Eagle?s Nest Projects ? A busy week at the McKinney Aviation Academy

The students at McKinney Aviation Academy are having a very busy week with their Eagle?s Nest Project RV-12!

The McKinney Aviation Academy is comprised of students from all three McKinney, Texas High Schools ? McKinney North High School, McKinney High School and McKinney Boyd High School

In addition to supplementing the student?s STEM curriculum, Eagle?s Nest Projects goal is to enhance the students? pride in their school and to encourage community involvement.

We all know, general aviation is shrinking. With barbed wire topped fences, cameras, access controlled gates and no trespassing signs, for a youngster, getting to the airport can be daunting. Where do they start?

Well at Eagle?s Nest Projects we take the airplane to the kids!

This week, our students are displaying their RV-12 tailcone at all three McKinney High School campuses. During their lunch hour, builder-students are encouraging their friends and teachers to become part of the build. Everyone at the school: students, teachers, administrators, parents and support staff are all welcome and encouraged to learn more about aviation. Our builder-students give those who are interested the opportunity to pull rivets on the plane.

But our students didn?t stop there. On Tuesday night, the McKinney Aviation Academy booster club held an open house at the TKI airport for incoming freshmen for the 2016-17 school year. Our RV-12 was once again on hand and our builder-students were teaching the incoming freshmen and their parents about the build, and of course giving anyone who wanted the opportunity to pull a few more rivets.

Oh, and one more note about that tailcone. It was donated to Eagle?s Nest Projects by VAF's very own ?Brent 801.? Thank you again Brent, please stop by and see the progress the students are making.

We build at TKI airport. All VAFs are welcome to drop by and say hello, you can taxi right up to the classroom.

As always, thank you to the mentors; without you none of this is possible.
Time for a break....

Phil,
Sounds like you?re off to a great start. We are prepping to move our first plane to the paint shop. We just received the first shipment of our second plane yesterday. We are also moving all our ?Stuff? back from our hanger to our NEW, amazing, super huge shop. (Can you tell, we love our NEW shop)

Jim
Eagle?s Nest Wisconsin

Jim,

Yes, I saw pictures of the new shop on Facebook, it looks awesome! Very professional.

Will you make SnF this year?

Much more than just building an airplane...

Sending out a big Thank You to the McKinney Mentor team for not only sharing the progress the students are making with their build, but also for sharing how an Eagle's Nest Project builds student, school, and community pride. It's no small task transporting in-progress assemblies to three different high schools and providing students and teachers not engaged in the build an opportunity to "pull a rivet" and become “vested” in the build. Job well done and your efforts are already paying dividends; with chests out, those kids are telling anyone who’ll listen, “I helped build the airplane our school is building.” ..."Yes, it's a real airplane with a glass panel, autopilot, and everything!".

Mentor acknowledgments:
Phil Campbell, Project Director, Mel Asberry, Kevin Lacey, Larry Bulot, Jeff Hanson, Chuck Wilson, and Richard Wingfield

Aside:
Old Dominion Freight delivered another Van's "$$" crate today... our 4th build at Clear Springs High School in League City. Jim, congratulations on starting your 2nd build at Central HS-Wisconsin. I’m envious of your new shop area and hope to stop in and see it on the way to OSH.