Support Your Local Club

[kevin b]

Posted by Andy48 on 04/08/2017 13:25:57:

Posted by bouncebounce crunch on 02/08/2017 00:26:07:

ever asked science and technology faculties at high schools if they have a class that could be involved?

Don't need to ask, the answer is very straightforward. Schools are bound by GCSE Exam syllabus and by the National Curriculum that has been in force for nearly 30 years. There is little or nothing in either subject that relates to model flying.

It's not just model flying.

We do not teach young people manual skills any more. Neither as teachers, or as parents. By 17 years of age it is too late.

[PETER BRUCE - Eastchurch Gap]

Reading all the comments makes me reflect on how it was like when I was younger and I was initially mad on planes in my early teens but the cost restraints kept things in check and major items like engines and single channel radio gear were either birthday or Xmas presents and were never purchased to just keep me quite like I suspect a few of the current games consoles today are often purchased. As I got older other factors came into play, sports took over and took up most of my time and then I started on my first transport which was a 🏍 moped and by this time model aircraft were a dim memory. You then progress to cars, girlfriends and eventually marriage and a family and if you take the strains on time of each instance it's like a logarithmic increase in your time and expense which leaves any time for modelling right in the depths. I am sure although the things younger people play with now are different I suspect the demands on their time has increased thus leaving even less time to "Play". Only as I got older was I able to open up Pandora's box again to play so I suspect this could be similar for a lot of others as the demands on younger people's time is far more now than when I was younger - you only have to see how they cradle their phones to see how social communication has changed and places major strains on younger people today. As I intimated in my previous post our club has put on a free event each year which is attended by a good number of top pilots and we do a firework and laser show where it was estimated by our local paper reporter that we had three and a half thousand people so loads of local people know of our club but we are still relatively small and not oversubscribed and we don't get many enquiries after the Flying Spectacular event we put on. I suspect there are no easy answers except to enjoy the hobby and your enthusiasm will also promote others with a slight interest to take up the hobby.. This is the FREE laser and firework show we put on for everyone - yes I did say it's all FREE.

 

 

 

Edited By PETER BRUCE - Eastchurch Gap on 04/08/2017 16:06:23

[Mark Pidduck]

Just to address the point about the National Curriculum being a constraint on teachers, yes, this is the case within lessons, but any decent school will have a STEM club with teachers generally desperate to come up with any ideas besides the tired old tricks to entertain the kind of kids who would be our target group.

Aeromodelling projects would be perfect for such clubs in schools, so I would encourage people to contact schools asking if the staff running the STEM club would be interested in a quick demo, even if it's just a static display of how all the radio gear works.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Dave Bran]

Do we have to go through this utter rubbish about times changing and no hope AGAIN??

The ONLY reason kids are not getting involved in aeromodelling is because most of those "adults" that do it now sit on their over large backsides and pontificate on the young and their parents rather than DOING SOMETHING, especially those most able to influence, the early or newly retired with both time and disposable income.

I run a very successful after school engineering club using RC in all forms twice a week, I regularly have to turn kids away as there is only me to run it. Have done so now for over TEN YEARS. Average attendance 25 per session, ages from 11 through to left school and at University, but primarily 11 - 15. No fewer now than ten years ago, in fact the reverse.

Start off INDOORS so no weather or travel issues, Quads, Helicopters and then Planes. Then move outdoors in the better weather.

PLEASE get it into your heads guys, it has NOTHING AT ALL to do with parents, nor the kids lack of interest, but they do have to know about and experience it to get keen, 11 year old's learn by experiencing, not being told. It MUST be hands on and no waiting around or "being told" at the start. Micro Quads are ideal for starting an aeromodelling interest. I now have Year 9 kids building and enjoying FREE FLIGHT............ who'd have thought it?? TRY!!

Have just offered the parents of two of my hardcore Year 9 helpers extra mentoring on engineering inc outdoor flying training, explaining costs, and they bit my arm off they were so keen.

Don't just write here wringing hands, GO AND DO SOMETHING POSITIVE ABOUT IT!!

