Session 8

Session 8 at Piedmont IB Middle in Charlotte NC.

The primary focus of session 8 was to finish the airframes and get the planes ready to fly. It is during this session that we also moved the program to Piedmont IB Middle http://schools.cms.k12.nc.us/piedmontMS/Pages/Default.aspx . Being that Discovery Place has no good place to fly an airplane, Piedmont will be the location for the remainder of the class sessions. When the planes are flight ready we will head out to Piedmont's soccer field and give them a try. This did not happen by the end of session 8 but it is very likely to happen by the end of session 9.

Today was a catch up day for some students who had missed sessions. It was also a day for attaching 3D printed elevon connectors to planes, using zip ties. Most of the session was building,building, building. One of the key portions of today was also cutting the correct length of control rod to run from the servos, on the power plant and control board, to the elevons on the airframe. Coat hangers are the raw material for the control rods. The proper length of the control rods is very important as each power plant and control board will be removable and used for multiple airframes. These rods will remain with each airframe but should easily work with any of our 5 power plant and control boards.

It was so great to see such a large group of students working so diligently on their tasks. The reward of getting these airplanes in the air will surely be an amazing milestone for all of the students.

The staff at Piedmont IB Middle have been so helpful in making this program a great success. Paul Booth, who we have worked closely with, arranged or on site class space for the final sessions of the program. He also arranged for storage space for 20 very large foam airplanes. I would also like to say thank you to Ms. Burick for the use of her classroom.

During the next session we will finish preparing the airframes and getting the control rods bent for the elevons. The likely hope is to have at least 5 students test fly their airplanes by the end session 9. We also have plans to run a 10th session that is all flight.