Quadcopter Team Goes to Nationals
The Tradition of Roman Catholic Homeschoolers – TORCH – took home the regional title in the quadcopter competition recently at Greenwell State Park in Hollywood, MD, sponsored by The Patuxent Partnership. Now the homeschool team will vie for the national drone title this summer.
TORCH is sponsored by HTii of Lexington Park and will compete in the National Search and Rescue Challenge on Aug. 20, 2016, at the Academy of Model Aeronautics headquarters in Muncie, IN.
TORCH went up against a dozen other teams at the Greenwell event April 23 and 24. In the competition, the teams did two flying exercises and an oral presentation called a Flight Readiness Review, meant to test the teams’ engineering knowledge of their aircraft.
TORCH’s eight members earned 39 of the 64 possible points in three events, taking first place. The Civil Air Patrol St. Mary’s Composite Squadron took second place with 30.8 points.
“It was a great opportunity for the kids,” said the TORCH team’s mentor, Andy Pontzer, a flight test engineer at the Webster Field annex of Naval Air Station Patuxent River. “They learned because they were interested, not because they were forced to. We hope it inspires them to a career in something like computers or aviation.”
All of the teams were required to fly a Quadzilla unmanned aerial system, a four-rotor, video-equipped, radio-controlled drone that can be flown manually or programmed for autonomous, computer-operated flight.
The teams received a Quadzilla kit and had to assemble and learn to operate it themselves. Pontzer and another mentor, retired US Marine Corps helicopter test pilot Dan Krall, provided some hands-off guidance, but the students did all the work.
“They learned things like soldering, wiring, planning a mechanical assembly, and following instructions,” said Mr. Pontzer, who has two of his sons on the team. “If they had questions, we helped them find the answers, but we didn’t give them the answers.”
The money for the kits for St. Mary’s County public high schools came via The Patuxent Partnership, a local nonprofit with members from industry, government, and academia. TPP collaborated with the county school system and other local organizations to win a STEM grant from the Navy’s Office of Naval Research.
However, TORCH homeschoolers were not part of the group applying for the grant, “so we went looking for a sponsor,” Mr. Pontzer said. “We sent a letter to the Partnership, they put the word out, and (HTii President) Dorothy Hammond responded.”
In addition to the financial help, HTii worked with the team on the oral presentation. HTii staff members asked questions, took notes while the students talked and gave a detailed critique with suggestions on how to improve.
“The early start we got from HTii was key,” Mr. Pontzer said. “We were off and running in October.”
Mr. Pontzer said funding for the trip in August to the national competition shouldn’t be an issue. “I figure we’ll road-trip it,” he said. “One of our parents has an RV, and there’s a campsite in Muncie where we can stay. It shouldn’t be expensive – just gas and food.”
For the moment, TORCH is working with the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which sponsors the events under its UAS4STEM program, to spread the word about building and flying drones. The team already has demonstrated the technology at the Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary School in Leonardtown at the request of a local AMA representative, Mr. Pontzer said.
“The AMA goal is to bring more kids into aeromodeling,” he said.
To learn more about The Patuxent Partnership and its programs, visit its Leader member page.
