- Part I, His First Flight: how a frightened young seagull finally takes to the air
- Part II, The Black Aeroplane: how a pilot lost in a storm is led to safety by a mysterious plane
- Both stories stage by stage, in the order the book tells them
- The characters, the themes and what the two stories have in common
- The key lines of the chapter, quoted exactly, with what each one means
- Short answers to every textbook question, the margin words and the language work on “black” and “fly”
1The Chapter at a Glance
The book opens with a one-line note: “Since the earliest times, humans have dreamt of conquering the skies.” It then gives us two stories about flying. In the first, a bird is too scared to fly. In the second, a human pilot is lost inside storm clouds. Both are about fear, and about what helps a living being get past it.
| Part I: His First Flight | Part II: The Black Aeroplane | |
|---|---|---|
| Writer | Liam O’Flaherty | Frederick Forsyth |
| Who flies | A young seagull | A pilot (the narrator) in an old Dakota |
| Told by | A narrator outside the story (“he”) | The pilot himself (“I”) |
| The problem | He is afraid his wings will not hold him | His compass, instruments and radio stop working in a storm |
| What saves him | Hunger, and his mother’s trick with a piece of fish | A strange black aeroplane that guides him to a runway |
| Ending | Happy and clear: “He had made his first flight.” | Safe, but a mystery: nobody else was flying that night |
2Part I: His First Flight
2.1 About the Writer
Liam O’Flaherty wrote this story (the book names him on its contents page). He was an Irish writer known for short stories about animals, birds and country life (general knowledge, not from the book). The story is told from outside, but we see everything through the young seagull’s eyes and feelings.
2.2 The Story, Step by Step
Stage 1: Left behind on the ledge
The young seagull sits alone on his ledge (a narrow shelf sticking out from a cliff). His two brothers and his sister flew away the day before, but he did not dare go with them. Each time he ran to the edge and tried to flap his wings, the huge stretch of sea far below frightened him. He was sure his wings would never carry him, so he turned back to the little hole under the ledge where he slept at night.
What hurt most: even his brothers and his little sister, whose wings were far shorter than his own, managed it. So his problem was never weak wings. It was lack of courage; he could not “muster up courage” for a jump that looked so desperate to him.
Stage 2: Scolded, threatened, then left alone
His father and mother came round calling to him shrilly and upbraiding (scolding) him. They threatened to let him starve on his ledge unless he flew. He still could not move. That was twenty-four hours ago, and since then nobody had come near him.
The day before, he had watched his parents training the others: how to skim the waves and dive for fish. He saw his older brother catch his first herring and eat it on a rock while the parents circled with a proud cackle. All morning the whole family walked about on the big plateau halfway down the opposite cliff, taunting him with his cowardice.
Stage 3: Hunger and the heat
The sun climbed higher and blazed on his ledge, which faced the south. He felt the heat because he had not eaten since the previous nightfall. To catch attention, he went to the edge, stood on one leg with the other hidden under his wing, closed one eye and then the other, and pretended to be falling asleep. Nobody took any notice.
His brothers and sister were dozing on the plateau. His father was preening (cleaning and arranging) the feathers on his white back. Only his mother was looking at him. She stood on a small hump, tearing at a piece of fish and scraping her beak on the rock to sharpen it.
“The sight of the food maddened him.”
His First Flight
His hunger was now stronger than anything else he felt. He cried “Ga, ga, ga”, begging for food. His mother screamed back “Gaw-col-ah”, mocking him (the book says “derisively”). He kept calling in a pitiful voice, and then gave a joyful scream: his mother had picked up a piece of fish and was flying across to him.
Stage 4: The mother’s trick and the dive
He leaned out eagerly, tapping the rock with his feet. But when she was just opposite him she stopped in mid-air, wings still, the fish almost touching his beak. He waited, surprised. Then, maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish.
With a loud scream he dropped out and down into empty air. A “monstrous terror” seized him and his heart stood still; he could hear nothing. But this lasted only a minute.
The mother did not stop out of cruelty. She kept the fish just out of reach on purpose, so that hunger would make him jump. Once he was in the air, nature would do the rest. This is the turning point of the story.
