Later that day, Quinn summoned the members of the White Chasm Aviation Club for a special meeting. All of the students in the club shared a sort of somber disapproval in their facial expressions, but to the shock of everyone present, Kiera Blaine exploded as soon as she walked through the door.


    "You idiot!" she bellowed. "How dare you use ethermancy to cut the rope. Without warning anyone! You nearly gave me a heart attack. You nearly got yourself killed!"


    Then she turned and stomped off. They waited for her to return, but she never did. So they started the meeting without Kiera and without the little Claire Aden.


    "At this meeting of the White Chasm Aviation Club," Quinn began, "I want to discuss my Three-Axis Theory of aircraft control."


    "I take it you have developed this theory in response to Seth''s little adventure in the chasm?" Bjorn said.


    "Indeed. When you and my brother tested the stability of the craft, what did you do? How did you test it?"


    "We rocked the wings," Bjorn replied. "We batted the nose and the tail up, down, left, and right, to see if it would return to the original position."


    "Now imagine that there are three perpendicular axes."


    "Like a three-dimensional vector space," Bjorn said.


    "I have not taken that particular math class," Quinn admitted, "however I am familiar with the idea from my own research today. What you and Seth established before the flight was that the kite was stable along each of the three axes. The upward slant of the main wings contributes to roll stability, the rear wing contributes to pitch stability, and finally the weathervane shape of the craft contributes to yaw stability."


    Bjorn nodded thoughtfully. Then, in a flurry of motion, he began sketching some sort of math diagram on a sheet of graph paper.


    "There have been several instances," Quinn continued, "where Vince has demonstrated, through his paintings of birds, that the tips of the wings can be warped up or down. Each wing is warped opposite to the other, and in this manner birds can roll side-to-side and also change directions. We can say this is the first axis of control. It will consist of surfaces on the end of the wings that go up or down, configured to always be opposite one another.


    "The second axis of control will be found on the tail. It will be a pair of surfaces that go up or down on that smaller wing in the back. This controls the pitch. You can point the nose up or down with that control. Me and Seth discussed the mechanism of control at length, and we decided that these two axes of control can be wired to a stick in front of the pilot. So, the question I want to answer in this meeting of the Aviation Club is, ''How can the pilot physically control a third axis?''"


    "You must allow the rudder to move," Irene said.


    "Wait, why would we need a third axis?" Vince asked. "Birds have wings and tails, and as you said, they are able to turn by simply rolling. Why would we need more than that?"This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "Because," Seth said, "I want to be able to keep the nose straight forward, independently of roll."


    "As Irene said, we need to add a moving surface analogous to a ship''s rudder. We don''t know exactly when we would need to use this surface, but me and Seth both agree that it''s better to have it and not need it than the alternative. So, once we have established that there should be a third axis of control, then we must tackle the question of how the pilot will manipulate the new surface."


    "You could add a ship''s wheel," Irene said. "Any sailor would know what it is used for."


    "But what if I want both hands on the stick?" Seth asked. "What if the winds are intense and I need the strength of both hands to even move the stick at all?"


    "If the winds are so fierce," she replied dryly, "then perhaps you should use your feet to hold the stick. After all, your leg muscles are strong. That would free your hands to control the rudder with a standard ship''s wheel."


    "Feet?" Quinn asked. "That''s actually not a terrible idea."


    "I suppose that is our only other option," Seth said. "I would hold the stick with my hands to control the first and second axes, then the third axis would be controlled with a pair of foot pedals. If I''m just sitting there, my legs are probably not doing anything important anyways."


    "So have we decided to move to a configuration where the pilot is sitting?" Bjorn asked.


    "Yeah," Quinn said. "Sorry, we probably should have mentioned that before. We are going to remove all that rigging holding the pilot in place, and instead we will suspend a platform below the wing, where the pilot will be strapped into a seated position. This way, if the pilot is in danger, they can just remove the straps and jump out."


    "So our next order of business is to engineer the cable and lever system that will allow this three-axis control scheme to work," Bjorn said. "Is there anything else?"


    "I don''t think so," Quinn said. "Let''s get to work."


    "Wait!" Irene protested. "There is something you are all forgetting. A good woman just left because you have insulted her. You must find her and apologize for your stupidity, and you must promise to never be so stupid again."


    "Is that really adding any value?" Quinn asked, but even before he finished the question he knew it was a hollow protest. Kiera is a healer, after all. It might be a good idea to make sure she stays in the club.


    "What kind of a stupid question is that?" Irene hissed. "If you cannot keep your promises then perhaps I should leave the club as well."


    "Making promises is not the same thing as keeping them," Seth said. "In other words, even if we are beholden to our promises, that doesn''t physically prevent us from making mistakes."


    "So you put some effort into it!" Irene said. "Before a Sea Mother sets sail, she listens to the wind. She listens to the sea. She rigidly follows the traditions of those who came before so that she does not forget their lives, their mistakes, and their deaths. But you boys refuse to listen!"


    "This is a fair point," Bjorn said quickly. "We should have some standard set of safety traditions, as she said. A list of safety-related tasks that we slavishly follow without question and without error. For example, we can add one item to the list right away: ''No cutting the rope without warning.''"


    "Maybe we should come up with a list of ways that birds can die," Vince offered.


    "We should be willing to take inspiration from anywhere," Bjorn agreed.


    "I think she makes a good point," Seth said. "Why expose ourselves to the same risks over and over? Maybe we should research how those students in the graveyard died."


    "Maybe we can design the next flying machine to have the lessons of their deaths encoded into the design," Quinn said. "Where possible. In cases where it is not possible, then we will need to encode them some other way, perhaps by recording them in a book. That way, if future students have access to our book, then they might refrain from repeating our mistakes."


    "Thank you, Irene," Seth said with a warm smile. "You may have just saved my life."