Weaver's Blog

It's always cool to do good school stories so when I headed out to Hasty Elementary this morning I was looking forward what I was about to document.

STARBASE NC was coming to the school for the week and they always enter in grand fashion, swooping in in a Blackhawk Helicopter putting the students, teachers and one goofy cameraman in awe.

All of the students of Hasty got an upclose and even inside look at the Army's loudest helicopter while the 5th graders had a lot of learning to do, but it's the fun kind.

Starbase is a federal program run by the NC National Guard that teaches 5th graders about Math and Science principles using real world examples and hands on activities, effectively tricking the kids into learning the principles of aviation.

Later this week the students will fly model rockets that they are building in class. 

So these 5th graders are going to have quite a week.

And the teachers got to play too.  The crew of the blackhawk took the 5th grade teachers on a 30 minute joy ride culminating with a little roller coaster action. (See the Story)

To put a little twist in the story it's noteworthy that the two pilots of the Blackhawk have very interesting stories themselves.

Major Michele Harper is the only female Blackhawk pilot in the North Carolina National Guard.  She has applied to be in NASA's astronaut program and she may have to go to Iraq in the near future.  Oh Yeah, she has a 5 month old baby! 

The other pilot Zane Zanenghi went to Hasty as an elementary student in the 80s and was glad to be back at the school today.  I first met Zane 4 or 5 years ago when he flew the Blackhawk to Southwood Elementary school when STARBASE came to that school.

Zane is also one of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Air Care Pilots.  He was in my AirCare story that aired almost 2 years ago.

But Zane's claim to fame may be ditching the Blackhawk while serving in Iraq in 2005 while he was flying the very same Blackhawk that he flew to Hasty today.  That day the chopper experienced transmission trouble and he had to quickly land the chopper before it became unflyable.

Luckily the Iraqi good guys were nearby and they protected the position until a Chanook CH-47 could airlift the Blackhawk back to to a safe location. (It's kind of llike that new Ford Commercial where the Chinook drops the load in the back of the pickup, except they picked up the Blackhawk and carried it away.)

The story of that ditching was national news for a few days and there's even video of it somewhere(I can't find it).

Like I said, it's cool to do good stories at schools.