Dan Weed, the president of the Concord Skyhawks, which is one of the most active AMA Gold Leader clubs in New England, provided the following event report:
On Friday, April 25, the Concord Skyhawks hosted a STEM Enrichment Day for Chichester Central School students at the club’s flying site in Concord, New Hampshire. The slightly overcast and breezy conditions offered perfect weather to introduce the youngsters to RC flying.
Despite a delayed arrival at 10 a.m., student excitement remained high. The club rallied with an impressive turnout of eight pilots and an even greater fleet of model aircraft for the students to see and fly. We welcomed the 12 students, their teacher, and parent chaperones. The flightline was set up with four stations for buddy-box flying, and four flight simulators were in the shade of our site’s storage container for virtual RC flying. We also created a drone flight zone area for students to experience multirotor flying.
The students were broken up into groups of four so that we could give them as much flight and simulator time as possible. They all took turns flying the airplanes, simulators, and drones. They were busy having fun, learning about aeromodeling, and experiencing the thrill of hands-on RC flying the entire time, until their 1 p.m. departure after a field-side lunch.
It was truly rewarding to witness their enthusiasm firsthand. The positive comments and requests for a repeat event from the kids were the best feedback we could have hoped for. Speaking with their teacher later, I learned that the excitement hadn’t faded; the students were still sharing their flying experiences at school.
Volunteers who set up and managed the flight areas, RC buddy-box flying, and the simulator training for the students included Rick Taylor, Ray Breton, Doug Titilah, Barry Berube, Associate Vice President Doug Thompson, Wally Adaczik, Bob Sgroi (outreach team), Zach and Morgyn Sweetser, and Mike Stevens.
Thanks to Dan and the volunteers for continuing to share our passion for aeromodeling and helping to inspire the next generation of aviators.
