Here are some more photos

Cover Me

An exciting time (for me, at least), as the airplane is really starting to take shape. Friday's class saw the kids begin the covering process. After the first coat of dope dried (on the bare "frame" of the plane), students applied a second coat, and quickly covered the part with tissue paper. The dope helps the tissue stick to the part (e.g. the tail feathers or fuselage), and then when dry it is lightly sprayed with water. I remember the first time I saw the reaction of the tissue with water -- when it dried, the tissue contracted, resulting in a nice, taut surface. While I think we have all foreseen the wonkiness of the fuselage, the most important part is the wing, and I think this should turn out properly, with a correct airfoil profile to create lift. We'll see. I hope to post some more pictures soon. Once the tissue has dried and contracted, a final coat of dope is applied to add strength. No paint, though, as the added weight will detract from the flight characteristics of the plane.

Using Dope

Today we finally had a class together after me missing a few due to Division Office commitments. Now that the fuselage, tail feathers, and wings are constructed, it's time to coat the entire surface in aircraft dope, prior to covering. A trip to the hobby store got me some dope, as well as a few cheap brushes to use. Opening the jar brought back memories of dad's shop and my basement as a kid, and a stark reminder of how much this stuff stinks! Thankfully our location in the classroom is close to a window for ventilation, and the students did not complain too much about the smell. The thing about dope is that no amount of detergent of any sort gets it out of clothing, so I brought in a work coat from home to protect the students. Some rubber gloves were a good choice, too, as this stuff isn't great for your skin either. Two ladies tackled the painting today, and we'll be ready to start covering on Friday. I have to remember to bring a razor blade or an X-acto knife to cut the tissue paper as well.

Slow going...

A variety of delays have kept us from proceeding with the project as fast as I'd like. Last class had me away (again!), but prior to that, a couple of gentlemen did a bit more work on the fuselage -- the firewall (even though the "engine" is a rubber band), and a few more bulkheads were put in place. Just the landing gear remain prior to covering. I'm reminded that 20 years ago, I found that balsa model glue does not work so well on metal... so I'll bring along some 5-minute epoxy from home, to glue the wire struts to the landing gear struts to keep them in place. These things are tail-heavy by nature, so a bit of extra weight ahead of the C of G shouldn't hurt -- the epoxy will be heavier than the balsa glue...

My Turn

The November 5th class saw most of the students preparing for their exams on the 7th and 8th -- ELA worksheets and review were out, as well as some Math stuff. We also did another Math practice sheet, and all students are doing either Integer Multiplication or Division. The horror that was Integer subtraction (just in time for Halloween!) has passed.

Once the quiz was done, I decided to do a bit of work on the plane myself. Scott's work on the bulkheads seemed to "take", and so I worked on the fiddly task of reinforcing the fueslage with 16-odd short stringers throughout its length. It all went together OK, and another eyeball check of the thrust line seemed straight, despite the wonky bulkheads. A few more pieces need to be put in place, including the landing gear struts with the wire reinforcements, and we'll be ready for covering.

Hiccups and Hurdles: Thrust Lines

Scott stepped up this morning to work on the plane. Our goal today was to get some support stringers installed to create the "box section" part of the fuselage, but prior to this I decided the firewall (area behind the engine) needed to be put in place first. We've come across a slight example of varying degrees of accuracy in the fuselage halves. Two main parts, a bulkhead aft of the cockpit, and fore of the rubber band pillar are a tad crooked, in opposite directions. This made "sighting" the firewall square to the rest of the fuselage a bit difficult, as we had no real "square" datum as a reference. Eyeball engineering took over.
Scott came up with the smart plan to cut out a section of the fuselage to square up the first piece of the firewall. Some delicate cutting on his part, and a steady hand helped. I just stayed out of the way, as my initial attempts to help led me to clumsily damaging a piece of the wing... luckily it can be easily repaired. I think I'll do a quick mini-lesson in the future on "thrust lines" -- the fact that a few bulkheads in the fuselage are not square shouldn't be too much of an issue -- making sure the propeller, when installed, is pointing "straight" out of the front of the plane IS a key issue. We'll end up having a "Nascar" airplane; one that turns left or right only!
Coming across these hiccups is part of the learning process. Perfection isn't the goal, but accepting hurdles as a fact of life, and taking the time to fix them is important. Assembly lines in real life are designed around perfect accuracy every time. That being said, even the new Airbus A380 was built from scratch the first time!

