National Flight Academy is Packed Full of Fun Program Opportunities for Kids This Fall!

Fall Adventure, Cruise & Deployment Dates Are Now Open For Registration

 

Pensacola, Fla. – (October 14, 2022) – The National Flight Academy (NFA) in Pensacola, Fla., is offering a lineup full of fun STEM-based programs for kids this fall, which is now open for registration.

 

The NFA’s 2022 Adventure, Cruise & Deployment schedule is as follows:

 

ADVENTURES are a unique, one-day program that introduces 4th and 5th grade students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) principles. Topics include learning to fly drones, and how to navigate through hurricanes, and tsunamis. While in program, students enjoy lunch on the mess deck, plan humanitarian missions and fly on our flight simulators. Adventures are the perfect outing for youth organizations.

 

• Offered daily, Monday – Friday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Call for availability

 

CRUISES are designed for students ages 5th-12th grades as an introduction to the National Flight Academy’s flagship, Deployment program. For three days, students stay overnight and are exposed to a variety of concepts, including Meteorology, Aerodynamics, Mathematics, Bathymetry, Physics, Basics of Flight, Ballistics and Search and Rescue fundamentals, and use critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, teamwork and information-gathering to complete missions.

 

Tuition for the three-day overnight cruise is $475 per student. Cruises can accommodate individual, private, public, and home school organizations at any time throughout the academic year. *A minimum enrollment requirement of 36 is needed in order for each session to run.

 

Cruises program options include:

• • Fly Like the Blues — Students will learn 21st-century workforce skills such as leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, and communication as they plan and then fly their six-plane formation air show at Eglin Air Force Base. First, students will become familiar with the X-12B Triad, radar, and communications and then students will demonstrate their leadership and collaboration skills as they fly a practice air show. The students will have an opportunity to evaluate their squadron’s performance and make adjustments before the squadron flies their “recorded” air show.

• • Coast Guard Search and Rescue — Students must assist the Coast Guard with various search and rescue efforts to test their math skills. Exercises range from tracking moving ships to locating and rescuing a missing helicopter. These tasks will require a squadron of 12 to determine the most effective search pattern, based on real-life search and rescue guidance and mathematics, to locate their targets while avoiding other aircraft and duplicating search patterns. Then, a fire breaks out on an oil rig, forcing the students to consider the environmental impact of such an event. Collaboration, critical thinking, and communication must be utilized if they hope to contain the situation.

 

DEPLOYMENT PROGRAM, the NFA’s flagship program, is a 6-day, 5-night Deployment for rising 7th – 12th grade students. Attendees live aboard the virtual aircraft carrier, AMBITION, a 102,000-square-foot, four-story structure, complete with accommodations for up to 144 students who are referred to as AMBITION eXperimental Pilots (AXPs).

 

The Deployment program envelops them into life as a Naval Aviator aboard a modern aircraft carrier. Missions progressively become more challenging throughout the week as the AXPs advance their aviation science skills as well as their communication skills. AXPs experience leadership development by working in a team-training environment. Whether it is a race or rescue, STEM skills are used in tandem with equally important 21st Century learning skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and communication to advance the team.

 

Christmas Break Deployment Dates

• • December 11-16
  • December 18-22

 

Deployments begin at noon on Sunday and end on Friday at noon with a graduation ceremony in the National Naval Aviation Museum’s Blue Angels Atrium.

 

To learn more about the NFA’s program opportunities, or to register online, go to NationalFlightAcademy.com. For more information, please contact Stephanie Pugh, Client Relations Director at National Flight Academy by email at spugh@nationalflightacademy.com or calling 850-458-7836.

 

 

About the National Flight Academy

The National Flight Academy, located in Pensacola, Fla., aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, is designed to address the serious concerns of declining Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills and standards in our country. The Academy’s mission is to inspire students who subsequently return to their parent schools and seek out the more challenging courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

 

The NFA is a self-supporting, tuition-based educational program. We welcome support from individuals, corporations and foundations for both our scholarship program and general operation funds. The National Flight Academy, a program of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Inc., is authorized but not endorsed or funded by the U.S. Navy or U.S. Government.

 

For more information about the National Flight Academy, visit http://www.nationalflightacademy.com or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

Media Note: For more information about the National Flight Academy programs, contact Carmela Cook at 850-308-8937 or email ccook@navalaviationmuseum.org.