Rogue Valley Flyers introduce new educational initiative.
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 Grants Pass, Oregon – Under an agreement with Josephine County the Rogue Valley Flyers (RVF) have introduced a new youth education program. The program was launched at Evergreen Elementary School in Cave Junction. With the assistance of principal David Valenzuela, RVF member Laureano Mier visited 16 classrooms and provided an entertaining tutorial on the history of flight, exhibits of famous aircraft and the basics of why an airplane flies. Each student had a hands-on experience, building a glider with functioning control surfaces. Over the course of the two days nearly five hundred students participated and flew their gliders in contests. The event culminated with all students gathering on the school’s playground to observe a radio control aircraft in action. 11-year-old Tyler Johnson, son of Anna and Mike Johnson of Grants Pass, is the youngest member of RVF. Tyler demonstrated aerobatic flying with his electric powered replica of the Navy T-28. All the students cheered to see one their peers skillfully maneuver his aircraft through the sky.
 RVF will offer its training program to other schools in the county. In describing the program Mier pointed out that Neil Armstrong developed his interest in aviation as a youngster when he began building and flying model aircraft. Mier said, “Who knows?” maybe this will be a light-bulb moment for one of these young people.
The Rogue Valley Flyers club has been serving Josephine County since 1976. The club sponsors an annual “float-fly” at Lake Selmac July and a large Air Show in August. Countless families have discovered the hobby a perfect involvement for parents with their children. RVF maintains the Josephine Skypark through a lease agreement with Josephine County.
For additional information contact Art Kelly at or Gordon Schimmel at
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The Story Behind the Story
RVF club president, Art Kelley, shared some additional background about his club, the work they did to preserve their flying site and the important lessons they learned in several years of attempting to interest young people in model aviation.
“As the press release notes, the Rogue Valley Flyers have just entered a new ten-year lease with our landlord, Josephine County. The field is on a landfill that was closed down and capped about 15 years ago. Under the field-use terms of the original lease we were required to offer a build-and-fly program. In the past we would recruit two or three young people a year. The club would purchase trainer kits, engines and radio gear and the students would go through a couple of months of building the kit under the supervision of one or more of our members. When the aircraft was complete the youngsters were invited to our field where they were given buddy-box flight instruction with their own aircraft. If the student was able to complete three unassisted take offs and landings the club gave them the airplane and gear.”
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Lessons Learned
Art continues: “However we learned some important lessons. We found that today's youth don't have the focus or attention spans that we may have expected from our own early years in the hobby. In addition, our that no member transport a student placed the travel burden on parents and relatives. In sum, we had only a handful of success stories over the decade.
Each year our efforts were producing more frustration than success. Club members were volunteering their time to assist with building and flying models were disappointed by the challenge of getting students to appear on a regular basis; moreover, the club was investing sometimes as much as $500 a year with little return. And the students and parents were equally frustrated by the amount of time being taken and the transportation demands to get to our field for instruction.”
When the club’s lease came up for renewal year, members reviewed the results of the youth program for the past ten years and agreed that the build-and-fly sessions were, at best, marginally successful. The club had incurred a substantial expense for kits and equipment without reaching many young people.
“Our most important conclusion was that the program needed to be refocused as a "family hobby", Art notes. “We believed that if we could get a parent involved with their child, the family would be engaged in something where everyone could grow and learn. And we could overcome the challenge of transportation.”
When RVF members discussed the youth program with county representatives, they emphasized that the club wanted to continue a youth education program. But they believed that they could reach more young people by going directly to area schools. The county agreed to extend the club’s lease with a new provision that they make at least two presentations in classrooms or to youth organizations each year.
The Evergreen School program was the first,” Art adds, “and for us, the effort is a ‘win-win’. The county receives significant recognition for promoting a youth program and our club immediately reaches out to many more young people, gaining the support of a school system. Young people participate in a buddy-box ‘fun-fly’ with their parents and now the principal at Evergreen is interested in discussing a Park Flyer program on the school’s playground this summer.”
Using AMA’s AeroLab as an Introduction to RC Flying
Evergreen is an elementary school with classes ranging from 1st through 5th grades. AMA’s AeroLab was designed for middle school students but the activities can be modified for younger children. For example, students built and flew the FPG-9 and each class had a gliding contest, for distance. The winner in each class then competed in a school-wide contest and a 2nd grade girl took great pride in beating the 5th-grade boy!
“We transition from this event at the school to a "buddy-box" day at our field, specifically for the students from Evergreen School. A message I've heard repeatedly from parents of younger children is the desire to find an activity they can enjoy doing with their children, not just an activity that requires car-pooling.
We are trying to link up with these groups with activities that engage children and catches the interest of parents. We want to get them to the field and in the air ASAP, in our belief that ‘thumbs on the sticks’ is a way of binding them to the hobby. And, to be sure, having our youngest member, Tyler Johnson, display that it can be done with the T-28 is a persuasive factor!
We think this format is appropriate for elementary-level programs. However, we intend to contact middle schools to suggest using the Aero-Lab program for math and science classes where we think teachers will welcome these flying activities as innovative instructional tool.
We know that the AMA faces challenges in recruiting and retaining new members and at the club level we face the same challenge. We believe the future lies with young people and we are working on agenda that can attract young people. We have concluded that we need to refocus our message on the youngsters and their parents!”
photos courtesy of Illinois Valley News