Aviation Summer Camp

Freepress Friday

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 05:31:36 +0000

The Press-Telegram visited today to take photos and write an article about the camp. Here are some images from today. I’ll post some more information later.

Thursday’s Tantalizing Trio- Biplanes, Tower and the Airport

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:47:34 +0000

I hope that you heard about today’s events from the kids. I’ve attached a bunch of images. We had several unique experiences today. Some of which included going up in the tower, a chance to see a 1943 Stearman biplane, a 1976 Great Lakes biplane and finally a chance to get in and walk around a Cessna 172.

I’d like to thank Danny Matheus for bringing his Great Lakes to the California Flight Center. I would like to equally thank Mike Hanson and Biplane Fun for bringing his beautiful Boeing Stearman so the kids could see flying history.

Wednesday’s Wild Rush

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:04:10 +0000

Seems like we just started the week and we are now looking at our field trip tomorrow and then Friday will have our last activities. I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I rushed to finish at the end of the day (I think there is still some clean-up to be finished).

Today we worked on our bottle rockets in preparation for launching on Friday. Prior to building our bottle rockets we used two simulators to test different designs. Depending on the level of attention to detail will see different products when it comes time to launch the rockets on Friday. A fun activity. We played with an XBox game and the favorite for the week, Skyfighters 1945. Additionally, we build and tested the strength of two shapes. The square and the triangle. Our results were mixed because of the weight that was used to test. I dont know if all of the kids saw the triangle tower but it seemed to hold the weight better. We will need to finish the discussion Friday. The closest competetion was a multi toothpick reinforced tower designed using squares. By the way, our materials were clay and toothpicks. This translates to different aircraft designs. Tube and fabric, monocoque, composite, etc.

I’ve had a few questions about Skyfighters and other software used in the camp. Below are links to each of the sites

Skyfighters 1945 OR for the Demo which is still available try MacUpdate

X-Plane

Bottle Rocket Builder

Those who do not have a Mac may try Microsoft Combat Flight Sim

Tomorrow we are meeting at the California Flight Center at 9am. It will be a fun day. See you tomorrow. Enjoy the photos below.

Tuesday’s Events

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:21:29 +0000

After we reviewed names today and introduced Tyler, a new camper this week, we moved on to a discussion about instruments, and a deeper discussion of the four principles of flight.

We practiced emmelmens and split esses using Skyfighters 1945 and learned about normal take offs in X-Plane. Ask the kids about ‘rotate at 55 knots’ and ‘climb out at 75 knots’.

Full Day Camp is in Full Swing

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:11:45 +0000

Greetings Parents and those interested in the camp. I wanted to share some images and news about today’s activities. We started the day with a simple name game where the kids learned each others names. I think all of the kids can name each other. We will do another quick name game tomorrow. A short group building activity called the human knot followed. The goal was to untie the group without letting go of each others hands. I’ve included a short video. After the introductions we moved back to the room where we named the four principles of flight (lift, gravity, thrust and drag). A short overview but I was pleased to see that many knew most of them. Tomorrow we will explore each in more detail. We ‘played’ with a flight sim that eventually tested participant skills at flying. Some found it really challenging. All were successful.

We enjoyed lunch on the patio. Before we returned to watch a short video on the Blue Angles. We proceeded to build several variations of paper airplanes then launched them from the third floor for fun. We then had a mini competetion to see which planes could challenged the 27.6 second world record. If I remember correctly, the best time was 6.9 seconds. Pretty good given the wind that we worked with! We returned to the room then tested our skills against a progress chart before debriefing and breaking for the day. I hope the participants shared their experiences. Click here for a short video of the human chain.

Some More Images

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:33:48 +0000

Some more images from Oshkosh.

Oshkosh Images

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:32:24 +0000

Some more images.

Oshkosh

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:01:34 +0000

Hello All. Aviation Summer Camp is visiting Oshkosh for the worlds biggest airshow. AirVenture 2010 started Monday.

I’ve only got one image on my iPhone to share and here it is. The north forty as it is known is pretty empty. This is usually filled with planes and people camping under their wing.

Friday Finale

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:39:06 +0000

Greetings again! Well, I believe the kids had a good time and enjoyed their last day of camp. Please let me know your thoughts as a parent because I’d like to post some statements on the site. I only took a few images today and here they are. Enjoy.

Thursday

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:06:19 +0000

Another fun day. We added a participant for the day and I think he had fun. Harrison enjoyed all they we had to offer. The only thing I did not do was to give them more details on lift, drag, thrust, and weight. A good time had by all. This short video will give you an idea of their excitement. Video going to room.