Updates

I've been a bit remiss in updating the blog. Permission forms to allow me to post pictures (without identifying names) went home a few weeks ago, and to date, no parent/guardian has sent theirs back denying permission...

As for the remedial math progress, the majority of students have progressed to integer division. The rules for this operation is the same for multiplication:

• a negative divided by a negative is always a positive
• a positive divided by a negative (or vice-versa) is always a negative
• a positive divided by a positive is always a negative

A few students are still struggling with integer subtraction, and some are also working on integer multiplication. I'm hoping the homework/study workload increases leading up to mid-term exams (next week). That being said, I really enjoyed working with Ty on his "In the Heat of the Night" poem; just be sure I get some credit, Ty.

The Flight Club project is coming along. Shane (aka "Crash") helped set the final, centre dihedral in the wing, so it's ready for cover. During the last class, I stepped in and "hogged" the project for a bit, gluing reinforcements into the fuselage joints. Darwin was able to help me join the two fuselage halves together. What lies ahead is some real "fiddly" work, installing 16 or so short stringers to the fuselage to create the proper "box section" design. When this is done, the landing gear is installed, and then all the parts will be ready for covering. I'd better get to the hobby store and buy some modelling "dope" pretty soon. I hope to upload some pictures soon.

dihedral part #2

Today we worked on the second half of the dihedral. It took alot of team work and glue but we got it finished now we wait for the glue to dry. We worked on homework and we did not do any math yay!!!!

Written by: Brittany and Tamara

Pictures Added!

The pics for today's class were taken by OSA student, Ms. Aarhus. My long-term goal for this blog in particular, and OSA/Flight Club in general is to have all students take photos, work on the plane, and write their own submissions to the blog for publishing on the World Wide Web. For today, the goals were to finish the fuselage and get the first "bend" of the dihedral set. You can see that both sides of the fuselage are done and waiting to be connected at a later date. We've learned that leaving the parts on the cork-board is the smartest way to keep the completed pieces, well, complete. We leave 1-2 pins in place to secure them, and move on to the next stage. The stringers are being cut here (left); this allows the "bend" to stay put, once it has been put into place by the balsa "jack". Next, glue is added to the notches in the ribs, after the stringers were dry-fitted first. I was really impressed with how the students had the patience to dry-fit parts prior to breaking out the glue... I had to learn the hard way, myself! I did the first 2 of 4 stringer for this side of the wing, and the students did the rest... here's where some cooperation and an extra set of hands helped!

With the pre-set balsa "jack" in place, we leave the stringers to dry. At this stage, the students also cut the stringers for the opposite side of the wing... again, a smart step to take, as it allows the stringer measurement to be made for each symmetrical side, with the wing still "flat" on the table... apparently me staring at it intently helps it dry?

So, while 2-3 students are able to work on the plane at one time, with another student taking photos or working on the blog, what is the rest of the class doing. Today appeared to be an "English day", with students....

Reading...

And Reading....

Writing....

This looks like Science...?

And some vocabulary stuff!

Next week, more dihedral!

Setting the Dihedral

Today students began the first step of creating the extra-stable, multihedral wing. Starting at the right wingtip, and using a stringer as a "jack", this step is the first of the "most difficult" part of the construction. Timing is a bit critical, to ensure all of the pieces are cut prior to the first bit of gluing taking place. As well, the fuseagle half was finished. We'll wait until the wing is complete before we glue the fuselage halves together.

Flight Club

The next thing I was thinking about is, what else? In terms of philosophy, I've always felt that "student enrichment" is anything that a teacher can bring to the classroom that can benefit a student. Past experiences, skills, ideas all work to "round out" the education of a child. There need not be any direct connection to a particular curriculum -- as long as kids are benefiting and learning something about "life", I can't see how a teacher can go wrong...

For me growing up, one of the many life lessons I learned came from my interest in flying. My Dad was a pilot, aircraft mechanic, and someone who actually built and flew his own airplane in the 1960s (which is still flying today). As I kid I loved flying with my dad, and some of my mechanical interests and aptitude came under his guidance, and started with model airplanes. Now for kids today, who can play video games or use PC software to design and simulate powered flight, they might see building models as a bit retro... However, a lot of the skills required are transferable to many other disciplines, and all students can benefit. But before we got to building, we needed to understand the basics.









