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5:30AM Tuesday 02 December, 2008

Sky's the limit for Noosa students

19 September 2008

| By Toby Walker

A dedicated group of Noosa students are winging their way towards a $10,000 prize on the back of a competition aimed at giving teenagers a glimpse into the world of aviation.

About 18 students from the Pomona campus of Noosa District High School have spent much of the school year building a remote controlled helicopter for the industry and government-sponsored UAC Challenge – Outback Rescue. The UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and the challenge, which takes place at Kingaroy Airport later this month, is for the students to guide the aircraft to a one-metre wide target zone and deliver a “rescue package” about the size of a golf ball within a 30-minute time frame. The competition’s aim is to promote the civil uses for UAVs which include crop management, traffic control, wildlife surveillance, stock monitoring and environmental monitoring. The concept has already helped the school link up to the local aviation industry with Cooroy-based McDermott Aviation and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers both contributing money to the project to help the students with their aircraft.

And it’s not only the budding engineers with a love of avionics in the student group who have been busy either. With a separate component of the competition asking students to film a documentary of their ongoing project, the team has allocated roles to include media and film production too.

Teacher Glenn Brown said the innovative and practical nature of the challenge had proved a hit with the students and already encouraged some to look for ways to get into the aviation industry.

“It’s definitely been popular, especially the excursion to QUT because they saw the possibility for post-graduate studies to give them ideas for where they could go after their senior year,” he said.

The Noosa High team will take to the skies at Kingaroy between September 23 and 25.

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