Riverside, CA – Historic Flabob Airport has been bringing aviation to local grade schools. In their fourth year of presentations, they had scheduled 17 different schools in the last three months of 2010. In the first three months of 2011, 19 school visits were on the schedule. The response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and positive. It has also drawn hundreds of kids to the airport to become Young Eagles.
The Wathen Foundation offers the schools three programs that are taught after regular school hours. The first taught by Al Gester and Kathy Rohm, focuses on the history of flight and how to build a variety of paper airplanes. The second program, led by Kevin McKenzie and Kathy Rohm, deals with the fundamentals of flight which are taught using aircraft models. At the conclusion of the session the students are each given a simple balsa airplane kit. In the third program, the teachers from the first two combine forces with Flabob personalities to give the kids a tour of the resident DC-3 and the four famous replica racers that were commissioned and are owned by Tom Wathen.
During the visits to the schools the instructors take time to describe the Air Academies that are held at Flabob throughout the year and they also encourage the kids to come to Flabob and take Young Eagle flights. For more information on these programs visit www.Flabob.org or call Kathy Rohm at 951.683.2309, ext 104.
