By Annie Jensen, EAA 1447170
Around December 2019, the principal at NBC middle school in Montague, Michigan, made an announcement about an aviation group. Ten students would be able to build a model airplane, and learn to fly it by the spring. The 10 of us, all 6th-8th grade students, came together and the group met Tuesdays after school.
As part of EAA’s Young Eagles Build and Fly program, we had been sent a kit for a SIG LT-40 eKadet model airplane. It would be made out of balsa wood, and have an electric motor. The wing span would be 70 inches. Everyone in the group was ecstatic to get started. Roles were divided, name tags were handed out, and we began to learn the skills we’d need to build the model.
The Cessna-like model was turning out to be a wonderful project. Our group was working on its building, while also learning how to fly in simulations. We were progressing, and the project was going very well. The kit was awesome and not only had we come together and formed an aviation group, but we had also formed a friend group. In this group, we were taught some big new words, and new ways to build things. We learned how to use hot and sharp tools, and how to fly.
Things were going just as planned. We were just about to plan the date to go and run some test flights, when school was canceled, and the world was shut down for months. We spent six months at home before the next school year started, but only halfway through the next year did our group come back together. I, being in eighth grade that year, was still there. But others who had been in eighth grade before the shutdown didn’t come back much. Our group was usually about five students and then a few of our mentors. We made arrangements, and we pulled to the finish line just in time for the end of the school year.
We flew our airplane at Ottiger Field in Montague. I was surprised that such a small town would have an airport, but we do! One of our mentors was a pro model airplane pilot, and he had brought with him a few other model airplanes. He put on a show with his model helicopter, and it was probably the best I have seen anyone control a flying model. We took turns flying our just finished eKadet, and other airplanes, flying through the bright sky and just having so much fun. When it was time to leave, we were told to go to the plaque at the landing strip and sand a letter. Sanding the copper would clean it up and make it shiny, and it would leave something that we could come back to and remember.
Before the group dispersed, we were told that we could go to another small airport, and get a free flight and ground training lessons from EAA for being a part of the aviation group. We got to meet the pilots, and ride in a variety of airplanes. The pilot who took me flying flew over the Silver Lake sand dunes, and actually over my own farm! I have been on airplanes before, but being in an airplane, and being able to fly the airplane yourself, was so much cooler! I loved watching and flying the model airplane from below, but actually flying the airplane from up in the air was lots of fun, too!
Thanks to EAA, many more than 10 students have flown model airplanes, and full-scale ones, too. Being one of those students, I am thankful for my chance with wonderful mentors and pilots. Thanks to EAA, I am able to see myself becoming a pilot. If I hadn’t had that experience, I probably wouldn’t have thought about my chances of flying through the air, controlling an airplane. Now, I am taking ground training for a pilot certificate, and hope to be certified by the time I can drive! Thanks to EAA, many people have found and followed dreams. Thank you to all of our aviation groups mentors, and thank you to EAA.
More About This Project
By Jeff Pierson, EAA 282508, Local Instigator
I connected Principal Jim Perrault with EAA Chapter 578 of Fremont and AMA Club 1086 of Muskegon, Michigan. From then on, it was the modelers of Port City RCers who ran with the training and assembly, especially Jim Flick and Ron Hayward. It always looked to me that a good time was being had by all!
There are more photos and videos spanning the entire Build and Fly project in a public album on Facebook: Ottiger Field since 1950.