The Oklahoma State University Flying Aggies flight team flew back into town as regional champions for the second year in a row after competing in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association Region 4 SAFECON championship.
The OSU flight team came out on top — earning 631 points during the four-day competition, which took place Oct. 13-17 at the Ruston Regional Airport and was hosted by Louisiana Tech University. Region 4 represents schools in five states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The competition pitted a variety of schools with top-notch aviation programs against one another, including Tarrant County College, LeTourneau University, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Louisiana Tech, the University of Oklahoma and Texas State Technical College, at its regional competition. The stakes will continue to rise as the flight team prepares for the National SAFECON competition, which will take place at the Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Illinois, from May 18-23.
Zach Cohen, a junior aerospace administration and operations student with a concentration in professional pilot, was not only proud of his performance, but was also impressed with his teammates’ performances.
“I got a really good feeling when I started hearing not only my name, not only the people who were on my team, but the other teams were also placing top 10 and top 5,” Cohen said. “I was so happy about my performance overall as an individual, but really the team kicked it out of the park.”
Preparing for the flight team’s regional competition was demanding, rigorous and time-consuming. The flight team met weekly to study and practice for the 40-question ground test at the competition. On top of that, the team met every Sunday for flight team practice.
For Cohen, scheduled practices and rehearsals weren’t enough. Cohen and his teammates met outside of scheduled practices to perfect parts of their performances, like landing.
The extra work took more of Cohen’s time, but in the end, his dedication paid off as he placed in all four of his categories. Cohen placed third in Simulated Comprehensive Aircraft Navigation, fourth in Short Field Landings, second in Power-off Landings and third in Top Pilot.
“The weeks that led up to competition, I actually went out on my own and did two to three practices a week with the other pilots,” Cohen said. “That way we could kind of critique each other and help each other get better.”
Cohen acknowledged that having a good leader was important for any team. He thanked his coach, Macy Newman, the team captain, Micah Berger, and co-captain Christopher Hutchins for supporting him and the team during their preparation for the regional competition.
Newman, the OSU Fight Team coach and former team member, was also impressed by the dedication and hard work that each member put into preparing for the competition. She said she offered guidance and assistance, but it was the community within the Flying Aggies that ensured the team was successful at its competition.
“They have put in so much hard work, dedication and commitment to be excellent in their events,” Newman said. “That has shown not only in their love of aviation, but also through the amount of work they have put into their respective ground and flight events, and the scores that they were able to achieve in the placements.”