[Jonathan M]

Fear not chaps, an incredibly wide range of craft, technology and design skills are very much alive and kicking in the current GCSE syllabus, together with their context and application in the global world:

**LINK**

I tried to paste the full summary here, but it exceeded the word allowance: scan through it and you (the older generation) will quickly realise just how limited and deprived your own school-education was!

[bouncebounce crunch]

Right on the nail Dave Bran.

Demographics targeted= people with time and not a great deal of money to get started.

Advertising aeromodelling during any tv shows that have aeroplanes as well as over the radio, maybe during childrens science or other popular tv shows as well. may just help inspire the next generation.

[Peter Miller]

Twenty five years ago I was a technician in a Craft,DEsign and Technology department in an upper school.

Our department ran a really big exhibition of hobbies etc for the new intake of 13 year olds. Naturally I was asked to put on a display of model aircraft.

I had three long tables covered with models and parts etc. I had a video of model flying running. I had a stack of free magazines to give away.

I forget how many children came through the exhibition but it must have been a couple of hundred. I had about three questions. No one took a free magazine and that was my afternoon.

And all this was long before mobile phones and I phones. Even the school computer systems was pretty basic.

In my 5 years at the school I had one pupil who wanted to build a camera plane. The fuselage was tested down a line in his garden with no engine.. The teacher ruined his undercarriage by brazing it so the wire was softened.

I had another who "designed a small all sheet rubber powered model which actually did fly well. (For "Design" Read followed strong suggestions.)

I suspect that things are even worse now

One of our club members has just got the same job 25 years later. I will be interested to hear what he has to say.

[Jonathan M]

Posted by Peter Miller on 28/02/2018 10:51:59:

Twenty five years ago I was a technician in a Craft,DEsign and Technology department in an upper school.

.....

I suspect that things are even worse now

One of our club members has just got the same job 25 years later. I will be interested to hear what he has to say.

I'd also be interested to hear what he has to say!

From my perspective of a parent of a child in Year 8, I'm astonished by the incredible range of craft, design and tech skills learning in their DT lessons. Maybe its just that his particular school is good with this, but in the late 1970s my own school(s) had NOTHING, no woodwork, no metalwork, no electronics, no DT of any description.

Re aero-modelling and RC, it is just a minor special-interest hobby that appeals to older generations for whom flight was still a romance when we were younger. The current younger generations are just as excited, motivated and inventive as we were, but about other more current aspects of technology.

[Jonathan M]

Posted by Dave Bran on 28/02/2018 09:33:11:

....

I now have Year 9 kids building and enjoying FREE FLIGHT............ who'd have thought it?? TRY!!

....

Any more specific detail on this Dave?

You're clearly an inspirational and engaged teacher, but also something of a rarity (in terms of your RC and aero-modelling interest) within education.

Interestingly the Americans have something called the Science Olympiad for school-age children, of which aero-modelling is a significant component, thus they're growing a new generation of enthusiasts. Now that's something the BMFA could think about?

[ChrisB]

 

Particularly in schools it often comes down to politics. A clubmate of mine works as the head of design tech at a secondary school. He was going to enter the school in the schools BMFA Lift challenge but was overruled by his boss as a well known ‘premium’ car and 4x4 manufacturer is running a programme for schools and that was the preference, especially as the company is local and would rather that than rubber powered toy planes.

I say rubber powered toy planes, as the perception of model aircraft is men over 60 wearing straw hats and smoking a pipe, standing in a field throwing chuck gliders. Over the years I’ve tried to get work colleagues interested by showing them videos and pictures of mine and other people’s aircraft and I’m met with pretty much a brick wall. The only vague interest comes when I mention the D word and even then 1 in 10 look mildly interested.

There is so much choice these days, people can do lots of activities far more than they ever could. Equally many people don’t have hobbies of any kind at all. They wake up, see to the kids, go to work, go home see to the kids, do some work late at night and then go to bed and do it all again the next day. Weekends consist of looking after children going to see family playing in the park and doing work emails before Monday starts again. That is the ’life’ many people I work with. My boss says his hobby is running, not in a club, just by himself. It helps to clear his head and think about work matters. Unfortunately many people think that their job is their life and everything else should fit around it, these are the people who end up retiring and then die sad, and lonely as their job was their life.

