EAA Young Aviators technical day at Wonderboom Airport
Hosted by Sport Plane Builders, on Saturday the 28th of September
By Tyla Puzey
06.010.2024
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The EAA Young aviators is a movement targeted at young people involved in any segment of aviators. The age group is from SPL through to call it your big commercial position or job later in life.
On Saturday 28th September it was something new for the aviators. The Idea was to expose young minds to the technical side of aviation to give them a firsthand look at the inner working of the machines they have been training on and learning to fly.
On the day we covered many topics and took a large number of wonderful questions from many keen minds. Below are some of the demonstrations that were set up on the day.
1- Blow by tests
2- Wheel service and related parts.
3- Oil change and Oil filter cut open inspection
3- pitot Static and transponder test were demonstrated
4- Piston, Cylinder and valves parts were shown and explained.
5- Sheet metal and riveting demonstration
6- Magneto and ignition Timming explained
7- Composites fibre tour, systems and moulds explanation.
The aviators got to watch a demo and explanation on these items with a full exploration on the subject with a question-and-answer session after the demo.
May good questions were asked which was good to see and I assume many had no idea of the way things were on the tech side of aircraft.
We had one funny comment afterwards, “I had no idea there was so much going on inside the plane while flying now I'm little scared.” To which she was told aviation is very safe because of the process in place to check everything that happens on or with an aircraft. They form some of the highest mechanical standards in the world so no need to worry and that's why you are trained to deal with problems for that reason.
The aviators had a short intro from Pierre, the owner of Sport Plane Builder about the maintenance process on aircraft. Then a short video with a talk from a lifelong aviator also showing the rebuilding of an aircraft.
It was also apparent during the day just how important technical information is for young people training in aviation. We recommend that all aviators should make the effort to be at these technical days as it's highly rewarding for all segments of aviation.
