ts would always be in good trim.

Flying for an early solo pupil is the greatest mental strain that a
man can experience. Every moment the fact that he is up in the air,
supported only by wood, wires, and fabric, may be on his mind. He is
making desperate efforts to remember everything his instructor has
told him since he started his dual. He tries to keep that nose on the
horizon, the wings balanced, and the machine flying true. He is in
fear of stalling and consequent loss of control. He goes into his
turns, hardly knowing whether he is going to come out of them, and
noses down for a landing, mentally giving prayer, perhaps, that he
will come out all right. He can't possibly remember everything he has
been told, but he tries to salvage as much knowledge as possible to
make a decent landing.

These experiences tend to bring about two conditions, aerophobia
(fear of the air) and brain fatigue, both resulting in complete loss
of head on the part of the pilot and inability to react to impulses.
Nothing is more likely to produce immediate and fatal aerophobia than
the sickening sight from the air of a crash, yellow wings flattened
out against the green ground a thousand feet below. A comrade, a
tentmate? The pupil looks at his machine, sees the wires throbbing,
and watches with wonder the phenomenon of rushing through the air--he
may let his imagination dwell too long.

During his first hour's solo a swift stream of hundreds of impulses is
borne along the nerve centers to the brain of a pupil. It is like the
pounding of heavy seas against a light sea-wall. His brain reels under
the repeated shocks and the pupil falls into a detached stupor. He
waits while his engine throbs ahead, and lets the machine fly itself.
He seems to take no active participation in the operation, and unless
he recovers control of his brain and his machine it is a crash.
Physicians then have the problem of learning from a dazed and perhaps
badly injured man how it happened. He can recall nothing, and seldom
knows when he lost control.

These are the things that happened when this country was hastening
fliers overseas. As a matter of national necessity it was essential
that as many men as possible be put through their dual and solo flying
and sent across to the other side. It was better for the country at
large to turn out five hundred pilots a month, say, with 5 per cent.
of casualties, than one hundred a month with one-half of 1 per cent.
or le