|
The 7th grade students in Marcia Burton’s
Reading Class at the
Thomas Jefferson Middle School recently enjoyed reading a book written by
Gary Paulsen called “Hatchet.”
The book is the story of a boy named Brian. On a trip to the Canadian oilfields
to spend the summer with his Dad, the pilot of the Cessna he is traveling in
suffers a heart attack and dies. Brian must land the plane in the forest. Brian
learns to exist in this wilderness. He faces many dangers including hunger,
animal attacks, and even a tornado. This book gives the reader a better
understanding of what it is like to survive in an untamed land.
To help her students better understand what it would be
like to survive some of the experiences that the character in the book went
through;
Marcia Burton along with the other TJMS 7th grade teachers,
parents, and several community volunteers held an “Outdoor Study Day.” The event
was held on Friday, October 17th. The students were introduced to
orienteering with a compass by Boy Scout leaders from Troop 11. Employees of the
Archery Shack came in to share their expertise and equipment which allowed the
students to have the opportunity to shoot bows & arrows. The
Missouri Department of Conservation
provided the equipment, as well as Elaine Callaway, to allow the students to go fishing at the Jaycee Park Lake.
To help the students better understand what it is like to
fly an airplane, Marcia Burton contacted us at the Jefferson City Radio Control
Club and invited us to come to the school to give a flight demonstration. To
that end, Shaun Zimmerman, Stacy Gillmore and Paul Pennington volunteered to go
to the school where we gave a brief presentation about our hobby. More importantly
we were able to fly flight demonstrations for the students and teachers. Paul and Stacy tore
up the sky over the practice football field while the students safely watched
from the hillside on the south end of the building and listened to Shaun (also a
parent of one of the TJMS 7th graders; his son, Tony) talk about the hobby.
We certainly love to fly for an appreciative audience and
everyone there seemed to really enjoy watching the airplanes fly. Paul wowed the
kids the most when he took his Sig Something Extra straight up to where it could
barely be seen and put it into a spiraling spin and pulled out at the last
second to keep it from demolishing itself. Stacy had them saying “Ooo & Ahh” with
his impressive and nimble electric-powered Pulse 25. Stacy also flew his
beautiful Kadet Senior and the students were thrilled to watch the retractable
landing gear go up and down on Paul Pennington's Hellcat. The Hellcat didn’t fly
because the landing area was a little bit too rough for that
landing gear, but the plane was used during the presentation.
After he finally stopped talking and answering questions,
Shaun invited his son, Tony, down to join him to help fly the two airplanes he
brought, one a Senior Telemaster, but more importantly, Tony's LT-40 which was used
to allow specially selected students to have an opportunity to try R/C flying
via the trainer cord transmitter. Marcia Burton had used a lottery system and drew
out the names of six students as well as the Science Teacher, Teresa Ruether, to give
R/C flying a try. Each of the students took a turn and all of them did
fantastic! Before their turn was over each of them made several circuits around the
sky with the LT-40 and put it through at least one loop. Mrs. Ruether? Well, we
know that she is a wonderful teacher and she was
certainly lots of fun to fly with. She appeared to have a good time, but we
hope she never has to land an airplane by herself in the Canadian wilderness.
<grin>
Gratefully the weather cooperated for the
Outdoor Study Day during the entire day, but as our luck would have it, we were
in one of the few spots where it decided to sprinkle. Just a little in the beginning,
then it cleared up, but near the end
of our session, while the students & Mrs. Ruether were flying the LT-40, it
started to rain much harder, making it difficult to see the airplane as raindrops were
hitting us in the face and eyes, so we brought the airplane in for another safe
landing as the students and teachers ran for cover and we started to pack up to
leave.
We are grateful that Marcia Burton, all of the other 7th
Grade teachers and the TJMS students invited us to be a part of their Outdoor
Study Day; we enjoy any excuse to get away from work (or retirement) to go
flying!
Update! One of the students who saw us
flying at the school expressed a great amount of interest in flying R/C
airplanes, not only to his teachers, but also to his Mother. So as a special
surprise for his birthday which followed shortly after the event at the school,
she contacted us to make arrangements for him to be able to fly an airplane as
well. We met out at the JCRC Flying Field on a beautiful Fall day. It was Saturday,
November 1st and we had a great time visiting and flying. Tony was there to help
and allowed the other student to fly his airplane, plus as an added bonus, since it was such a
beautiful day for flying, some of the other JCRC
Pilots came out to the flying field as well and everyone enjoyed watching
them fly too. We had a great time flying with this student and meeting his
Mother. (Scroll to the bottom of the photos to view the photos from this
beautiful Saturday at the JCRC Flying Field)
|
