I was at a men's group meeting at my church today and we were looking for ways to reach kids in our community and their families. I brought up the idea of a flying ministry cause I remembered Josh Bixler always talking about one at his church. Turns out there was an older guy at the breakfast today that used to help build Apollo rockets. He did something similar in a church years ago that started with pinewood derby cars. They built the cars, then the track, the balsa chuck gliders and moved into motorized planes and eventually a custom rocket that shot an model of an Apollo module 2000 feet up. When he heard me talk about FT his face lit up. Then I discovered one of the kids that was there with his dad just started working at the local hobby shop. Sounds like we have some pieces in place.
Is there a place to get some guidance and info on starting something like this. I checked the STEM page but it was all grade level stuff. How would that be adapted to something like this. Any ideas or guidance?
My initial thoughts were to start with the FT chuck gliders and learning simple build stuff and teaching some flight concepts then move up to building better stuff. One thought I had was to create a small program where a kid sticks with it and works through to a point where they can build and fly and then they get a full kit including a radio setup. Am I on the right track? Is there a better way to get this going? I'm open to ideas and input.
Initially this would start as a once a month get together of a bunch of guys and kids in the community. We have a small church in the middle of a small town neighborhood but the field I fly at is on the edge of town overlooking the country and is only a few blocks away. So we have a field to fly.
Is there a place to get some guidance and info on starting something like this. I checked the STEM page but it was all grade level stuff. How would that be adapted to something like this. Any ideas or guidance?
My initial thoughts were to start with the FT chuck gliders and learning simple build stuff and teaching some flight concepts then move up to building better stuff. One thought I had was to create a small program where a kid sticks with it and works through to a point where they can build and fly and then they get a full kit including a radio setup. Am I on the right track? Is there a better way to get this going? I'm open to ideas and input.
Initially this would start as a once a month get together of a bunch of guys and kids in the community. We have a small church in the middle of a small town neighborhood but the field I fly at is on the edge of town overlooking the country and is only a few blocks away. So we have a field to fly.