Learning Takes Flight

[teched88]

Hi all, I'm new and this is my first thread. I hope you find it way down here in the education section. I thought this might be of some interest to some of you. I teach technology education and recently started an RC club as a spin off of my Technology Student Association.
I've been reading threads for the past year and finally decided to join and post one of my own. I, like most of you, have really been bitten by the "RC Bug" and went from owning one plane to "I don't have enough".
I think that you can really learn a lot from RC and I'm really having a good time at it. I bought a slo-V for the students at first, but the weather was always against us. 3 Aero aces and Real Flight 3 passed the time. Then I bought a Super Cub. What a wonderful plane. Much more stable in the wind and a joy to fly.
We recently had our hand at build Fan Fold Combat wings. What a hoot!!! Standard ips motor, 2 H55's, and a 2 amp speed control and the kids are having fun! I was able to scroung up 3 neons and 4 recievers. I had one person donate a radio and we were off. What a great hobby. I just bought another Cub and can't wait for the Weather to break. Hopefully that won't happen to the Cub. :)
Anyway heres the artilcle. The author oversimplified some techie stuff, but all and all it's not bad.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/education/s_496860.html

Let me know what you think.

[mikeythev]

Greetings fellow Pennsyvania Tech Ed teacher in the other side of the southern part of the state. I'm doing the same "stuff" in south east PA with a group of students. I'm not the TSA advisor but I started the flying club there my second year teaching.

Check out our site.

North Penn MAC (http://www.npteched.org/teachers/highschool/voicheck/themac/index.htm)

Drop me a PM sometime. I'd like to know what ya'll are up to.

[teched88]

Nice to hear from a fellow educator. I checked out your site and it is very impressive.
Our program seems to be the mirror of yours. We have almost identical planes. Although it is apparent that you have much more experience. Your planes are very neat and your site is well constructed. Impressive. I will PM you in hopes to gather more information for our group.
Our students are currently building the same fan fold wings with the edp 50 motor.
The "frog", Depron Daves F-15 (2), an Alley Cat, and a fan fold Bipe are some of the others. We also have 5 dollar store kits laying around to experiment with and a couple of comercial kits. We even have a PT 40 Gas, but we don't fly it. It was flown last year by a fellow teacher but not by a student.
The problem I have is I have a bunch of kids starting but not finishing. I think we went in too many directions at once for our first year. We only have a few radios, and not one has a buddy box. I'm looking for one to use with my NEON SS, but I need to buy the port first. Next year, I hope to work most of that out as I learn about compatability and what's the best power source for our needs. I see that you use alot of GWS motors for your foamies, that was a help. I was planning on making an order soon and with limited money, you can't afford to make a mistake. wings, Cats, frogs, and STC's will be the planes we will stick with.
This forum is really a great source of information, although sometimes a little overwhelming.

[teched88]

Here are a few of the fan fold wings and the F-15 we've built so far.
The ff wings are powered by a GWS edp-50 with a 2 amp esc and a 480 lithium battery. The F-15 has not been maidened yet but has a bp-21 brushless with a 6x3 prop and an 18 amp esc. The battery will be a 2s 740mah lithium, but will try to upgrade to a 3s 1300.

[mikeythev]

Those wings are awesome! I drew mine up and it randomly flew well. Where did you grab the plan from?

I know what you mean about students not finishing projects. It's sometimes like pulling teeth to get them to work. I have a HLG that no one wants to work one. The wing is half framed up. It'll fly someday.

We also have a gas 40 trainer, but I'm waiting for nicer weather to take that up. Let me know if I can provide any more information to you. It seems like you have quite a lot of excitement going on over on that side of the state.

Side note: Are you involved with TEAP? I'm usually at the conference in November.

[teched88]

I am not currently a member of TEAP, but get hounded to join. Must be one :censored: of a party I mean conference. I've heard many stories.
The plans are from jerbear (jsw) simple wing on the scratchbuilt foamies thread. Those guys really know what they're talking about. They're very helpful too. check it out.

Do you plan on flying your gas trainer around the school area? I just talked with a guy whose going to help me get this one straighted around, but I have to find a nice looooonnnnnng runway. It does fly though.
Right now, I'll stick with my electrics.
We just had 3 or 4 simple wings up today after school. Then we put up the super cubs. They're a blast. They're a commercial product from hobbyzone but you can't beat them. EEEEAAAASYY to fly. just get them up three mistakes high and hand over the controls........that's it.