President’s Perspective - 2004/03

President’s Perspective — 2004/03

Dave Brown, AMA president

Paper airplanes might just start young folks on a path to models and aviation.

As I am writing this, Christmas is in the air, although you will be reading it in February when the weather is at its worst and we will all be suffering from cabin fever—okay, most of us will. Those in Southern California and Florida can laugh, but the rest of us are looking for some flying fun.

I received an e-mail from two members—ironically from Southern California—who outlined a program in which they had participated. It sounds like a fun project and could do us all some good in the areas of recruiting and public relations.

Below is the letter from Blaine Beron-Rawdon and John Brown, followed by my experience with a similar program nearly 30 years ago.

Letter from Blaine Beron-Rawdon and John Brown

The reason for this letter is that we participated in a terrific model airplane contest for kids, and we think that the concept may be applicable to the AMA's efforts to involve young people. As longtime modelers and AMA members, we are aware of AMA's admirable efforts to involve kids in aeromodeling.

On November 1, John and I helped run an event for the Taiwanese American Aeronautics and Space Association in a banquet room at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. As an adjunct to their aerospace conference, the organizers wanted to have a relevant event for their children, and thought that a paper-airplane contest might be just the thing.

John and I were invited to participate because of our prior involvement in Boeing paper-airplane contests and our knowledge of model airplanes. We devised a set of rules, and with the leadership of the organizers, we had a great event for 60 kids from kindergarten to eighth grade.

The contest was divided into several segments:

1. A brief introduction to airplanes was followed by a demonstration of how to fold four distinctly different types of simple paper airplanes. This demonstration was aided by diagrams of the models printed (on a computer printer) right on the very paper that was to be folded. We made a stack of 80 of each design. Ample unprinted paper was also available.

1. There was 45 minutes of folding and practice flying. This was perhaps the best part. Until you have seen 60 kids in one room, all flying at once, you haven't lived! During this period, John and I and other adults helped the children and their parents learn to trim and launch the models.

1. Distance contest: the organizers had laid out the floor with masking tape so that it looked like a football field with 5-foot lines and sidelines. The kids lined up in two lines on the left and right side of the room, and took turns launching for distance, one throw at a time, two throws total, and best flight counted. This went well and it took roughly 40 minutes for 120 flights.

I should mention that the students were divided into three classes: kindergarten to second grade, third through fifth grade, and sixth through eighth grade. Each child was fitted with a large label with his class (A, B, or C) and his contestant number. This made scoring easy. The best distance was approximately 70 feet (with a lot of skidding). Most good throws went roughly 40 feet.

1. Endurance contest: we again used two flightlines serving two launch points in the middle of each end of the room. The low ceiling (approximately 18 feet) did not seem to be a problem for most of the contestants. Each took two consecutive flights and the best flight counted. No launch platform was used. The best flight was slightly longer than 7 seconds and most good flights were in the 3- and 4-second range. This event took less than 30 minutes to run because timing during a flight is much faster than measuring and recording distance after a flight.

1. We had another free-flying session while the scores were compiled. This took approximately 25 minutes and was enthusiastically welcomed by the students.

1. The awards ceremony took another 10 minutes or so because we awarded three places in three classes in two events, totaling 18 awards.

John and I had several observations about the contest that may be pertinent to AMA's efforts to involve young people:

• The kids had a great time. All were successful in getting their airplanes to fly. Obviously, some were more successful than others, but everyone was fully engaged and participated wholeheartedly. There was no whining and no tears.

• Many of the parents were supportive and involved and wanted to know how to fold and trim the models. We had no problem with the "Little League" syndrome in which parents were intrusive or negative. The parents were an asset to the contest and we can imagine this supportive attitude continuing at home.

• Paper airplanes fly quite well and are very responsive to trimming and launching techniques. We believe that they are an excellent introduction to model flying. Paper airplanes are worthy of careful attention; they are not easy!

• Paper airplanes are cheap, cheap, cheap, and raw material is easily available.

• Paper airplanes are easy and fast to make. While gratification is not immediate, it is quick, and this works well with the participants. Because the models are cheap, many kids made multiple models to improve on the predecessors. The youngsters' involvement during the contest was intense.

• Paper airplanes are safe. Our rules specified that the model was only one sheet or less of Xerox paper; no tape, paperclips, glue, or anything else was allowed. The resulting models were light and relatively soft. It occurred to us midway through the first practice session that somebody could get poked in the eye, but the chances of this seemed remote and in the end there were no injuries.

We think that AMA should give paper airplanes a closer look for introducing young people to models and airplanes. The students had a great time and we did, too. We fielded several inquiries about where to buy modeling supplies and how to get involved.

When you compare the barriers to entering the conventional model world—even with the AMA club—to what is needed to have an event with paper airplanes, the paper airplanes have a lot to offer.

My experience and a caution

This sounds like a great idea for something that could be done at low cost. I do, however, want to relate a couple of stories about my personal experience with similar contests.

Nearly 30 years ago my club, the Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club, held a similar contest, and we had a ball — that is until the contest was over, and we pulled the tape defining the scoring grid off of the floor. It took the finish of the terrazzo floor with it. Oops.

If you have never priced the cost of refinishing a terrazzo floor in a room nearly the size of a gymnasium, you don't want to. I seem to remember it was roughly $10,000 — and that was in the 1970s!

The moral of the story is to be very careful about what tape you use and on what surface. We used ribbon held down with chairs for future events. We couldn't afford tape!

Another lighter moment I remember was the time we involved our wives in a competition. The contest was to see who could get a paper model made on the spot to fly the farthest.

For some reason, no one could get one to go very far, so one of the wives (I won't tell you which one but she is married to an AMA president) stepped up to the line with her "airplane," crumpled it up into a ball, and threw it well past the longest flight mark.

Hmmm... I don't think any of us had thought of that, but the "jury" disqualified her. Great fun—you ought to try it.

MA

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.