Before tackling the problems of flight, Orville and Wilbur Wright had been bicycle enthusiasts and understood that a cyclist must lean into high-speed turns. In a flying machine, that tilting movement is called banking, and at Huffman Prairie Flying Field the Wright brothers taught themselves how to bank their airship to make turns. Solving the problem of banked turns by combining rudder movements with wing warping was one of their most important steps toward developing what they called a machine of practical utility. In one flight in 1905, while circling a honey locust tree at a height of about 50 feet, Orville Wright encountered an unexpected gust of wind, the machine began to rise on one wing and headed toward the tree, and as he tried to reach the ground to avoid landing in the thorn-laden tree, the left wing struck it and carried away several branches.