Black Children, Bicycles, and Helmets

"There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots."

- Aviator Expression

According to the CDC, Black children are at the highest risk for suffering a head injury than any other ethnic group in the United States. And every summer, I am reminded of one of the major factors as to why this is the case. It never fails: whenever I see Black children outside on their bicycles, they seldom wear helmets. And when I ask the children why this is the case, they always respond with the same excuse: "I am good enough to ride without a helmet."

My frustration is not with them, but with parents that allow their children to ride outside without a helmet. And if you are a parent that allows your child to ride a bicycle without a helmet, then yes I am talking about you! If a child does not want to wear their helmet, then they should not be allowed to ride a bicycle. Period. Bicycles are not toys. They are transportation vehicles, and all transportation vehicles have safety precautions. Cars have seatbelts, airbags, and anti-lock brakes. Bicycle helmets are an integral part of making bike riding safe. When a rider gets on a bike without a helmet, then that bike rider is making an unnecessary risk.

Why it is so widespread for Black Children to ride without helmets is something that I am sure could be examined, and root causes could be found. But no possible reason is a valid excuse. Bicycle helmets do not cost as much as bicyles. Helmets can cost as little as 12 dollars from K-Mart or Target. If you buy a bicycle, then you should buy a helmet.

HELMETS SAVE LIVES
A helmet can mean the difference between living a normal life and living in a vegetated state. It can mean the difference between having full intellectual capabilities and having a loss of cognition due to brain injury/shrinkage. But most of all... a bicycle helmet can mean the difference between life and death. Accidents can happen in a matter of seconds.

In addition to the revolutionary improvements to the design of Rogallo gliders, helmets played a huge role in making Hang Gliding a safe sport.

Take a look at this video...



This is a Hang Glider Pilot that forgot to do a hang check, which is a procedure that hang glider pilots perform before every flight to make sure that they are properly hooked into the hang glider. The pilot could have lost his life because of this mistake. But fortunately, he only received a concussion. What saved his life? His helmet.

There are thousands of pilots in the USHPA, and only a handful of injuries each year. Be assured that one of the reasons for this is because of the adamant usage of helmets by all pilots on USHPA flying sites. On the other hand, bicycle-related head injuries are far more common, resulting in 3% of head injuries in the United States. Why? Because there are more bike riders that ride around carelessly with no helmets.

So if you are reading this blog and you are the parent of a young cyclist, then buy them a helmet and make sure that they wear it.

Review of the Falcon Jet RC Helicopter

This is a review of the Falcon Jet RC Helicopter. I owned this helicopter a few months ago. I use owned in past tense because it met its fate at the hands of one of my students. :)

From my category of 1-4, where

1. Beginner
2. Novice
3. Intermediate
4. Advanced

This would definitely fit as a #2. This is an easy to fly RC helicopter if you've flown them before. It's not for someone that quickly panics when a helicopter suddenly shoots upward, or someone that has not grasped the concept of when to use light touches. A pilot should definitely spend some time flying Air Hogs RC's before moving up to this one. It is a fairly durable RC Heli, but it will break. The tail and tail rotor are especially sensitive and will come right off with a hard-enough impact. The screws that hold the outside casing of the body are also rather sensitive and will break (although this does not interfere with the ability of the heli to fly).



The RC Controller sticks can break quite easily.

This helicopter can be especially beautiful to watch in flight, as it has various different color lights that will light up during flight. Flying this RC helicopter at night in the dark can be a mesmerizing experience.

It flies forward and backward very smoothly and is fairly easy to trim. It turns gently as well.

You can purchase this RC Heli from Bestbuy for a very affordable $29.99, and it can be found online for an even cheaper price.

Grade: B-

Review of the Air Hogs Sharpshooter

I've been preparing a list of RC helicopters that can be flown by pilots at 4 levels (Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) for an upcoming website. Most of Air Hogs Helicopters would belong in the beginner category. There is one in particular, the Air Hogs Sharpshooter, that I have purchased and flown over the last month, that would serve as a good helicopter for absolute beginners to begin to develop the dexterity that is needed to advance in RC pilot skills.

Air Hogs rates this helicopter as an intermediate helicopter. However, the only real difference between this helicopter and other helicopters that are rated by Air Hogs as beginner is that it can fire two orange missiles upon pushing a red button on the right side of the controller.



Pros:

1. The motor power is just right for the beginner. It is not so powerful so that it can provide an overwhelming amount of lift to the beginner, who is still learning to do basic tasks such as adjusting the trim of the heli, as well as make basic position changes
   
2. The controls are fairly responsive. As long as you face the helicopter at all times, you should have little problem with getting the helicopter to respond to your commands.
3. The laser remote allows the pilot to easily fly in formation with other helicopters.
4. The helicopter is extremely durable and is able to take an enormous amount of punishment. My sharpshooter has flown through a variety of indoor air current conditions. My girlfriend even flew it into her ceiling fan! My students have ran it into walls on numerous occasions. And it still works. This is important, because the beginner RC pilot is going to crash... numerous times, and crashing a helicopter and breaking it beyond repair is a discouraging experience.
5. One set of batteries can provide numerous flights and charges. The controller uses battery power very efficiently.
   

Cons:

1. The missiles fire at a considerable delay. That could be annoying to anyone that's playing air combat with a buddy. It's not a big deal to me because I bought it for educational purposes, but Air Hogs should work on that if their main selling pitch for the helicopter is it's ability to fire missiles.
   
