cavalry might be drawn into battle, so could aircraft. In 1912 Burke wrote his 29 maxims for flying: Time in the air will alone make a pilot. When training pilots, no machine should go out without knowing what it is to do, do it and it alone, then land. When on the ground, everyone overrates their capacity for airwork. No young pilot should be allowed out in "bumps" until he has done 15 hours piloting. An aeroplane will live in the wind and a lifeboat in any sea, but they both want good and experienced men at the tiller. Each smash means a certain amount of loss of the valuable assets: dash and keenness, though varying with individuals, the supply has its limits. A pilot whose muscles are rigid when flying should do one of two things: (a) unstiffen (b) give up flying. Napoleon said that in war the mental is to the physical as three to one. If he had known aviation, he would have put a nought after the three. If the occupant of the passenger seat has no confidence in the pilot, there is probability of trouble. If it is the pilot who lacks confidence, the probability becomes a certainty. In aviation, because a thing has been done without accident ten times is no guarantee that there will not be an accident on the eleventh. The qualities mostly required by a pilot: confidence; by an observer: truth; by a rigger: reliability; and the first two are largely based on the last. "Rumour is a lying jade". Aviation is full of rumours. No pilots or anyone put over them will do any good if they listen to remarks actuated by jealousy. Flying creates flying. If you see others up, the weather cannot be so bad as you imagined it was. Divide pilots into classes. The weather will be fit for all of a class or none. The amount of flying done does not depend on the weather but on the arrangements made to avail oneself of good weather. Sufficient arrangements are seldom if ever made. Aviation like arsenic can only be taken in small doses at first. When things are going well, the man in charge can give play to his fears. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. Waiting about on an aerodrome has spoilt more pilots than everything else put together. Strain