There is no easy answer.

Edited By ChrisB on 28/02/2018 12:18:28

[Nightflyer]

I think when it comes to schools, youth clubs, etc there are a few challenges along the way. My personal experience has been that firstly whoever hosts the activity has got to have an active interest and understanding. For schools that alone is not always enough as then comes the question of facilities, education authority policies, etc etc. Whereas for some clubs or groups i.e. Scouts there is support (and even badge) to encourage it but often no one who is an active aeromodeller.

I got roped in to support my children's Scout group. It was quite amusing that they have a series of challenges to undertake to get their badge and the group supported that. So I ended up teaching them over two sessions to build model chuck gliders, fly them and improve the performance and competitions. They thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it. A later session I ended up taking my electric round the pole set up in so they could fly models, which they enjoyed. Finally, they had a trip to Duxford and completed all that was necessary to get their badges. For most it was a passing interest that they liked at the time, but for a couple I know that they have been doing some aeromodelling since and one is flying rc now.

Perseverance, support and a love for the hobby can make things happen. Even if only one person takes up the hobby from each group it is still an achievement.

[Dave Bran]

Posted by Jonathan M on 28/02/2018 11:52:41:

You're clearly an inspirational and engaged teacher, but also something of a rarity (in terms of your RC and aero-modelling interest) within education.

Hi Jonathan,

Ah, but here's the rub, I'm not and never have been a teacher, just a plain old ex-apprentice career engineer who decided the view over the parapet was worth the effort and pain climbing towards. It was my decision to use RC to engage kids in engineering, so the impetus came from outside the education field, but was aided by a Headmaster who listened and recognised the value of kids getting hands dirty and enthused through apparent "mere play".

My only "education" background was that In my late 20's I was dragged into setting up apprentice training and then adult process control automation training for my national business. After 11 years at this front line I went back to hands on engineering, latterly being a "mechanic in a suit" for in the end a large slice of the country.

I'm now all but 70, and still want to change things! Am I alone or rare? I really hope not! Endangered maybe!!

[Dave Bran]

Posted by Nightflyer on 28/02/2018 12:42:59:

Perseverance, support and a love for the hobby can make things happen. Even if only one person takes up the hobby from each group it is still an achievement.

Amen.................

[Jonathan M]

Nice one Dave!

I don't classify people as teachers just because they've got a PGCE or decades of school-teaching behind them.

Knowledge, experience, patience, sensitivity (to how different people learn), and passion for their thing is all it really takes!

Jon

[Dave Cunnington]

Yes I do support my local club, Retford MFC

There's a swap meet this coming Sunday, 4th at 10am should anyone be interested

[ChrisB]

My club hold two or three sessions each year when the local ATC about four individuals and a local school, again, about four individuals come along and have trial flights. The ATC visit twice and the school once.

Most of the youngsters, aged between 12 and 17 enjoy it but tend to get bored after a couple of hours and a couple of flights each. Its generally a different group each year, although some do revisit. There are usually one or two shining lights amongst them, who could easily be capable of progressing to solo flight very quickly and they show enthusiasm and ask lots of questions.

The main problem is access, cost and the willingness of their relatives to engage. If they are under 17, then they won't have a car, there is a cost to flying, even if its a basic set-up, or second hand and with the best will in the world, if they don't have any support at home from a relative who can assist them, be it getting to the field or storage of models, its a challenge for them. Its difficult for club members to get too involved for a variety of reasons, be it cost, time, fear of interfering or if under 18, child protection etc etc.

Although our hobby is superb its not as accessible as, say, football or other activities that can be played in a back garden or local open/green space within a 10/15 minute walk from home. Flying requires a lot more than that, even if its indoor.

All we can do is encourage, particularly youngsters and their relatives!