We covered the following in preparation for the model to arrive:

• flight axis: yaw, pitch, and roll
• flight controls: aileron, elevator, rudder
• parts of an airplane: fuselage, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, wing (leading and trailing edge)
• basic principles of lift
• basic principles of pressure (IE "air always flows from high pressure to low pressure")
• dihedral and multihedral wings
• airfoil design
• weight vs. thrust, and centre of gravity
  

The rationale behind this, was that when the model kit finally arrived, students would understand the importance of workmanship, light weight, and flight controls. If I were to say, "the leading edge of that wing rib needs to be tapered a bit more", they would know what I was talking about.

In early September, I set about trying to find a balsa flying model that was simple enough for first-timers to build, but was sufficiently complex to allow actual powered flight with an airfoil providing lift -- not the "powered glide" that most simple balsa models are. Surprisingly enough, I found what I was looking for on eBay... and amazingly, I found the actual model kit I built and flew 25 years ago. It's a Guillow's Lancer, and still has "Copyright, 1966" on the plans. Some real nostalgia here folks! And all for $5.99... The construction of the kit requires the following tools:

1. cork board large enough to lay out the 18" wingspan
2. wax paper
3. straight pins
4. sandpaper balsa glue
5. x-acto knives
6. model aircraft "dope"

I was able to find all of this "stuff" at home or at a Brandon Hobby store, and after some cutting and gluing practice for all students, we started building...

You can see from the two pictures to date that assembly has gone along quite quickly -- the vertical and horizontal stabilizers are built, the main wing leading and trailing edges are finished and the ribs installed, and the students here are working on the second half of the fuselage. In the next class, we will need to "set the dihedral" of the main wing to create a stable airfoil. As this is a multihedral design, we will need to do this in stages. Once the angle has been set, balsa stringers connecting the wing ribs together will be glued in place, and will maintain the correct shape. After that, the fuselage halves will be glued together, and the plane will be ready for covering -- with tissue paper! Stay tuned!

Background for Parents and Students

Grade 9 students for the 2007-08 school year at RCI have an interesting course on their timetable, titled, "OSA". This stands for "Other School Activities", and was put in place because the province no longer recognized the half credit grade 9 English course Rivers Collegiate offered for students in the past. So instead, we have decided to create a time where students can work on other assignments, as well as enrichment activities.

One of the two enrichment activities I have chosen is to review some more basic math skills, with the help of Mr. Acree. Based on his suggestions, students will be using part of OSA class, on a regular basis, to work on integers. Granted, most grade 9 students have integers "aced", but I have already realized that it is good practice for all students, regarless of whether they are "strong" or "weak" math students.

The process to date has been to start with a concept, check to see that each student has mastered it, and move onto the next.

Part A: Integer Addition
Example: (-3)+(+6)= +3

The entire class grasped this first concept quite quickly. The integer sheets we use have 54 questions, and I soon decided that "50/54" or better was the mastery level to move on. As an entire class, we moved onto the next concept after 4 quizzes.

Part B: Integer Subtraction
Example: (+6)-(-5)= +11

This concept has caught a few students out, in that they are finding it more difficult to remember the rules about, "subtracting negative numbers" (for example). In this case, some students have remained at the subtraction stage, in order to gain mastery before moving on to Part C. If you wish to review with your kids, the following guidelines are helpful.

• when you subtract a negative number, you are actually adding it
• when you add a negative number, you are actually subtracting it
• when you subtract a positive number, you are subtracting the number
• when you add a positive number, you are adding the number

I won't say that this is "simple", because many students struggle with integers -- that's why we are practicing it. Once students reach the mastery level, they will move onto...

Part C: Integer Multiplication

This is a good opportunity for students to review their times tables... at this stage, all of the numbers being multiplied are "9" or less. However, there are some integer rules to remember here:

• a negative times a positive is always a negative
• a negative times a negative is a positive
• a positive times a positive is a positive
• any integer times "0" is still zero

Part D, Integer Division, will come shortly...