Flying Mustangs- Las Colinas Aviation Club

By Owen Cramer

Imagine looking out at the pitch-blackness ahead of you. Rain is falling, and a storm is raging all around. Lightning slices through the air, illuminating a dark horizon. There is no indication of where you’re facing. Trusting the instruments, you advance the throttle levers forward, feeling your aircraft lower as it gets ready to roll. Feeling confident, you release the parking brake.

At once, the aircraft lurches, picking up speed. It begins to lumber forward, rolling through the complete darkness into the unknown. You wait for the pace to accelerate, then check your airspeed. It’s high enough. You gently ease back the yoke, and lift off into the dramatic gale.

No, this isn’t another one of those thriller action movies, or high-jinx real-life dramas, it’s just another day at Aviation Club at Las Colinas Middle School in Camarillo, California. The aviation club was founded on the principles of letting students exercise their inner pilot skills after learning those skills in our school’s Aviation Elective, both headed by teacher and private pilot Thad Robbins. Mr. Robbins teaches the Aviation Elective at Las Colinas, a class in which students learn the basic forces of flight, and how to operate an aircraft. We learn about the science of flight, such as the Bernoulli effect, Newton’s laws of motion as they apply to flight, as well as how control surfaces are used to steer an aircraft through the three axis of rotation. We get to test our knowledge of controlled flight with a paper airplane flying contest… in the classroom! There aren’t many middle school classrooms where you are allowed to do that- at least without getting in trouble. Another aspect of the Aviation Elective is understanding the history of aviation as well as the future of flight. Whether it’s going back to da Vinci’s ornithopter or looking forward to modern stealth UAVs- we learn about it.

When I asked Mr. Robbins why he started the Aviation Club, he said, “I wanted to provide an opportunity for students to apply what they learned in the Aviation Elective class, and to inspire and encourage students to consider careers in Aviation. Of course, I also want students to have fun and to meet other students who also share an interest in Aviation.” In the after school Aviation Club, we have the chance to fly one of a small squadron of drones. These drones are used in controlled environments inside Mr. Robbins’ classroom or in the classroom next door, belonging to fellow teacher and aviator Eric Johnson. The drones can zoom around, perform tricks, or students can even try to land them on targets. There are also drone contests, to see who is the most accurate or talented with one of them. We also have the choice of flying any of the four multi screen X-Plane flight simulators, one of the two RealFlight RC flight simulators, or fly the online simulator Geo-FS using one of the 20 Logitech flight joysticks on our school issued Chromebooks. And new this year- we have an Oculus 2 VR flight station. The VR experience allows us to see what it’s really like to fly in a real aircraft.

The Aviation Club is not just about flying a variety of gizmos in the class. The Aviation Club has also hosted several distinguished aviators to talk about their careers in the aviation field. United Airlines First Officer Clarke Cramer, a Retired Navy Commander, came and talked to the Club in December, explaining his path in flying from his start in the Navy to his position at United. He then gave the Club a special airliner throttle assembly, which can be used to fly the larger airliners in flight simulators. Other visitors include fellow Delta Airline pilot Kyle Beahan, as well as several C-130 and F/A-18 pilots from the Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station.

In the spirit of sharing our passion for aviation with the community, the Las Colinas Aviation Club participates in the annual Wings Over Camarillo airshow at the Camarillo Airport in late August. There, we set up flight simulators in the STEM Pavilion, and allow those curious in aviation to explore and soar in aircraft. Youngsters can pilot planes or helicopters into the air, fly around, and then try to land them. They can also pick what aircraft, time of day, weather conditions, and location they want to fly in.

The Aviation field is a vast expanse of limitless imagination, and Mr. Robbins is helping students to achieve that goal. We’re learning and having fun in his classes, Aviation Club, programs, and events.

The sky is not the limit in this school. It is the goal.