Aviation club demonstrates drones
<p>Shaun Andrews, president of the Inland Northwest Aviation Club, maneuvers a remote-controlled quad-copter through lit-up hoops on Wednesday during a demonstration to promote the club at Kootenai Technical Education Campus in Rathdrum.</p>
<p>Students at Kootenai Technical Education Campus watch a remote-controlled quad-copter, manned by Inland Northwest Aviation Club President Shaun Andrews, center, as it begins an in-air obstacle course on Wednesday at the school in Post Falls.</p>
<p>Kootenai Technical Education Campus junior Jackson Wilmes holds out his hand for a miniature remote-controlled quad-copter to land on during a Inland Aviation Club visit to his school on Wednesday in Rathdrum.</p>
Members of the new Inland Northwest Aviation Club set out Wednesday to show the "young and the young at heart" the joy of aviation while keeping their feet on the ground.
Shaun Andrews, president of the aviation club, demonstrated a six-gate indoor flying course for remote controlled copters at the Kootenai Technical Education Campus in Rathdrum.
The course was made up of a series of hula hoops and about 50 high school students watched as Andrews flew a quadcopter — a small drone with four rotors — through the course.
"We thought this would be good because a lot of kids are getting small quadcopters and RC helicopters for Christmas or birthdays because they are only 20 or 30 bucks," said Charles Branch, secretary and treasurer of the club. "Parents might want to get kids out of the house — keep the crashes out of the living rooms — so they can come fly with us."
Branch and Andrews, along with their vice-president, Murdo Cameron, started the aviation club a little more than a month ago.
It was around Christmas when Branch said he and the others began to brainstorm a list of ways to get the public interested in aviation and bring people out to the Coeur d'Alene Airport — Pappy Boyington Field.
Along with building the RC flying course, the list of ideas the members came up with includes setting up a computer flight simulator and giving tours of the Coeur d'Alene Airport.
Branch and Cameron are also members of the Coeur d'Alene Airport Association, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to promoting the Coeur d'Alene Airport and general aviation."
Branch said the club hopes to partner with others, such as the Elks Lodge and high schools, to set up larger RC flying courses and hold team competitions.
"We are just trying to get different things together for the airport and for the youth in the area," Branch said.