District VII — Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Having returned home after spending two-and-a-half days at the July Executive Council meeting, I came away amazed at the amount of work being done on behalf of all of us. From youth educational outreach and flying-site assistance to FAA issues, museum upgrades, and bringing Model Aviation online—the list goes on and on.
If you think of AMA as being only about insurance, please take another look. From the staff at Headquarters to the many volunteers in the field, these dedicated people work hard every day to ensure that our hobby is not only here for us today, but for future generations.
Executive Council meetings are open to all AMA members, and I encourage anyone who can to attend. I'm sure you'll walk away amazed, too.
Welcome — Associate Vice President Marc "Doc" Shelstrom
The following comes from newly appointed Associate Vice President Marc "Doc" Shelstrom from the great state of Wisconsin. Doc recently retired as a professor of construction management from the University of Wisconsin and has agreed to help out in the district. He is a lifelong modeler and an all-around great guy. Please join me in giving him a warm welcome, and be sure to stop by and say hello if he's at an event you're attending.
TAG Event — Fond du Lac Civil Air Patrol Cadet Camp
During the week of July 9–13, I had the privilege of serving as a flight instructor at a Take Off And Grow (TAG) event sponsored by AMA for the Civil Air Patrol cadet camp held at the Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) Aeromodelers Association field. The Fond du Lac club has a beautiful field encompassing more than 20 acres.
Aircraft and equipment:
- Hobbico provided a 58-inch Flyzone Sensei Sport Trainer EP RTF for the cadets' use.
- Each cadet took an airplane home at the end of the week.
- The Sensei trainer's transmitter had a radio link, so no trainer cable was needed to connect the instructor's transmitter to the student's transmitter. This was the first time I had trained anyone with a radio-linked system, and it worked much better than the cable system.
Daily schedule and demonstrations:
- Each day ran from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with a half-hour lunch break.
- During the noon break, local club members put on flight demonstrations for the cadets. Demonstrations included:
- A turbine jet
- A pattern airplane
- A four-engine, 200-inch-wingspan C-124 Globemaster
- A tethered hot air balloon (cadets rose up about 50 feet in the basket and then returned to the ground)
Cadets and training intensity:
- Thirty-five cadets from across the U.S. attended, ranging in age from 12 to 20.
- The days were intense because none of the cadets had previous flight experience, so the flight instructors had to be constantly on watch.
Training progression:
- We first taught them to fly in a circular pattern. The instructor would do the takeoff, the cadet would fly the trainer airplane for five minutes, then hand the student transmitter to another cadet who would fly for five minutes, and finally the instructor would land the airplane. While the electronics in that aircraft cooled, another airplane was launched and the cycle continued.
- After the cadets mastered flying in a circular pattern, we worked on right and left turns as the airplane flew toward the pilot.
- We then worked on takeoffs and, lastly, landings. The size of the pilot area was a huge asset to the novice pilots.
- When the cadets were not on the flightline, they spent time on flight simulators.
Training highlight: By Thursday, one young man was doing exceptionally well, so I told him to climb to a higher altitude, fly level, go to full throttle, go into a slight dive, and then pull back on the elevator. As he finished the loop, I asked, "What did you think of that?" "That was so cool." "Do you want to do it again?" "You bet!"
Since this was the first camp of this type, not everything went perfectly, but it went well overall. It was a great opportunity to work with some amazing young people who will hopefully be future members and leaders of AMA.
Take a kid flying.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
