Howard School 5th Grade Field Trip
Wednesday, 5/14/2014

Our Tuesday morning local newspaper (the Santa Barbara News Press) had an article about the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour that arrived at the Santa Barbara Airport on Monday.  Their display of four WW2 combat aircraft would be at our airport all day Tuesday through Wednesday morning before departing for Monterey.  I've taken groups of kids to the display several times, always a last minute thing without much advance planning.  When I showed the news article to Tess she wanted to go again, or at least she wanted get out of French class at school.  I called the number in the news article and was told that schools get a discount (admission reduction from $6 to $2 per student).  We already had a field trip scheduled for Rori's Creamer on Tuesday afternoon.  I told Tess that she needed to ask Mr. Reed if we could make it a field trip, estimated to take 2 hours in the morning.  Tess insisted the timing needed to result in her missing French class.

Mr. Reed told Tess that the notice was too short to for an official field trip because they would need to get permission slips and drivers, but he said she could go and take a car load.  Chris had gone with Tess on short notice the year before.  Last year we called several parents and Chris was the only taker.  We had 4 seats and Chris was game to go again.  Last year we talked to Cooper's mom, but Diane indicated that Cooper wouldn't want to miss school.  We were a little suspect, so this year we asked Cooper directly and had him negotiate permission, so he was on-board also.  Tess's 5th grade class only has 2 boys.  To maintain symmetry, we wanted another girl.  Tess has been rifle shooting with her 4th grade friend Jacqueline on several occasions.  Since the 5th grade girls didn't express interest last year, we asked Jacqueline's mom and she was on-board.

We picked the kids up at school about 9:20ish after their first period science class with Mr. Riley.  The lines were longer this year, so we went a half  hour over our initial estimate of 2 hours and didn't get back to school until noon.  We had been to the Rori's Ice Cream factory (Rori's Creamery) on a field trip the day before, but none of us with the exception of Cooper had been to one of Rori's retail stores (they make ice cream at the factory, they don't sell it).  Tess had been asking to go to Rori's for months, so it seemed like a good opportunity on a hot day that set record temperatures in the upper 90s on the coast.

The posted images are reduced in size for the web, but I will distribute the full size photos on a DVD to the kids and the school after I get the articles from the participants.

I asked the kids to write a paragraph or 2 about what they learned.  Research info is available at:
http://www.collingsfoundation.org

Tess composed her comments below.  Jacqueline's mom Heather sent what appears to be Heather's writing based on what she was able to extract from Jacqueline?  The boys did not submit their reflections despite my personal request to them directly and via email to their language teacher and their parents.  I suppose my expectation that a spring 5th grader should be able to write a couple of paragraphs wasn't realistic.  (Jacqueline was only a 4th grader).

:) Tom Truax

Tess's Reflections:

I went two see some planes from the military here is the list. B-25, P-51, B-17, B-24. I learned that is get really hot. And it is not comfy.

Dad's notation: I recommended that Tess elaborate a bit more and correct her typos, but her email response was "I know it is not much but it is last minute."

Jacqueline's Reflections (by Heather?):   I had the opportunity to witness history in motion at the Santa Barbara Airport. We saw the B-24 Betty Jane and Witchcraft planes fly and land.  The inside of the planes were durable and were equipped with bombs and oxygen tanks for high altitude combat.

Meeting a pilot who flew these types of aircrafts in World War II very interesting.  The men who flew these planes were brave and helped save lives.