On June 8, 2022, the Seattle Chapter hosted a dinner event with Raisbeck Aviation High School in Tukwila, WA.
Students from the 9th grade class had an opportunity to show off their spring flight test project to SFTE members. After dinner, one lucky student group gave their full presentation to the attendees, and then SFTE member Tom Esser and SETP member James Hanley gave a talk to the students about artificial ice testing on the 777-9.
The SFTE members in attendance were very impressed with the students’ projects, which investigated the effect that changing several variables (including airplane gross weight, flap setting, airport elevation, air temperature, and winds) has on takeoff distance. Each group chose a different model of airplane to test, and each student in the group chose a different variable to focus on. Testing was completed in the simulator XPlane on student laptops, and the students performed a data reduction exercise before preparing their final reports. This project is essentially Units 1 & 2 of Flight Test Academy.