Trying to pass the aviation torch on

jspilot

jspilot

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jspilot
So I'm a middle school teacher in real life and this year my school gave each teacher a chance to teach about something they know to a small group of students once a week. Naturally I picked flying as I've earned my PPL in January. I started by introducing the 4 forces of flight and the concept of lift, drag, thrust and weight. Today we watched an awsome you tube film that the FAA put out in 1968 called " how airplanes fly," well worth a view by the way. The students are really loving learning about flying and are enjoying building paper airplanes and testing them to see if they can implement any design ideas we talk about! It's great for me too as a refresher for all the basics we all learn in training.

I guess I'm sharing this because I read so much on this board about the dark future of General Aviation and wanted to just highlight that everyone is born with a wonder about flying. I doubt any of these students will go on to pursue flying but I'm glad they are exposed to it now.


By the way- major props to the CFI crowd out there. Explaining how Bernoulli's principle woks is not easy... at all. :D
 
jspilot said:
By the way- major props to the CFI crowd out there. Explaining how Bernoulli's principle woks is not easy... at all. :D
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Does anybody know for sure?
 
jspilot said:
So I'm a middle school teacher in real life and this year my school gave each teacher a chance to teach about something they know to a small group of students once a week. Naturally I picked flying as I've earned my PPL in January. I started by introducing the 4 forces of flight and the concept of lift, drag, thrust and weight. Today we watched an awsome you tube film that the FAA put out in 1968 called " how airplanes fly," well worth a view by the way. The students are really loving learning about flying and are enjoying building paper airplanes and testing them to see if they can implement any design ideas we talk about! It's great for me too as a refresher for all the basics we all learn in training.

I guess I'm sharing this because I read so much on this board about the dark future of General Aviation and wantedd to just highlight that everyone is born with a wonder about flying. I doubt any of these students will go on to pursue flying but I'm glad they are exposed to it now.


By the way- major props to the CFI crowd out there. Explaining how Bernoulli's principle woks is not easy... at all. :D
Click to expand...


Great work.

Another project you might want to consider is building an airplane .. the RV-12 is a perfect project for students. There are several flying, and several being built in class rooms all over the country. The plane goes together to flying status in about 800 hours. Your local EAA chapter could get involved to help with fund raising, technical advice, ect.
 
Geico266 said:
Great work.

Another project you might want to consider is building an airplane .. the RV-12 is a perfect project for students. There are several flying, and several being built in class rooms all over the country. The plane goes together to flying status in about 800 hours. Your local EAA chapter could get involved to help with fund raising, technical advice, ect.
Click to expand...

I also remember seeing articles about groups of students that put together a simpler kit airplane and showed it off at a major gathering like SnF or Osh.
 
Geico266 said:
Great work.

Another project you might want to consider is building an airplane .. the RV-12 is a perfect project for students. There are several flying, and several being built in class rooms all over the country. The plane goes together to flying status in about 800 hours. Your local EAA chapter could get involved to help with fund raising, technical advice, ect.
Click to expand...

That would be completely awesome but I'm not really sure it could be accomplished. I only have 4 weeks remaining with this group and then another group of students has the some lessons for 6 weeks and then we have to move on to a new topic. I'm just trying to spark an interest.

Although, someone would have to fly that RV-12 after it was built.... Hmmmm maybe I'll rethink this.:D
 
jspilot said:
That would be completely awesome but I'm not really sure it could be accomplished. I only have 4 weeks remaining with this group and then another group of students has the some lessons for 6 weeks and then we have to move on to a new topic. I'm just trying to spark an interest.

Although, someone would have to fly that RV-12 after it was built.... Hmmmm maybe I'll rethink this.:D
Click to expand...
Good for you. Maybe you might spark an interest in one of them.
 
You might find a local EAA chapter to sponsor a Young Eagles Fly-in and get all these students in the air. Check out youngeagles.org for more details. You might even find a local chapter already doing it.
If you are a EAA member, you can fly young eagles alone but it is a lot of fun as a group. You do not need to be a local chapter member.
 
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