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Coming up, we celebrate National Aviation Day
with a major milestone
for the AOPA You Can Fly High School Curriculum.
And by taking teens, flying.
A fly-in to historic grass strips
and flying around the Tetons.
AOPA Live This Week begins in just a moment.
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This is AOPA Live This Week with Tom Haines
and Alyssa Cobb.
The future is looking great!
Thousands of young people
will get an introduction to aviation.
They otherwise wouldn't.
As the AOPA You Can Fly High School Curriculum
is now in, get this, 300 schools across 44 states.
That's right in a school year is starting
across the country.
And in 300 of them, the aviation-based science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics or STEM curriculum
is exposing young people to the bright future
that awaits them in an aviation career.
The curriculum features two pathways, pilot and drone.
Once students have completed the curriculum,
they have learned the principles necessary
to pass FAA knowledge test.
Glenn Ponas is the director of the high school initiative.
He says, this is a very big deal.
That represents for us growth of over 50% from last year.
So we are now from,
we went from 36 states to now being in 44 states.
And it's just, it's a testament to the tremendous effort
that's gone on both from the AOPA staff,
as well as the teachers who are teaching it.
The curriculum is funded by donations
to the AOPA foundation and is provided free to schools.
And a couple of students from Magruder High School
in Montgomery County, near us here in Maryland,
came to AOPA headquarters to go flying
for National Aviation Day.
Magruder uses AOPA's High School STEM Curriculum.
CFI Chris Moser showed students Peter Weiland
and Natalie Webb around Cessna 182
and took them for a flight.
Chris helped me a lot with flying today.
It was my first time, so I was very nervous,
but Chris did a really good job in assisting me
and telling me exactly what I needed to do
and when to do it.
And I was able to effectively (chuckles) maneuver us
in the air when instructed to do so.
And I had a lot of fun and I would like to do it again
if I had the chance.
While, Natalie flew for the first time,
Peter is already a private pilot,
and this is his fourth year
in the aviation program at Magruder.
His goal is to be a commercial airline pilot,
and he says the AOPA curriculum gave him
a major jump-start in his career.
Its helped a lot throughout my high school career.
I was working towards getting my pilot's license
and the program really helped to compensate
on learning what I needed to know
and getting me to where I wanted to go.
And the Magruder Program has great
just making connections.
So I know what I wanna do.
I know who to talk to and how to get onto those next steps.
A network news crew from Scripps media
also documented Natalie and Peter's flight
for a national news story about AOPA's curriculum.
And there's a weekend STEM camp coming up
in Lakeland Florida.
The Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Center for Excellence
is putting on a "Go For Lunch" themed weekend.
Its happening September 11th and 12th,
and is open to 9th through 12th graders.
You'll find out more and register on aceedu.aero.
Now, last week we told you about the GIFT Academy
at AOPA's headquarters in Frederick, Maryland.
GIFT stands for Girls in Flight Training.
During the week, many women may progress
on their flight training goals.
One person passed a commercial check ride,
and there was even a first solo.
Several women also added endorsements
for high-performance airplanes
and one tailwheel endorsement.
A number of the women also passed written tests.
Congratulations to all the GIFT recipients
on their accomplishments last week, way to go.
That's right.
And a fly in doesn't have to be really huge.
Griffin-Sloas Airfield near Youngstown, Ohio usually
does an annual Wings and Wheels
that brings thousands to their grass strip.
COVID is put the brakes on that for the last two years.
But they wanted to get friends together
and celebrate the freedom to fly.
Even if there weren't hundreds
of muscle cars lining the runway.
AOPA Live's, Paul Harrop flew out to join them.
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We're in, Ohio, Northeast corner, Ohio,
just inside Youngstown's Class Delta airspace,
a little private strip called Griffin-Sloas.
(plane engine revving) (lively upbeat music)
The airfield was established in 1948.
A local farmer decided he start flying
and local aviation pioneer,
Ernie Hall gave him his license and put a strip in.
And it's been here ever since.
(plane engine revving)
If you wanna get a little technical,
it's pretty easy.
It's not too bad.
It's about 2,200 feet.
And the wind for this weekend
has been right down the runway.
So it's been easy to come in,
takeoff and come in with a headwind.
And it's just a great, just a great, easy strip.
(plane engine revving)
♪ Hey listen ♪
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It's a perfect place to host a fly in.
And this evening couldn't be nicer.
It's gorgeous.
