Informative Speech?

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shyampatel94

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Shyam Patel
I am thinking about doing an informative speech about aviation for my communication class and was wondering if you guys had any topic ideas? Like three main points I can do them on? 3 narrow points so I can keep the speech to 5-8 minutes long? Any help would be appreciated!
 
1) How to take off
2) How to land
3) How to NOT crash


...uuuuuh, yeah....that about covers flying.

narrow points:

1) How to drain your bank account
2) How to rationalize irrational decisions
3) How a hamburger costs $100 (see points 1 & 2)


...I know...absolutely no help.
 
Last edited:
"Inaccuracies that happen in almost every news article about light aviation".

:)
 
What a stall really is. They have nothing to do with the engine. Benign at altitude or 6 inches off the runway.

Or maybe consequences of engine failure (i.e., you don't just fall out of the sky)
 
since it's for your communications class, just play liveatc for 5 minutes.
 
I'd go with the how to drain a bank account. It'd be funny and interesting at the same time. Of course you would start out with "Buying Xbox games and going out to eat" but then you move on to aviation stuff and the avgas and the PAPER charts and the cost of the plane per hour but like mastercard ads the cost is priceless :)
 
For a lay audience, (high school or undergrad college class?) you can describe the generally the National Airspace System, how it includes 10x more airports than are served by airlines. Use as a specific example an airport close to your location (if you are in a major metro area with one or more airline airports, choose a GenAv-focused airport that people may not know about). Describe the various types of jobs done by GenAv aircraft including personal transportation.

AOPA did a lecture series called "GA Serves America" extolling the benefits of GenAv. You might reach out to their media relations people for a slide deck to give you an outline to speak to. Do use discretion in speaking with AOPA; AvWeb is reporting that a dozen people were let go this week, a shakeup in their public outreach departments. You may reach someone who was just put in a new position to fill a void left by a firing, and their capacity for helpfulness may be limited.
 
Anymouse said:
How does General Aviation benefit the local community.
Click to expand...

YES!!!!

What businesses that are in your community that would not have built there if you didn't have an airport. How many jobs do they provide.

I had one executive state that they did not pick this location because of the airport but if we didn't have an airport, they would have built elsewhere. They paid more than $2.5 million a year in salary and over $100K in property tax. That is money that circulates several times in the local community. This effect it difficult to quantify but usually swamps the direct impact of direct airport jobs and fuel sales.

Try to do a contrast between what your community is like today and what it would have been like if they hadn't built an airport. Ours would still be a nice little town to live in but our industrial base would be consideribly smaller and some of the facilities that would still be here would be smaller. The associated jobs would not be here.

One nation wide company has selected this location twice for major expansions. I have to believe that the fact that our airport is only about a mile away and can handle their fleet of Lear 45s has been a factor in those decisions.
 
1. Aviation is cool

Just look at those old retired guys that sit at the lodge wearing leather bomber jackets emblazoned with various Air Force patches. They get all the free drinks because they have all the great stories. Think of it, if you're an old guy sitting at the lodge bar downing a gin and tonic, do you REALLY want to hear about how Aunt Mollie's petunias are doing, or how Jack's hemorrhoids have flared up again? No, you want to know what it was like to dump bombs over Dresden and fly back across the Pacific chased by squadron of Russian fighter jets and still make it home alive.

2. Aviation makes you smart

Think about it. You dozed off in math class because you never thought that stuff would actually be useful for anything beyond balancing your checkbook. Now you actually have to do math in your head, and if you f**k it up, you're toast. You gain a new found respect for math, physics and statistics. Well, you were always good statistically, you were the bomb at the poker table.

3. Aviation gets you chicks

Not really but if you happen to look like Tom Cruise, you get that association and you have a leg up (so to speak) on "the game." Plus you can talk intelligently amongst a group of people on aviation topics. You know, like how Bradley read some article in Popular Mechanics on canard wings that he didn't fully understand and tried to explain to Natsumi and flubbed explanation on how they work. You called him out on it. Natsumi was impressed. Fast forward three weeks and you're both laughing over the incident at the local sushi restaurant.
 
The most important thing that any civilian needs to know about general aviation and private aircraft ownership and flying is that:

--- when the **** hits the fan it is usually general aviation that makes the first most best difference.

Haiti the airports were damaged and there were a few small fields that immediately started seeing doctors, nurses, employes of GMOs delivered who then called for more resources. The major airport needed to be secured and fixed by US military before large commercial or military air drops could be made. Habitat for mankind of the Bahamas scheduled tens of thousands of sorties of small aircraft and pilots like us to take whatever fit in our planes to relieve suffering while other entities got up to speed. We evacuated emergency people to Miami hospitals as well.

Katrina, Hugo and a number of other disasters it is usually GA that gets their first. What we make up for in our small 4 pax and low payload aircraft is very high numbers of people and airplanes willing to chip in a lend a helping hand at our own expense.

The 2nd thing that civilians need know is that most towns particularly towns smaller than 250k population benefit tremendously by having a local airport and active GA. When the littiney of small businesses from small independent owners to dollar tree franchisees to taco bell make their first contact it is often by small plane.

General aviation is like grease in the engine. You barely know it is there until it is missing then its too late and too difficult to get it back.


shyampatel94 said:
I am thinking about doing an informative speech about aviation for my communication class and was wondering if you guys had any topic ideas? Like three main points I can do them on? 3 narrow points so I can keep the speech to 5-8 minutes long? Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
 
You don't have to get permission from air traffic control to fly
You don't have to file a flight plan
A light single engine aircraft isn't going to take down a building like 9/11 (see Jam 5, 2002, Tampa Fla.)
You don't loose control if the engine quits.
The airplane doesn't fall out of the sky if the engine quits.
 
  • What is a small private aircraft.
  • What is needed to become a pilot.
  • How to plan for a short cross-country flight.
  • Aviation forums and the helpfulness of pilots.
  • Five easy steps to landing a plane.
 
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