These kids are engaged

Sharing a few photos of the kids soldering, flying and enjoying the fun of this project.

 

Elias and Dan - about to take off

What focus!

Who says the simulator is boring?

Social skills in action as we work on teamwork

Here's a few shots of some of the team soldering.  They did a great job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working Session #2 - Soldering, Simulator and Popsicles

We gathered a smaller group of kids this past weekend for a second round of practicing on the simulator and continued building of the hexarotor.  We worked with the kids to really focus on taking off and landing in the simulator.  We noticed they were really enjoying crashing and, although entertaining, it's not so good in reality.  We were impressed how the kids were able to hone in on landing skills.



Henry on the simulator (great landing skills) with Dan assisting

Harrison on the simulator in style with the 10 gallon hat

We also broke out the soldering gun and each of the kids got to take their turn practicing soldering.  We followed that with mounting the ESC's and attaching the arms to the base.  We attached the battery and it successfully powered up.  We need to chase down pics of the soldering but here are a few of the next steps in construction.  Next step is binding the radio to the receiver, calibrating the settings and some testing.


Mitchell mounting a leg to the hexarotor and Henry watching closely



Kevin connecting an ESC and then mounting the leg

 

Tate attaching an arm



Kids Start Building and Hone Their Flying Skills

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we got our group of 10 kids together this past Saturday to kick off the project.  We went through the project's phases and goals as well as rules for participation.  Talk about a focused bunch!  From there we broke into three groups; 1) practicing flying on the simulator, 2) building the DJI Flamewheel 550 hexarotor, and 3) flying toy helicpters that team members brought from home.



Teamwork!

 

 

 

Mounting motors to the legs

 

Parents facilitated each station.  We put together some guidelines for the stations including instructions and comment cards to faciliate positive intereactions between team members.

 

 

 

ESC's soldered to the base plate. Motors mounted to the legs too.

 

We wrapped up the day inhaling a pile of homemade cookies (thanks Kerry).  I think all meetings should wrap up that way don't you? 

 

Next week we plan to finish the hexarotor and start testing.  We'll be in the air with the phase 1 hexarotor soon!