The Spirit of St. Stephen
From a carefully planned idea to potential disaster to ultimate success.
This is a long story. It’s complicated. So please bear with me. I’ve shortened it as much as possible.
As I had stated in a previous post, I decided to participate in the St. Stephen Fall Fair which is held every year in September at the Ganong Nature Park. The idea was to introduce the local kids to the magic of flight by giving them some demonstrations of how airplanes fly and having them build their own flying gliders using common styrofoam meat trays. I called my display the “Spirit of St. Stephen”, a take on the “Spirit of St. Louis”, one of the most famous airplanes in history. Here is the sign I made to post at the event, which was made to somewhat mimic the script seen on the nose of Charles Lindberg’s iconic airplane:
As some of you reading this may know, I was once a pilot and owned a 1967 PA28 Piper Cherokee 140 with the registration “C-GMJC”. I have always been interested in aircraft and flight so I thought it would be fun to try to introduce kids to something they could do with their hands instead of pushing virtual buttons on a “dumbphone”. The idea was to have the kids trace out (from provided materials) a simple “chuck glider” from styrofoam meat trays the way my Mother taught me when I was something like 6 years old. Since insurance regulations forbid anyone using the sharp knives needed to cut out the parts, that would need to be done by an assistant which would be provided to me at the event. While the assistant was cutting out the parts the kids had traced, I would do some interactive demonstrations to show the kids how airplanes fly.
However, not much went according to those carefully laid plans which were in the works for months.
Long story short, everything went wrong from the beginning when I first arrived at the aforementioned location. First I needed to be sheltered from the wind because any wind at all would destroy the display of models I had prepared and would blow all the materials (paper and foam) needed for the activities the kids would participate in all over the place. I was posted to a wide-open space that was totally unprotected. To top it all off, the gazebo my Wife had on hand at our cottage (unfortunately stored in an outdoor shed) which I was prepared to use had been destroyed by mice, so I didn’t even have a slight shelter from the elements. The people running the show went out of their way to provide me with a tent-like canopy but that was still not going to protect the display from the wind, as it had no walls.
I was dismayed and just wanted to pack it all up and go home at that point. It was hopeless. There was no way I could put on the show I had planned under such conditions.
Fortunately, the people running the event (I don’t know if I should mention their names here but they know who they are if they are reading this) were more thoughtful than I had anticipated. The problem was that at the time they simply did not realize what I really needed. Nothing like my display and activity had ever been done before at this event. They were used to “regular” stuff seen at rural fairs, not some nerdy technical idiot displaying highly detailed, extremely fragile scale models and having kids build lightweight foam airplanes. This was a very rural and “folksy” farm-type affair after all. The fair is a wonderful event that is to be enjoyed by thousands but I was somewhat out-of-place I think.
Nevertheless, it all worked out. I did have a wonderful assistant named Zach who was a great help on the first day, but on the second day, I had to go it alone.
The organizers found me a spot in an enclosed tent that was to be inhabited by local artists and it was determined that I could be squeezed into that location. Most of my plans of carefully “lecturing” kids on the mechanics of flight had to be thrown to the wind, but that was MY fault for not understanding how these things play out, so I heavily modified my plans on the fly (so to speak!) and adapted to the audience that quickly overwhelmed my spot in the show. Kids showed up, we built foam model planes and I hope it inspired a bunch of kids to make their own models and spend a few moments away from their “Dumbphones” and make something with their own two hands from the common materials that are normally tossed into a landfill.
For those interested, here are PDF files of the handout sheets I gave to participants in the hope that they will learn more about flying by doing real hands-on experimentation rather than trying to think of the world as a video game.
This last one is the plan to make the “Spirit Of St. Stephen” glider that can be made from the most common Styrofoam meat trays. I designed it to be the most simple of shapes possible. Easy to trace, easy to cut out. Feel free to download all of these files and use them to teach children how to make their own journey into the basics of flight.
Finally, as I end this, I want to give profound thanks to those leaders and members of the St. Stephen Fall Fair CCFF ST CROIX ESTUARY PROJECT INC for their exceptional help in making what started out as a disaster into a really fun time and a wonderful experience for a dumb ol’ modelmaker who was ultimately very grateful to have participated in a great annual event in a small town on the New Brunswick/USA border. I look forward to working with you all again. I was wonderfully surprised at the treatment and hospitality you all showed me. Keep up the great work. You are good people and I am most grateful for the attention you gave me.
Oh… and the Ganong chocolates were heavenly as well!!! ;-)
Thank you all once again.
Jim.
P.S.
Here is the text of the handout sheet I gave to those who wanted to learn about aircraft terms and definitions.
Aircraft and Aviation Definitions:
Thrust: The energy produced by an engine that pushes or pulls an aircraft to overcome drag and gravity for powered flight.
