November 10, 2012 - Young Eagle Flights
We were flying Young Eagles today at Bay Bridge airport. However, these young eagles were a little different. They could not see. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out but it actually was quite rewarding, both for the kids and for me. I think there were about 15 kids or so, and about seven planes giving rides.
Paul C. of my EAA Chapter took all these photos.
We taxiied out. My first passenger was fascinated with the intercom and radio.
We flew for about 15 minutes or so. I would say "we're going to do a climb now", then climb. "We're going to turn to the right now", then roll. We did climb, dive, turn right, turn left, skid right, skid left.
I tried to explain what G-forces are -- didn't do a very good job on that; need to look it up on Wikipedia -- then we pulled a little G to give him a taste. Then we did the same with Negative-G.
Finally, I explained how the airplane would stall - stop flying - when it slowed below a certain speed which in my plane is around 58 mph And then we did that.
My second Young Eagle all strapped in.
I had both my Young Eagles touch the stick so they could feel me move it around. Then I let them fly the plane. They were able to sense climbing and diving, but both would end up in a right bank thinking they were level unless I told them. The RV rolls so easily and you just can't "feel" it. You either have to be looking at the horizon or the attitude indicator to know it.
So again, I think the Young Eagles enjoyed the flights and it was rewarding for me as well.
Afterwords, Mugsy showed up and he and I had fun practicing close formation and follow the leader.
