Yesterday I was one of the parent volunteers on the grade 6 field trip to the local aviation museum. Like most attractions here in Calgary, we hadn’t been to it. 😄
It was an all-day affair. We (classes 6-5 and 6-6) left the school at 9 and returned at 2.45 on the most packed school bus ever! The students were divided among the parents – we had 9-20 kids each and everyone was split into 2 groups: yellow or green for the actual tour. While one group took the tour, the other was building aircraft. Our group was first into the craft room where the kids each built a glider, a parachute, and a helicopter. After each project was completed we went out into the hangar and tried them out. For the most part everything flew or dropped in the expected way.
There was a quick 1/2 hour lunch at 11.30 then it was our turn to take the guided tour. It started off with a man grilling my group about certain flying principles (science!) and a bit of history of flight and how planes worked. He was impressed by Ian and Joey’s knowledge (actually, so was I). We then went into the “tent” next to the hangar to look at various aircraft. We got to sit in the twin otter and in the cockpit of an old 1950’s passenger plane. We looked at the Avro Lancaster and a Sikorsky Dragonfly. Inside the main building we tried out a helicopter cockpit, a hot air ballon basket, and a Tiger Moth. There were actual commercial airliner seats from the old days in there. They marvelled at the ashtrays in the armrest and the tables that slid into the armrests. They learned about the Avro Arrow and about different kinds of engines and the ejector seat.
They really seemed into this trip. Everyone was really engaged throughout most of the trip. I guess the rest of the family needs to go now.
Looks like a nice place to go to when i’m there next time.Looks like Ian enjoying himself.