rtain pilots do not pay sufficient
heed to the inspection of their machines before making a flight. The
difference between pilots in this respect is interesting to observe. On
the great day at Hendon, in 1913--the Aerial Derby day--there were over
a dozen pilots out with their craft.

From the enclosure one could watch the airmen and their mechanics as
the machines were run out from the hangars on to the flying ground. One
pilot walked beside his mechanics while they were running the machine to
the starting place, and watched his craft with almost fatherly interest.
Before climbing into his seat he would carefully inspect the spars,
bolts, wires, controls, and so on; then he would adjust his helmet and
fasten himself into his seat with a safety belt.

"Surely with all that preliminary work he is ready to start," remarked
one of the spectators standing by. But no! the engine must be run
at varying speeds, while the mechanics hold back the machine. This
operation alone took three or four minutes, and all that the pilot
proposed to do was to circle the aerodrome two or three times. An
onlooker asked a mechanic if there were anything wrong with that
particular machine. "No!" was the reply; "but our governor's very faddy,
you know!"

And now for the other extreme! Three mechanics emerged from a hangar
pushing a rather ungainly-looking biplane, which bumped over the uneven
ground. The pilot was some distance behind, with cigarette in mouth,
joking with two or three friends. When the machine was run out into the
open ground he skipped quickly up to it, climbed into the seat, started
the engine, waved a smiling "good-bye", and was off. For all he knew,
that rather rough jolting of the craft while it was being removed
from the hangar might have broken some wire on which the safety of his
machine, and his life, depended. The excuse cannot be made that his
mechanics had performed this all-important work of inspection, for
their attention was centred on the daring "banking" evolutions of some
audacious pilot in the aerodrome.

Mr. C. G. Grey, the well-known writer on aviation matters, and the
editor of The Aeroplane, says, with regard to the need of inspection of
air-craft:--

"A pilot is simply asking for trouble if he does not go all over his
machine himself at least once a day, and, if possible, every time he is
starting for a flight.

"One seldom hears, in these days, of a broken wheel or axle on a railway
coach, yet at