Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409230010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Pupils attending the math and science demonstration school within Dublin Elementary School took a series of field trips to New River Valley Airport.
John Wenrich, one of the teachers, explained that the youngsters were doing a unit on space and this was a way to tie it in with something they could see and handle. Airport officials readily agreed to accommodate the visitors.
What the students saw will tie in with what they are learning regarding math, measurements and calculating planetary distances, Wenrich said.
Flight instructor Walter Johnson let the pupils take turns getting behind the controls of a Cessna 172 aircraft. They also got close-up looks at a Pitt Special aerobatic plane and others.
Johnson also showed them a device for filing flight plans and other instruments used at the airport. Flight maps must be changed periodically as new landmarks are pinpointed so pilots can tell where they are, he said.
Global Positioning Satellites in space can tell pilots where they are within six feet, he said. Someday soon, space planes able to fly above the atmosphere and back down will be able to take passengers from the United States to France or Japan in two hours, he said.
The closest thing to that now is the Concorde, which goes so fast that, with the time zone changes, it lands in New York 30 minutes before it leaves Paris, he said. The flight actually takes about four hours.
Johnson showed the the pupils some of the shirttails mounted on the airport wall, ripped from the backs of student pilots who flew without an instructor for the first time. Flying tradition has the shirttails inscribed with the student's name and date of the solo flight. They eventually are returned to the new pilots as souvenirs.
Pupils for the demonstration school this year were chosen at random from a cross-section of the student body at Dublin Elementary. Parents of selected children could agree or decline to have their children take part in the project, which is aimed at showing how early training in math and science can benefit students later in their education.
by CNB