I think Friday is still open for topics not directly related to building however I think this is related. I am also asking forgiveness in advance for the length of this post.
I don't post a lot but after reading about a teacher named Brian Copes it caused me to remember someone who gave me the love for experimental aircraft building and then how others can screw up the work that others created. First Brian: In the December 2012 issue of the Welding Journal (a trade magazine I subscribe to) there was a brief article on Brian. I will quote a couple of paragraphs: ?Brian Copes, an AWS member and pre-engineering teacher at Calera High School, Calera, Ala., has recently been selected by PEOPLE magazine as one of five winners in its first ?Teacher of the Year? Awards. Last summer, Copes took ten of his students to Honduras, where they fit 14 amputees with artificial legs fashioned from old Toyota Corolla parts.????????????. The story goes on to describe how they designed and created the legs in their school shop then fitted them on site in Honduras. All I can say is WAY TO GO BRIAN and way to think outside the typical high school education box. I am sure he has stimulated some of his students toward futures in creative engineering thinking / design, not to mention the humanitarian aspect of this life lesson. Now for my aviation mentor, Mr. Skidmore (Skid): Skid was actually an art teacher with a private pilot?s license. He dreamed up a course curriculum in the late 60?s that became a science elective at the school. The class was Private Pilot Ground School with a requirement to also work on an experimental aircraft construction project. Ground school provided math, physics, and meteorology along with other academic opportunities. The aircraft construction portion was focused around ?shop class? type experiences (although we were building in the art classroom). I was a freshman when Skid convinced the School Board of the idea and was given a budget that was thought to be sufficient to purchase tools and the kit. The choice boiled down to a Baby Ace or a BD5. The BD won out and our school purchased kit #64. You know the BD story so I will not waste the time writing about it. In my sophomore year I and about 10 want-a-be pilots were the first class and I took the class each year for the rest of my high school time. Skid made sure I had new and challenging things to work on each year. We learned the skills necessary to construct this aircraft which many of you are either learning or already know. The big thing to me is that this class started my career in aviation not as a pilot but as an engineer working in the airframe, turbine engine, and space craft industries. I love airplanes and I have been fortunate to have had this experience. Skid?s class is still offered at the school although Skid went west about 10 years ago. About 5 years ago I was in the town where this school is located and I played a hunch. I did not think the BD5 was ever finished and wondered if I could buy it from the school. So I stopped in and started asking questions. It turns out I was right about not finishing the BD but the ?completed? airframe had been lost over the years. They offered to check one last storage location and said if they found the BD it was mine, if I would haul it away. However there was a catch, I would need to speak that day to the current aviation class in exchange for the BD. I jumped at this. Unfortunately the plane had been sold at some sort of raffle about 6 years prior, hopefully it found a good home. I spoke to the class and here is how the system and people who are not passionate about what they are attempting to do can ruin a good thing. When I arrived as the guest speaker ?Former Student Makes Good in the Aviation Industry?, the class was out of control. The ground school had deteriorated into a page by page reading out of the Jeppesen private pilot work book. There was no interest in understanding how this information could be used in flying or for any other purpose. The shop class portion had been dropped completely. The teacher was "assigned" to teach this class and he had flown before but the smallest airplane he had been in ?had 3 jet engines? so his knowledge base and motivation toward this class material was a little lacking. While speaking I tried to solicit some aviation related questions, but basically this class had turned into an easy science credit and that was about it. WHAT A WASTE? So I was wondering if anyone else had a Skid type creating a passion for all things flying and / or all things building. Gary Shubert N2517D ? Piper Tomahawk N325JG ? Reserved for either the KR or the Flybaby