Lift: The air pressure under an aircraft’s wing that pushes the plane into the air to counter gravity.
Drag: The resistance of the air that counters thrust to slow an aircraft down.
Dive: A nose down position to rapidly decrease altitude.
Yaw: The side to side movement of the nose and tail.
Pitch: The up and down movement of the nose and tail.
Roll: The rotating motion (wing tips move up and down) of an aircraft in flight.
Angle of Attack: The angle at which the cross section of the wing encounters the airflow.
Stall: In aircraft terms, a stall refers to an excessive angle of attack resulting in the wing no longer producing lift, thus the wing stops flying.
High Alpha: A very high nose-up attitude that allows a stalled aircraft to continue to fly by using excessive thrust.
Fuselage: The main body of the aircraft which contains the crew, passengers and/or cargo to which wings and tail are attached.
Stabilizer: A fixed surface that keeps the aircraft steady in flight. Horizontal stabilizer prevents pitch, vertical stabilizer prevents yaw.
Aileron: Movable part on trailing edge of wing that adjusts aircraft roll (wings tip up or down)
Flap: An extendable part of the aircraft’s trailing edge that increases lift at low speeds.
Flaperon: a control surface that combines the functions of both flaps and ailerons.
Elevator: Movable part on horizontal stabilizer that adjusts aircraft pitch. (nose up and down)
Elevon: Combination of elevator and aileron, usually found on delta wing aircraft.
Stabilator: A movable surface which combines the function of both elevator and horizontal stabilizer.
Rudder: Movable part on vertical stabilizer that adjusts aircraft yaw (nose side to side)
Spoiler: A part of the wing that can be raised from the skin which increases turbulence to increase drag which thus decreases the lift of the wing so that an airplane can lose altitude without diving. Also helps in braking.
Canard: A small wing on or near the nose of the plane that is ahead of the main wing.
Delta wing: A wing in the shape of a triangle
Monoplane: An airplane with a single wing. A high wing monoplane means the wing is near the top of the fuselage. Mid wing means the wing is at the centre of the fuselage, low wing means the wing is near the bottom of the fuselage.
Biplane: An airplane with two wings, one above the other.
Triplane: An airplane with three wings, one above the other.
Thermal: A column of rising air resulting from the ground being heated by the sun.
Glider: An unpowered aircraft, typically towed aloft, that can travel relatively short distances when released.
Sailplane: A glider designed to fly efficiently and maintain or gain altitude solely from natural sources like thermals and ridge waves (wind flowing up a hill).
Glide Ratio: The distance an unpowered aircraft will glide relative to altitude loss.
Wing span: The overall width of an aircraft’s wing from one tip to the other (right to left).
Wing loading: The amount of weight per square foot of an aircraft’s wing that it must carry in flight.
Leading edge: The front edge of the wing or stabilizer.
Trailing edge: The rear edge of the wing or stabilizer.
Chord: The distance between the leading and trailing edge of an aircraft’s wing
Spar: The main structural beam that supports the wing from tip to tip.
Cantilever wing: A wing that is supported at the centre of the fuselage without struts or wires.
Aspect ratio: The wing span divided by the chord. (A “high aspect ratio” is a long and slender wing like a sailplane. A “low aspect ratio” is a shorter stubby wing like a jet fighter.)
Dihedral/Polyhedral/Anhedral: The angle(s) between the left and right wing where they attach to the fuselage.
Conventional Landing Gear (“tail dragger”): Landing gear with main wheels behind the nose and a tail wheel.
Tricyle Landing Gear: Landing gear with one wheel under the nose and two wheels under the wings.
Ceiling: The highest altitude that an airplane can fly safely.
Knots: A measurement of speed in aeronautics and naval vessels. Means “nautical miles per hour” 1 knot is about 1.15MPH or 1.85 KPH
Mach (pronounced “mock”) is the unit used to measure speeds up to and past the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound. Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound and so on.
VNE (Velocity Never Exceed) The maximum speed an aircraft can fly before damage to the airframe occurs.
Range: The maximum distance an aircraft can travel between takeoff and landing.
Main Engine types: Piston engine, turbojet, turbofan, turboprop, ramjet, rocket.
Empty weight: Total weight of the aircraft, ready to fly, but without fuel, pilot(s), cargo or passengers.
Gross weight: Total weight of the aircraft fully loaded with fuel, pilot(s) cargo and passengers as applicable.
Lighter than air: A vehicle such as a balloon or dirigible that displaces a volume of air with a lighter gas, such as helium or hot air, to achieve lift.
Heavier than air: Refers to a vehicle that flies without the benefit of a lifting ga
I'm so glad to hear that it worked out in the end, and good for you, offering your time, knowledge, and resources like that.
That has to have been a mighty wonderfull experience. Have build models with children in Youthclubs me-self for many years and it is so gratifiring to see the proces fra nothing to models of many kinds.