On April 6th the playground at Lafayette Elementary School in Seattle looked suspiciously like an airport. There was a real airplane—a glider—parked out by the basketball hoops. But don’t worry; Sea-Tac isn’t trying to sneak in a fourth runway next to California Avenue. It was there as part of the curriculum for Greg Schroeder’s fourth-grade class.

The kids have been studying aviation—everything from hot air balloons to the space shuttle—and the glider gave them a chance to hop in the cockpit and get some hands-on experience working the controls.

Heinz Gehlhaar, Mark Nyberg, and Bruce Bulloch of Evergreen Soaring towed the glider down from its home at Arlington Municipal Airport and assembled it on the school grounds.

As a teaching tool, the Apis 13-meter glider proved to be a great success. “The fact that the glider came to them so they could look at it … kind of brings it to life,” said Mr. Schroeder. “We did the glider before we built our own (model) airplanes and flew them. It gave them some great hands on experience with different parts of the plane that they’d been learning about and seen in pictures of but actually hadn’t got their hands on yet or seen in action.”

The students got a lesson on aerodynamics but it was the glider itself that stole the show. According to fourth-grader Liam, “I really liked going inside the glider. I learned that there’s a boom mike in the glider to say thank you to the tow plane.” His classmate Lily added “I really liked sitting in the cockpit because I felt like I was actually flying. I always thought the stick would be hard to move but it wasn’t.”

Everything about gliders and a pilot’s equipment seemed to grab the interest of the children. “The surprising part was they enjoyed my parachute,” said Heinz Gehlhaar. “I brought my parachute out there and every one of them wanted to wear the darn parachute.”

By the end of the class, Mr. Schroeder’s students had increased their understanding of the fundamentals of flight, but, just as importantly, everyone had a pretty good time. “I really enjoyed trying on the parachute,” said Emily. “It was awesome!”