Sloping Off - September 2006
Three Go Back to School
by Terry Antell
On Thursday 15th June Terry Antell, Terry Sullivan and David Enticott went back to school. A few weeks before this I received a phone call from a teacher at The Crescent Primary School, Eastleigh. Our club website steered them to our (my) door.
A week in June had been set aside as science week. We were asked to give a talk on how a model flies to 240 children aged 4 to 8 years old. It would be split into 8 class sessions, four in the morning and four in the afternoon; oh yes, "Could we put on a display, too?” They claimed to have a large football pitch which would be clear.
Builders were working all over the place and were using a large metal fence to stop us from escaping (I think that was the idea). The construction workers removed a section to allow us to get in AND help with hand launching a model.
People have very funny ideas about what is large, don’t they! It was a SMALL grass area with a few narrow running strips marked out. Its length was around 200 feet. Large trees, a high hedgerow, a small industrial estate on one side, plus Southampton airport not far away, too! Needless to say, normal flying of models was out of the question. I did manage to fly my Spirit Elite 2m glider from a hand launch. Ok, it was only a short circuit. Terry Sullivan was our real star. Terry does have a knack of being able to communicate with quite young children; he explained how a wing works that even I understood!
David ably assisted. The first half hour session was by me. It was obvious that we all needed to take part and assist. I operated models as Terry talked them through controls, etc. David mirrored Terry at the other end of a line of children. Being out doors meant hearing could be a problem, particularly with Southampton airport being so close.
We take everything very much for granted when it comes to operating our models. We know what happens with servos and the like but almost all other people don’t have a clue. The teachers said just how much they had learned, too.
Terry managed to put on a superb tight flying display for the afternoon session of classes using his Formosa foam electric model. The children were amazed. (Football was on TV later that day which meant the workmen left at lunchtime helping us with safety)
The Daily Echo paper sent a photographer along. Considering that other flying activities were going on at the school the same day I was heartened by the fact that we (as a group) were the only ones with a photo in the evening addition on Friday 16th June. The other activities consisted of a hot air balloon in the school hall and a bird of prey elsewhere in the school.
My thanks go to David Enticott and Terry Sullivan for their time and effort and for David driving us there.
Picture shows Terry Antell, with children who had parental consent to be in the photo. The model is my 2m Ail/Flap/Rud/Elev Spirit Elite thermal/slope glider.
The legal bit: Photo copyright Newsquest Southern 19/06/06. Echo picture by Malcolm Nethersole.
