Flight Camp - Day 1

Today was the first day of the flight camp that hubby is teaching. The kids arrived at noon. After reviewing the rules and setting the groundwork, they started on teamwork activities involving walking on skis as a team and then later trying to get a ping pong ball from one end of the gym to the other using short tubes which they had to alternate to span the full distance. They then went to the classroom for a lesson on the basics of aerodynamics. There they learned the basics of Bernolli’s principle and what keeps a plane in the air. Bug-a-Boo and I arrived after this class just in time for dinner. When dinner was done we headed to the airport for their flights. Despite the fact that we reserved 3 airplanes, due to maintenance and someone changing the schedule, we only ended up with one for the full time we needed it. Thankfully we at least had that one. While the kids took turns going up in the plane for their initial introductory flight, the rest were with my MIL, the chaperones, and myself in the airport conference room. One of the parent chaperones designs airports for a living, so he explained to the kids how an airport is built. He also went over some really interesting information with them about airports – the longest in the US, the average length, etc. When he was finished, I led the kids in the first steps of building hot air balloons out of tissue paper. When they are finished, they won't carry passengers, but they will really fly. The kids had been up a long time, (They met at 5:30 and hit the road by 5:45 am.) so you could tell they were fading, but overall they did a great job of plugging away on them. I was amazed at how well Bug-a-Boo did. When we got there, he remembered right where we were and made a bee-line for the window where he spent most of the evening watching the runways. Around his bedtime, we headed home. The last kids were getting ready to go up for their flight, then they would return for some free gym time and to hit the hay. Despite the glitch with the airplanes, I’d say things are off to a great start. Now if only hubby and I (mainly hubby since he’s doing the flying and the bulk of the teaching) can have enough energy to keep up with 17 teenagers and 1 toddler for 3 more days! Tomorrow Bug-a-Boo and I are there all day with no break for Bug-a-Boo’s nap. He sometimes skips it, and I’ll have the pack-and-play just in case, although I really don’t know where we would set it up, so hopefully he’ll be okay without it. We’ll see. I do have a friend on stand-by for child-care just in case.