When’s the last time you rode in an airplane? How about the last time you sat in the pilot’s seat?

Recently, Ms. Kiki’s Geography class took a field trip to the Richmond International Airport, where they got to get up close and personal with aircraft and the processes that make it possible for us to fly.

The first stop of the field trip was RVA Flyers, a flight training center where new pilots learn the skills to earn their private or commercial license. Tony, a flight instructor who led the tour of a small hanger, assisted students in climbing into a small four-seater plane, where they learned about the many controls and buttons.

“We use these planes to teach new pilots,” explained Tony. “You need to be at 17 years old and log at least 40 hours in the air to earn your private license.”

“In the plane you could move the joystick and press the pedals and the tail would go back and forth,” said eighth grade student Laureli.

After touring RVA Flyers, students got a private tour of the air traffic control tower.

From the 6-story tower, they got a birds-eye view of the entire airport complex. Workers pointed out a side of the airport not typically shared with passengers, such as the fleet of deicing vehicles and ongoing capital improvements to RIC’s airfield.

“I really liked seeing the monitors,” said Hunter, eighth grade, about the experience. “We saw a cargo plane and a big jet landing, too.”

Between answering student questions, they shared their day-to-day tasks. As one controller shared, “The busiest times are when the weather is clear in Richmond but bad in surrounding cities, because all those planes get redirected to us!”

While watching planes take off and land, students learned the basics of how to read radar equipment and dabbled in speaking with the ICAO phonetic alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, etc).

Northstar students love going off campus and exploring learning opportunities beyond the classroom!