What do you get when you mix two seasoned flight instructors, an outspoken advocate of personal space travel, a world renowned Science Center, and a room full of curious kids equipped with computers and joysticks?  Among several possible answers is the birth of the Flight Academy Training Program at the St. Louis Science Center.  You might then ask what this has to do with you.  The answer is “everything” if you have a vested interest in the survival of general aviation, as we know it.  Let me explain.  Many of us in general aviation have watched our numbers fall and our fleet age over the years since general aviation was king in the mid 70s.  As we look at the average age of the people who walk in the door at the local flight school and commit to learning to fly, we are watching that average age steadily rise into the lower-thirties compared to early-twenties 30 years ago.  If we look further at statistics of the average age of pilots in general, we see an even more disturbing trend.  The average age of active pilots is rapidly rising which indicates a lack of young pilots moving in to fill in the ranks as the older pilots lose their medicals or simply give it up after retirement.  The program that I am about to describe offers an amazing possibility that we can jumpstart the future of general aviation in the U.S. at a grassroots level.

The Flight Academy program was the brain child of X PRIZE® Executive Director Gregg Maryniak who had recently taken on the role of Director of the James S. McDonnell Planetarium and Vice President for Aerospace of the St. Louis Science Center.  The premise was a simple one.  He, along with many of us in the industry, had observed a fundamental drop in aviation interest from kids.  But, he noticed that their interest was still high when hovering around static displays of aircraft and control systems at the Science Center, especially when reinforced with interactive computer displays and joysticks that they could touch.  He was determined to explore this trend to see if this observation could be used to reverse the trend at the airport.  He came to me to see if we could work together on the project. 

When Gregg and I first met, he was looking for a place to rent an aircraft for his frequent business trips and the two of us were brought together almost by chance.  Gregg is a huge supporter of the new race to space, but while on Earth, he longed to come out to a clean, professionally run flight school and rent brand new aircraft to take his trips with people like Erik Lindbergh (Gregg was the Flight Director for Erik’s 2002 New Spirit of St. Louis Flights) and other executives of the X PRIZE Foundation.  He was discouraged because over the years, the aircraft available became less and less like the glorious machines being built for the X PRIZE competition and more and more like aged antiques that had been lost in the wilderness for 30 years.  My partner Julie and I had been trying to change the rules and build a modern flight school and rental facility made up of brand-new Cessna leaseback aircraft surrounded by the computer technology I had come to love through my 25 year career at Texas Instruments, Oracle, and KPMG Peat Marwick.  

As it is in aviation, this was how we came together and how the original idea was born.  We seemed to suit each others fancy for a modern general aviation, but what about the others that needed to follow in our footsteps?  Where were the kids that would become the pilots of tomorrow’s aircraft, and for that matter tomorrow’s spacecraft?  How could we possibly compete against Xbox, Ipods, and computer games that barely required kids to leave their room?  But wait; maybe that was the answer!  What if we could build a flight training introduction program that incorporated some of their favorite technology and make it fun?  What if we could help them learn while achieving our ulterior motive of coaxing them to love aircraft supported by technology that they already took for granted?

Our initial observation was that kids were presented with so many activities to do with their time, that flying aspirations had fallen among the possible choices to one which required more time, energy, and studying than they were willing or able to give.  What ever we came up with had to be creative, build upon what kids already knew, and must be an experience that fostered a love for aviation that would last a lifetime and draw this youthful interest forward with the support of their parents.

 

Gregg Maryniak demonstrates flight control principles to a
Flight Academy student from the Junior Academy of Sciences

After this objective had been set out, we sat on several occasions trying to plan out how this Flight Academy program would work and how we could get the parents of these kids to support it.  We would reminisce about the days when we were kids and we would sit at the airport for hours peering over the fence watching the aircraft going up and down wishing that it were us, simply hoping that someone would invite us to ride along.  With all of the new distractions for kids, and the higher, more forbidding fences built around our airports thanks to the tragic events of 9/11, there simply was not the opportunity for kids to do this anymore.  We then reasoned that if kids were not taking a fundamental interest in coming to the airport, then where were tomorrow’s pilots going to come from once our flying generation drifted into the sunset years?  It dawned on Gregg that we could use the Science Center as a central magnet to draw families who would bring their kids to see the fabulous Omnimax Theater, Planetarium star shows and the moving dinosaurs so that they could be exposed to general aviation in the best possible light.  We would bring the airport to them, so to speak.

