When the obligatory exercises were
finished, and his comrades were resting and idling, he remounted the
airplane, as a child gets onto his rocking-horse, and took the levers
again into his hands. When he went up, he watched for the exact instant
for quitting the ground and sought the easiest line of ascension; during
flights, he was careful about his position, avoiding too much diving, or
nosing-up, maintaining a horizontal movement, making sure of his lateral
and longitudinal equilibrium, familiarizing himself with winds, and
adapting his motions to every sort of rocking. When he came down, and
the earth seemed to leap up at him, he noted the angle and swiftness of
the descent and found the right height at which to slow down. Although
his first efforts had been so clever that his monitors were convinced
for a long time that he had already been a pilot, yet it is not so much
his talent that we should admire as his determination. He was more
successful than others because he wore himself out during the whole of
his short life in trying to do better--to do better in order to serve
better.
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