It's just very scenic looking down the runway
and seeing all the airplanes,
and people doing some passes to check for gear.
And of course, it's wonderful.
Just perfect setting, sitting out here on the patio.
(crowd chattering)
What is it about a place like this
that makes people wanna get together?
I think it's just the grassroots.
It's just, you know,
this is where the aviation began
and it's just kinda full circle.
Everybody gets an opportunity to, you know,
land, taxi your plane up,
tight down, set your tent up.
Good to go all night long.
You know, sit around the campfire
and have a good old time.
(pleasant music)
You can, you know, solve the problems of the world
is a lot of my friends say you swap all of these lies.
You have some beers and talk about airplanes,
and you talked about anything related,
the world and all that stuff.
And all the flight activity catches the eyes
of the next generation.
Kristan Muse was driving by with her toddlers,
Liam and Isaac.
They stopped to see the commotion.
What goes through your mind when you see that?
Obviously, you got two little boys in the back seat.
Heck with them I wanted to come to see the planes.
I love it.
(pleasant music) (plane engine revving)
And that's what Griffin-Sloas Airfield is all about.
Bringing people together around aviation.
The hangar is filled with, well, stuff.
I like it 'cause someone walks in there,
you can find, somebody can find,
relate themselves somewhere to something in there.
I can guarantee, you cannot bring one person in there
and they can't say, "Oh, you have one of these.
Or, oh, I had one of those,
or I remember this,
or, hey, you know something about that?"
And I love it 'cause you bring somebody in
and they teach me about stuff that I had in there.
And I think it's pretty cool.
You know, all kinds of the people I've probably met,
you know, a half a dozen different people
and just one of those proverbial $100 hamburger
kind of trips.
But it's a little more special than that.
Special because of the place,
the people, the history.
And of course, sunset like this one.
It's vital, we keep these little grass strips,
you know, going, because this is what made it into,
you know, huge, everything that exists today, aviation wise.
In Warren, Ohio, Paul Harrop, AOPA Live.
What a great spot.
And right there on the field
is the Ernie Hall Aviation Museum.
He was a pioneer aviator and flight instructor
from the area.
In a future episode,
go inside the museum that keeps his legacy alive.
And we come back, Joby goes public.
And flying around the West.
AOPA Live This Week continues.
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♪ Wohoo, wohoo ♪
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♪ Wohoo, wohoo ♪
Welcome back.
GA pilots work together to bring unleaded avgas
to San Jose's Reid-Hillview airport.
And Swift Fuels delivered the first 7,000 gallons
of UL94 to the airport this weekend.
It's important to reaffirm here.
The transitioning rebuild your airport to unleaded fuel
has the effect of eliminating this airport
as a potential source of lead in the blood of children
or anyone else living near the airport.
We understand that lead is harmful.
We're glad to be taking this step towards eliminating lead
at this airport.
And we hope to accelerate a growing push
by the aviation community and others
to completely eliminate all lead from aviation fuel.
Swift Fuel UL94 is approved for about 80%
of the piston engine aircraft flying out there,
including the training fleet at Reid-Hillview.
Meanwhile, GAMI recently received an STC
for a high-octane unleaded fuel that can be used
in all piston engine aircraft.
And the Piston Aviation Fuel Initiative,
in partnership with the FAA
is evaluating several other fuels
that might replace 100 low lead.
Well, if you wanna take a flyer,
so to speak on the emerging electric vertical takeoff
and landing market, Joby Aviation went public last week.
It's the first eVTOL company to be listed
on the New York Stock Exchange.
That's expected to fund Joby
through initial commercial operations
and the company just released a video to dispute
the notion that multi-rotor aircraft are particularly noisy.
(plane engine revving)
Joby flew a variety of aircraft from a Cirrus SR22
to a Bell 206 at about 1500 feet AGL
over a calibrated microphone.
All flew at 100 knots.
Joby says they set out to design an aircraft
that mimics natural sounds like the wind and the trees.
And the Embraer has just flown
its first all-electric aircraft in Brazil.
It was a demonstrator to evaluate new technologies.
The company says the test-bed aircraft
will allow the company to develop innovative new products
that will operate on sustainable energy sources
and reduce carbon emissions.
Well, another big order for Piper,
the company just sold 20 pilot,
100-eye trainers to flyGateway Aviation.
Piper 100 series are specifically designed
for flight training.