The XPRIZE mission control room now serves as Flight Academy Mission Central

The Mission Control room at the Science Center was originally designed to support the XPRIZE launches and Erik Lindbergh’s historic trip across the Atlantic following in his grandfather’s steps many years before.  It had become largely unused until Gregg showed up and decided to turn it into an aviation education center.  Simply putting interesting displays and wall boards was not enough to accomplish the goal.  Gregg and his team installed 8 copies of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 with joysticks and high resolution displays.  Two of the displays also delivered their output to a video display screen on the wall in front of the console, so it had that “cool mission control” look that kids would be interested in.  It was certain that we needed to formalize the process so we could create an assembly line of sorts to take the kids energy and eventually lead them back to the local airport where a professional aviation training program could take over the process of grooming these pilots and astronauts of tomorrow.

Now, if you have never had a chance to see Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, you are going to marvel at what I am going to tell you about how realistic that it is.  You will only then come to the conclusion that if a kid can do it in the computer simulator, they are half way home to doing it in the real aircraft and this sense of accomplishment is what we needed.  This computer program is truly astonishing, not only from a realism of flight standpoint, but also from a realism of accuracy of flight instruments, gauges, and views in and out of the cockpit.  It was apparent to us that Microsoft used pilots to perfect the imagery, views, cockpit instruments reactions to various flight conditions, and even down to the way the aircraft reacts to extending flaps and landing gear.  It was a natural for the Flight Academy program and it was only $29 at the local Best Buy store, well within the Science Center’s budget.

Now came the creative part.  We needed to layout a 4-6 hour ground school that would take a curious person with zero aeronautical experience and teach them to “fly” this simulator by the end of the class as if they were flying a real aircraft based upon a minimal amount of information that we would teach them in the class.  This had to be done in such a way that we would teach like we were in a “super-cool” science class so we could hold their interest.  We further upped the ante and decided that the goal was to have the “kid-pilot in training” be able to virtual-solo the aircraft using the simulator by the end of the day and then complete a guided cross country so they would walk away feeling like they really accomplished something. 

We then finalized a series of ground school topics which kept the program fun, upbeat, and directed towards the end goal.  Keeping in mind that the class was aimed at children with an age range of 11 – 15 with an average age of 13, we had to arrange relevant topics such as flight controls and basic aerodynamics in a way that would not bore or lose the kids but would leave a working knowledge in their minds that they could use later in the day and hopefully take home with them.  Several Cessna 172 Models from a local pilot store and lots of examples like the classic “sticking your hand out mom’s car window” would do the trick.  Most any kid could understand this approach.

Equipped with the completed lesson plan, Gregg sent out the invitation for a “Summer Flight Academy” daycamp to The St. Louis Junior Academy of Sciences,  a youth group already affiliated with the Science Center that made an ideal first target group to test response to the program.  To our surprise, 30 kids responded that they were interested in trying the program.  This meant splitting the group into two days.  Perfect!  We could test the program on day 1 and then tweak it on day 2.

The 1^st day of the program, the kids showed up and under the watchful eye of their parents, began to hover around the control room waiting to begin.  Gregg asked Terry Dwyer, one of his team members (a retired flight instructor and now planetarium control technician) to join us as a team instructor so we could quickly move from station to station ensuring that each progressive concept was understood.  We later found that 8 stations and 16 kids provided exhausting work for the three of us.  We invited the kids to find a partner and take a seat at a computer and we started the program out by talking about the fun of flying and what it was like to learn to fly.  We talked about the different aircraft models that were stationed around the room and what it was like to be their pilot.  We quickly started to talk about what made the aircraft fly and stay in the air, then moved quickly into the flight controls using the models to show control surface movement.  We wanted to make sure we got their hands on the computer quickly wanting to avoid the demise of a short attention span.  It was a race against the clock and we were determined to win.

 

Is any age too young to learn the joys of flight?

We showed the teams how to turn on the simulator and quickly covered how to change the views of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.  We went through the concepts of throttle, flaps, engine start, lights, and brakes and reviewed each flight instrument asking each group to read to us the altimeter and the airspeed that we had just taught them about.  Some of the kids seemed to relate right away.  Others were a little more cautious, perhaps because they suspected that this was a little too much like school that had gotten out only weeks before.  We decided to make the delivery light and airy, playfully challenging the kids with questions.  Several kids quickly related to the concept that if they asked a good question (all of the questions were quickly deemed “good”) they would get to be the first to get to go to lunch in the Planetarium at  “Mom’s Lunar Café” (“Great Food- no atmosphere”).  Pretty soon, we had all the kids at the joystick willfully moving all of the flight controls with the joystick and taxiing around the starting airport; St. Louis Downtown airport which we chose because the arch was in the background and the kids could readily identify their surroundings.  We then decided it was time to get the aircraft in the air.  Terry, Gregg and I want around each station and got the aircraft back to the ready position on runway 30L. We then did the “watch me” demonstration on the huge wall projection screens and then after a quick trip around the pattern, returned to the ground. 

