Tom Perry Shows Flying's Cool At The Roudenbush

Imagine yourself taxiing down the runway, pushing in the throttle, and taking off into the wild blue yonder.

It might sound like something you'd find at an airstrip, but several students will get the chance to experience this in the new "Flying's Cool" class being taught at the Roudenbush Community Center from May 17 to June 18.

An aviator, flight simulator fanatic, and educator,  class instructor Tom Perry uses portions of his classes to review topics like the history of aviation, navigation, or how planes fly. The rest of the class is dedicated to getting kids behind the wheel, so to speak.

The students get to use Perry's advanced flight simulators to learn what it is like to navigate the skies relying on their own knowledge of their plane's instruments and controls, with a complete yoke and rudder set up on each station. He even has an infrared tracker the students can attach to a hat to follow their head movements so they are replicated in the simulator's cockpit.

Even though it's not real, it's real enough for kids who love planes and want to fly them.

 "I have always loved flying," says Hannah Wright, one of Perry's students. "I went to an air show in New Hampshire last year and saw a plane doing acrobatics."

Tom started the class when he realized that many subjects taught in the MCAS exam transposed easily to lessons learned in a flight class, with classroom topics like Bernoulli's principle being reviewed in regards to how it helps a plane stay in the air.

The students, although receptive to the lessons, were clearly itching to try out the acrobatic maneuvers reviewed in the class. They spun around wildly performing barrel rolls and loops while the monitor turned red, simulating the blood rushing to their heads from extreme G-forces.

However, students found themselves in a wide array of scenarios outside of just what you might find at an air show as they learned to land a sea plane on rivers and lakes to finding out how to control a stalled plane. 

While the youngsters still have a ways to go before they fly a plane for real, it already appears that some such as Kevin Lauterbach have decided the class has inspired them to learn more about aviation.

 "I might go for my license som day to fly around for fun," said Lauterbach.

More information about Perry's class can be found on Facebook, or at one of his websites: Flying'sCool.com and Getflightsim.com

He will start a new class later in the summer that will go on Tuesdays from July 12-Aug 9, with a ages 7-11 class at 6 p.m and a 12 and up class at 7 p.m.