Virtual liftoff
STEMPILOT engages students in science and tech concepts through flight simulation
A group of local dignitaries including representative Rachael Ray from Congressman Devin Mathis’ office, Porterville Mayor Martha Flores and District Supervisor Dennis Townsend gathered Monday at the Porterville Military Academy to watch demonstrations of a flight simulator by STEMPILOT creator Jay Le Boff and John Duarte and multiple academy students.
Porterville Unified School District has teamed with the Air Force Research Lab at Edwards Air Force Base to purchase the flight simulator for the academy. The STEMPILOT curriculum will be an elective program for ninth and tenth grade PMA cadets who want to pursue a career in aviation.
“[We’re] taking a leap in the way we educate children,” says Jay Le Boff, the creator of the flight simulator. “The big picture is we are applying geometry, trigonometry, physics, scientific literacy, history, geography, meteorology, topography when we
use the STEMPILOT flight simulator.” STEMPILOT will greatly enhance the way the K-12 STEM curriculum is taught, he says.
The flight simulator can help teach students career pathways in aviation, air traffic control, and even the use of drones.
“It can show kids the career opportunities outside their comfort zones,” says Leboff, adding that girls make better pilots than boys, because their concentration and motor skills are better.
Using the flight simulator, Le Boff showed a PMA cadet the basic fundamentals of flying a plane: pitch, roll, up, and down. Serenity had to steer the plane using the joystick, while the simulator actually showed her where they were going. In this instance, Serenity flew the plane from La Guardia Airport in New York to land in front of the Statue of Liberty.
“As you fly the plane, it gets lighter,” said Le Boff, explaining that as you fly the plane’s fuel is consumed. He showed Serenity how to pull back and up to pull the plane’s nose up.
“You can go anywhere on the planet in virtual reality,” he said, and was asked by a man in the audience if it occurred in real time, to which Le Boff said, “Yes, real time.”
Flight basics are the first things taught, says Le Boff, “You have to learn to fly straight and level.”
There are activity flights where you fly in a variety of different situations. Le Boff says they have students create flight plans and try and find their families’ heritage and roots.
Included with the flight simulator is a STEMPILOT curriculum book, complete with lesson plans and multimedia. Le Boff said there is a variety of different learning in the program, and that he wants it to be interesting to kids and to encourage them to pursue career in
aviation.
After Serenity had taken a spin, Le Boff asked new PMA student, Emmanuel, to demonstrate a new flight flying a stuntgrade airplane down the Thames River in London, England.
Then the instructor switched the plane to a fully automated 747 commercial aircraft and had Emmanual steer it. Next, they changed to an F22 Raptor and the picture showed a completely different set of cockpit controls.
“What you see here is the scope of what we can do,” said Le Boff. “We can do everything here that we can do in an actual airplane.”
He says the software and hardware can teach kids how to fly, and the software even gives audio of what’s happening with the plane.
Le Boff developed the steel flying simulators four years ago, and says they have unlimited uses in education and have been primarily used in middle schools. They’ve been programmed for elementary, middle school and high school use.
Students must learn the fundamentals of flight services, and all missions are visually and verbally tutored.
Ron Irish, former mayor of Porterville, described the technology as “a perfect marriage” after seeing the flight simulator and PMA student Serenity land the plane with some direction from Le Boff.
Le Boff would also like to have the Experimental Aircraft Association come to classrooms, saying they are all experienced pilots who would teach students about the fundamentals of take-off.
Officials from the Air Force Research lab based at Edwards Air Force Base said they wanted to solve the shortfall in technical education and aviation and needed students to go into technical careers.
“We love getting this program going on in the different districts,” said Le Boff, “It’s terrific the Air Force is reaching out.”
He and Emmanual demonstrated flying a plane from Fresno Airport to Porterville next on the simulator, and Le Boff also showed everyone that you can program the simulator to show any kind of weather pattern — rain, snow, and fog — to create real weather situations for students to deal with when flying the simulator.
Le Boff says they can also teach students to fly search and rescue missions. Fresno Pacific University already has one of the flight simulators.
“I can see by using this type of equipment the student can see they can learn the process of learning to fly, and it gives them the ability to become a pilot,” said Sharon Gill, PUSD school board member, who was amazed with the visual accuracy displayed on the simulator screen. “It’s a process they can learn, and that’s exciting. This simulator and software open a whole new way of thinking about what you can learn, and you can see that you have the ability to do something that you would never have considered. We are thrilled to partner with Stempilots and Edwards Air Force base Rocket Lab to launch our aviation program at PMA.”