Stage 5: He flies
The next moment his wings spread outwards. He felt the wind rush against his breast feathers, under his stomach and against his wings, and the tips of his wings cutting through the air. He was no longer falling headlong; he was gliding downwards and outwards. He was no longer afraid, only a little dizzy. He flapped his wings once and soared upwards.
His whole family joined him in the air. His mother swooped past him screaming, his father flew over him, and his brothers and sister flew around him, curveting (leaping like a horse) and banking (flying with one wing higher than the other). He forgot that he had not always been able to fly, and began to dive and soar and curve himself, shrieking shrilly.
Stage 6: The “green flooring”
Now flying over the ocean, he saw a vast green sea with little ridges moving across it, and he cawed in amusement. His family had landed ahead of him on “this green flooring” and were calling him. He dropped his legs to stand on the green sea, and his legs sank into it. He screamed with fright and tried to rise again, but he was tired and weak with hunger and could not. His feet sank, then his belly touched the water, and he sank no farther: he was floating. His family gathered round, screaming, praising him and offering him scraps of dog-fish.
“He had made his first flight.”
The last line of Part I
The young bird has never been on the sea before. To him the green water looks like a solid floor he can stand on. That is why he is so shocked when his legs sink. It shows how new everything is to him.
2.3 The Young Seagull’s Feelings
2.4 The Family’s Role
| Who | What they did | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| Father and mother | Called him shrilly, scolded him, threatened to let him starve | Pushed him to try; he still did not move |
| The whole family | Taunted him with his cowardice; then ignored him | Left him alone with his hunger |
| Father | Preened his feathers, then flew over him screaming once he was flying | Shared in his success |
| Mother | The only one watching him; held the fish just out of reach | Her trick made him dive and fly |
| Brothers and sister | Flew first; flew around him when he succeeded | Showed it could be done |
- Why was the young seagull afraid to fly? The sea below looked huge and very far down, and he felt sure his wings would never support him. Some young birds are simply more timid than others; a human baby taking its first steps faces a similar challenge.
- “The sight of the food maddened him.” What does this suggest? What compelled him to fly? He was desperately hungry, as he had eaten nothing since the previous nightfall. Hunger made him dive at the fish in his mother’s beak, and that dive made him fly.
- Why did his parents threaten and cajole him? They wanted him to learn to fly so that he could find his own food and live like a grown seagull. Scolding, threats and finally the bait of food were all ways of getting him over his fear.
- A time your parents encouraged you to try something scary? (Personal answer.) For example, learning to swim or ride a bicycle with a parent’s help.
- Was success guaranteed? (Personal answer.) For a bird, flying is natural, but for us success is not certain; it is still important to try, even if we might fail.
3Part II: The Black Aeroplane
3.1 About the Writer
Frederick Forsyth wrote this story (named on the book’s contents page). He is an English writer best known for thrillers (general knowledge, not from the book). Here the pilot tells his own story in the first person, so we only know what he saw and felt.
3.2 The Story, Step by Step
Stage 1: A calm night flight
The narrator is flying his old Dakota aeroplane over France back to England. The moon is rising in the east behind him, the stars are out and there is not a single cloud. He is happy to be alone above the sleeping countryside, dreaming of his holiday and of being with his family. His watch says one thirty in the morning.
Seeing the lights of a big city ahead, he radios: “Paris Control, Dakota DS 088 here.” Paris Control tells him to turn twelve degrees west. He checks his map and compass, switches over to his second and last fuel tank, and turns towards England. He thinks happily that he will be home in time for a good big English breakfast. It seems “an easy flight”.
Stage 2: The storm and the risk
About 150 kilometres past Paris he sees huge storm clouds, which “looked like black mountains” across the sky. He cannot fly up and over them, and he does not have enough fuel to go around them to the north or south.
The sensible choice was to go back to Paris, and he knew it. But he wanted to get home; he wanted that breakfast. So he said to himself “I’ll take the risk” and flew straight into the storm.
Flying an old plane, with only its last tank of fuel, into a storm he could neither climb over nor fly around. He took it because he was eager to reach home, his family and his breakfast. This is the decision that puts him in danger.
