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Girls and flying -- an interesting experience with the Kiwi
We witnessed an interesting thing last night, and it gives me hope for
the future of GA. Becca, our middle-school-aged daughter, threw a little Christmas party for friends, and held it in our hotel meeting room/theater, with the idea that they'd all watch a movie after listening to music and eating snacks. Since it was to be just 8 girls, and 2 boys, a movie seemed like a good way to break the ice and keep the conversation rolling -- always an awkward thing at that age. The Kiwi -- our full-sized flight simulator -- (see it he http://alexisparkinn.com/the_kiwi_is_born.htm ) is in the theater, too, and I thought we'd have to remove it to make room for tables, etc. Instead, my daughter asked me to have it on and available, just to provide one more thing for the kids to do. So, I created a couple of simple-but-cool flight scenarios (over the Grand Canyon, for example) where the plane was already airborne (eliminating the boring and difficult departure phase), and watched as the party started cooking, and the girls started taking turns flying. I figured that -- girls being girls -- they would be indifferent at best to what amounts to a giant-scale video game, and would soon be talking girl talk. After all, game marketers have spent billions of dollars trying to design video games to attract a female audience, to no avail -- girls simply don't like to play 'em as much as guys -- so what chance did I have? Well, to my utter amazement, the girls were absolutely dazzled by the Kiwi. At one point they were fighting over flight time, and I was kept busy explaining the flight controls and techniques. One girl in particular (Becca's best friend, whom we have taken flying in the past) was completely immersed in the experience, and was actually able to depart from Chicago's (defunct) Meigs Field, fly the pattern out over the lake -- and land successfully, on the runway! This without EVER having piloted a plane (or a simulator) before, which I found to be completely remarkable. (She was as proud as a peacock, and spent the rest of the evening asking Mary and me about flight lessons, costs, etc. She's a natural pilot, and, boy, are her parents every gonna hate US... :-) Mary eventually had to threaten to eliminate the movie from the evening's festivities to get the girls to shut it down -- but as soon as the movie ended, they were clamoring for more flight time! I've never, ever seen anything like this with girls (Becca can fly the Kiwi, but is far from enamored with it), and it gives me great hope for the future of GA. We, as GA supporters, clearly need to see more Kiwis installed, and -- as the prototype for what we want to install at the Iowa Children's Museum -- I believe our Kiwi Version 2.0 has proven that the concept works. This thing clearly "hooks" young people on flying, and that's what we need if we want to see GA survive and prosper. Mary and I spent some time pondering some of the reasons why this transpired. One guess was that the Kiwi is just *so* realistic that it really doesn't seem like a game? Another possibility was that there is no real "game" aspect to flying the Kiwi -- no points are scored, no kills recorded -- and perhaps this appeals more to girls? I dunno. But it was fantastic to watch them fly, and great fun, too! -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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