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UTSI Students, Civil Air Patrol Help in AIAA Model Plane Event

Tennessee Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently sponsored a model airplane contest at Tullahoma Hands-On Science Center.

The event drew competitors from second grade on past high school and volunteers from The University of Tennessee Space Institute joined Civil Air Patrol cadets and AIAA members in helping to keep the activities on track.

Joseph Wehrmeyer from Arnold Engineering Development Center is Chair of the sponsoring AIAA Tennessee Section. Competition took place in Delta Dart Free Flight and Spot Landing and in Precision Flight. All motor winding was done by hand without the aid of any mechanical or electro-mechanical devices.

In Spot Landing competition – with a goal of landing as close to target as possible – winners from all age categories included Mark Olles, 56.25 inches, Blake Morrow, 100 inches, and Frank Steinle, 116 inches. Jeremy Pamplin got a special award for the best constructed airplane.
Leaders in four age categories in the Precision Flight competition were:
Through 2nd grade: Jarred Sebourn, 2.03 seconds, Isaac Smith, 3.94 seconds, and Hunter Smith, 5.68 seconds; Third through sixth grade: Julia Schantz, three seconds, Erika Smith, 5.32 seconds, and Jarred Bonee, 6.24 seconds; Seventh grade through high school: Marco More’, 22.25 seconds, Sommer Kline, 2.31 seconds, and Blake Morrow, 3.51 seconds, and Adult only: Mark Olles, 0.72 seconds. In this competition the goal was to keep planes in the air for nine seconds. The actual time in the air was subtracted from nine seconds to obtain the absolute value of differences.

The lowest three time differences were added together for total time difference, and those with lowest time differences won.

Olles, president of the Student Government Association at UTSI, was joined by other UTSI student volunteers including Tonya Nelson, Sean Fischbach, Jeffrey King, and Associate Research Trevor Moeller.

Jeremy Pamplin won special award for best built plane.