comfortably certain about anything while in the air. It was our duty
to be uncomfortably alert. Wind! I wonder how many times we had been
told to keep it in mind at all times, whether on the ground or in the
air? And here was I forgetting the existence of wind on the very
first occasion. The speed of my machine and the current of air from
the propeller had deceived me into thinking that I was driving dead
into whatever breeze there was at that altitude. I discovered that it
was blowing out of the east, therefore I headed a quarter into it, to
overcome the drift, and looked for landmarks.

I had not long to search. Wisps of mist obstructed the view, and
within ten minutes a bank of solid cloud cut it off completely. I had
only a vague notion of my location with reference to my course, but I
could not persuade myself to come down just then. To be flying in the
full splendor of bright April sunshine, knowing that all the earth was
in shadow, gave me a feeling of exhilaration. For there is no
sensation like that of flight, no isolation so complete as that of the
airman who has above him only the blue sky, and below, a level floor
of pure white cloud, stretching in an unbroken expanse toward every
horizon. And so I kept my machine headed northeast, that I might
regain the ground lost before I discovered the drift northwest. I had
made a rough calculation of the time required to cover the seventy
kilometres to R---- at the speed at which I was traveling. The rest I
left to Chance, the godfather of all adventurers.

He took the initiative, as he so frequently does with aviators who, in
moments of calm weather, are inclined to forget that they are still
children of earth. The floor of dazzling white cloud was broken and
tumbled into heaped-up masses which came drifting by at various
altitudes. They were scattered at first and offered splendid
opportunities for aerial steeplechasing. Then, almost before I was
aware of it, they surrounded me on all sides. For a few minutes I
avoided them by flying in curves and circles in rapidly vanishing
pools of blue sky. I feared to take my first plunge into a cloud, for
I knew, by report, what an alarming experience it is to the new pilot.

The wind was no longer blowing steadily out of the east. It came in
gusts from all points of the compass. I made a hasty revision of my
opinion as to the calm and tranquil joys of aviation, thinking what
fools men are who willingly leave the good green