A few weeks ago I had the chance to reach out to some of the teachers of the SATS || SHARP group at Shaftesbury High School. SATS is the acronym for Shaftesbury ARISS Telebridge Service. SHARP stands for Shaftesbury High Altitude Robotics Project which is essentially their flying side which includes high altitude balloons (HABs) as well as RC aircraft including their 3DR quadcopter (Ardupilot) in the future. We had the chance to visit them in their classroom today at lunch and had the chance to both show them some of the products we play with, but also to learn about what they are looking at in the future.
So we arrived at around noon with a few craft in hand. I have a kit that I can bring that is a rolling tool chest that I modified to fit all the blade series of quads, so the nanoQX, 180QX with fpv, and the 350QX with fpv all fit along with goggles. I then strap the 4S powered Black Mamba on top and have a few quads easily transported.
On top of that I brought the Skywalker so that I could talk about a few different technologies all at once.
These were some really smart kids. On top of that, they had some pretty smart teachers. Great program they have going and we will be trying to compliment the program in our own way.
We showed them some pictures, and video, of flights that I have done.
They were impressed, and I made sure to let them know how envious I was of their youth, and the future they were going to see.
These were kids that already had a bright future and I truly felt that we showed them something new today. All the things that we learn in school have so much more meaning when there are applications applied.
The opportunity exists for us to work with them more, and have an opportunity to have them help us as we grow and expand into new areas. This will provide a great training ground for future pilots in the remote control world. Students that know the underlying technology and theories behind how they work.
Unfortunately time ran out and some of the students and teachers had to leave. We still had some time so we took the remaining teacher and student out to the field behind the school and went up for a spin.
I wouldn’t quite say I heard giggling….but not far from it. lol
I am talking about the teacher.
How can I complain about having a chance to meet tomorrows hobbyists, a lot of them future engineers and pilots. Thanks again for the chance to talk about our vision of the future, and our passion for this hobby.
We will be looking forward to doing a lot more with this club.
Stay tuned to AFC for more.
Thanks AFC for coming to Shaftesbury High School. It was an extremely informative event and a huge amount of flying fun was had by all. We all loved the FPV demonstrations. For a change, the weather was even decent!
Best Wishes
Shaftesbury High Altitude Robotics Project (SHARP)
SATS|SHARP coordinators are finally getting down to business with RC. We recently purchased a firebird delta ray trainer and a QX nano. Have yet to fly the plane, but have logged a number of hours on the nano. Tons of fun, but the learning curve is steep!
The good thing is that it translates to the bigger ones.
Make sure to let people know that our lac du bonnet even is coming up if they are interested. Our Octo is in and will be built when I have the radio. Might be later this week.