Piper took out a lot of the non-essentials
like the baggage door, sun visors,
and a side window to reduce the cost.
flyGateway has four locations in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
It's a Liberty University flight training affiliate.
Pilots in most parts of the country,
never get the chance to fly in real mountains.
But if you ever do get the chance to go out West,
flying amongst the peaks is a spectacular experience.
If you understand the risks
and precautions of mountain flying.
Executive Producer, Warren Morningstar went flying
with an expert last weekend.
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This great or what?
Winding around the peaks of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming,
but it isn't the kind of thing you should try
without first getting the proper training.
The key to proceeding up a canyon
or enroute is always give yourself an option
to turn around.
Paul Leadabrand runs Stick and Rudder Aviation
near Boise, Idaho.
He is the factory endorsed training facility for Kitfox
and he specializes
in teaching pilots backcountry flying skills.
But we will wanna find out what side
of the canyon so that we have room to turn around.
We might wanna fly on the upwind
or sunny side of the canyon.
Right.
That upslope wind or the thermals
are going to add to your lift.
Downdrafts in a canyon are really no fun.
Now, the key to flying in canyon is to make sure
you always have room to turn around.
At this point, it's not an escape maneuver.
It's just, we're not uncomfortable.
We're not liking the weather conditions.
We're not liking the turbulence
and we're not liking the routing
of the canyon and we may have made a mistake.
And so we're going to turn around.
Paul teaches pilots to fly
at what he calls canyon speed.
Now, that's something less than cruise speed.
It may be a maneuvering speed or flap extension speed,
depending upon your aircraft.
You want a lower speed.
So you can make a tighter turn under control.
And typically,
most pilots overbank increasing the stall speed
and the load on the airplane.
30 degrees is your target bank.
But when crossing a ridge,
we wanna always cross it a tangent to allow us
to have the ability to turn away without a 90 degree turn
or a, would be preferably about a 30 degree bank turn
to turn away to in case you had a downdraft,
as you were browsing the ridge.
And cross over the flattest part of the ridge
that saddle or canyon cut just might be turbulent.
The saddle is a Venturi effect.
Saddle is where the winds are increased.
Now, no matter how remote the canyon might be,
there can still be wires across it.
So look for poles on the sides of the canyon and-
Rather than trying to see the wires
or the poles, and then if you want to cross over
a set of wires, the place to cross over is at the pole.
There's nothing that's going to be above you at the pole.
And how do you know if you're going to clear
that ridge ahead of you?
Watch the terrain behind it.
If the far terrain is rising,
and the ridge in front is descending in your view.
Then you're above the ridge and to pay attention
to density altitude.
This day, we were at about 10,000 feet density altitude
down in these canyons.
Now, the Kitfox is turbo-charged
and we still have a lot of performance.
But a normally aspirated aircraft would have a lot less.
Fly in the morning or late afternoon when it's cooler
and have fun.
Warren Morningstar, AOPA Live.
There are a number of mountain flying schools
throughout the West.
You should get that training before you try flying,
deep in the canyons as you just saw.
So Alyssa, we did quite a bit of mountain flying last week.
And we were out in Driggs in the area out there
and it was spectacular.
We had incredible weather and we learned a lot.
And we captured a lot of content,
that you'll see showing up on our various media channels
and the magazines over the coming months.
So look for more than that on flying out West.
Oh, that's great.
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All right. That's our show for this week.
We're glad that you are a part of it with us.
That's right.
Leave us a comment below on YouTube
or send us an email to let us know
how you're celebrating National Aviation Day.
And for our international friends,
you're welcome to join in as well.
We'll see you all next week.
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My name is Savannah Raskey and I have about 600 hours.
I currently, hold my commercial single engine land
and sea ratings with an instrument add-on.
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I've been an air national guard for about nine years.
So being an enlisted member,
I knew that I wanted to continue a career in the air force,
but I wanted to do it as an officer flying
for the greatest course in our military.
Fortunately, I was picked up to fly
the F-35 for Montgomery, Alabama.
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So I own a Piper Cherokee 6 260.
And we also have this Aztec right here,
which I'm gonna be doing my multi-training in.
And I SiriusXM Aviation weather because it gives me
an added confidence and the kind of weather
that I'm gonna be flying into on long cross countries
from Florida to Utah.
And back in multiple times up to Oshkosh back down.
And so having a weather system like SiriusXM,
that I can rely on,
it gives me a lot of confidence as a pilot.