Focus on Education
Chip Mull AMA Education Committee Member
HOBBIES, CLUBS, Volunteers, and Money
If you are reading this magazine, I must surmise you are interested in the hobby of model aviation. You may belong to a club and maybe you are a volunteer. You may even belong to one of the several clubs I belong to.
If you read far enough in this article, I'm going to tell you where a treasure is buried. Strange as it seems, there is a treasure chest just waiting for your club. How do you find it? Start by asking a few questions at the next club meeting. Better yet, start by attending a club meeting.
Look around and ask yourself, what have you done for your hobby lately? Model aviation is one of the most fascinating hobbies in the world. It encompasses electronics, aeronautics, manual dexterity, a limited amount of exercise, and a great deal of creativity.
What have you done to see the hobby continue to thrive and develop? What can your club do to bring the members closer together? What can your club do to obtain the new flying field with paved strips and that air-conditioned clubhouse? When was the last article published in the local newspaper about model aircraft?
Only you or your club can answer these questions, but I have some answers for you. I am willing to bet there is a school or a Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop close by that would love to have some help or maybe a demonstration.
Take it upon yourself to call and ask. Don't wait for the president or vice president to do it. Pick up the phone or walk over and ask them yourself.
Talk to the local science or physics teachers and ask if they would like to have your club supply planes and pilots for a demonstration. If you and the teacher spend enough time discussing it, you will discover ways to demonstrate math, physics, chemistry, and who knows what else.
The satisfaction you receive from those smiling faces will more than repay your club for the time involved.
The Treasure
Maybe some of you remember the article about Aviation Field Day. The event was spawned from a request to "do a demonstration" for the Boy Scout Jamboree. As a result, between 7,000 and 8,000 Scouts and adults were introduced to aviation. At final count, 199 Aviation Merit Badges were awarded. This was all from an invitation to put on a demonstration. The clubs involved are now up to their ears in future projects and loving it!
At your next club meeting just look around and see what faces are there every single meeting. Each one of those modelers has a specialty. Some have expertise in fields far beyond building a model plane.
Just for grins, at the next meeting have everyone stand and give a synopsis of his or her life, starting with the first model airplane they ever built. I have met nuclear scientists, B-29 and B-25 pilots from WWII, P-51 pilots, doctors, lawyers, and yes, even Indian chiefs.
One of the finest modelers I ever met spent time in one of the Japanese internment camps during World War Two. They were only allowed to take what they could carry on their backs. Unknown to his father, this young boy had a model airplane kit in his backpack. It occupied his time for a while until it was finished. When he ran out of balsa, he began using old orange crates sanded thin until he could construct the bulkheads and ribs needed for his model.
This man is now one of the finest model builders in the nation and designs and builds models eight hours a day.
One of my very best friends worked for North American Rockwell in their electronics division building parts for cruise missiles. Now retired, he is a freelance modeler. His models range from an old Berkeley Privateer 15 seaplane to the Byron Beech Baron and an F-86 ducted-fan jet. Believe me, they are all museum pieces.
What do these people have in common, besides knowing me? They are the first to lend a helping hand and talk to youngsters whenever possible. If a child shows the least bit of interest, I have seen Walt and Sid spend more time describing intricate details of their creations with the patience of Job.
These are people I admire and respect, and it's people like this who become heroes to young, impressionable minds growing up in today's world.
YES Grants — How Clubs Can Benefit
The treasure? The AMA has a committee called the Education Committee. This committee is comprised of educators from coast to coast and border to border. As part of this committee, I am surrounded with PhDs, MAs, and meeting-unlimited vocabularies at every meeting. I'm just a pilot.
This committee has the power to approve or disapprove YES grants. What is a YES grant? YES stands for Youth Education Stipend and starts at $1,000 for the first year of a program.
What program? This is where the clubs and volunteers come in. All it takes to put together a program are some kids interested in model aviation (what child isn't?), a certified AMA club to receive the check, and volunteers to implement the plan.
Every single Scout troop needs a program for at least one meeting. The troop leaders would welcome a demonstration of your wares.
Bring a bunch of trainers, helicopters, scale planes, cars, Formula One racers, or whatever your members have available and simply describe how they work and invite them to the field the next Saturday or Sunday.
Go to the local high school and talk with members of the science department. Take a can of fuel and ask if they know what model airplane fuel is comprised of.
Talk to the physics instructor and ask if he knows Bernoulli's principle and how to demonstrate it.
Take your plane with the transmitter and show him the controls. He may have never seen one up close and personal.
A YES Grant is a three-year program and it is graduated. We only average about a 6-year return. The first year is $1,000, second year $750, and the third year $500.
When you contact industry leaders like Hobby Shack, SIG, Midwest Products, or ACE Distributors, they can put you on the right track on how to spend your funding most wisely. Some even have a department or person dedicated to education projects.
The Real Reward
The real treasure is the satisfaction you will receive when you see your hobby become full circle. When that child grows up and tells someone about the person that taught him or her to build and fly model airplanes.
Bob Walker, of Robart Manufacturing, started in this hobby with a shop in the Chicago area. Bob was telling me a story once of a man who wanted to introduce Bob to his son.
This man was standing in the background at one of the many trade shows Robart attends, waiting for the crowd around Bob to dissipate. When the man approached Bob, he wanted to see if Bob recognized him. Unfortunately, it had been too many years since he had last seen Bob in his hobby shop.
The man explained to his son that Bob was the man who started him in the hobby and taught him to fly his first airplane.
There was a gleam in Bob's eye as he told the story and the rest of us all knew the hobby had just grown by one more boy and one more generation.
That's the treasure. It's the opportunity to give back to the hobby. It's like having a child of your own. You can hear about it and talk about it, but you have to experience it to know the love of a parent.
You have to give in order to fully appreciate what you have received.
For more information on obtaining YES Grants please go to the AMA website: www.modelaircraft.org/Programs/YES_grants.htm, or for the keyboard challenged, contact AMA at 1-800-I-FLY AMA.
Keep 'em flying and remember ... build it and they will come.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
