Lots of great things are going on in District VI. I want to share a few. Congratulations to Sedalia RC Flyers, club number 2818, and the Henry County Wright Flyers, club number 1121, for applying for and winning Take off And Grow (TAG) Grants in the amount of $1,000 each. Additionally, District VI clubs that received flying site grants this year included the Fort Wayne Flying Circuits, receiving $68 and the Huntington County Modelers that received $119.90.
The following was submitted by Doug Leslie, from the Southeast Missouri Modelers Association in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. “Our club has been working to inform our local, state, and national officials about the impacts of the recent FAA regulations concerning model aircraft. Club member Mark McCoy sent letters to all of the elected officials informing them of these concerns and providing a point of contact should they have public inquiries or concerns about the hobby.
“In response, Sen. Roy Blunt’s office had a representative, Caroline Yielding, attend our club meeting Thursday evening, April 7. She was interested in the club’s activities and concerns about recent FAA regulations on the hobby. She planned to visit our flying site, Galaxy Park Model Airfield, on Saturday, April 9, 2016, and bring her sons to experience flying a trainer aircraft. The included photos show Caroline with our club officers and flying a quadcopter after the meeting.
“You are invited to attend our upcoming 5th Annual Extreme Flight Mid-America 3-D Fly-Low-In event on June 23-26, 2016, here in Cape Girardeau at Galaxy Park, 441 Gizmo Lane. Please feel free to contact Mark McCoy at markm584@gmail.com for further information.”
The following comes from Bryan Himes, principal at Leeton High School in Missouri.
At the beginning of the school year, I spoke to the students about the expectations I had for them, as well as what I hoped we could do as a school. I told them about my desire to give them the freedom to explore their passions, and if they had an idea to let me know. Student Andrew Sites came to me and asked if they could have a club to learn about and fly drones. This quickly morphed into not only wanting to fly drones, but also assemble them.
Since that time, Andrew has gotten five other students to join the drone club. Through his supervision, the students have practiced flying drones on computer simulators. Ultimately, they have gained the skills needed to fly small drones and the quadcopter the students put together with some help from Robert Sites, Andrew’s father.
Ideas are wonderful, but being able to see them in action takes the efforts of other people as well. To help fund this endeavor, money was donated by our school’s student council as well as a gracious donation by an anonymous family. The family donated the money months ago with no restrictions other than asking it to be spent for something with a positive purpose.
Without the generosity of a few, this unique learning opportunity would not have been possible. Andrew hopes that by the end of next year, he will have passed along enough knowledge for another student to be able to take over and help teach others how to assemble and fly remote-piloted aircraft (RPAs).
All of these students are now members of the AMA, and have recently been able to visit Whiteman Air Force Base and tour the 20th Attack Squadron Facility. The students and their principal were able to gain access to the area where they sit and operate the MQ-1 Predator, one of the military’s RPAs. The students were able to sit in the chairs where they fly and learn how the RPAs are operated and their purpose in the global fight on terrorism.
It has been a great learning experience and the students are excited to build on what they have accomplished this year.