite happily. If anything casts loose they come down--and it is truly wonderful how many things can come loose or break in the air without anyone being killed. If some thing breaks in landing, and does not actually fall out of place, it is simply a matter of luck whether anyone happens to see it or not."