Stage 3: Lost in the dark
Inside the clouds everything turned black; he could see nothing outside. The old plane jumped and twisted in the air. Then his compass began turning round and round: it was dead. The other instruments died too. He called Paris Control, but the radio was dead as well. With no radio, no compass and no view, he was lost in the storm.
Stage 4: The strange black aeroplane
Then, quite near him in the black clouds, he saw another aeroplane. It had no lights on its wings, yet he could see it, and he could see the pilot’s face turned towards him. The pilot lifted one hand and waved, as if saying “Follow me”. The narrator felt glad to see another person and was sure the stranger knew he was lost.
The black plane turned slowly to the north, keeping in front of the Dakota so it would be easy to follow. The narrator followed “like an obedient child”. After half an hour, the black plane was still ahead, but there was only enough fuel left for five or ten minutes, and he grew frightened again. Then the other plane started to go down, and he followed it through the storm.
Stage 5: Safe, and a mystery
Suddenly he came out of the clouds and saw two long straight lines of lights: a runway, an airport. He was safe. He turned to look for his helper, but the sky was empty. The black aeroplane was gone.
He landed, and was “not sorry to walk away from the old Dakota”, because it had nearly cost him his life. In the control centre he asked a woman where he was and who the other pilot was, as he wanted to thank him. She looked at him very strangely and laughed: no other aeroplanes were flying that night, and his was the only one she could see on the radar.
“Who was the pilot on the strange black aeroplane, flying in the storm, without lights?”
The narrator’s closing question
The story ends without an answer. The writer leaves us to decide whether the plane was real, a ghost, a guardian angel, or something the tired, frightened pilot imagined.
- “I’ll take the risk.” What is the risk? Why does he take it? Flying the old Dakota, low on fuel, straight into storm clouds he could not climb over or go around. He takes it because he wants to get home to England, his family and his breakfast, rather than turn back to Paris.
- His experience inside the storm? Everything went black; the plane jumped and twisted; the compass, the other instruments and the radio all stopped working, and he was lost until the black aeroplane appeared.
- Why was he “not sorry to walk away from the old Dakota”? The old plane had failed him in the storm and he had nearly died in it; he was relieved to be safe on the ground.
- Why did the woman look at him strangely? He asked about another pilot, but no other aeroplane had been flying that night; only his plane showed on the radar.
- Who helped him? (Open answer.) It could have been a guardian angel or a ghost pilot, or his own inner strength and luck in a moment of panic. Give a reason for whichever answer you choose.
4Characters, Themes and Message
4.1 Character Sketches
The young seagull
- Timid and unsure of himself, though his wings are bigger than his sister’s
- Lonely and hungry after a day on the ledge
- Brave in the end; once in the air he forgets his fear
- Grows from a frightened chick into a flying seagull
The narrator (pilot)
- Loves his family; dreams of home and breakfast
- Takes a risky, impatient decision
- Frightened but obedient once he is lost
- Grateful: he wants to thank the other pilot
Two smaller characters matter too. The mother seagull is wise and loving under her harsh manner; her trick with the fish makes her son fly. The woman in the control centre gives the twist: her words “Yours was the only one I could see on the radar” turn a rescue story into a mystery.
4.2 Themes
Fear and courage
Both fliers are gripped by fear. Courage is not having no fear; it is acting in spite of it, as the seagull does when he dives.
Help at the right moment
The seagull is helped by his mother, the pilot by the mysterious black aeroplane. Neither could have managed alone.
Self-belief
The seagull could always fly; he only had to believe it. Trying is the first step to success.
Mystery and the unexplained
Part II leaves us with a question no one can answer, and asks the reader to think.
Fear can stop us only until we take the first step. Have faith in your own ability, and accept help when it comes, even from where you least expect it.
