Focus on Education
Jack Frost
AMA Education
Coordinator
Tel.: (765) 287-1256
Ext. 274
[email protected]
OCCASIONALLY Gordon Schimmel,
chairperson of the AMA Education
Committee, will use the “Focus on
Education” column to profile an AMA
member who has demonstrated extraordinary
leadership and brought the joy of
aeromodeling to newcomers young and old.
Gregg Stockdale renewed his interest in
building model airplanes in a credit union
computer room. In the “old days” of data
entry—actually only a few years ago—he
worked nights, running data-processing jobs
that would sometimes take an hour or more
to complete once the information had been
entered.
“It was back in the days when we had the
old clunkers that would take forever to
batch-process reports we had to generate
from time to time.”
Because, quite literally, there was
nothing to do until the run finished, he
bought a static model airplane to fill the time
and built it in a couple of evenings. Gregg
hadn’t built a model since he was a kid and
because he enjoyed the process so much, he
found himself looking for more complex
flying models as a challenge.
His next project was a CL model
followed by his first RC model—just as the
hobby began to benefit from significant
improvements in technology. Once Gregg
learned to fly, he was hooked on RC and has
built and flown numerous models, flying
mostly for fun.
Today Gregg is the chief executive
officer of a credit union in Southern
164
California and he has developed a number of
ways to give back to the communities his
credit union serves. He is a member of six
Chambers of Commerce, the Rotary Club,
and is on the Board of Directors of the local
United Way.
Almost ready to fly: Gregg and a few of
the boys with the Firebird IIs donated by
Horizon Hobby.
Gregg serves as Scoutmaster to a local
troop of Boy Scouts. As a young man, he
attained the rank of Eagle and recently he
convinced the Boy Scouts of America to
sanction the first aviation-only Scout troop
in the country.
Once he had official approval for the
idea, he set about creating a unique aviation
program, assisted by a Youth Education
Stipend (YES grant) from the AMA
Education Committee. Gregg put together a
Boy Scout troop based exclusively on an
aviation theme.
Projects undertaken by the troop were
ambitious. The Scouts began by learning
basic balsa construction techniques,
including building and flying a Delta Dart,
ARF construction and flying, and finishing
with electric- and gas-powered RC aircraft.
Gregg’s wife is a sixth-grade teacher
and, as a volunteer doing a model aviation
activity in her classroom, he discovered a
love of teaching. “However, I soon learned
that my delivery had to be focused and I had
to feature a variety of activities to keep the
kids interested.”
He took this experience with him when
working with Scouts. “I had to be crisp and
to the point; I had to keep the presentation
moving or the Game-Boys would come out
and I would lose them!”
Gregg came to believe that too often a
young person’s first exposure to modeling is
set in a negative context. “Everything is
‘don’t,’” he says. “Don’t step too close to the
airplane; don’t touch the airplane; don’t
stand in front of the propeller; don’t cross
this line when we’re flying.”
While he respects the need for
preparation and certainly the need for safety,
he came to believe that simplicity creates
access for many more newcomers who
would otherwise be put off by the
complexity of gas-powered RC flying.
Enter Gregg’s appreciation for simple,
electric-powered park flyers.
Support from the YES grant and from
several airplanes donated by Horizon Hobby
made it possible for him to introduce his
Scouts to RC flying in its simplest terms.
Horizon Hobby was one of the first to
market the Firebird II, a V-tailed ARF
electric park flyer, and its donation helped
him carry out his philosophy of getting kids
into the air quickly and easily.
“Unfortunately, in this day of instant
gratification, it is important to help kids
begin to achieve some flight mastery as soon
as possible.”
By using the Firebird II, Gregg
discovered he could solo kids in one outing.
He began with an evening familiarizing the
boys with the airplane and the transmitter:
throttle on the left for climb or descent,
rudder control on the right to turn the
airplane. With a spotter standing behind each
student, a Scout could master a successful
first flight in short order.
The original Scouts recruited for Troop
439 tackled a number of projects and most
stayed with the group during its initial three
years. However, Gregg discovered that as the
boys grew older, their interest in aviation
began to fade. As with teenagers
everywhere, these activities held little
interest when compared with sports, the
opposite sex, and getting a driver’s license—
not necessarily in that order.
