Education Through Aviation - 2012/07

Another reminder
of how much it
means for our
future modelers
to learn to build
something with
their hands, and
not on a screen.
We’ve heard about
television from Frank Lloyd Wright, and
now Groucho.
We’ve recently returned from the
National Science and Engineering
Festival in Washington, D.C. While it is
worth noting that it was three days of
amazing crowds, thousands of displays,
and tremendous traffic in our booth,
these weren’t the most memorable
aspects for me. The thing I remember
about that weekend the most will
always be the DC Maxecuters Model
Airplane Club, its members, and their
FF models.
Like many of you, my start in
modeling was CL with my dad, then
to RC, and I have been doing that
ever since. FF never really hit me until
I started working for the AMA. In
fact, I ignored it. It struck me as being
the worst possible excuse to own a
motorcycle. (I can say that since my
wife, Lisa, and I enjoy our Harley-
Davidson Road King). But, as always,
there’s more to the story.
Our educational outreach activities,
AeroLab, and nearly everything we
suggest to our clubs, is rubber-powered
Indoor FF. This aspect of aeromodeling
allows everyone to build and take
home an airplane, which is a huge
deal for youth. Watching thousands of
people stop at our booth and look in
amazement at the Maxecutors display
as if it were art, (and it is), showed
me that people still have a high level
of respect for those who can make
something.
Here’s an excerpt from the article,
“Complaints about a generation of the
mechanically challenged,” by Cynthia
Reynolds:
We advanced to the unique ability to
visualize an idea, then create that vision
with our hands. That’s meant everything
from developing tools to imagining
airplanes to performing open-heart surgery.
So what happens if that all-important
hand-brain conversation gets shortchanged
at a young age? Can it be reintroduced
later, or does that aptitude dissipate?
“We don’t really know,” says neurologist
Dr. Frank Wilson, author of The
Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain,
Language and Human Culture. “That
research wouldn’t get through an ethics
committee, even though it’s happening on a
massive scale in our homes every day.” We
only have these uncomfortable clues, such
as young people who can’t visualize how
to best wield a hammer. Or teens who,
despite years of unscrewing bottle tops
and jars, can’t intuitively apply the rightytighty,
lefty-loosey rule of thumb.
Predictably, this is affecting other
industries that depend on a mechanically
inclined workforce. After NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Lab noticed its new engineers
couldn’t do practical problem solving the
way its retirees could, it stopped hiring
those who didn’t have mechanical
hobbies in their youth. When MIT
realized its engineering students could
no longer estimate solutions to problems
on their own, that they needed their
computers, it began adding remedial
building classes to better prepare these
soon-to-be professionals for real-world jobs,
like designing airplanes and bridges.
What to do? Every chance we have to
interact with young people is precious.
Stop showing and flying your latest,
greatest 1/3-scale smoke-blowing, big,
and shiny 3-D creation for youngsters.
Sure, it’s cool! The problem is, those
kids leave thinking only two things: I’ll
never be able to fly like that, and I’ll
never be able to afford that. Build a
rubber-powered FF model with them—
then they have a model of their own!
Allow them to absorb the many things
they will learn while building, and, as
time goes by, possibly become intrigued
by the other aspects of our hobby.
I think you might be surprised how
much fun it is to have a group of kids
in a gym, with the same airplane,
competing for longest time aloft. So
many pilots now fly foamies during
winter in a gymnasium—the perfect
place to introduce models for youth.
Resources are available. The National
Free Flight Society Digest (freeflight.org)
is a great bimonthly publication. Visit
the AMA website, click education, and
the links for our resources are there. As
always, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Finally, this month, a contest! Yes, a
contest that you can enter, work with
someone on, and tell anyone about. So,
here’s the deal. As we develop the AMA
Flight School website, the conversation
at our last Education Committee
meeting was that content is everything.
One of the best types of content we can
have is video, so we’re going to have a
video contest of stuff generated by the
best in model aviation: our members!
Here’s how it works:
Categories:
• Best Youth member 3-D extreme
• Best beginners “how-to” videos for
RC, park flyers, CL, helicopters,
and FF
• Best RC indoor video
• Best FF indoor video
• Best club promotional video
• Best AMA recruiting video; both
club and individual
• Best aeromodeling safety video
The deadline is September 30,
2012. Each category winner will
receive a “beginner” radio system
and be recognized in this column.
Judging will be done online by the
Education Committee. Dave Gee, MA
safety columnist and member of the
Education Committee, will plant a
demo video for you to refer to. Search
for “StukaDave” on YouTube.
Send an email to education@
modelaircraft.org, with video contest
in the subject and the YouTube link in
the email body. Everyone loves a good
contest; get started!
Fly and have fun!