Text Box: Helicopter DayText Box: Home Text Box: Last week the kids learned about helicopters out at American Helicopter located in Manassas Airport. The instructor was really great with the kids giving them lots of hands on opportunities. They learned all about the hows and whys of how a helicopter flies in a classroom where actual helicopter students would learn. Text Box: After some classroom time where we learned about ALL of the uses for helicopters, we went to the hangar where the kids got up close and personal with a small two seater helicopter. Our instructor went over all of the helicopter inside and out. It was cool to see all the high tech, and low tech safety features. Text Box: The helicopter above is a small helicopter. I believe these were students. We watched as they went through a long and thorough safety check. Then, the took off! Text Box: It just happened we were lucky to hook up with this guy below who had a turbine engine helicopter. He explained the difference between the turbine engine, and the piston engine on the other helicopter we’d seen. Text Box: This guy also had lots of pieces and parts of helicopters so the kids got to see inside the rotors, and what a turbine looked like that turns the engine. The turbine in this helicopter spins 50,000 times PER MINUTE!!!! Text Box: Once back inside we went over some important safety things. For example, you should never approach a helicopter from the rear. You can see the candy cane bar? That is because many people are killed each year from approaching a helicopter from the rear and the pilot starts the engine—-You can see by where Spencer is standing if that started to spin—it would all be over quickly. Even Cade got into it—he can now read “DANGER” signs. Okay, at first he thought it said “NO PARKING.” Oval: Return to main page