So...
Out of curiosity, is anyone besides me and my club (that I know of) going to participate in National Model Aviation Day?
For those who don't know, the AMA has designated a specific day each year to be a way to introduce the general public to model aviation. This is kind of a way for those people who said, "When I was a kid, I used to be so interested in this!" or "I've always been interested, but never understood where to go to get involved/how to get involved," type of thing (and I know that's really generalizing it).
My club is trying to go all out to introduce people to the hobby, whether it's warbirds, gliders, quadcopters, 3D aircraft, scale flight, foamies, helicopters, even air rockets. We're inviting the public to come out to our field on that Saturday to have lunch, build some chuck gliders, learn to fly, experience a "drone ride", watch some of our club's best pilots fly 3D flight (and apparently, we've got quite a few; I just found out that several of them have been to Joe Nall invitationals and placed at IMAC nationals and championships!), and generally, get info on the hobby from whoever's willing to help at the field.
Our current club president and former club presidents have put together some air powered rocket launchers that work by pressurizing a PVC pipe system with a bicycle pump and having an electronic trigger that opens a valve to let the air flow through and launch the rockets, and we'll be shooting those off pretty much all day. They saw the design of it at the Maker Faire we participated in, and it was hilarious - these old guys who are in their 60's and 70's were out there acting like they were 5-6 years old again with these kids, shooting off the rockets.
I'm looking forward to participating (I'll be helping to build the FT chuck gliders again; I've gotten it down to about one every 3 minutes ) and I was curious if anyone else out there would be participating in this event with your clubs? If so, what does your club have planned for events? I'm curious if we can share ideas for it.
Out of curiosity, is anyone besides me and my club (that I know of) going to participate in National Model Aviation Day?
For those who don't know, the AMA has designated a specific day each year to be a way to introduce the general public to model aviation. This is kind of a way for those people who said, "When I was a kid, I used to be so interested in this!" or "I've always been interested, but never understood where to go to get involved/how to get involved," type of thing (and I know that's really generalizing it).
My club is trying to go all out to introduce people to the hobby, whether it's warbirds, gliders, quadcopters, 3D aircraft, scale flight, foamies, helicopters, even air rockets. We're inviting the public to come out to our field on that Saturday to have lunch, build some chuck gliders, learn to fly, experience a "drone ride", watch some of our club's best pilots fly 3D flight (and apparently, we've got quite a few; I just found out that several of them have been to Joe Nall invitationals and placed at IMAC nationals and championships!), and generally, get info on the hobby from whoever's willing to help at the field.
Our current club president and former club presidents have put together some air powered rocket launchers that work by pressurizing a PVC pipe system with a bicycle pump and having an electronic trigger that opens a valve to let the air flow through and launch the rockets, and we'll be shooting those off pretty much all day. They saw the design of it at the Maker Faire we participated in, and it was hilarious - these old guys who are in their 60's and 70's were out there acting like they were 5-6 years old again with these kids, shooting off the rockets.
I'm looking forward to participating (I'll be helping to build the FT chuck gliders again; I've gotten it down to about one every 3 minutes ) and I was curious if anyone else out there would be participating in this event with your clubs? If so, what does your club have planned for events? I'm curious if we can share ideas for it.