So, I feel this is strongly related to the FT community, although some may not see it.
Last week, Make: Magazine, the founders of Maker Faires worldwide, went under. With it, many of the Maker Faires worldwide have been cancelling their events because they don't have the support of Make:.
I'm sure some people are going, "Well, that's for a bunch of techies, or people who make arts & crafts." Nope. Makers are people who MAKE things. That IS us to a T. We MAKE planes. We utilize inexpensive and readily available materials to form it into something that actually flies, using basic aeronautical principles, although we may not realize it.
I was an exhibitor at a Mini Maker Faire this past weekend, where I brought out planes, simulators, drones, and some of the best pilots in our RC club, to come out and demonstrate RC. We also built about 40 chuck gliders that we gave out to kids, from the STEM kits that Flite Test has. Every single kid who got a plane walked away smiling, because they all looked awesome. I had several parents ask me where I got them, to which I gladly gave them stickers on the planes that had the Flite Test website, so they could look up how to get free plans or purchase speed build kits. I had one family ask specifically on how to get the chuck gliders, because they wanted to build them with their church youth group. And there were MANY fathers and sons, or even single moms, that were approaching us because they wanted to get involved in the RC hobby, but didn't know how, where to start, where to fly, etc.
This was all at one event, where there were people who were learning to build things and applying a slightly different mindset to everything. I had a member of the local Maker's Guild who came over and grabbed one of the foldable paper planes that the AMA sent me (Thank you, AMA, for supporting us with that and membership info!) and she stuck a coin battery and an LED on the end of the paper plane - gave it just enough nose weight, and the plane looked neat with the flashing light at the end!
I think it's a bummer that we're having events like this shutting down, just because Flite Test and plane construction really is a huge aspect of what it's all about. We make our planes out of simple materials, we learn to solder connectors, we have to figure out radio signals and potentially get our HAM radio licenses and figure out frequencies so we don't interfere with others, we learn how to use servo motors to actuate flaps and ailerons and elevators and rudders, maybe we're even using 3D printing to build firewalls or control horns or other parts. In short, we're utilizing all sorts of different aspects of the concept behind Maker Faires, JUST for our ONE hobby - wouldn't it be nice if we had a public venue to show others applications of all of this, to see how other people have utilized some of these tech tools, and share resources and knowledge?
Last week, Make: Magazine, the founders of Maker Faires worldwide, went under. With it, many of the Maker Faires worldwide have been cancelling their events because they don't have the support of Make:.
I'm sure some people are going, "Well, that's for a bunch of techies, or people who make arts & crafts." Nope. Makers are people who MAKE things. That IS us to a T. We MAKE planes. We utilize inexpensive and readily available materials to form it into something that actually flies, using basic aeronautical principles, although we may not realize it.
I was an exhibitor at a Mini Maker Faire this past weekend, where I brought out planes, simulators, drones, and some of the best pilots in our RC club, to come out and demonstrate RC. We also built about 40 chuck gliders that we gave out to kids, from the STEM kits that Flite Test has. Every single kid who got a plane walked away smiling, because they all looked awesome. I had several parents ask me where I got them, to which I gladly gave them stickers on the planes that had the Flite Test website, so they could look up how to get free plans or purchase speed build kits. I had one family ask specifically on how to get the chuck gliders, because they wanted to build them with their church youth group. And there were MANY fathers and sons, or even single moms, that were approaching us because they wanted to get involved in the RC hobby, but didn't know how, where to start, where to fly, etc.
This was all at one event, where there were people who were learning to build things and applying a slightly different mindset to everything. I had a member of the local Maker's Guild who came over and grabbed one of the foldable paper planes that the AMA sent me (Thank you, AMA, for supporting us with that and membership info!) and she stuck a coin battery and an LED on the end of the paper plane - gave it just enough nose weight, and the plane looked neat with the flashing light at the end!
I think it's a bummer that we're having events like this shutting down, just because Flite Test and plane construction really is a huge aspect of what it's all about. We make our planes out of simple materials, we learn to solder connectors, we have to figure out radio signals and potentially get our HAM radio licenses and figure out frequencies so we don't interfere with others, we learn how to use servo motors to actuate flaps and ailerons and elevators and rudders, maybe we're even using 3D printing to build firewalls or control horns or other parts. In short, we're utilizing all sorts of different aspects of the concept behind Maker Faires, JUST for our ONE hobby - wouldn't it be nice if we had a public venue to show others applications of all of this, to see how other people have utilized some of these tech tools, and share resources and knowledge?