It was the most cherished compliment he could wish.
And that marked the beginning of ten days of flying, sometimes with Tommy to give him the evolutions of recovering from side-slips, skids, tail spins, and other possibilities of flying, none of them hazards at sensible altitude, and with a calm mind guiding the controls. At other times “stunts” were taught, not to make him a daredevil, but because, in flying, an airplane sometimes gets into positions where the pilot must know every possible means of extricating it. Solo, and with Tommy, Larry became a good pilot.
And in all that time, his “ground crew”—got nowhere!
CHAPTER XXIV
A PUZZLING DEVELOPMENT
“Hooray!” Dick slapped Sandy’s shoulder. “The ‘man higher up’ has come down to earth! Here comes Larry!”
“You’re a sight for sore eyes!” Sandy exclaimed as the youthful amateur pilot joined his friends.
“I haven’t seen much of you, I know.” Larry sat down on the swing by Dick on the latter’s veranda. “Daytimes I’ve been studying rigging and checking up on an airplane, because Tommy thinks a pilot ought to know everything there is to know about his ship because he may have to do things himself if he gets hold of a careless rigger.”
“If the pilot didn’t know the right way he couldn’t say if his helper was doing things the wrong way,” agreed Sandy.
“But that hasn’t kept you away evenings,” objected Dick.
“Tommy has been very good to me, giving me his time, in his room, so he could tell me all the ‘fine points’ he has picked up about flying.”