Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008
by Maya T. Prabhu | Staff Writer
About 60 children from the Hyattsville area spent Friday afternoon learning the basics of flight, from identifying the different parts of an airplane to using a flight simulation program on the computer.
Sitting on blue, tumbling mats in the Rollingcrest-Chillum Community Center gymnasium, students watched as members of the Black Pilots of America showed model planes, discussed the Tuskegee Airmen and participated in paper airplane contests.
‘‘Everyone has the skills to fly, it’s just a matter of developing them,” said Black Pilots of America member Melvin Cooper of Fort Washington, a retired aviation safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Black Pilots of America is an organization that was founded to expose youth to aviation, said Cooper, 71. He has been flying since he was 23.
‘‘African-American youth don’t really get that exposure they need,” he said.
The ‘‘How To Fly” workshop was sponsored by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Parks and Recreation department. This is the second year the workshop has been offered at the community center, said facility director Antoinette Guerry.
‘‘They’re very patient with the kids,” Guerry said of the pilots who spoke to the children. ‘‘The children are able to learn a lot from them.”
When Karen McKinnie learned that the workshop was being offered, she saw it as an opportunity for the middle-school students at George E. Peters Adventist School in Hyattsville to learn about science. McKinnie is the science coordinator and teaches sixth-grade science.
The workshop was ‘‘a good correlation to the science and math program,” she said. Students at Peters learn about aerodynamics in eighth grade, McKinnie said.
Antwan Griffith, 11, of Landover said he was a little apprehensive about using the flight-simulation software.
‘‘I was nervous at first, but then it was fun,” said the sixth grader. ‘‘I was afraid I would crash, but I didn’t. I didn’t get to do my loop-de-loop though.”
Andre Malcolm, 11, of Beltsville said he enjoyed the flight simulation.
‘‘It felt like I was actually piloting a plane,” he said.
Cooper said the BPA attends career days and hosts workshops year round. It also holds an annual pilot training program for high school students.
‘‘I try to do as much as I can throughout the year,” he said.
Guerry said she hopes to be able to have the pilots return next year. Since some of the BPA members are former Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of black airmen to serve in the American military base in Tuskegee, Ala., Guerry said it’s a fun way for children to learn about flying during Black History Month. Guerry is also a BPA member.
‘‘Maybe eventually I’ll get a license,” she said. ‘‘I enjoy [flying] but I [bring the BPA] more for the children than for myself.”
E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.
