“All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.” —Casey Stengel
Education Through Aviation
by Bill Pritchett, Education Director
Casey could very well be describing how most of us feel sometimes looking at regulations. FAA regulations, AMA, municipalities, towns, states, the federal government—they really seem endless. And all we left the house to do was play with a toy airplane.
In the spirit of shining a light through the darkness of this informational overload, we’ve put together an online resource: Learn sUAS. You can find it at www.learnsuas.org.
Our mission was to make simple the sometimes confusing language of regulations. This resource provides three critical items to not only our members, but the general public as well. First is a definitive extension of Know Before You Fly. Although this has been a nice introduction of regulation to thousands of new operators, it isn’t very informational. Learn sUAS deals with what to know before you fly.
Secondly, thanks to the kind folks at Skyward, a map of AMA clubs is included so that everyone knows where to fly.
Finally, an easy-to-understand path to registration with the FAA is included so that everyone is legal to fly. Whew … who knew that heading out to play with a toy airplane could be so cumbersome? Well, despite many efforts to make it difficult, this new resource will make your life much easier. If you’re already on top of these things, as many of you are, don’t hesitate to share with those who might not be!
While you’re reading this in December, I’m writing as the flying season in Muncie, Indiana, comes to a close. I’ve mentioned my youngest son, Greyson, before, and what a proud daddy he makes me. In fact, he has really been very influential to me as a flier. Yes, he’s 12 years old, but skills beyond his age, combined with amazing eyes, give him all of the tools he needs to be teaching the teacher. And teach he does …
Throughout the years, he’s kind of been a guinea pig for me in our department motto, “Education through Aviation.” I’ve not really been able to leave the house with an airplane without him for about seven years now. During that time, Greyson has been completely eaten up with the hobby. Don’t ask me why—I’ve introduced it to all of our children. Although all were able to solo and have some fun, none couldn’t put it down. I have no clue why that’s the case.
Greyson has literally gone from a Vapor in the gym to a .10 glow-powered Butterfly, through an electric Big Stick, and into his 93-inch AJ Laser and two Proteus (Pattern) competition airplanes. And, of course, countless helicopters along the way.
As an aside, the heli experience has been interesting for us both. I don’t do them. I respect and enjoy watching them, but I never flew one. He sneaked up on it through the small Horizon Blade stuff and as the helis grew, so did the parts/price count. So, we struck a deal. I’ll buy the parts and you do the repairs.
We often talk about the elusive benefits of “hands on” and I’m here to tell you the value and benefits of putting tools in the hands of youth are real! Greyson, when he was as young as 8 or 9 years old, could pick up a 2mm driver and by feel alone tell you it’s 2mm, not 3mm, or vice versa.
As a Pattern flier, I’ve always had an agenda at the field. Precision aerobatics is about practice and repeatedly placing the aircraft in the correct geometric position. Greyson liked the looks of that and caught on early.
He entered his first contest in Sportsman in the fall of 2012 and spent all of 2013 in Sportsman. Winning seemed to be important to him. He spent 2014 in Intermediate, continued winning and ended up third in his first Nats. In 2015 he moved to Advanced and had a great season and won the Nats.
This summer he moved to Masters and life got serious! I joke with him that despite being cute, those guys don’t care about cute—you better fly your butt off! This proved to be true as he spent most of the season in second or third at local contests. When the Nats came around, he ended up third, despite leading after preliminaries.
One thing about Greyson’s flying is that he’s very consistent. That paid off for him when the district championship came down to the winner of the contest. As luck would have it, the same situation came to me as well.
I didn’t compete last year because we would be in the same class and the logistics of that didn’t interest me. I found myself uninterested in losing to an 11-year-old boy, so, I returned to my happy place this year in the Advanced class and did well.
We both came into the District 4 championships knowing that winning the contest meant winning the district as well. So, we did it. I can’t begin to describe what a great day that Sunday afternoon was, but if you could put time in a bottle, that’s a day to save. We spend countless hours flying together and this year I’ve learned so much from him.
When did this happen? I don’t know, but it happened. As I mentioned earlier, great flying skills, great eyes, and a true understanding of aerobatic geometry give me the best teacher I’ve ever had.
Maybe flying competitively doesn’t sound like fun to you, but rethink that. Some of our dearest friends are those whom we’ve met throughout the years at contests. Are we trying to beat each other? Always. Do we laugh and have fun doing that? You bet. I think Greyson has benefited greatly as a young man being around the quality people we find in model aviation.
Being a gentleman, in all conditions, under all circumstances, is something that’s very important in our family. I can’t think of a better place to find those role models than at a model airplane contest. Take your son or daughter, or your grandson or granddaughter, to the field and spend some of the best one-on-one time ever.
If you get the contest bug, you’ll travel. And as we used to say in the music business, if you really want to get to know someone, go on the road with them. This is true for our youth as well!
Fly and have fun!
