Teaching High School Students to fly RC

Well in the past couple years, my family and I moved 3,000 miles from PA home to CA, bought a house, and now have a five day old daughter named Piper, after the Piper Cub.

I teach at a charter high school in East Oakland. Every May, our school hosts a program called Week Without Walls, where students leave the school and are exposed to new areas and experiences and often learn through the new experience.

My Week Without Walls is titled, "Week With Wings." I reached out to my local community and have gotten quite a positive response from members of the modeling and aviation community to volunteer and help with this project. You can read about it on the Bay Area Remote Control's (BARC) community forum.

Here is a draft proposal for the program:

Enduring Understandings:
• Students will be able to teach the history of flight.
• Students will understand and relate to flight, because they will have experienced it first-hand in a small aircraft via the national non-profit “Young Eagles”.
• Students will build a model remote control airplane.
• Students will learn the safety steps for building and flying model airplanes.
• Students will practice flight on a model remote control airplane flight simulator to understand the physics of flight in practice.
• Students will fly their own model remote control airplane that they built to understand the physics of flight.
• Students will demonstrate the physics of flight, by adjusting things such as center of gravity, trim, etc.


Schedule:
Monday -- Students will (1) receive hands-on activity led by the South Bay Soaring Society to learn the physics of flight, (2) they will learn the history of flight through rubber band powered planes on the Castlemont football field, (3) practice flying on a flight simulator, (4) build a foam remote control airplane as a class, and (5) watch a demo of a remote control plane and helicopter by a professional and insured pilot on the Castlemont football field.

Tuesday -- At the flying field students will learn the safety steps to model airplane flying. Students will learn how to maintain the care of their model airplane. Students will review the physics of flight and the effect of wind on flight. Students will receive an introduction to flying model remote control airplane. Professional and insured model airplane pilots will provide students with remote control “training boxes,” which connect to their control boxes. They will teach the students how to fly. Field & location to be determined.

Wednesday -- We will charter a bus to Vacaville. The Young Eagles are hosting a very special event for LPS -- College Park only. Five pilots have taken the day off work and will take the students up for a flight in their personal airplanes. The flight instructors at the airport have graciously offered to feed the students burgers for lunch. Students will be ensured through EAA for one million dollars each once their parents sign the waiver. Students will introduced to scale aircraft and learn first hand about airplanes.

Thursday -- Students will master the physics of flight using their rubber band model airplanes (center of gravity, trim, etc.) Students will practice flying and receive advanced training in flight from professional and insured model airplane pilots using buddy boxes. Students will fly the model airplane the class made -- this includes setting trim and center of gravity. Students will review the lesson of physics of flight as it relates to their first hand experience of flying. Field & location to be determined.

Friday -- Students will provide a slide-show documenting their week and what they learned. Students will give

**** Note: The schedule may change as well as the details.