Clear Lake High students are learning through aviation through a new endeavor promoted by Clayton Folkerts Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Chapter 94, “Project School Flight.”
The project received the blessing of school officials and took off with the school year in August. Several North Iowa businesses donated parts, services and money for the airplane kit.
The students, juniors and seniors in the advanced course cut and beveled pieces of aircraft-grade spruce for ribs on each 25-foot wing of the plane.
They’ve learned practical applications in aeronautical engineering, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) drawing, assembly, trusses, steel pipe-welding, woodworking and metalworking, said Ken Asbe of Clear Lake, Mike’s father and the president of EAA Chapter 94.
The plane, powered by a two-cylinder, 45-horsepower modified Volkswagen engine, will carry one pilot weighing up to 275 pounds. The craft will weigh 254 pounds or less. Thus, under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, the owner won’t require a pilot’s license.
It will belong to EAA Chapter 94, and sold, hopefully to an area pilot.
Proceeds will return to the Project School Flight program planned as an annual project at Clear Lake High.
The goal is to have the ultralight finished by the end of the school year and show it off in Clear Lake’s annual Fourth of July parade.
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See https://eaa94.org for more chapter information, upcoming events, and Project School Flight sponsors.