Today the nation is celebrating the long-standing BBC Children in Need campaign with office fancy dress competitions, bake sales and every sort of sponsored event you could imagine. This day of fun is loved by many, and gives us all the chance to contribute to one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in the UK. It may seem that the money raised goes to projects you do not come across or hear about again, but we'd like to let you know about one Children in Need project that is a little bit closer to home.
Our ongoing Aviation Education Programme is in it's first year and is entirely funded by the BBC's Children in Need. The programme gives six young people with disabilities a year of aviation education sessions, with topics including Airfield Operations, Fire and Rescue and Air Traffic Control. The Aviation Education Programme is designed to teach the young people about the many areas of aviation, but also to give transferable skills that can be taken into working life and further education.
For our more avid blog followers, you may already have seen the update we posted on the Introduction Session. Since then, we have completed initial sessions in our first topics - Airfield Operations and Air Traffic Control. The sessions were a great success and Tony, one of our volunteers, has written a short report below:
"Here we are again with a summary
of the first modular sessions, which took place on 29th. October and
1st. November. The students were divided into two groups of three,
and each group attended for a full day to cover the basics of Airfield
Operations and Air Traffic Control.
The sessions were led by
volunteer Steve, with others on hand to provide one-to-one assistance
to the students in carrying out the various activities involved. The morning
session on Airfield Operations started with an initial evaluation of the
students' current level of understanding of why airfields are needed, why
people fly, what facilities are essential for the operation of a small private
airfield, and what additional facilities would help to enhance the users'
safety and comfort.
Following their input, which
revealed a pleasing amount of basic knowledge among the groups, a short video
was shown of a light aircraft leaving and arriving at a simple grass airfield
to visually reinforce the basic requirements.
The session continued with
student participation in a practical exercise to create a table-top airfield
using a green cloth as the field, with various items added to provide
topographical features, facilities and obstacles.
The exercise included coverage of
airfield location, runway orientation and numbering in accordance with local
topography and prevailing winds, and the requirements for safe approach and
departure flight paths beyond the airfield boundaries.
Both groups proved to be
enthusiastic participants in the exercise, and were able to contribute well.
There followed an exercise in
which the students were asked to match four airfield diagrams with their
corresponding aerial photographs, and all completed this without any problem.
During the ensuing break for
lunch, the PA28 simulator was put to good use by all!
The afternoon sessions covered
the basics of Air Traffic Control, with Steve presenting on the Tuesday, and
Andy on the Friday.
The session started with an
explanation of why ATC is required, and continued with a listening exercise
involving actual communication between pilots and tower at Wycombe Air Park,
after which the students were invited to comment on the content and the
techniques employed.
They were then introduced to the
concept of the phonetic alphabet, and spent a few minutes practising with it by
spelling their names and other familiar words.
The major part of the session
involved a practical exercise in which the students took turns in playing the
roles of pilot, tower controller and approach controller to act out a prepared
script of ATC communication.
Two-way hand-held radios were
used, and to add realism, the “pilot” was positioned in the simulator, with the
“controllers” remaining in the classroom so that there was no visual aid to
communication.
Given that this was their first
exposure to the subject all acquitted themselves very well, and entered into
the spirit of the exercise to the extent that they didn't want to stop at the
end of the exercise!
All the students, although quite
tired by the end of it, maintained their enthusiasm for the course throughout,
and it was felt by the volunteer team that the sessions had definitely achieved
the desired objectives."
This programme would not take place without the BBC Children In Need so please do consider supporting the campaign if you can. Thank you!
