Building an airplane builds interest in flight

Bismarck, North Dakota — A group of high school students may be building a plane, but they’re learning much more than just how to construct a wing, fuselage or tail. Their teacher, Mike McHugh, said the students are learning teamwork, collaborative skills and more. McHugh is the aviation instructor for the Bismarck Public Schools’ Career Academy. The academy is a career-focused program that draws students from seven area high schools and is located on the campus of Bismarck State College. In fact, it is the only high school aviation program in North Dakota, and one of few in the nation, he said. McHugh said he has been teaching aviation for eight years, but this is the first year they tried to build an airplane. The timing was right with the career academy moving into a new building with more space. McHugh said he looked online and found plans for a full-size replica of the Piper J-3 Cub. He ordered the wood last summer with hopes of starting construction in fall. But the wood didn’t arrive until December, so the students didn’t actually start building until January 2011. The class was divided into three groups — one to work on the wings, the second on the fuselage and the third on the empennage, or tail section of the plane. He assigned students specific tasks and when they didn’t know how to do something, they went to online resources for information. “I tell people I didn’t teach,” McHugh said. “I was the lead learner in this project and was just one step ahead of the kids. As the plane progressed, McHugh said the students got more excited. “Their pride was obvious the first time we put it all together and it actually looked like a plane,” he said. While the students did get quite far on the Piper Cub, they didn’t complete it. In Fall 2011, a new group of students will take over the project, building another wing, working on the fabric covering and building the landing gears and a few pieces of the fuselage, McHugh said. The plan is to finish it — minus the engine — and leave it on display at the career academy for a year or two, and then sell it so they can afford to buy supplies to build another plane. Sean Davis, 17, said he decided aviation was either going to be a career or hobby when he was in the second grade and took his first commercial plane ride. So he said it was an easy decision to enroll in the aviation classes when he got into high school. Davis, who will be a senior at Century High School in Bismarck in the fall, said he and his team worked on the tail section of the Piper Cub. What was the most important thing he learned? “You obviously need to know how to learn and interpret directions,” he said. “The first two weeks we just sat there with a pile of wood and our binder. But in the end, that pile of wood actually resembled an airplane.” Davis attributes much of his enthusiasm for aviation to his teacher. “He was our adviser, our coach and our father,” he said. “He doesn’t know how much he actually does for his students.” Muneeb Hyder, 17, said he’s always loved aviation, but taking the class helped him decide that aviation is the career he wants to follow. “When I moved here and found out hat they had an aviation program, I thought, ‘Wow, I can do this.’” Hyder, who will be a senior at Bismarck High School in the fall, said he was part of the fuselage team. What is one thing he learned? “How to take care of the epoxy,” he said, laughing. “The plane is all-glue based; there are no nails or screws. I made such a mess at first…” While McHugh enjoyed learning alongside his students, he said he most enjoyed the students’ excitement for aviation. “All of the students had flown in an airplane in our first-year program. But for them to know what goes into building an airplane gave them a much deeper appreciation of what it takes to get an airplane to fly and how accurate everything has to be.”

Students in the Bismarck Public Schools’ Career Academy have been building a full-sized Piper J-3 Cub since January. Here, Alecia Smith is building a jig for the wing. Alicia Koenig (l) and Muneeb Hyder continue work on the fuselage.. Riese Mclaughlin (l) and Muneeb Hyder measure a piece for the top of the fuselage.. The students’ plane starts to take shape. All photos courtesy: Mike McHugh

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