safe
landing with care.

STRUT--The upright braces between the upper and lower wings of a
machine are called struts. They take the compression of the
truss frame of the biplane or triplane. Each wing is divided
into truss sections with struts.

S-TURN--A gliding turn, made without the use of engine power. A
machine forced to seek a landing will do a number of S-turns to
maneuver itself into a good field.

TAIL SPIN--This is the most dreaded of all airplane accidents, and
the most likely to be fatal. A machine out of control, due often
to stalling and falling through the air, spins slowly as it
drops nose first toward the ground. This is caused by the
locking of the rudder and elevator into a spin-pocket on the
tail, which is off center, and which receives the rush of air.
The air passing through it gives it a twisting motion, and the
machine makes about one complete turn in two or three hundred
feet of fall, depending upon how tight the spin maybe. The
British speak of the spin as the spinning nose dive.

TAKE-OFF--This is the start of the machine in its flight. After a
short run over the ground the speed of the machine will create
enough lift so that the plane leaves the ground.

TAXI--To move an airplane or seaplane on land or water under its
own power when picking out a starting-place, or coming in after
a landing. This is not to be confused with the run for a start
when the plane is getting up speed to fly, using all her power.
The NC-4 "taxied" a hundred miles to Chatham after a forced
landing, and the NC-3 came in two hundred and five miles to
Ponta Delgada after she landed at sea.

VERTICAL BANK--In this position the machine is making a turn with
one wing pointing directly to the ground, and its lateral axis
has become vertical. The machine turns very quickly in a short
space of air, and the maneuver is sometimes spoken of as a
splitting vertical bank. In a vertical bank the elevators of a
machine act as the rudder and the rudder as an elevator. The
controls are reversed.

WASHOUT--Means anything which _was_ but is not now--anything
useless, anything that has lost its usefulness, anything that
never was useful. Flying may be washed out; that is, stopped; a
day may be a washout, a vacation; a machine may be a washout,
wrecked beyond repair; a pilot may be a was