Page:The Fun of It.pdf/45

Rh sary for preparing for other professions. A law or medical student spends several years in college and emerges the holder of a diploma. The diploma is really only a permit to gain experience, for the young lawyer or physician must sometimes work for a long period before being considered thor­oughly competent.

I had just passed voting age when I turned up for flying instruction. Most of my first lesson con­sisted in explanations on the ground. I was shown the two cockpits in the plane and I learned that the instructor sat in the after-one and the student in front. I saw the rudder bar and stick and was told that during instruction these controls are con­nected so that every movement made by the instruc­tor is duplicated in the student’s cockpit and vice versa. Obviously, therefore, the experienced pilot is master of the situation at all times, and can cor­rect any mistakes made by the pupil, or show how manœuvers should be executed. Much the same system could be illustrated by imagining automo­bile driving being taught by utilizing two steering wheels, duplicate brakes, throttle, and so on.

Piloting differs from driving a car in that there is an added necessity for lateral control. An auto­mobile runs up and down hill, and turns left or right. A plane climbs or dives, or turns, and in ad­dition tips from one side to another. There is no worry in a car about whether the two left wheels are on the road or not; but a pilot must normally keep his wings level. Of course, doing so becomes