Wright Takes Flight

Engaging students with real world math and science

A student takes control of her aircraft

12 year-old Moriah Williams is at the controls of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk II aircraft and preparing to land at Torrance airport. She constantly checks outside the aircraft (“it helps me line up”) and scans her instruments as she makes her final turn lining up with the runway. Moriah eases the throttle forward and holds her feet firmly on the two rudder pedals underneath. Her instructor monitors her every move as she begins to approach the runway. “Okay, your speed is good, flaps look good…you’re doing fine” says her instructor, Barry Trop. A few minutes later, the Cessna glides onto the runway and Moriah increases the throttle so she can perform her “touch and go,” a procedure where pilots perform a landing and then take off again without stopping. She has just completed her 4^th check-ride and her instructor is very pleased with her performance.

 

This scenario is repeated, at thousands of airports across the world, everyday. But Moriah’s flight, like other students in her class, is different. You see Moriah is sitting at a desk in a classroom in front of a computer at Orville Wright Middle School in Marina Del Rey. Students in this class are receiving flight and ground instruction from their mathematics and science teacher, Julian Edwards; and Barry Trop, a certified flight instructor and professional expert hired by the school. In the classroom are 16 high performance computers fully equipped with hand controls (“yokes” the students call them) and rudder pedals. The computers look futuristic with polished red cases shaped like something from a science fiction movie. But science fiction this isn’t as students combine flight school with mathematics and science instruction in a unique program that gives them an opportunity to see first hand just how mathematics and science play a part in learning how to fly.  

Wright Middle School has many common interests with aerospace.  Located near Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, it houses an aerospace magnet program.  Named after the first person to fly (brother Wilbur was second), Orville Wright Middle School is just one of a handful of schools (you can count the US Navy’s flight school in Pensacola as one) making innovative use of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator software to teach students to fly.

 

There is no debate that learning to fly touches many content areas.  The most obvious are mathematics and science.  Learning to fly requires a deep understanding of practical and theoretical mathematical and physical concepts that enable a pilot to become airborne, navigate to a destination, handle the airplane in all sorts of weather conditions, and ultimately land safely.  Other content areas are also well covered when learning about flight.  The history of flight from ancient to modern times and humankind’s fascination with the ability to venture into the sky has been chronicled by historians and written about by authors for thousands of years.

The flight simulator program, just a year old at Wright, is a semester elective composed of 4 major sections. In each section, the students learn flying techniques in the simulator (3 days a week) and the necessary mathematics and science of navigation and flight mechanics (“ground school”) twice a week in an adjoining math/science classroom. Each section culminates in a check ride, which the student must pass by successfully flying a route and demonstrating the ability to perform what has been taught in that section. Mr. Edwards, who teaches ground school and will start teaching flight school soon, says students have a better understanding of the math and science concepts when it is applied to what they are doing in the simulator. “It is especially apparent in geometry,” says Edwards. “They are able to see, understand and apply angle relationships and how they apply to the compass and to their flight.”

 

Barry Trop started teaching kids to fly on simulators in a program at Compton airport about 3 years ago. One of his students attended Wright and this gave Trop the idea to start a class at Wright Middle School. With Steve Rochelle, the principal, and a handful of teachers and parents, the program began. “The computers were built by a friend of mine who knows exactly what is needed to make the simulators run smoothly,” Trop says.

 

During class, students are in various phases of their fourth check ride and seem to be naturals at accomplishing the task. Mr. Trop says that students develop a “keen sense of what will happen and needs to happen 10 minutes ahead of time. This is extremely critical for a pilot to learn. You don’t see it right away but, it is evident in the students performance after a couple of months.” “It’s the simulator and the hands on that enables them to acquire this technique,” he says. One student has taken the training he received in the class and applied it towards flying a real aircraft. 14 year-old Kevin LaRouche recently finished his second check ride in a real Cessna airplane at Compton airport. “You feel the bumps and movement of the plane which is different than the simulator,” Kevin says. “But, everything else is the same as what we did in class on the simulators, some of it’s even easier.” Kevin is now a student aide in the class along with Antonio, a former classmate.  Together they assist Trop in checking students as they practice their flying technique and complete the necessary tasks to finish their check rides. Next semester, Wright will begin an advanced semester with newer, more powerful computers. Trop points to another room at the same time he motions for a student to watch his airspeed. “We’ll be teaching cross country navigation, different aircraft, and air traffic control, in the new simulators. The room is set up a little differently to allow for more computer monitors in the simulators. I think the kids are going to like it” He says. 

 

Wilbur Wright once said that, “It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.”  Orville Wright Middle School embodies this spirit in this unique opportunity offered to students.  There is no doubt that the fun of flying has impacted the imagination of many here. Flight instruction has taken off from the classroom at Orville Wright Middle School and this flight is helping to make learning fun and relevant.