District IV
Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland,
North Carolina, Virginia
Here’s a great report about an outreach program submitted by Eric Teder, president of the Silent Knights Soaring Society (SKSS), and Michael Debes, SKSS vice president:
The SKSS (www.skss.org), operating at White Clay Creek State Park, just north of Newark, Delaware, held two fun-fly events last May, with free gliders from Guillow’s. As part of this AMA Gold Leader Club’s community outreach, the club hosted 11 students from the Delaware School for the Deaf and four of the students’ instructors. The kid’s ages were from 13 to 17. Two weeks later, we hosted a group of 24 children who are enrolled in Mt. Pleasant High School and their instructors.
Here are the 24 kids who are enrolled in Mt. Pleasant High School.
We performed in our usual manner—a talk about how airplanes fly, computer flight simulators, and Catapult-Launched Gliders. The weather was slightly breezy at our first event, so we did not do any RC flying, but we had good weather conditions at the second event to fly the balsa gliders and put on some good RC airplane demonstrations.
The simple Catapult Gliders were a huge hit. At first, the kids were somewhat afraid of them, but they soon had the models figured out. The students took a while to personalize their airplanes with crayons before sending them skyward.
The students personalized their gliders.
Our club volunteers helped assemble the gliders and provided some brief instruction on how to fly them. After that, the kids took over. It was fun to see them chasing the models around the field and screaming with delight. We topped off the day with ice pops and Sour Patch candy. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. A special note of thanks goes to Guillow’s.
Michael Debes helped some students use the flight simulators.
When SKSS hosts children from local schools or camps, one of the things that we try to do is give them a glider or rubber-powered airplane to play with and take home. Our supply was getting low, so our club president contacted Guillow’s to ask if they would sell the club some models at a discount. They did us one better and contributed 75 Hand-Launch Gliders to our program. Thank you, Guillow’s!
Both the students and instructors enjoyed flying their models.
George M. shares his Discus Launch Glider.
