Rarely Do Great Things Happen Alone

Education Through Aviation

By Kyle Jaracz, AMA Education Director | [email protected]

I know I teased you with a second list of aviation entities that offer great educational resources, and I promise that I’ll provide it to you soon, but sometimes you get great emails from members who are conducting outreach that you just want to share. Today is one of those days!

Ron Faanes sent in his report of local outreach efforts that included a class of fifth grade students at Pomperaug Elementary School in Connecticut, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Before I pass it along to Ron, I wanted to point out an important piece of this story: teamwork. Rarely do great things happen alone, and if they do, they could often be even better with a strategic team. Perhaps even more importantly, leaning on the energy and expertise of several individuals helps to ensure avoiding burnout. My thanks to Ron, Bill, Tim, Vic, and the Pomperaug staff for helping to provide great lessons that will turn into good memories.

Who knows? These efforts, and many like them across the US, will generate model aviation enthusiasts, competitors, and provide aviation/STEM career paths for some of those participants.

Take it away, Ron!

It was a successful Program of Flight presentation at Pomperaug Elementary School in the fall of 2024. I really didn’t think we would be able to get off the ground with last-minute volunteers dropping out, my election poll work for early voting on October 30, brush fires with a red flag warning (increased risk of fire danger) in Connecticut; and 80 students waiting in the wings. We had canceled this presentation last spring.

When we arrived at the school at 7:30 a.m. on Halloween, everyone was dressed in celebration attire. I was met at the door by our host fifth grade teacher, Frank Battaglia. I said to Frank that we would be unable to launch rockets under red flag warning because we would be breaking the law and that he should call the fire department to verify. The office called the fire department and I was asked to the office. The fire marshal then asked about the engine’s burn time, etc., after which he consented to launching.

It was a beautiful, 80° day with no wind, a bright sun, and we had a perfect recovery 50 yards down from the launch platform. We made two more launches, which were flawless. We were not as proficient on the second day with 40 more students. The first launch mirrored the day before and was perfect, but on the second launch, the guidance system failed, and wind blew the AMA ALPHA off course into the woods where it landed in a tree. The lunar lander got one of its feet stuck on the blast deflector, releasing the recovery chute on the launch platform. The third and fourth launches were perfect.

Two young ladies were sitting by themselves while the rest of the class enjoyed the glider launching. I asked them why they were not with the group, and they said they had quit because their AMA ALPHA glider would not fly. Upon further conversation, it turned out that their AMA ALPHA would not fly because they were winding it backward. When we got it wound correctly, the girls had the longest flight of the day. They could not catch it as it gracefully flew just out of reach for longer than a minute.

Frank had warned me that some of the students had short attention spans. He said that one student had not smiled since the beginning of the year. He said he could not get her to participate in anything, but she was having the time of her life that day.

Teachers will hand out certificates for Completion of Programs of Flight, and we’ll get a report from students about the program, about what was good, and about what can be improved. We made 80 kids happy, and we are on the calendar for next year.