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Class 10 · English · Chapter 3 · NCERT Class 10 English – First Flight

Two Stories About Flying Class 10 Notes

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Chapter mind map

The whole chapter at a glance: the big idea, then each branch and what sits under it.

Two Stories About Flying

Analysis of overcoming fear, mysterious guidance, the nature of loss, and humorous wildlife identification from First Flight.

  1. His First Flight: Overcoming Fear

    Liam O’Flaherty’s story of a young seagull overcoming psychological barriers through biological necessity.

    • Psychological Barrier — The seagull fears the vast sea and doubts his wings despite having a larger wingspan than his siblings.
    • Hunger as Catalyst — Maddened by hunger after 24 hours, the bird dives for fish, triggering his natural flight instincts.
    • Flight Process — The sequence moves from inaction to provocation, the plunge, and finally soaring and floating on the sea.
    • Family Motivation — Parents use scolding and the threat of starvation to push him, eventually using food as a clever lure.

  2. The Black Aeroplane: Mystery

    Frederick Forsyth’s narrative of a pilot lost in a storm and saved by an unexplained guide.

    • The Risky Choice — Driven by homesickness, the pilot flies his old Dakota into storm clouds resembling black mountains.
    • Instrument Failure — Inside the storm, the compass and radio die, leaving the pilot lost in a pitch-black environment.
    • The Mysterious Guide — A black plane with no lights appears; its pilot waves and leads the narrator through the clouds.
    • Unresolved Ending — Ground control confirms no other planes were on radar, leaving the guide's identity a mystery.

  3. How to Tell Wild Animals

    Carolyn Wells uses humor and parody of field guides to describe dangerous ways to identify wildlife.

    • Humorous Parody — The poem suggests identifying animals like the Bengal Tiger or Lion only as they are attacking you.
    • Poetic Licence — Uses non-standard spellings like 'lept' and 'lep' to maintain rhythm and a playful, comic tone.
    • Animal Jokes — Contrasts hyenas' smiles with crocodiles' tears; identifies the bear by its 'close embrace'.
    • The Chameleon Clue — The final joke depends on the creature being invisible because it blends into its surroundings.

  4. The Ball Poem: Loss & Growth

    John Berryman explores the emotional weight of losing a personal possession and growing up.

    • Epistemology of Loss — The boy learns the nature of loss—understanding that it is a fundamental, unavoidable part of life.
    • Symbolism of the Ball — The ball represents childhood memories; money cannot replace the specific attachment to the object.
    • Speaker's Perspective — The observer chooses not to intervene, allowing the boy to process his grief and learn to stand up.
    • Poetic Form — Written in free verse with no fixed rhyme, mirroring the speaker's internal flow of thought.

  5. Grammar: Past Tenses

    Using Past Simple, Continuous, and Perfect to distinguish between completed and ongoing actions.

    • Past Simple — Describes completed events or past states, such as 'Riya opened the gate' or 'Riya was tired'.
    • Past Continuous — Uses was/were + -ing for ongoing background activities, like 'Riya was reading'.
    • Past Perfect — Uses 'had' + past participle to describe events occurring earlier than another past moment.
    • Tense Distinction — Past Simple reports an action or state; Continuous provides background; Perfect looks further back.

  6. Answer Writing Skills

    Frameworks for constructing high-quality literature answers using evidence and analysis.

    • Claim-Evidence-Explanation — State a thematic claim, provide textual evidence, and explain the significance for a full answer.
    • Internal Conflict — Focus on character growth and themes like self-reliance rather than just plot summary.
    • Thematic Growth — Example: The seagull's journey represents the transition from dependence to self-reliance.
    • Qualifying Inferences — Use phrases like 'this suggests' to connect visible behavior to deeper emotional meanings.

Chapter notes

Read the prose and poems in this First Flight chapter bundle with clear explanations, character and theme analysis, literary devices, original language examples and Pause & Try Q/A.

01 · Explore

His First Flight: Overcoming Fear

The first story, by Liam O’Flaherty, focuses on a young seagull who is paralyzed by the fear of falling, even as his siblings take to the air.

The young seagull sits alone on a ledge, watching his family fly. Despite having wings larger than his siblings, he lacks the confidence to trust them. He believes the vast expanse of the sea below is too deep and that his wings will never support his weight. This psychological barrier keeps him trapped in a small hole on the cliff while his family enjoys the freedom of the skies.

His parents attempt various methods to motivate him. They fly around him, calling shrilly and upbraiding (scolding) him for his cowardice. They even threaten to let him starve on the ledge unless he flies. However, the fear of the 'desperate plunge' is stronger than the fear of hunger for twenty-four hours, leaving him isolated as he watches his brothers and sister perfect the art of flight and catching fish.

Pause & Try

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Question

Why did the young seagull fail to fly with his siblings?

