Peter Denny, EAA Chapter 25 member and technical counselor, recently received some nice coverage in the Star Tribune. Read the article:
For this class, the sky isn’t the limit; it’s the goal
Congrats Peter! Keep up the good work.
Sean is a senior at Lakeville High School and is the recipient of Chapter 25’s $500 aviation scholarship for 2005. Sean has served as captain of Lakeville’s basketball team and plans to attend Rochester Community Technical College. He has an academic scholarship and also plans to play basketball at Rochester. After his two year program at Rochester, Sean plans to enroll in an aviation program at either Minnesota State University, Mankato or the University of North Dakota.
by Celia Poehls
Tat-tat-tat-tat, brrrrrrrrrrrr, thunkthunk- thunk. (Ouch!) These sounds rise in volume as one descends the cement steps to the “Hangar” in the basement at Washburn High School. Here, in a converted storeroom, roughly 30 students are actively learning about aviation in its most practical sense. They are working together to build a complete airplane.
For about three years now, Peter Denny, our adopted “Aussie” and the Washburn Aviation Small Learning Community (”SLC”) Lead Teacher and Coordinator, has been striving for this moment.
In his free time Peter treks from group to group sharing his dreams and vision to bring a more “hands-on” style of learning to make Aviation real for students. Peter’s experiences teaching in Australia proves this method is successful. As he talks and travels, he has been hoping someone would be able to provide the financial backing to make this “take off.”
Earlier this year, this finally transpired. An Alumnus from the Washburn High School Class of 1958 kindly stepped forward and contributed the funds necessary to purchase the two-person monoplane “kit” from Sonex-Ltd., in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Several of his classmates have pledged their support for this project and he made good on their pledges.
Building a plane from “spinner to rudder” is without a doubt the best way to expose students to the many-sided nature of aviation. In practical terms, professional aviators will tell you it is beneficial to be a “Jack-of-all-Trades.” The best pilots know you need experience and skills with mathematics, metallurgy, geography, economics, architecture, graphics, aerodynamics, carpentry, physics, English, design and meteorology to name a few. This hands-on plane building class supplies participants with much needed experience in supportive and positive surroundings.
Class members will be able to take this practical learning experience and their successes and apply it, no matter what career choice lies ahead for them.
A few issues pushed the target start date for building out a few months. This down time was wisely used preparing and studying blueprints, manuals and other documents needed for this momentous undertaking.
To-date, the building teams have been established and the students are researching their components. They have also been practicing with pneumatic tools, forming gussets and putting in rivets. It’s not as easy as Mr. Denny makes it Appropriating a line from Cap’n Jack Sparrow in a recent blockbuster movie Pirates of the Carribean, this “Ship is more than a keel and a hull and a deck.” This ship is called Spirit of Washburn’s Band of Brothers for its contributors and its intention to signify the dreams and hopes of the young people who have studied and are studying Aviation and Aerospace at Washburn.
When the plane is completed in about two years, it is Peter’s plan to first fly the plane generally along the Louis and Clark trail from St. Louis, Missouri to Haystack Rock, on the Pacific shoreline in Oregon. Exploring “uncharted territory,” so to speak.
After that, he will fly it “in formation” with many other Sonex builders in a cross-country fly-by with touch-downs in places like Jefferson City, Missouri; Sioux City, Iowa; Pierre, South Dakota; Bismarck, North Dakota; Missouri Breaks, Montana and Lewiston, Idaho, as a practical exhibition of “working outside the box” and going to the edge.
The Diary of the building class can be found at:
http://washburn.mpls.k12.mn.us/The_Sonex_Diaries.html.
We would certainly appreciate your comments, questions, suggestions and support in any form. Please direct inquiries to Mr. Denny at peter.denny@mpls.k12.mn.us or Celia Poehls (Aviation SLC Parent Team Leader) at cezzium@yahoo.com.
from On Final April 2005
Chapter 25 has awarded its EAA Aircamp scholarship for 2005 to Noah Lorsung of Washburn High. Noah is shown with instructor Peter Denny in the photo to the left. Noah is 17, and is enrolled in Algebra2/ Trig, AP US History, Spanish I, Aviation Construction, AP Chemistry, and English 11.
Q: Why would you like to be selected for this experience?
A: I would like to be selected because I am in my junior year of high school and I would like to get to know the industry better, so I can make choices about colleges and my future. I would also like to learn more about experimental aircraft.
Q: What would you gain from this experience?
A: I would gain more than just bragging rights; I would be able to make a life altering decision: college. I would be able to enlighten my peers on the pros and cons of the industry, and I would be able to spread the word.
Q: What would it be like to meet other young people from all over America at this camp?
A: It would be very cool, especially if they were into experimental aircraft and could enlighten me with their knowledge. I think ti would be very neat if I could meet and discuss our progress (on the Sonex) with another student my age, or thereabouts.
Q: What is it that makes you passionate about aviation?
A: Two words: Mr. Denny. He has elevated my love for aviation to a new height. Before I had his classes I was nowhere as near informed about aviation and the atmosphere revolving around it.
from On Final March 2005
Lou Martin (photo on right), from Apple Valley and a Chapter 25 member, was informed that his book, “Wings Over Persia” was designated the best aviation writing by a Minnesotan for the year 2004, by the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame. The letter, informing Mr. Martin that he was the recipient of the award stated, “Your book was exciting and personal, definitely the type of aviation writing the MAHOF wishes to honor and encourage with its annual award.”
Mr. Martin, following 22 years as an Air Force pilot, and 5 years as a captain for Japan Airlines, joined a small cadre of foreign pilots flying for an air charter company in Tehran, Iran. His military service included 10 years in overseas assignments, including flying combat cargo support missions during the Vietnam War. He retired from the Air Force in 1970 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
From 1970 to 1975, he flew as a captain for Japan Domestic Airlines where he commanded a Japanese aircraft, crewed by Japanese copilots and Japanese flight attendants. Many of Colonel Martin’s flights in Japan were unique, in that he flew with several senior Japanese pilots who had participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When in Japan he met, and later married, a senior Japanese flight attendant.
After his contract in Japan ended he relocated to Tehran, Iran where, from 1976 to 1979, he worked for an air charter company, flying throughout the Middle East transporting members of the late Shah’s family, high ranking Iranian military and government officials, and oil field roughnecks. He was in Iran during the troubling years of 1978 when Islamic fundamentalists rioted in the streets seeking the overthrow of the Shah. The tempo of the demonstrations rose to the point where thousands were killed, forcing the Shah to flee to Egypt.
When a personal friend was killed, Colonel Martin feared for his own safety and made a hurried exodus, abandoning unpaid salary, a Volkswagen, and personal property. The Shah’s abdication allowed the fire-brand Islamic leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to assume the position as Iran’s despotic ruler, and form a ruthless Islamic theocracy government. Several of Mr. Martin’s Iranian pilot colleagues, and VIP passengers, were summarily executed by Islamic revolutionary guards after Khomeini’s takeover.
Lou Martin’s book, “Wings Over Persia,” is a true story of intrigue and adventure of an American pilot flying in Iran, during the revolution that overthrew the Shah. It provides a unique opportunity to share in the experience of flying in a troubling part of the world, along with a first hand insight into the inflexible attitude of Islamic Fundamentalists towards infidels.
Readers state that, “Wings Over Persia” has given them a much better understanding of the problems we face in the Middle East, while at the same time providing an interesting book that is difficult to put down. Congratulations Lou! “Wings Over Persia” may be reviewed on “Google” search web page, and Amazon.com. Lou Martin may be contacted at: pilotlou@aol.com, or Tel: 952-891-1250.