High School Corben Baby Ace Project

FritzW · Feb 6, 2019

It's more of a marathon than a sprint.

TheMaj has plans for this to be an ongoing program at the school. The students will build the airplanes for the (yet to be started) Mayfield HS flying club, get their license, and find careers in aviation. Since they're starting from scratch they don't have the coffee cans full of goodies that the rest of us have spent decades collecting :gig:

Speaking of goodies laying around. I was digging through the dusty corners of my hard drive and found a SW model of the Baby Ace wing. This should save the students a bunch of time getting the CAM files together for the wing.

And this came out in the local paper today. It really paves the way for the program to start rounding up local sponsors. (the running joke is that this airplane will have more sponsor logos than a car at the Daytona 500)

Little Scrapper · Feb 7, 2019

Both boxes shipped today. I can supply tracking numbers if need be. According to the receipt from the US Post Office the packages will arrive.....

Don, Monday the 11th.

High School, Saturday the 9th. Note: you have multiple posts on here with your address and two different zip codes. One is 88005 the other 88007. I googled it in the post office and it said 88007? Hopefully that's correct.

Mike

Little Scrapper · Feb 7, 2019

The kids and I had fun packaging these the other day, I forget I took photos.

Be sure and open it from the bottom. So tip the box upside down with the label side flipped. Cut the tape with a razor and it will come right out.

It would bring myself joy and my kids as well if both your airplanes ended up flying. I explained to both kids what we we doing and why we were doing it and the meaning behind it as a life lesson. If either of these two airplanes fly it would complete the lesson for them.

No pressure........:gig:

don january · Feb 7, 2019

Thanks Mike and kids. I will do my best to get my plane in the air and will send a picture of the tail wheel mounted in my build log. I hope you sent a address for a gift to the children for all there help. Don

don january · Feb 11, 2019

Tail wheel rolled in today so thanks much to Lil Scrapper and forum. That Maule will work just right Mike. Thank you friend. I hope the School is as pleased as me.

rick9mjn · Feb 11, 2019

Little Scrapper said:
The kids and I had fun packaging these the other day, I forget I took photos. Be sure and open it from the bottom. So tip the box upside down with the label side flipped. Cut the tape with a razor and it will come right out. View attachment 77990 View attachment 77991 It would bring myself joy and my kids as well if both your airplanes ended up flying. I explained to both kids what we we doing and why we were doing it and the meaning behind it as a life lesson. If either of these two airplanes fly it would complete the lesson for them. No pressure........:gig:

... ...please have your kids use safety glasses , when they use expanding foam, "i think" when expanding foam first came out the can's came with safety glasses,,,,,................ good day..../rick

Little Scrapper · Feb 11, 2019

don january said:
Tail wheel rolled in today so thanks much to Lil Scrapper and forum. That Maule will work just right Mike. Thank you friend. I hope the School is as pleased as me.

Excellent! Let's get that bad boy up and flying!

TheMaj · Feb 16, 2019

Toobuilder, I know someone visiting the LA area next week. Where would he need to go to pick up some stuff? Maybe...
You can message me. -TheMaj

TheMaj · Feb 16, 2019

My kids got to open the package yesterday. It was an adventurous ordeal getting it unpacked and figuring out what it was (I let it be a surprise).
I wish I had taken a picture of them opening it! I'll get one as they mount it.
Thanks to you and your kids little Scrapper!
-TheMaj

FritzW · Feb 16, 2019

Maj,

At our meeting today the chapter approved the $500 donation you and Wes were talking about.

Also, we're having a big fly-in in October. It'd be a good place for you guys to set up a table and maybe haul out the fuselage or a wing panel for "show and tell".

P.S. that's the same tailwheel I have on the VP-1 and the Neirrh. It's perfect for the Baby Ace.

Toobuilder · Feb 17, 2019

TheMaj said:
Toobuilder, I know someone visiting the LA area next week. Where would he need to go to pick up some stuff? Maybe...
You can message me. -TheMaj

Sent you a Pm, Major.

