EAA Sport Aviation - April 2010

normal reaction. The kids were told, “You
take it one part at a time. It’s like life: you
succeed by persevering.”
At the beginning of each workday Scott
assigned the kids to a team: Red Team,
Blue Team, Green Team, etc. And then he
assigned a project to each team: vertical
stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, etc. Mentors
are assigned, too, and as different ones
attend at different times, they vary each
week. That’s actually a good thing; since
mentors have different backgrounds, kids
get different input. And, amazingly, the kids

Wherever these kids go in life, whatever they end up doing, they’ll always have a soft spot in their hearts for aviation, for they once built an airplane!

are darn good at sorting that out. Mentors are not professional teachers, but they are passionate teachers. It became obvious to them early that kids learn differently. But they do learn, and development is individualistic. The key is to stick with them, and that’s exactly what the mentors did. How to handle mistakes? Overcome them. Just like in life. It’s a simple but important lesson. They tell the kids, show the kids, but do not build it for them! Lesson learned; that’s what we all do now: let the kids build. As the kids learn more it becomes exponentially easier to turn them loose, so to speak. It’s like a race where everyone wants to start fast, but then you settle in. We’re settled in now.

Through it all, Scott is the final authority, and that’s important, too. Before any final riveting takes place, you check with Scott. There’s no freelancing. The lesson? High standards.

Along the way something interesting is happening with the kids. As the airplane takes shape, they become emotionally involved with it. And when you say de-burr and dimple and countersink and Cleco and rivet, they know. And, rather clandestinely, you’ll see them check the work of the other teams. And then they’ll ask questions and share with each other.

One thing that was a little hard for me, and some other mentors, was the sharing of one toolbox. Building is generally a solitary experience: I know where my tools are (except when the one I’m looking for is in my back pocket). When teams are using tools they tend to get scattered or thrown in various places and drawers in the toolbox. You often have to dig around or ask around to find the one you need. It’s not a bad thing; it’s just an adjustment you make when building as a group.

When the first Teen Flight column appeared, Tony, in Southern California, wrote me. He’s created a similar program. He’s mostly on his own, using his shop and his tools, calling his program the Southern California Aviation Mentoring Program. I wrote him recently and asked him for a mid-term report. He said it’s going well; one of the big challenges being staying ahead of the kids. And he’s awaiting the donation of a Pazmany PL- 2 from Build A Plane. There are hints of developmental offshoots from his program. “I am more convinced than ever that any program like ours, by using the natural allure of flight and aircraft, can have an impact on youth far beyond just the desire to expose more kids to the joys of flying,” he wrote.

Where are we now? Tail is done, wings are almost done, and the fuselage is started. Very helpful in this process is the RV- 12 kit itself: it goes together like a fine Swiss watch. An open house is scheduled in the near future. I’m