Mike Gaffney demonstrates flight control principles to Flight
Academy students from the Junior Academy of Sciences

It was time. With carefully simplified instructions, we urged them to try it.  With my best ATC voice, I cleared them for takeoff on runway 30L and wished them all luck.  One by one, they each started the initial wobbling down the runway (caused by rudder overcontrol of course!) and were soon in the air.  We quickly ran from station to station coaching them on how to climb to pattern altitude and then pull the power back to cruise.  We then showed them how to change the heading bug on their Heading Indicator and then started them doing rectangular courses approximating the traffic pattern legs.  We then showed them how to change the view out the window to simulate the pilots scan and situational awareness.  Just out of curiosity, I showed them how to bring out the Garmin 530 screen showing the “kid-pilots in training” how to find the airport in the simulator so they could realign the aircraft on a two mile final.  We then started the process of guiding them back to the ground for their first landing by making small power reductions, deploying flaps, and making trim adjustments to hold an airspeed of 70 knots in out Cessna 172.  Soon each aircraft was on the ground.  Wow… That almost felt like we were flying didn’t it?  That is just the point.  Other than having a couple wayward kids who wanted to taxi across the grass at the airport rather than waiting on the runway for the next turn, it turned out pretty well!  Now it was time to switch kids and let the other kid take a turn.  Now some of the things were getting to be routine.  Some of the kids were already in the air before my ATC voice cleared them for takeoff, but that is alright.  Gregg, Terry, and I walked around and quizzed the kids about altitude, airspeed, and power settings and received a pleasing set of nearly correct responses.

 

Junior Academy of Sciences students fly their cross country
maintaining altitude within 200 feet

The cross country portion of the lesson was particularly interesting.  We sat down at a table and did some quick planning on a State of Missouri donated sectional chart and prepared the kids for a 30 mile flight from one local airport to another.  I reminded them to use the heading bug to help them keep their heading while they glanced around the aircraft cockpit and changed views to outside the aircraft looking for other traffic.  As I walked around, I noticed that most of the kids had trimmed the aircraft to hold their altitude, were within roughly 200 feet of their assigned altitude, and all but one had properly set the engine at a cruise RPM.  One by one, the kids all raised their hands indicating that they saw the airport on the horizon.  We would run over to their workstation and start to give them some recommendations on when to start their descents and prepare to enter the pattern.  Yes, we had them enter a downwind entry to the airport.  One by one, they all landed.  We then switched and did cross country two so the flight partner got a chance to fly.  We observed much the same results. Amazing, huh?

The final part of the Flight Academy consisted of a freeform 45 minutes that we allowed them to experiment with the simulator and do whatever their creative minds wanted to do.  One kid team switched the display to an Extra 300 and when I walked by, they were doing knife-edge turns in between trees and a barn.  Another group decided they were going to fly through the St. Louis Arch.  Still another switched to an F15 and I watched with amazement as they did barrel rolls.

Soon, the parents started to show back up as it neared 4:00pm.  This is what I was waiting to see.  The kids would not move.  They wanted their moms to come and see them fly.  I listened intently as some of the kids explained to their moms about what the aircraft they were flying could do.  We then moved to the conclusion of the program and presented each kid-pilot with a Flight Academy Completion Certificate proudly emblazoned with the logo of our flight school and the St. Louis Science Center.  Attached was a certificate inviting them to come to the airport for an Introductory Discovery Flight lesson in a “real” aircraft.  As the room eventually emptied, Gregg Terry and I stood marveling at what was accomplished.  We were exhausted, but exhilarated none the less.

What we accomplished with these kids was truly amazing considering the circumstances.  Think about it.  We were able to achieve our goals of providing the kids with an appreciation for flight in one day, with the endorsement of their parents, without coming near an airport and it did not really cost the kids a penny.  Will this lead them to be pilots?  Will this bring them to the airport to become the students of tomorrow?  Will this program and ones like it that could be started all over the country save the insidious decline of grassroots general aviation?  One can only wonder and hope.

-         Michael Gaffney July 21, 2005