Toobuilder · Feb 19, 2019

Anybody have direct contact info for the Maj? It seems he's gone dark and I'm trying to coordinate a rendezvous for sometime this week.

don january · Feb 19, 2019

Toobuilder said:
Anybody have direct contact info for the Maj? It seems he's gone dark and I'm trying to coordinate a rendezvous for sometime this week.

I've had good luck contacting FritzW with regards to the the project.

Little Scrapper · Mar 19, 2019

Special shout out to Don.

It's been a couple weeks since I visited my PO Box and today I checked it. Don January sent this to myself and the kids as a thank you for the tailwheel donation on this thread. Really touched by this, look forward to building it with my kids.

Thanks bro!

Toobuilder · Mar 19, 2019

..and still no contact from The Maj. Is he AWOL?

Little Scrapper · Mar 19, 2019

Toobuilder said:
..and still no contact from The Maj. Is he AWOL?

Hopefully everything his ok.

FritzW · Mar 19, 2019

FritzW said:
The contact person is Maj. Val Bigger vbigger@lcps.net (Las Cruces Public Schools)

I don't know if he's a big newsgroup kind of guy. Try his email

EDIT: He's fine, I talked to him on Saturday. They just ordered the spars for the Baby Ace.

Toobuilder · Mar 19, 2019

Well, all I know is that he had "a guy" in my area that I was supposed to contact for shipping a bunch of heavy stuff and then he went dark before we made the final arrangements. I also had a buddy pass though here with a truck headed to Texas that could have taken it, but again, no contact.

Bottom line is that I have a bunch of stuff for him but I'm not going to chase anybody to the end of the Internet to do it. People need to answer their PM's.

FritzW · Mar 19, 2019

He might not have his PM turned on. He might not even know there is such a thing or how to set it up. He's probably not a newsgroup geek like the rest of us.

TheMaj · Mar 27, 2019

Out of the darkness: Please forgive my absence! (Caution, whining ahead) After a HQ inspection, taking our marksmen to the Air Force championships, setting up our first elementary school STEM camp, taking our drill team to compete at two meets, having two teams go on the Bataan Memorial Death March, and enough middle school recruiting trips to keep our program alive next year, I can finally get back to the HBA forum and reply to way overdue messages. I'm on spring break! Next week the pace of high school will only accelerate to the end of the year, but I will work to stay better connected. (Insert the Possum Lodge Oath and Prayer here)

In the mean time, as for the progress on the Great Flying Trojan....

Mr. Richardson's Engineering students are continuing to design the ribs and wing hardware with their CAD program. The ribs are way more complex than anything they have ever done and are working hard. On the inside, I just want them to copy and paste Fritz's files so we can get the ribs cut and get going, but.... it is a learning project after all (… I can change if I have too, I guess)

Alongside our "regular" JROTC classes (Aerospace Science class, Leadership Education class, Military Skills class (drill and marksmanship), and Health/wellness (PT) class (yep, more whining), I’ve been spending the last few weeks teaching my STEM class how to read blue prints, convert the bill of materials into an Aircraft Spruce order, and use a tape measure.

Very interesting note: These kids VERY QUICKLY (much quicker than I) picked up how to use the rocketry design computer program (a CAD program to design rockets for our TARC competition) but it has taken three weeks to learn how to use a tape measure and mark out the front and rear spars accurately. Let that sink in. Three weeks to use a physical tape measure to mark up four physical boards and about 1 hour to use a CAD program to build model rockets. Blows my mind.

We're on hold until the engineers get their work done and get the files to Mr. Cometti's fabrication class. In the mean time we're preparing to host our elementary school STEM camp where we'll build rockets, underwater ROVs and launch a high altitude balloon, and of course show off the limited progress on the Baby Ace.

Last thing is waiting patiently for Aircraft Spruce to approve our schools purchase order process do we finally get the bulk of our needed supplies. I did not anticipate that taking so much effort and time to get worked out. I'm on week six.

More Public thanks to: EAA 555 for their $500 sponsorship, MOAA members for their $300 hat-passing (plus helping fund our Bataan teams), Aircraft Spruce for their discount, and Mrs. Granger for her generous personal sponsorship.

Here are pictures of what we've been up to for your viewing pleasure.