Although China still lags behind in aviation, her people have shown that their steady temperament and, mechanical instinct fit them to be good pilots, and the pomilarization of flying in this country cannot be long delayed. The following article should therefore be of special as well as general interest.
In the "good old days" of aviation the would-be aeronaut learnt the gentle art of flying in an extremely haphazard manner. After a lecture by his instructor on the whys and wherefores of the various "gadgets" in the cockpit of the machine, he was taken aloft for a trial'trip in an unwieldy and generally unstable machine, fitted with dual control, in which, by keeping his hands and feeb in gentle contact with the controls, he was supposed to learn what to do when a turn was desired or when a return to earth seemed to be the main object in life. Gradually, by process of elimination on the part of the instructor, the aspirant for a "ticket" assumed more and more control, until he was eventually, pronounced fit to go alone and—alone he went. This process took from two-and-a-half to four hours (that is, hours of flying time) according to the ability of the pupil, who, when he had gained the coveted "ticket"? or licence to aviate granted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale by the process of performing a few simple tests, passed on to higher powered, more stable and more efficient machines and the whole process was completed until he was passed out as a "pilot" in the military sense of the word. For a civilian, the "ticke®" was suffice lent: but the demands of war exacted ai more precise knowledge specialized aircraft.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.