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NCERT reference: chapter PDF pages 1, 2.

02 · Explore

Hunger as a Motivator

Hunger eventually becomes the force that overrides the seagull's paralyzing fear.

After a day of fasting, the seagull is 'maddened by hunger.' He watches his mother tear at a piece of fish, a sight that excites his natural instincts. When he begs for food, his mother uses a clever strategy: she flies near him with a piece of fish but halts just out of reach. This provocation forces the seagull to stop thinking and start acting.

In a moment of desperation, he dives at the fish. As he falls into space, a 'monstrous terror' seizes him, but it is short-lived. His natural instincts take over; his wings spread outward, and he feels the wind against his feathers. He realizes he is no longer falling headlong but soaring. The transition from terror to joy is completed as his family joins him in the air, celebrating his success.

After flying, he tries to land on the sea and initially fears sinking. He discovers that he can float, and his family celebrates and offers food. This completes the movement from doubting his body to trusting it. The family’s treatment is part of a bird story; withholding food is not advice for teaching children courage.

The Seagull's First Flight Process

  1. 1

    Inaction

    The seagull stays on the ledge, paralyzed by the fear of the sea below.

  2. 2

    Provocation

    The mother bird dangles food just out of reach to tempt the hungry bird.

  3. 3

    The Plunge

    Maddened by hunger, the seagull dives toward the fish and falls into space.

  4. 4

    Instinct

    Wings spread automatically; the bird feels the wind and begins to soar.

The sequence shows how biological necessity (hunger) overcomes psychological barriers (fear).

Pause & Try

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Question

How did the mother seagull trick the young bird into flying?

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NCERT reference: chapter PDF pages 3, 4, 5.

03 · Explore

The Black Aeroplane: A Risky Choice

The second story, by Frederick Forsyth, follows a pilot flying an old Dakota aeroplane from France to England.

The narrator is in a relaxed mood, dreaming of a holiday and a 'good big English breakfast' with his family. However, 150 kilometres past Paris, he encounters massive storm clouds that look like 'black mountains.' He faces a critical choice: return to Paris for safety or risk flying through the storm to reach home.

Driven by the desire to be with his family, he takes the risk. Inside the storm, the environment becomes pitch black. His instruments, including the compass and radio, suddenly 'die' or fail. He is lost, unable to see anything outside the plane, and his aircraft begins to jump and twist violently in the turbulent air.

Pause & Try

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Question

What was the 'risk' the pilot took, and why?

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NCERT reference: chapter PDF pages 6, 7, 8.

04 · Explore

The Mysterious Guide and Unresolved Ending

In his moment of peril, the pilot encounters an unexpected savior.

A mysterious black aeroplane with no lights on its wings appears alongside the narrator. The pilot of this strange craft waves and signals the narrator to follow. Relieved, the narrator follows 'like an obedient child.' The guide leads him through the clouds until the narrator sees the lights of a runway and lands safely.

The story ends on a supernatural or psychological note. When the narrator tries to thank the other pilot, the woman at the control center informs him that no other planes were in the sky. His was the only one on the radar. The identity of the pilot in the black aeroplane remains a mystery, leaving the reader to wonder if it was a hallucination, a ghost, or a miracle.

Pause & Try

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Question

Why was the narrator shocked by the woman's words at the control center?

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NCERT reference: chapter PDF pages 7, 8, 9.

05 · Explore

Grammar: Describing Past Actions

The stories use Past Simple and Past Continuous tenses to distinguish between completed actions and ongoing backgrounds.

Past Simple can describe a completed event or a past state. In “Riya opened the gate”, opened describes an event. In “Riya was tired”, was describes a state; not every past-simple sentence reports an action.

Past Continuous uses was or were plus an -ing verb. “Riya was reading when the bell rang” gives an ongoing background activity and an event that occurs during it. Past Perfect uses had plus the past participle to look further back from another past moment. These original examples show the forms without copying textbook exercises.

TenseUsageOriginal Example
Past SimpleCompleted event or past stateRiya opened the gate.
Past ContinuousAction continuing at a past momentRiya was opening the gate when the bell rang.
Past PerfectEvent earlier than another past eventRiya had opened the gate before the guests arrived.

Pause & Try

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Question

Identify the tenses: 'I was looking at my watch when the radio buzzed.'

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NCERT reference: chapter PDF pages 9, 10.

The rest of this chapter

Keep reading Two Stories About Flying, free

  1. Locked: 1. Poetry: How to Tell Wild Animals
  2. Locked: 2. How to Tell Wild Animals: Follow the Joke
  3. Locked: 3. Poetry: The Ball Poem
  4. Locked: 4. The Ball Poem: Memory, Voice and Form
  5. Locked: 5. Answer Writing: Themes of Courage

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