Because finding
replacements for an
aviation-only troop
did not produce
enough new recruits,
Gregg has shifted his
focus to one that he
believes will produce
better results.
Beginning this
spring, he will offer
his merit-badge
program as an
activity available to
other Scout troops in
the Los Angeles area.
“There are more
than 200 troops in the
Los Angeles basin,
with approximately
20,000 boys who
might be interested in
an aviation merit badge.” Gregg plans to
showcase his program in a Scout Expo at the
Santa Anita Race Track, an annual event
attended by more than 10,000 people.
Visitors stop by the booth at the Scout
Expo to learn about Troop 439 and its
programs. The annual event attracts more
than 10,000 visitors. It is a showcase for
activities and programs in greater Los
Angeles.
Craig Matsura and A.J. check out the
controls before the first launch. Craig was
a major contributor in helping Gregg
organize the troop.
By offering the merit-badge program to
other troops, he hopes to create a
“multiplier-effect” enabling him to take the
art and craft of building and flying model
airplanes to many more Scouts in the area.
Gregg has recruited a few other members
of his club, the Santa Fe Dam RC Modelers,
to promote model aviation to Scout troops.
These members participate by speaking at
meetings, assisting in merit badge
completion, demonstrating the basics of
flight, providing flight simulators,
facilitating visits to the club flying field, and
providing stick time for Scouts on club
trainers.
What motivates Gregg? Obviously,
taking on these projects is extra work. “It’s
not work when you like what you’re doing,”
he notes. “It’s unbelievably rewarding when
you see how kids react—what I call the ‘Oh,
Wow!’ effect. In my professional life, I see
my work with employees as teacher and
coach, and it’s the same with the kids in
Scouting. You reach a point in your life
when you want to give something back; you
don’t want to just pass through this world
and find out that you didn’t make a
difference.”
Dr. Schimmel has served as chairperson of
the AMA Education Committee for eight
years and is superintendent of schools in
Mansfield, Connecticut.
Members of Boy Scout Troop 439 and their parents get a special
tour at the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino Airport. The field
trip was one of several special events organized for the boys by
Scout leaders.
04june.qxd 3/24/04 10:03 am Page 164
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/06
Page Numbers: 163,164
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/06
Page Numbers: 163,164
Focus on Education
Jack Frost
AMA Education
Coordinator
Tel.: (765) 287-1256
Ext. 274
[email protected]
OCCASIONALLY Gordon Schimmel,
chairperson of the AMA Education
Committee, will use the “Focus on
Education” column to profile an AMA
member who has demonstrated extraordinary
leadership and brought the joy of
aeromodeling to newcomers young and old.
Gregg Stockdale renewed his interest in
building model airplanes in a credit union
computer room. In the “old days” of data
entry—actually only a few years ago—he
worked nights, running data-processing jobs
that would sometimes take an hour or more
to complete once the information had been
entered.
“It was back in the days when we had the
old clunkers that would take forever to
batch-process reports we had to generate
from time to time.”
Because, quite literally, there was
nothing to do until the run finished, he
bought a static model airplane to fill the time
and built it in a couple of evenings. Gregg
hadn’t built a model since he was a kid and
because he enjoyed the process so much, he
found himself looking for more complex
flying models as a challenge.
His next project was a CL model
followed by his first RC model—just as the
hobby began to benefit from significant
improvements in technology. Once Gregg
learned to fly, he was hooked on RC and has
built and flown numerous models, flying
mostly for fun.
Today Gregg is the chief executive
officer of a credit union in Southern
164
California and he has developed a number of
ways to give back to the communities his
credit union serves. He is a member of six
Chambers of Commerce, the Rotary Club,
and is on the Board of Directors of the local
United Way.
Almost ready to fly: Gregg and a few of
the boys with the Firebird IIs donated by
Horizon Hobby.
Gregg serves as Scoutmaster to a local
troop of Boy Scouts. As a young man, he
attained the rank of Eagle and recently he
convinced the Boy Scouts of America to
sanction the first aviation-only Scout troop
in the country.
Once he had official approval for the
idea, he set about creating a unique aviation
program, assisted by a Youth Education
Stipend (YES grant) from the AMA
Education Committee. Gregg put together a
Boy Scout troop based exclusively on an
aviation theme.
