achine pointing in the exact opposite
direction.... Then there were also there, with Bleriot machines, Messrs.
James Radley and Graham Gilmour. The latter was afterwards killed.
Radley got his certificate on the same day as I. We were all learners at
Brooklands in those days: I am the possessor of a silver cup kindly
presented by the Brooklands Race Club authorities for making a circular
flight, which shows we were not very advanced. In fact no one except
Grahame-White and A. V. Roe knew anything about it at all, and they
didn't know much.

'I started by simply rolling about the ground in the ordinary way, and
then in a short time opened her out and made short hops in an endeavour
to get off the ground. I remember quite well, after I had been out,
walking along my wheel tracks and examining them, and being fearfully
pleased when I saw them disappear for a yard or two. That showed that I
had flown.

'After I had done this sort of thing for about a month, Mr. Manning came
down and produced a larger jet for my engine, and warned me that if the
machine would fly, she would do so now with the extra power the new jet
would give the engine. He then sat down to pick up the pieces, and off I
went! After making a few hops to get my hand in I opened her out and
made a long steady flight of about a hundred yards, six feet up, and
landed shouting. I had waited and worked for that for some time, so you
can imagine my delight.

'I did "straights" for some weeks and then started to do curves, and of
course the banking of the machine terrified me. However, I grew used to
that, and made my curves shorter and shorter until at last I thought I
would try for a circle. I pointed the Avis to a part of the ground which
had not yet been levelled, and of course once I was over that I jolly
well had to get round somehow: so I made my first circuit. After I had
been doing circuits for some time and had begun to have a little
confidence in myself, I decided that it was necessary to do a
_volplane_. I made inquiries and was told that immediately I shut off
the engine it was necessary to put the nose of the machine down to
approximately her gliding angle, otherwise she would "stall" and glide
back on her tail. You will sympathize with me when I say that I
preferred to avoid this latter alternative, although as a matter of
fact, having a flat tail which carried no weight, she would no doubt
have taken up her gliding angle naturally. Anyway, I didn'