February 5th 2015, the Arvada Associated Modelers Club attended Legacy High School; in particular Mr. Godman’s aviation class. The class was made up of approximately 15 high school boys who are interested in aviation. On display we had numerous foam fixed-wing aircraft, a gyro copter, a quad-copter and a large scale aerobatics 28 lb. airplane. In addition Joe Falconer brought his hexacopter with a 3 axis gimbal and live feed camera.
ed started us off talking about the club and promoting our flight instruction. The class gathered around the large scale aircraft that Ted brought. The students asked relevant and thoughtful questions about Ted’s aircraft. We discussed how the plane works, the amount of electronics on board and approximate costs. He tied it into AAM’s training program and the students seemed very interested. Pat then talked about his aircraft and showed the functionality of his foam aircraft. There were a lot of questions for Pat about how much his aircraft cost and how hard it was to fly. Dewey then told everyone about his scratch built gyro-copter and explained how stable the design was. Finally Joe explained his hexacopter and how the 3 axis gimbal works along with an explanation of the future of UAS. A lot of questions revolved around cost.
Once we were done with the conversation portion of the demo we went to the gymnasium to demonstrate the capabilities of the multi-rotors. Pat went first and showed how stable his multi-rotor was indoors. Apparently if you can get the quad to use your head as a reference point it will follow you around as you walk. The students seemed to enjoy the demo that Pat gave. Joe was next to fly his hexacopter. He explained how he needed to calibrate the compass then gave a student a remote to control the camera. He also brought FPV equipment so the video signal was transmitted to a monitor the students could see. In addition Joe brought a pair of FatShark FPV goggles and the students took turns looking through the goggles.
The flight portion was uneventful and the students seemed to be enjoying themselves. Multiple people asked about the flight instruction that AAM offers. We expect we will see some of them at the field in the near future.
On September 27th at 9:30 AM, Cub Scout pack 969, out of Westminster, visited the Arvada Associated Modelers Club for their traditional rocket launching event. Approximately 15 youngsters showed up whose ages ranged from 6 to 10 years old. They all brought rockets which were built at home and purchased from local hobby shops. Rockets ranged from mini size, A10-3t, up to a 6 foot, D12-3, multi-staged rocket. Albeit the D12-3 rocket was built, owned and flown by a parent, but he was a kid at heart. The purpose of the event was to pass an ‘achievement’ towards one of their Cub Scout badges.
The weather was perfect, an absolutely beautiful Colorado day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. JD started the day off by flying his Carbon Cub for a couple of touch and goes, loops and slow rolls. The kids and especially the adults seemed to enjoy the short airshow.
Once Mick, the troop leader, talked to the group to emphasize safety and the rules of the field, the Cub Scouts started to prepare their rockets for launch. Three at a time were placed on the launch pad; each scout was able to launch their own rocket. Although there were a few minor technical difficulties, as to be expected, the launches went off without a hitch. In fact the first few, that were launched, were so straight and the wind was so calm, they almost landed back on the launch pad after reaching a height of about 500 to 600 feet.