Projects undertaken by the troop were
ambitious. The Scouts began by learning
basic balsa construction techniques,
including building and flying a Delta Dart,
ARF construction and flying, and finishing
with electric- and gas-powered RC aircraft.
Gregg’s wife is a sixth-grade teacher
and, as a volunteer doing a model aviation
activity in her classroom, he discovered a
love of teaching. “However, I soon learned
that my delivery had to be focused and I had
to feature a variety of activities to keep the
kids interested.”
He took this experience with him when
working with Scouts. “I had to be crisp and
to the point; I had to keep the presentation
moving or the Game-Boys would come out
and I would lose them!”
Gregg came to believe that too often a
young person’s first exposure to modeling is
set in a negative context. “Everything is
‘don’t,’” he says. “Don’t step too close to the
airplane; don’t touch the airplane; don’t
stand in front of the propeller; don’t cross
this line when we’re flying.”
While he respects the need for
preparation and certainly the need for safety,
he came to believe that simplicity creates
access for many more newcomers who
would otherwise be put off by the
complexity of gas-powered RC flying.
Enter Gregg’s appreciation for simple,
electric-powered park flyers.
Support from the YES grant and from
several airplanes donated by Horizon Hobby
made it possible for him to introduce his
Scouts to RC flying in its simplest terms.
Horizon Hobby was one of the first to
market the Firebird II, a V-tailed ARF
electric park flyer, and its donation helped
him carry out his philosophy of getting kids
into the air quickly and easily.
“Unfortunately, in this day of instant
gratification, it is important to help kids
begin to achieve some flight mastery as soon
as possible.”
By using the Firebird II, Gregg
discovered he could solo kids in one outing.
He began with an evening familiarizing the
boys with the airplane and the transmitter:
throttle on the left for climb or descent,
rudder control on the right to turn the
airplane. With a spotter standing behind each
student, a Scout could master a successful
first flight in short order.
The original Scouts recruited for Troop
439 tackled a number of projects and most
stayed with the group during its initial three
years. However, Gregg discovered that as the
boys grew older, their interest in aviation
began to fade. As with teenagers
everywhere, these activities held little
interest when compared with sports, the
opposite sex, and getting a driver’s license—
not necessarily in that order.
Because finding
replacements for an
aviation-only troop
did not produce
enough new recruits,
Gregg has shifted his
focus to one that he
believes will produce
better results.
Beginning this
spring, he will offer
his merit-badge
program as an
activity available to
other Scout troops in
the Los Angeles area.
“There are more
than 200 troops in the
Los Angeles basin,
with approximately
20,000 boys who
might be interested in
an aviation merit badge.” Gregg plans to
showcase his program in a Scout Expo at the
Santa Anita Race Track, an annual event
attended by more than 10,000 people.
Visitors stop by the booth at the Scout
Expo to learn about Troop 439 and its
programs. The annual event attracts more
than 10,000 visitors. It is a showcase for
activities and programs in greater Los
Angeles.
Craig Matsura and A.J. check out the
controls before the first launch. Craig was
a major contributor in helping Gregg
organize the troop.
By offering the merit-badge program to
other troops, he hopes to create a
“multiplier-effect” enabling him to take the
art and craft of building and flying model
airplanes to many more Scouts in the area.
Gregg has recruited a few other members
of his club, the Santa Fe Dam RC Modelers,
to promote model aviation to Scout troops.
These members participate by speaking at
meetings, assisting in merit badge
completion, demonstrating the basics of
flight, providing flight simulators,
facilitating visits to the club flying field, and
providing stick time for Scouts on club
trainers.
What motivates Gregg? Obviously,
taking on these projects is extra work. “It’s
not work when you like what you’re doing,”
he notes. “It’s unbelievably rewarding when
you see how kids react—what I call the ‘Oh,
Wow!’ effect. In my professional life, I see
my work with employees as teacher and
coach, and it’s the same with the kids in
Scouting. You reach a point in your life
when you want to give something back; you
don’t want to just pass through this world
and find out that you didn’t make a
difference.”
Dr. Schimmel has served as chairperson of
the AMA Education Committee for eight
years and is superintendent of schools in
Mansfield, Connecticut.
Members of Boy Scout Troop 439 and their parents get a special
tour at the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino Airport. The field
trip was one of several special events organized for the boys by
Scout leaders.
04june.qxd 3/24/04 10:03 am Page 164