2. The drawback to having a laser controller is that the response time of the helicopter can slow down as your angle becomes more obtuse. You have to face and view the helicopter at all times in order to get the most efficient response time with the helicopter.
3. The helicopter, like most Air Hogs RC Heli's, does not move backward. It naturally drifts forward, and you have the option to turn the helicopter left and right. I don't expect super-extensive maneuverability with beginner RC Heli's, because the beginner should not concern themselves with acrobatic maneuvers before learning how to perform basic flight maneuvers. However, it would still be nice if these heli's could move backward, as this is a skill that the RC Pilot must understand as they move forward.

Overall, I like this helicopter and would recommend it to anyone that wants an affordable introduction to flying RC Helicopters. For the beginner, it is worth every penny. It also makes good party entertainment for all ages.

Grade: B+

The Obama Administration and NASA

Recently, Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong and Apollo 17 Astronaut Eugene Cernan has criticized the Obama Administration for a number of things. One, for allowing the Space Shuttle Program to be canceled, canceling the Constellation Moon Program, Canceling the Ares 1 Vehicle and not aggressively pursuing planetary exploration. They have described the president's program as "ill-advised" and voiced their concerns during a senate hearing.

I wasn't surprised so much by Eugene Cernan voicing his concerns. Cernan makes appearances in the media quite a bit. But Neil Armstrong tends to be a bit of a recluse. For him to make these statements is quite out of character for Armstrong.

I've always had a pretty neutral stance toward the Obama Administration. There are things that the administration does that I like, and there things that it does that I don't like. And I think the Obama Administration has done some wonderful things to advance science, such as lifting the ban on Stem Cell research and increasing funding for essential university science programs. And while I understand the need to make funding cuts by the current administration, the general public should be advised that Space Exploration is not expendable. There are several very important reasons why any industrialized country should have a strong space program:

1. The modern-day telecommunications industry would not be possible without space travel. GPS, Cellphones, Internet, and various other technologies that we take for granted in 2010 are all possible because of space travel. Many of the satellites that we use were deployed by the space shuttle and placed into orbit by shuttle astronauts.
2. A lot of medical knowledge about cardiovascular, muscular and skeletal health is the result of NASA research.
3. A strong space program will be the key to stopping any impact objects from striking the Earth.

Delaying the Constellation project is understandable with the economy into consideration. But canceling the Space Shuttle until a viable replacement is available isn't such a good idea. Relying on the Soyuz Rockets of Russia for transport to/from the International Space Station is relying on obselete technology in the hands of a country whose relations with the US has continued to sour over the past 5 years.

While I can certainly agree that the Obama Administration's central focus should be the creation of jobs, the improvement of healthcare, and the elimination of poverty, it is important that people recognize that space travel is no small matter and that NASA should not be allowed to falter as an agency.

Black Pilots of Homebuilt Aircraft

Ultralight Airmanship is not just for "crazy whiteboys." There have been Black ultralight aviators since the earliest days of the homebuilt aircraft craze. Along with the fascinating stores of these aviators come stories of the equally fascinatting aircraft they flew. Examinin the lives of these individuals can give insight into the motivation behind their flying machines.


A particular homebuilt aircraft aviator that comes to my mind is a man by the name of Lewis Jackson. Jackson was also a school teacher that taught 8th graders in a small school. His interest in aircraft was cultivated as a child. Eventually, Jackson became a pilot, a barnstormer, and later a flight instructor. Jackson was the trainer of many of the Tuskeegee airman.

After training pilots at Tuskeege, Jackson began building and designing aircraft. Jackson's main desire as a airplane builder was to create an airplane that every household could own. He set out to accomplish this task by designing an airplane that was "roadable." He had many different airplane designs that had folding wings. When the wings folded, the airplane could drive on the road as a car. He began test flying his designs in the 1950's and continued into the 70's.





Dr. Jackson continued to test these planes for the remainder of his life. He passed away in 1994 after a long life of promoting roadable aircraft and helping many Black Americans get into aviation.

But good ideas never die...



Greene County - Lewis A. Jackson airport is named for Dr. Jackson.

Walk... Jog... Run

To say that I am happy after my trip to LMFP is an understatement. There are 50 flights in my log book; three aerotow flights and 47 flights from the training hills. I did not get a chance to launch off of the mountain just yet, but it is on my list of things to do when I go back in May. I still have two aerotow fligts left. I used 3 out of the 4 aerotows that came with the Eagle Package, and I purchased another, leaving me with two aerotows for my next visit.

When foot launching a hang glider, a pilot holds the glider at the correct angle of attack and looks at his/her target. Then the pilot starts to walk, trots to a jog, then runs. The glider acquires enough airflow to generate lift and eventually carries the pilot into the air. This process has become my analogy for getting anything in life accomplished: First, you aim to do something. Then, you make gradual steps to getting it accomplished, and increasing your intensity until it get's "off the ground."

This is precisely how I managed to finally get into hang gliding after wanting to fly for so many years. It took small steps... saving money from each check from the beginning of this year, getting support from Blackstar Educational Institute, buying books to study, watching videos on youtube, exercising, talking to veteran pilots, and finally... showing up to Lookout Mountain Flight Park to dedicate an entire week to study.


This is far from over. I still have much to learn as a hang glider pilot. On my list of things to do this year is

1. Gain a strong foundation in mountain launching and learn how to ridge soar.
   
2. Get surface tow rated.
3. Get aerotow rated.
   
4. Learn how to thermal
5. Learn how to ridge soar
6. Take at least one cross country flight.
   
7. Achieve my H3 rating.

One of my aerotow tandems...