It’s not rocket-science!

This year Flight Club is constructing a drone that will be able to both fly and record video from the sky.

The Flight Club was founded at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year by senior Jonah Patinkin. Jonah wanted to build a club that gave students who had an interest in flying or building things that can fly an opportunity to do so. So he pitched the idea to his teacher Valerie Barrett and the Flight Club began.

“Our goal was to bring students together who had the common interest of flying and to do something with it. The students decided to build a drone because it was achievable and they were excited about it,” Barrett says.

While the first year of the club was a success, the majority of the students were seniors and graduated, so the first goal of this year was to rebuild the club. “We used three methods to rebuild the club. The activities fair, morning announcements and word of mouth,” Barrett says. Her plan has worked. There are now twelve members compared to four from last year.

After getting a number of freshman students excited about the mission of the club, they set off to build an even better drone than last year’s. Last year’s drone flew, but only for a couple minutes before it crashed into the ground. “This year’s goal for the club is to first rebuild the damaged drone from last year, plus we want to put a GoPro on the front,” Barrett says.

The club is waiting for parts to finish this year’s drone but it should be up and running soon. The club also has future plans for creating even more complex flyers. “The students hope to start building RC planes this year along with the new drone,” Barrett says.

RC planes are streamlined drones built for speed and agility that will go faster and be more fun to fly than any of the clubs previous ventures. Every member of the club seems enthusiastic about the club’s future potential, and with so many fresh faces, the Flight Club is sure to be around for years to come. “I hope it will continue to inspire students to get into aviation. It’s so nice to do something constructive that the kids enjoy,” Barrett says.

The Flight Club meets every Tuesday after school in Ms. Barrett’s room E332, with meetings lasting until around 5p.m. Any student who is curious or passionate about technology, flight, drones or aviation needs to check out what the Flight Club is achieving this school year.