Starting School Clubs — 2011/08
Author
Dick Streetman [email protected]
My background
My interest in flying models began at age 10 with Guillow’s rubber-powered stick-and-tissue models of World War I aircraft. Flying the airplanes off the roof of my friend’s garage was great sport—until our parents heard about it!
Later I was drawn to the distinct sound of a Cox .049 engine circling a parking lot a block away and was hooked on control-line (CL) aircraft for years.
If you fly, you know that while you are looking up at your model, others usually are too. It is an automatic draw—this fascination with flight can be shared with young people in a planned, structured school-club setting.
I am a recently retired school administrator and an AMA member since the mid-1980s. I have sponsored school flying clubs—first CL and, as my skills progressed, RC and helicopters—throughout my 40 years as a teacher and administrator in both public and private schools.
As assistant principal of Boulan Park Middle School in Troy, Michigan, I ran an RC club for eight years before retiring in 2008. During earlier employment I taught CL electives for 14 years. I learned by trial and error several valuable lessons regarding school flying clubs.
Where and when to run school clubs
The first lesson had to do with where and when to run school clubs.
- Spring and fall in Michigan provide outdoor opportunities for large foam trainers that are easy to see and can fly slowly, such as the Easy Star. The paved track around the football/soccer field outlines a great flying field for student pilots.
- Winter in Michigan sends everyone indoors to fly small electric-powered airplanes and helicopters in the gym. Because most gymnasiums and playgrounds are used during the day and immediately after school, I scheduled gym sessions when no one else wanted them: before the start of the school day.
When parents dropped their children off an hour before school started, they frequently told me that flying-club day was the only one on which their kids were glad to get up and go to school!
Instructors and community support
With 20–30 students learning to fly each year, who would teach them was the biggest consideration. Throughout the years I was blessed with help from flight instructors such as Kirk Detloff from the local hobby shop, retired fliers Dave Keats and Marvin Muehl, and other active local AMA club members who would be on their way to work. Joe Hass, president of the Skymasters club in Troy, frequently came to our rescue with demos and instruction.
Two local hobby shops—Riders of Madison Heights and Henderson’s Hobbies—gave our student clubs discounts for several years before they closed. For the last six years Hobby Lobby International has been the only supplier to give our school clubs a small price break on aircraft and equipment, for which we are thankful.
Suppliers and local hobby shops that help school clubs are making an investment in the future of aeromodeling and their own businesses. School-club leaders take great pleasure in directing students and their parents to the specific stores or online suppliers that help the clubs.
Benefits of school flying clubs
In addition to the fun of flying, the club helped some students with ideas for science projects and gave career ideas to others. RC flying bridges the social, physical, and academic differences among students.
School flying clubs attract a wide range of participants: students who are academic and those who struggle in class; students who are athletic and those who are uncoordinated; students who are popular and those who need a friend.
In 2007 I was humbled to be named the State of Michigan Assistant Principal of the Year by the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals. Their recommendation came in part because I mentored students through the RC model club. I must share that honor with all AMA members who assisted me.
Continuity and partnerships
When I retired a year later, the Boulan club continued through the help of the Troy Police Department. Chief Gary Mayer gave permission for Ray Piper, an AMA member and officer, to begin his first hour of duty in uniform at the school two days a week directing the club. Ray was also honored as Officer of the Year for the Troy Police Department. AMA members are often very special people in their communities!
Retirement also brought the opportunity to start a new club at my granddaughter’s school, Cornerstone Christian School in Brighton, Michigan. Under the leadership of President Gene Doncea, my AMA club—the Hamburg Flyers RC Club—voted to supply trainers, and member Tim Wiggle volunteered to help manage the new club.
Mike Cisler of the Livingston County RC Club came aboard as chief flight instructor and repairman. Mike’s input every Wednesday for the past three years has been the sustaining force behind keeping our students airborne.
After two successful years supporting the morning club at Cornerstone, I suggested to the Hamburg Flyers that it consider supporting a school club in one of the local public schools. I called and made an appointment with Navigator Middle School Principal Stacey Urbin in the Pinckney School District. Fellow Hamburg Flyers Gary Whitlark, Tim Wiggle, and I met with Stacey, the assistant principal, and a technology-club sponsor, and we demonstrated flying airplanes and helicopters in the gym. They loved the idea, and another early-morning club took off under Gary’s guidance.
The Hamburg Flyers donated airplanes and helicopters for this club too. Financially strapped school districts appreciate programs that supply instructors and equipment for their students at no cost.
How to start a school club
The following might help you start a school club in your area.
- As an AMA club, discuss sponsoring a local school flying club. This might include supplying trainers—indoor, outdoor, or both. From my experience, grades five through eight are ideal ages for clubs. Their ability to stay focused and learn quickly might surprise you.
- Identify club members who have an interest, are available, and are capable of teaching young people how to fly. Being able to replace broken propellers and shafts and experience with gluing foam are necessities. Not all club instructors have the patience to work with this age group.
- Contact an area principal to make an appointment to demonstrate flying RC indoor foam airplanes and helicopters in the school gym. The Hamburg Flyers chose the school that the district was allowing them to use once a week in the evening for winter indoor flying.
- Assure the principal or his or her designee that safety is the top priority and that AMA rules will be adhered to. Make it mandatory for each student club member to join the AMA through its free membership program.
- With the principal’s help, identify club meeting days, times, and rules. It is a good idea to have parents attend the first meeting with the students if possible. So many students were interested at Navigator Middle School that Gary had to limit them to eight weeks of flight instruction to allow additional groups some flight time.
- Supply the school media center with old copies of AMA magazines. Secure copies of the recent AMA Newcomers Guide to distribute to each school club member. It is a marvelous collection of flying information.
- Have the AMA sponsoring club register the school club as one of its official flying sites.
- Take a club group picture and supply it for inclusion in the school yearbook, or ask the principal to have the yearbook photographer include the club members on picture day. I also like to take a club picture with each member holding an airplane or helicopter and then duplicate it for each member. This picture posted in the office window is a great advertisement for the school club—not to mention positive public relations for the sponsoring AMA club.
- Notify local newspapers about the formation of a school club. The papers are usually eager to send photographers to capture students in the action of flying.
- Regularly update your local aeromodeling club on the progress of its sponsored school club. Flightline pictures of students (with parent permission) learning to fly should be posted on the club’s website so everyone can see the great community service that your club is doing. Encourage your AMA club to invite the school club to its field to demonstrate what the kids can look forward to flying in the future and to do some buddy-boxing.
Practical tips and final thoughts
I enjoy bringing a couple dozen doughnuts to our Cornerstone club at 7 a.m. Most of the kids and instructors have sacrificed breakfast to arrive that early. Leftovers are delivered to the school office for the teachers' lounge. The secretary tells me that this sweet bit of public relations is a hit with the teachers of our fliers!
You never know where this hobby will take young people. I flew a CL model and an RC trainer with my nephew, Michael Taylor, when he was 14, and I gave him a CL airplane. When he was 17, he called to tell me he got his license—his full-scale pilot's license! He went on to become one of Delta's youngest commercial pilots.
Share your skills with a school club and enjoy the enthusiasm that got you into the hobby. It is not too difficult for an AMA club to reap the immediate benefits of excited young AMA fliers, delighted and supportive parents, and thankful and respectful local school districts.
Dick Streetman [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
