When the motor slowed up or stopped, his ear would interpret the sound made by the wind on the piano wires, the tension wires, the struts and canvas; while his touch, still more sure, would know by the degree of resistance of the controlling elements the speed action of the machine, and his skillful hands would prepare the work of death.  “In the case of the bird,” says the Manual, by M. Maurice Percheron, “its feathers connect its organs of stability with the brain; while the experienced aviator has his controlling elements which produce the movement he wishes, and inform him of the disturbing motions of the wind.”  But with Guynemer the movements he wanted were never brought about as the result of reflex nervous action.  At no time, even in the greatest danger, did he ever cease to govern every maneuver of his machine by his own thought.  His rapidity of conception and decision was astounding, but was never mere instinct.  As pilot, as hunter, as warrior, Guynemer invariably controlled his airplane and his gun with his brain.  This is why his apprenticeship was so important, and why he himself attached so much importance to it—­by instinct, in this case.  His nerves were always strained, but he worked out his results.  Behind every action was the power of his will, that power which had forced his entrance into the army, and itself closed the doors behind him, a prisoner of his own vocation.

He familiarized himself with all the levers of the engine and every part of the controlling elements.  When the obligatory exercises were finished, and his comrades were resting and idling, he remounted the airplane, as a child gets onto his rocking-horse, and took the levers again into his hands.  When he went up, he watched for the exact instant for quitting the ground and sought the easiest line of ascension; during flights, he was careful about his position, avoiding too much diving, or nosing-up, maintaining a horizontal movement, making sure of his lateral and longitudinal equilibrium, familiarizing himself with winds, and adapting his motions to every sort of rocking.  When he came down, and the earth seemed to leap up at him, he noted the angle and swiftness of the descent and found the right height at which to slow down.  Although his first efforts had been so clever that his monitors were convinced for a long time that he had already been a pilot, yet it is not so much his talent that we should admire as his determination.  He was more successful than others because he wore himself out during the whole of his short life in trying to do better—­to do better in order to serve better.  He worked more than any one else; when he was not satisfied with himself he began all over again, and sought the cause of his errors.  There are many other pilots as gifted as Guynemer, but he possessed an energy which was extraordinary, and in this respect excelled all the rest.