Finding Their Wings
Updates from Hector Galvan's Aviation Program
Hi Dr. Dengting
We did it! It was a big success and we plan to do it next year. What they have learned on the simulator transferred well into the real world application Saturday. My principle was very pleased with me and my father said I had done a good job training them for this activity. I'm very proud of my student. The weather at the Cameron Airport turned bad on us and one of my students (Samantha) got to land the airplane in heavy rain. She was very excited. The rest of the students finished their flights at the Brownsville Airport. Thanks again for your class and allowing me to do research on the Flying Knights.
Hector
To read Mr. Hector Galvan's original paper on the Aviatino program: High-Flying Motivation
To read the article on "Finding Their Wings," see below:
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Finding their wings
Flying Knights take first real flight over Cameron County
May 17, 2008 - 10:49PM
By Laura Tillman, The Brownsville Herald
Years before Noe and Diane Perez will teach their son Cody to drive, they sat behind the 9-year-old Saturday as he pulled the yoke of an airplane and soared above the Cameron County Airport.
Cody is one of seven students who turned their computerized flight simulations with the Egly Elementary School Flying Knights into a genuine trip through the misty skies above Los Fresnos.
The third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders in the Egly Flying Knights have spent months-and in some cases years-using the careful control of real pilots in their classes with science teacher and Civil Air Patrol Lt. Hector Galvan.
Galvan requires good grades for students to stay in the club, and on Saturday he chose his top seven to pilot a four-seat airplane with his father, Lt. Col. Florentino Galvan, in the passenger's seat.
Although Florentino is a long-time flight instructor, Hector says that when it came time for him to learn to fly, his dad passed the teaching duties to someone else.
"As a father, he said he would expect a lot more than an instructor usually would from a student," Hector said. "He probably didn't want to put too much pressure on me."
Outfitted in matching black T-shirts, combat boots and camouflage pants, the group of 9- and 10-year-olds watched their peers gain speed and lift gracefully into the air for the first time.
In the cockpit, Florentino sat back and allowed the rookie pilots to take off, fly and land the planes on their own.
Once they were 1,000 feet up, the students got an eyeful of the hazy coastline of the Gulf of Mexico and the shrinking cluster of parked cars where relatives craned their necks and exchanged proud stories about their kids.
"I think this program teaches them more than flying," Hector said. "They learn that this isn't a right, it's a privilege. Seeing them fly today is a big thrill. It was so unexpected."
Florentino volunteered to fly with the students after reading a previous Brownsville Herald article about the class. Wayne Wells, a professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College donated the plane, and Hector and Florentino split the $150 cost of aviation grade fuel needed for the flights.
When Noe, Diane and Cody touched down and left the plane, Diane said she had never been on such a smooth flight - even on a commercial jet.
"He can do anything, I have all of my confidence in him," she said of Cody. "You can take care of kids and help them find their way, and then they just have to find their wings."
Original article: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/florentino_86707___article.html/hector_fly.html
To read other articles of this week:
1 comments:
I fly to just as Samantha flew,but I flew on May 14 2011
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