Down on the shore of Lake Keuka, about a half mile from the factory, are the aeroplane sheds and the flying field. Here is where the aviation school is situated, and where flyers are made. Over the smooth field, the pupils start with the four-cylinder "grass cutters," or machines hobbled so they cannot get but a little way off the ground. They hop, hop, hop, almost all day long, one after the other taking regular turns, and now and again varying the monotony by being called away by the flying instructor to take a real flight in the hydroaeroplane out over the lake to get accustomed to the upper air, and to the high speed of the big machine.
Later in his course of instruction, the student takes out an eight-cylinder machine and flies around in circles over the field until he is able to take the test for his Aero Club of America License, which requires him to make two series of figure eights around two pylons fifteen hundred feet apart, landing each time within one hundred and fifty feet of a mark and rising to an altitude greater than two hundred feet.
This is the goal of the novice, and after his test, the student is ready to fly as far and as fast as he likes. He has become the complete airman.