Terricopters

The mornings are cold again. Leaves are slowly swirling to the ground, and remind me of helicopters. Science Olympiad helicopters. Science Olympiad helicopters that we have thus far been unable to keep aloft for even as long as those pretty leaves drift lazily to earth. But the season is young. In fact, I met with my team for the first time yesterday.

"This," I told them as I held up the helicopter I had made, "Is a rubber powered helicopter. We will start our lesson with why it doesn't work."
"Well that's a cheery opening," said one member, Ben.
"You can learn a lot from mistakes," I explained.
Asherel was burying her head in either dismay.... or laughter.   But I was to have the last laugh. My helicopter flew about 5 seconds. I had them begin our time together by building their own. Neither of theirs flew at all.

"Your homework is to take this home and improve the design so it flies," I told them, "It is an open book test. You may research, consult witch doctors, or find a teacher who actually can teach all about the principles of flight."  Actually, I only said the first part of that statement. I only thought the second part.

"Next, we will discuss wing design and why they help lift the aircraft. Does anyone know what an airplane wing shape is?"
Both team members did and quickly drew one.
"Who can tell me why they are designed this way?"
And then I sat back and took notes. Thank the Good Lord, both kids are smart and resourceful and I should have no trouble reverting to my favorite form of teaching- non-interference. We are hopeful that our rotor blade design might need similar properties to an airplane wing, but I don't need to worry about it because it is also assigned as homework. In my own prep research, I did discover there is an optimal curve/shape of the blade, and that the dynamics of airflow and lift are actually much more complicated than the simple Bernoulli effect I learned about when I was in class with the Wright brothers.

Our biggest hurdle will be that our "motor" (aka rubber band) can't weigh more than 2 grams, and our helicopter should weigh as close to 4 grams as possible. This means it can weigh the equivalent of 6 large paper clips all together. Asherel suggested we just throw a paper clip in the air, as it would stay aloft longer than the helicopters we had just made.

"Next," I said, "Take out paper and a charcoal pencil."
"Why?"
"Because we are going to draw a helicopter."
"Why?"
"Because I am playing to my strengths."
"Mom. you are getting distracted again. This is not an art contest."
"Well ok, spoil sport. I strongly suggest however that we illustrate our flight log. Presentation is everything!"

Ben raised his hand,"Will we at any time build a helicopter that actually flies?"
"I certainly hope so," I answered, "But you realize you get some points for just showing up with a flight log, so we will give that our full effort."

Ok, now for all you folks out there that think my blogs are always the literal truth, I have stretched and exaggerated some of the conversation. But it is true that our helicopters thus far are not heli (towards the sun) but terre (towards the ground.) We have very fine terre-copters and I am confident that we will transistion to heli from terre given enough time.

And who can fail to notice the spiritual analogy here? We are all terre-humans longing to be heli-humans. We want to take flight and soar towards infinity and beyond, to outdistance time and space and find God. But alas, we find ourselves stuck to the ground, our souls bound by mortal flesh and bone and gravity. The wing design I need is actually much less complicated than the airplane. I just need to believe that Jesus asked God to let Him take the punishment I deserve and when a holy righteous God looks at me, He no longer sees how I have separated myself from Him through my sin..... He sees the effects of Jesus' sacrificial love and my soul can then take flight.

Psalm 55:6
⁶ I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
       I would fly away and be at rest-