4.3 Key Lines to Remember
| Line (exact) | Speaker / where | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| “But for the life of him he could not move.” | Narrator, Part I | How completely fear had frozen the young seagull |
| “The sight of the food maddened him.” | Narrator, Part I | Hunger becomes stronger than fear |
| “Ga, ga, ga” / “Gaw-col-ah” | The young seagull / his mother | He begs for food; she mocks him |
| “He had made his first flight.” | Narrator, last line of Part I | Fear is conquered |
| “I’ll be in time for breakfast.” | The pilot, to himself | His eagerness to reach home |
| “I’ll take the risk.” | The pilot, to himself | The impatient decision to fly into the storm |
| “Follow me.” | What the black plane’s pilot seemed to say, by waving | The mysterious offer of help |
| “Yours was the only one I could see on the radar.” | The woman in the control centre | The twist: no other plane was there |
5Words and Language
5.1 Words from the Margin (Part I)
| Word | Meaning in the book |
|---|---|
| ledge | a narrow horizontal shelf projecting from a wall or (here) a cliff |
| upbraiding | scolding |
| (to) skim | to move lightly just above a surface (here, the sea) |
| herring | a soft-finned sea fish |
| preening | making an effort to maintain feathers |
| (to) whet | to sharpen |
| derisively | in a manner showing someone that she/he is stupid (mockingly) |
| dizzy | an uncomfortable feeling of spinning around and losing one’s balance |
| curveting | leaping like a horse |
| banking | flying with one wing higher than the other |
A radar is equipment in a control centre that shows the position of aircraft in the sky. In the story it shows only one plane, the narrator’s.
The ground station that guides planes by radio. “Paris Control” tells the narrator to turn twelve degrees west.
5.2 Thinking about Language
Many meanings of “black”. The book points out that in “They looked like black mountains” and “In the black clouds near me…”, black means the darkest colour, while in “Inside the clouds, everything was suddenly black” and “The strange black aeroplane was there”, it means without light. Other uses:
| Sentence (from the exercise) | “Black” here means |
|---|---|
| black tea | tea without milk |
| the future of the world is black | very depressing, without hope |
| your hands and face are absolutely black | very dirty |
| gave Ratan a black look | an angry look |
| one of the blackest crimes against humanity | most evil, most terrible |
| Harold Pinter’s black comedy | comedy that makes fun of grim or serious things |
| sell these in black | sell illegally, at a higher price |
| beaten the criminal black and blue | beaten so badly he was covered in bruises |
Two senses of “fly”. “I was flying my old Dakota” means controlling an aircraft; “afraid to fly” means moving through the air on wings. Phrases with fly:
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Fly a flag | Display a flag on a long pole |
| Fly into rage | Become suddenly very angry |
| Fly along | Move quickly or suddenly |
| Fly high | Be successful |
| Fly the coop | Escape from a place |
Words close in meaning to “fly” (of birds and insects) from the book’s list include swoop, flit, flutter, soar, skim, hover, glide, dart and flap; words like sink, fall, stay and paddle do not fit.
- Part I (Liam O’Flaherty): a young seagull is left alone on his ledge, afraid his wings will not hold him
- His two brothers and sister, with shorter wings, flew the day before; parents scolded and threatened to starve him
- Twenty-four hours with nobody near; family taunts him from the plateau; no food since the previous nightfall
- Mother holds a fish just out of reach; maddened by hunger he dives, his wings open and he flies
- He tries to stand on the “green flooring”, sinks a little, then floats; the family praises him with scraps of dog-fish
- Part II (Frederick Forsyth): pilot flies his old Dakota (DS 088) from France to England at 1:30 a.m.
- Paris Control: turn twelve degrees west; he switches to his second and last fuel tank
- Storm clouds like black mountains; “I’ll take the risk”; compass, instruments and radio die
- A black aeroplane with no lights guides him north for half an hour; he lands with fuel almost gone
- The woman in the control centre: no other plane was flying, only his was on the radar; the helper remains a mystery
- Can I explain why the young seagull was afraid, and what finally made him fly?
- Can I describe the mother’s trick with the fish?
- Can I explain the “green flooring” and how the story ends?
- Can I give the details of the night flight: plane, route, time, call sign, turn?
- Can I say what the risk was and why the pilot took it?
- Can I list what stopped working inside the storm?
- Can I explain the twist the woman in the control centre gives?
- Can I compare the two stories in three points?