This is one of the earliest known Flight Instruction Manuals. It was reprinted in the USAF Pilot Training Class 61-F Class book from Vance Air Force Base at Enid, Oklahoma, the cover of which is shown here. Apologies to my Aviator friends, who have seen this hundreds of times.  Thanks to Lynn Purcell for providing this book.

1.  The aeronaut should seat himself in the apparatus and secure himself firmly to the chair by means of the strap provided.  On the attendant crying "contact," the aeronaut should close the switch which supplies the electric current to the motor, thus enabling the attendant to set the same in motion.

2.  Opening the control valve of the motor, the aeronaut should at the same time firmly grasp the vertical stick or control pole which is to be found directly before the chair . . . The power from the motor will cause the device to roll gently forward, and the aeronaut should govern its direction of motion by use of the rudder bars.

3.  When the mechanism is facing into the wind, the aeronaut should open the control valve of the motor to its fullest extent, at the same time pulling the control pole toward his middle anatomy.

4.  When sufficient speed has been attained, the device will leave the ground and assume the position of aeronautical ascent.

5.  Should the aeronaut decide to return to terra firma, he should close the control valve of the motor. This will cause the apparatus to assume what is known as the "gliding position," except in the cases of those flying machines which are inherently unstable.  These latter will assume the position known as "involuntary spin" and will return to earth without further action on the part of the aeronaut.

*The above excerpt from operating instructions for a 1911 Curtiss aircraft