"Focus on Education" Column
Model Aviation Magazine
August 2004
Gordon Schimmel, chairperson of the AMA Education Committee, is taking this opportunity to profile David Gee, an AMA member who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and brought the joy of aeromodeling to newcomers.
As with many lifelong modelers, Dave Gee comes to modeling by way of an influential mentor. In Dave’s case, it was his father, a charter member of one of the most colorfully named AMA clubs—the Old Farts Flying Club (OFFC)—who gave him a start in model aviation.
Dave’s dad continues a lifelong interest in the hobby as an expert stick-and-tissue builder and flier of Indoor and outdoor rubber-powered models. Dave currently schedules his work week so he can attend the Wednesday morning meetings of the OFFC and join his father in an interest they share.
Dave and his Porterfield Comet.
Dave started with simple Indoor models and moved into flying CL and RC as the hobby expanded in new directions during the 1950s and 1960s. However, he is still true to his Indoor stick-and-tissue roots when he works with children, something Dave does for fun. He has conducted a number of classroom demonstrations, often tailoring each presentation to the models he has chosen for his audience.
Dave will build different World War I and II semiscale Profile models, depending on whether he is presenting in an elementary classroom or to a secondary-school class in French, American history, literature, or science. His primary goal is to make the presentation interesting, but he believes that it must also be relevant to the curricular topics offered by the classroom teacher.
Dave reports that some constants seem to run through all of his lessons. “There are certain things everyone wants to see.”
He usually opens with a simple rise-off-ground (ROG) model and notes, “Everyone wants to see an airplane take off and land. When a small, lightweight Indoor model does this successfully, everyone is amazed.”
“I also bring along a collection of slow-flying Indoor models, some No-Cals and Pennyplanes, as well as various biplanes, canards, helicopters, and an ornithopter. Teachers as well as their students are surprised to see something fly so slowly—and so well!”
Dave admits that there are always a few kids who are mostly interested in seeing an airplane crash. When this occurs, he uses it as an opportunity to emphasize that, unlike many toys that they are accustomed to, the model can be easily repaired.
After a few minutes of demonstrations, Dave’s next activity is a cinch for interest. “Now it’s your turn,” he declares. “I break out some Skystreaks—or if the kids are older and we have enough time, AMA Cubs—and we begin to build. By the time we finish constructing, flying, and trimming the airplanes, two hours have passed. Actually, I have more fun than the kids—and the fun they have is reflected back to me.”
Cub Scouts mass launch their AMA Cubs.
Dave likes to joke that he is “corrupting the youth of tomorrow.” He notes, “Most kids don’t know that an activity like this exists.”
Dave’s contributions to the AMA go beyond the school classroom. Throughout the past several years, he has been instrumental in organizing scores of volunteers from the Black Sheep Squadron to build Delta Darts at the AMA Convention that has taken place in Pasadena, California. Thousands of children and their parents have had the opportunity to build this model and discover the simple pleasure of “teaching the airplane to fly,” as part of a visit to this trade show and conference.
The show moved to a new and larger location in Ontario, California, this year. Dave is looking forward to working with volunteers from several new clubs to help staff the event. He also has been a participant in two of the “roundtables” organized by the AMA Education Committee during the conference.
Initially Dave was skeptical about the usefulness of the meeting, but he acknowledges that exchanging ideas with others who also work with kids has given him new insight into how to improve his program. “I’ve reflected on some of our conversations throughout the year. Some of what I’ve heard there has changed my attitudes about working with kids.”
He says he has given up trying to encourage young people to attend Black Sheep Squadron meetings. Someone in the roundtable pointed out that kids want to be with kids, so he’s refocused his efforts to organize and work with groups that are predominately made up of young people.
Dave’s educational efforts are not limited to his work with students in classrooms. He is dedicated to helping his club retain its vitality and keeping the hobby and sport interesting to adults as well. “We come up with crazy events to challenge ourselves and keep it interesting. Not long ago, we created a rubber-powered, rise-off-water (ROW) event which was pretty hysterical when you saw what people were able to do to achieve a successful flight.”
Another popular event centered on giant bungee glider launches. “Some of our rigs could launch a couch, so you can imagine the fun we had launching gliders.”
An avid paintball enthusiast, Dave points out that problems occurred with that sport because neophytes could rarely avoid being taken out of the game by experts who played all of the time. Newcomers would just give up and never return.
Dave tries to avoid the inevitable “clique of experts” in his AMA club who can sometimes intimidate new arrivals at the flying field. “If ‘newbies’ are motivated to seek us out at the field, I try to find a way to help them, and to celebrate their initial achievements so they are encouraged to return.”
Dave has few illusions about converting large numbers of children to modeling. “The concept of air-minded youth went out with the 1930s; for the most part, it has been replaced by computers and the Internet.”
In spite of the odds, he makes certain they understand that “modeling is the least expensive hobby they can have other than day dreaming! I tell them, ‘Look at how much fun you can have with a simple Dime Scale or ROG model.’”
There is something about the magic of flight for these Burbank, California, kindergarteners.
Dave adds, “I always have more fun than the kids. I love bringing joy to so many people, including the adults present. I think I do a little bit to help them discover the child who is in all of us.”