ce of this happened one day as I was watching the
flights and waiting for my turn. I was particularly interested in
a machine that had just risen from the "Grande Piste." It was
acting very peculiarly. Suddenly its motor was heard to stop.
Instead of diving it commenced to wabble, indicating a _perte de
vitesse_. It slipped off on the wing and then dove. I watched it
intently, expecting it to turn into the dreaded spiral. Instead
it began to climb. Then it went off on the wing, righted itself,
again slipped off on the wing, volplaned, and went off once more.
This extraordinary performance was repeated several times, while
each time the machine approached nearer and nearer to the ground.
I thought that the pilot would surely be killed. Luck was with
him, however, for his slip ceased just as he made contact with
the ground and he settled in a neighbouring field. It was a very
bumpy landing but the airplane was undamaged.

The officers rushed to the spot to find out what was the matter.
They found the pilot unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. Later in
the hospital he explained that the altitude had affected his
heart and that he had fainted. As he felt himself going he
remembered his instructions and relinquished the controls, at the
same time stopping his motor. His presence of mind and his luck
had saved his life--his luck I say, for had the machine not
righted itself at the moment of touching the ground it would have
been inevitably wrecked.

The spectacle, though terrifying, proved valuable as an education to
young Winslow who a few days later was ordered to a test of
ascension of two thousand feet. This is his story:

I had a narrow escape. I had received orders to make a flight
during a snow-storm. I rose to the prescribed height and then
prepared to make my descent. A whirling squall caught me in the
act of making a spiral. I felt the tail of my machine go down and
the nose point up. I had a classical _perte de vitesse_. I looked
out and saw that I was less than eight hundred feet above the
ground and approaching it at an alarming rate of speed. I had
already shut off the motor for the spiral, and turning it on, I
knew, would not help me in the least. Suddenly I remembered the
pilot who fainted. I let go of everything, and with a sickening
feeling