20 February 2013
A Youth in Aviation event run by the LAA’s Youth and Education Support strut (YES) recently gave students an opportunity to get a closer look at aircraft and the principles of flight.
The event took place from 15-17 February at the National Waterfront Museum of Wales in Swansea, home to the Robin Goch 1908 homebuilt and most recently, a Whittaker MW7 aircraft.
As part of their Traineeship programme, NVQ students from local Work Based Learning provider Swansea ITeC were involved from the planning stage through to the running of the event.
Young people had the opportunity to sit in the MW7 aircraft and learn more of the principles of flight and engineering that inspired the design – all in the name of encouraging the pilots and engineers of the future.
The weekend’s activities also included model glider and paper stomp rocket construction and flying a remote control model simulator. Leia Fee from YES explained, “The distance record for stomp rockets over course of the weekend stood at 35 yards across the courtyard! For younger visitors there was colouring and the chance to take a pedal-powered Spitfire for a spin around the garden.”
YES is now working towards a nationwide Reach for the Sky initiative later in the year – working together with other organisations to encourage as many people as possible to do something airminded, which could be anything from a snack in their local airfield cafe to renewing an expired pilot’s license, doing a parachute jump, flying a model, attending an airshow or just simply getting out there and flying.
<a href=’http://www.yesflyers.org.uk’ target=’_blank’>www.yesflyers.org.uk</a>
