The A.S.C.E.N.D. summer camp is a chance to learn about the joys of flying at the controls of a real airplane. Participants will also learn the nuts and bolts of aircraft construction, maintenance, airport management and all aviation professions and hobbies in between.
A.S.C.E.N.D. 2014 is accepting applications to attend this year’s camp, June 23-28, based at the EAAgles Nest, the home Hangar for the local sport aviation group, EAA Chapter 1083. Tuition remains at $125 and there are scholarships available.
During the weeklong program the student campers will be immersed in all aspects of aviation useful for both hobbyist and the career enthusiasts.
The curriculum is a mix of classroom training and hands-on discovery labs. Instructors from all areas of aviation like mechanical, sheet metal and fabric covering will working with participants on projects. Campers will tour airport and flight operations doing business at Rowan County Airport. In other sessions, classroom instruction will include pilotage training, parts of an airplane, four forces of flight, weight and balance of an airplane, aviation weather planning, traffic patterns, flight instruments, radio communications and more.
Students will also learn how aviation is used in and for business, plus airport management and other careers around an airport. It is said that every aircraft in the air takes eight ground support personal to keep them flying.
During the days there will be guests and aircraft from all aspects of aviation, including medical helicopters, business flight departments from single engine aircraft to corporate jets.
One day we take the show on the road for a field trip by charter bus to Greensboro and tour the Timco facility. There in giant hangars, airliners from around the world and large military aircraft are upgraded and updated to the newest interiors, engines, airframe conversions, instruments and avionics. While in Greensboro there will be a tour of Guilford Technical Community Collage and its aircraft mechanics school.
Each students will have a special one-on-one introductory flight from area volunteer pilots in coordination with the EAA Oshkosh’s “Young Eagle Program.”
The keynote speaker at this year’s camp is world-record holder, pilot and author CarolAnn Garratt talking about flying around the world in a single-engine airplane. Garratt’s first flight was in her J-Model Mooney in 2003. Since then she has repeated the task of circumnavigating the world twice more.
Her second trip was her record-setting trip of just eight and a half days. Today she travels around the U.S. and Europe giving presentations about her flights to raise awareness and donations for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research. She has been flying, writing and talking and has raised more than $400,000 to help researchers find a treatment for this terminal disease.
She will speak at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 25.
Deadline for applications is May 30. For more information and applications, go on line to www.aviationsummercamp.net or by e-mail at janabrown52@gmail.com or info@eaa1083.com and by phone please call Jana or Lewis Brown at (336) 752-2574