PILOT SPIN
Pilot Zone => Pilot Zone => Topic started by: Dweyant on October 31, 2016, 05:06:27 AM
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I'm going to cut and paste a post I made at the "other" site below.
As some of you may (or may not) know. I am a semi-retired Engineer. I am teaching a High School based Engineering class, at a central Texas school district (Georgetown ISD). We are doing something that I believe is the first of its kinds in the country (a couple similar, but nothing exactly like this). We are teaching a college level Aerospace Engineering class, getting kids hands on experience at the local airport (KGTU), and building a Van's RV-12.
I would encourage all of you to take a look at the links below. This is a really cool program, and the kid are loving it! We are working to raise the money to fund our first RV-12. If you can make a donation it would be greatly appreciated. More is better, but even $5 would be great. Even if you can't make a donation please take a few minutes and read the AOPA article on us, and a bit about what we are doing.
If anyone would like to make a direct donation (i.e. send a check) please PM me and I'll send you the Tango Flight physical address. We have partnered with our local EAA #187 chapter so if you send a check to them it is tax deductible.
Thanks for taking a look (see below)
-Dan
We are making great progress with our first year RV-12 Build!
The kids and the mentors are doing great, really high quality work. We have completed the rudder, the vertical stabilizer, and are working on the stabilator.
We have received and inventoried the Empenage and Fuselage kits, and should have the Wing kit before Thanksgiving break.
The class is setup so that the kids are rotating between the PLTW Aerospace Academics, building the airplane, and interning with local businesses at the KGTU airport. Truly an incredible experience for the kids.
We have had success raising money to pay for the first three kits, but we need to pull the funds together to pay for the finish kit, firewall forward, and avionics kits.
Along those lines, please take a moment and check out the GoFundMe site that we setup.
www.gofundme.com/tangoflight
There is a good writeup with links to the really cool AOPA article on our program and a link to our Facebook page with tons of pictures (one of the students grandparents is a professional photographer!).
If you would like to make a donation on the GoFundMe site it would be greatly appreciated. Even a few dollars, but even if you don't, please take a few minutes to read about the incredible work these kids are doing.
If anyone would like to make a donation and needs it to be tax deductible we can do that as well, please PM me and I'll get you details for that.
Thanks for taking a look!
-Dan
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Hey guys and gals, My EAA Chapter has a similar program. I have youth building an Ultra-Lite Pietenpol from scratch. Our group work every Saturday for four hours. They are learning about wood and fabric aircraft construction and how to use tools of all sorts. They get $7.50 per hour worked as a credit that can be used for rental of a C-150 that a local flying club has and we have some CFI's willing to donate time for flight instruction. Looks like they had 12 or 14 young folks out there this past Saturday. We also try to fly these folks as Young Eagles once or twice a month. You can see pictures at youth.eaa690.net
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This is all very cool! I shared it with my husband this morning. He is prez of the local EAA chapter and recently went to an EAA seminar thingy about how to invigorate your chapter.
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We're also doing an RV-12, but is our adult members building that.
rv12.eaa690.net
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Please take a moment to check out the KVUE segment on Tango Flight and GISD’s Aerospace Engineering program.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/high-school-students-build-airplane/359766272
Also, AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association), one of the largest pilots associations in the world did an online and print story on the program. The first article they did via phone interviews, they are sending a reporter from Maryland tomorrow (Friday) to do a follow up story on what we are doing!
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media...just-asked-officials-for-airplane-build-class?
A lot of people are working really hard to give the kids what we believe is a truly unique opportunity in a high school setting. We have combined a college level Aerospace Engineering class, with the hands on experience of building a Van’s RV-12 airplane, and also getting the chance to work with local aviation businesses.
Our web site is www.tangoflight.org. It doesn’t have a lot of content yet, but it does have links to our facebook page that has lots of pictures of the kids building.
As you can imagine, this is not an inexpensive program to get started. Our two year fund raising goal is $160,000, we believe that is an obtainable amount, but we need the help of local businesses and individuals to make that happen.
If you would please consider making a donation to Tango Flight, we would greatly appreciate it.
Tango Flight is the non-profit organization that we created to raise funds and hold ownership of the airplane (something the district didn’t want to do). We are working on getting our 501(c)3 status, but until we have that our local EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Chapter #187 has agreed to work with us and act as our 501(c)3.
There are a couple ways that you can make a donation if you would like.
Good - www.GoFundMe.com/TangoFlight - We can accept credit cards, but they take a 5% cut, plus a 2.9% credit card fee. Donations via this web site are NOT Tax Deductible
Better – www.eaa187.org – Scroll down to the TangoFlight Paypal link. Paypal is only taking a 2.2% credit card processing fee since we are a non-profit (Tax Deductible)
Please feel free e-mail me with any questions that you might have. If you would like to come by EVHS and see the progress on the plane, and meet with some of the students just let me know.
Thank you so much for your continued support of the Georgetown Engineering program.
Merry Christmas,
-Dan Weyant
GISD Engineering Teacher
Tango Flight President
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Sounds like a great program Dan. MY Chapter, EAA 690, conducts a build session every Saturday where our youth have been building an Ultra-Lite Pietenpol from scratch. The kids work form 9:00am - 1:00pm under the guidance of mentors from the chapter. We've been going just over a year now. The kids earn $7.50 an hour credit to be used for the rental of a C-150 at $75 per hours. I have CFI's willing to donate time. Once we can get someone to solo stage the chapter can offer scholarships for flight schools. We're currently doing this on less than $10k per year. youth.eaa690.net