NewComers
AS I STRUGGLE through the months trying to balance this column among direct NewComer help, providing club guidance, and detailing the increasing educational activities of the Academy, the reader may feel we've lost the balance pole and the wire is shaking beneath our feet. In light of what occurred last weekend, it seems prudent to fill you in on coming attractions: I'm speaking of the first meeting of the Academy's Education Committee. The information contained in the following report should provide clubs and individuals an idea of where we are headed. Please bear in mind that while we have opened the door and peeked into the Education Room, much of what we discovered were dozens of other doors yet to be unlocked. We can do that by working together with the membership.
NewComers
EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, you find terse little safety warnings in bold print. They seem to spring like dandelions from instruction manuals and packaging for all types of products. Persons of retirement age remember when these warnings were far less common, and individuals relied on the so-called common-sense approach to safety. This is not to suggest that people today necessarily possess a lesser degree of common sense; rather, our approach to the issue of safety practices has changed. Unfortunately, we now often approach safety from the viewpoint of not personally being responsible for our actions. It's sort of like the person saying, "Nobody told me that the piece of wood or plastic whirling about at 12,000 rpm was dangerous, ergo the responsibility for my missing finger is someone else's, not mine!" On that cheery note, let's consider the issue of safety for a NewComer.
NewComers
EARLY IN MY modeling career, I recall someone asking me if I engaged in "trammeling." There was some reluctance to answer on my part, since the first inclination was an assumption that it must be either fattening, immoral, or illegal! Then I discovered that the term simply referred to the process of careful measurement to see if the various parts of my model were in proper alignment with one another. You might ask, "Is a properly aligned model important?" and receive answers all the way from "Who cares" to "Absolutely!" It's true that a sloppily aligned model will fly, but performance will suffer. You may find yourself forever fighting trim changes or inadequate trim to compensate.
New Comers
JUST IMAGINE a science classroom where the smell of balsa is in the air. Imagine students applying concepts related to the forces of flight, center of gravity, and experimental variables to construct their own flying models! Imagine students having the opportunity to write about these experiences in language arts classes, or to work on scale drawings of their model as part of a math class. These activities are going on right now, as part of Ferrario's Flying Physics at Redwood Middle School in Napa, California. Most of us grew up in an era when these activities were related to after-school programs. Today's teachers are looking for opportunities to engage students in "hands-on" activities to reinforce academics in the classroom.
NewComers
YOU'VE DONE IT! You've soloed your control line or radio control model, or successfully flown your free flight creation a number of times without a problem. Admittedly, a lot of the praise goes to the club program that helped you through this learning stage, but you did it! The arm patch or set of wings the club awarded you has become a proud addition to your flying cap. But where do you go from here? The slightly oil-soaked and frequently patched model is still flyable, but each week when you take it to the field, it becomes less challenging and less satisfying. So where do you go next?
