The AMA Foundation team had a fantastic week of meeting members from across the country and assisting with the UAS4STEM competition at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024.
The July 22-28 event took place at EAA headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Roughly 680,000 people from around the globe attended the annual event. Steve Haston, AMA Foundation director, and Rachelle Haughn, AMA Foundation deputy director, were among those in the large crowd.
Steve and Rachelle arrived at the air show on July 21, a day before its official start. They met up with the AMA Education team at Camp Scholler, just in time for the UAS4STEM pizza party. The dinner celebrated the official kickoff of the international contest. Nine teams that had advanced to the finals were ready to battle for first, second, and third places in the Beginner Division and Advanced Division. The teams enjoyed meeting each other and sharing their mutual love for multirotors.
On July 22 and 23, the Foundation team had the honor and privilege of serving as judges for the UAS4STEM team presentations. Rachelle judged the Beginner Division and Steve judged the Advanced Division. Their fellow judges included FAA officials, NASA employees, full-scale commercial airline pilots, a former UAS4STEM competitor and Skydio engineer, an AMA district vice president, and AMA members, to name a few.
During the presentations, the teams had 20 to 30 minutes, based on which division they were in, to explain in detail their assigned missions. The missions, which mimicked real-life scenarios, included finding a lost lunchbox, finding a lost hiker, delivering supplies to someone in distress, and numerous others. The teams had to explain in detail which drone they built for the contest and why, what technology they used to complete their missions, what the go and no-go criteria were for the missions, how they could overcome environmental obstacles, and much more. The amount of knowledge the competitors had about multirotors and their capabilities was astounding!
Steve and Rachelle were also able to see some of the teams complete their contest flights. Because of a large berm, some teams had to find creative ways to keep their aircraft within visual line of sight.
The UAS4STEM contest wrapped up on July 24 and its end was marked by an award ceremony at show center. The Foundation team, along with some judges, helpers, and AMA Education department staff, were able to participate in the ceremony. All of the teams walked out onto the field, followed by those handing out trophies, medals, and some special gifts from Skydio. Seeing how excited the six teams that received trophies were and witnessing the bonds that had formed through their teamwork were wonderful to see. It reinforced the fact that aeromodeling can bring together people of all ages, from all walks of life.
The award ceremony was followed by a spectacular night show. It included full-scale aircraft with multiple lights that flew to music. Some of the aircraft released fireworks. One of the highlights of the night was a drone show programmed by a woman. She and her crew flew 500 drones that created images of flying airplanes, people, and many other stunning visuals.
Throughout the week, the AMA Foundation team also had the opportunity to interact with several AMA members and event attendees. They talked with several people in the KidVenture area behind the EAA Aviation Museum, handed out bubbles to kids, helped set up for one of the RC air shows, and met AMA members who worked for companies that had booths at AirVenture.
There were too many wonderful experiences to list in this blog. The AMA Foundation is thankful for the opportunity it had to meet some of AMA’s amazing members, and for the privilege of working every day to support the hobby that these wonderful people enjoy.
Watch for news about which UAS4STEM teams took home honors at https://www.amaflightschool.org/.
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