Aviation Club
The goal of the Reynolds Middle School Aviation Club will be to foster an interest in aviation for the participating students. Their participation will expose them to some practical applications of the skills and concepts learned in their math and science classes. They will also be able to consider a number of different careers that might be of interest to them in the future.
Students in the club will enjoy the use of the Microsoft Flight Simulator X™ along with realistic controls such as a cockpit yoke, throttle lever, rudder pedals, and control stick (joystick). The simulator will provide a fun way for the future pilots to take to the air and develop their skills. In doing so, they will be able to practice the calculations necessary to piloting an aircraft. Geometry will be involved when navigating using a compass. Many calculations must be performed in one’s head when looking at airspeed, climb or descent rates, engine performance, etc. Students will perform these calculations on the fly (no pun intended) while playing the game.
Weather is the subject of part of the eighth grade science curriculum. Understanding weather is obviously of utmost importance to a pilot. Student will study weather patterns and cloud formations and learn how to acquire the appropriate weather information before flying.
Learning the flight controls of an aircraft will provide students with a basic understanding of physics and aerodynamics. With the use of some of the supplies in the technology classrooms at Reynolds, students may design aircraft parts and test them in a wind tunnel. Using the simulator, they will get realistic representations of what happens to aircraft in various configurations.
Members of the Aviation Club will be able to get a sense of a number of different careers to consider for their future. Being a pilot, civilian or military, is the most obvious. Also included would be the careers of air traffic controller, engineer specializing in aircraft design, airframe and powerplant mechanic, etc.
With the Reynolds Aviation Club we hope to foster an interest in aviation either as a career or as a hobby. Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) lessons will be a regular part of the club. Participants will be able to apply their science and math skills and concepts to real-world situations. With this opportunity and encouragement, hopefully one day they will take to the sky.
Man must rise above the Earth - to the top of the atmosphere and beyond - for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.
- Socrates
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
-Leonardo da Vinci
High Flight
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.