Reprinted from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Team Seeks Insurance, Place to Fly Plane

Los Altos High students working on human-powered flight project for last 3 years

By Rodney Tanaka
STAFF WRITER

HACIENDA HEIGHTS — If at first you don't succeed, fly, fly again. Los Altos High students are preparing for another attempt at flying a human-powered airplane. The students have been working on the project for three years. A 1998 flight attempt failed. Project coordinator Tony Chang, 17, said he has endured disappointment and dedicated three years of his life to the airplane for a sense of self-accomplishment.

"You're not competing with anyone," Chang said. "This experience gives you training, and a feeling that you've accomplished something."The project is sponsored by the La Puente Regional Occupational Program and offered as a manufacturing technology elective course for sophomores, juniors and seniors.

When assembled, the plane will have a 96-foot wing span, measure 26 feet tall and 34 feet long and weigh about, 80 pounds. The plane is made of plastic foam, carbon fiber tubes, aluminum, fiberglass and Mylar.

The plane, called Grasshopper, uses bicycle pedals to spin a propeller, pushing the airplane forward. Eighteen students work on the plane daily during class and in their free time. The plane is nearing completion, but the team is struggling to find a place to assemble and fly it.

They may take the plane to March Air Force Base in Riverside during spring break, but the base requires insurance. The team is looking for help finding $500,000 insurance, a problem since the plane doesn't qualify as an experimental aircraft because it doesn't have a motor and doesn't qualify as a glider because it has a propeller, teacher Bob Franz said.

An alternative is to find a large circus tent or other enclosure to set up on the Los Altos field, which would protect the plane from wind during assembly. If done on campus, school insurance would cover them, Franz said.

The plane will move at about 10 mph and climb six to 10 feet in the air. Their goal is to fly 100 yards in a straight line, and the flight will not be dangerous, Chang said.

The team spent a week in August 1998 at San Bernardino International Airport preparing it first flight. Two days before their hangar time expired, they test pulled the plane but pulled too hard. The plane lifted, stalled in the air and collapsed, breaking one wing in half.

They built another wing, but a windstorm the next day ended their efforts and the flight was scrapped.

"It took two years to regroup, redesign and rebuilt from scratch," Chang said.

One lesson learned was that the tail section, which controls the plane's movement, was too heavy. They replaced aluminum tubing with carbon and fiberglass tubing, cutting the weight from 30 pounds to 4 pounds. The team is about 90 percent done with the airplane, needing to add flight controls for the pilot.

One motivating factor keeping the students going is no other high school has built a human powered airplane, said senior Keith Miyake, who has worked on the project since the beginning.
When the plane gets set on the runway, he will be hoping it does not break like last time. And if the plane goes airborne, so will Keith.