UND Flight Team Wins 16^th U.S. Championship

June 1, 2010 — Fifteen championships just weren’t enough for the University of North Dakota. UND added another win after its flying team won the National Intercollegiate Flying Association 2010 Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference, better known as SAFECON. The 2010 win means that UND has won the championship 16 times in the 25 years it has been competing. Colleges earn points toward the top award for each student who places in a SAFECON event, AOPA Online reported. Flying contests include a navigation event, power-off landings, and short-field landings; ground events include written tests on aircraft recognition, cross-country flight planning, and flight computer accuracy; an aircraft preflight inspection competition; and IFR flight using a simulator. UND won the national championship trophy with a score of 474 points. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach, Florida campus took second place with 375 points, and Embry Riddle’s Prescott, Arizona campus placed third with a score of 294. Southern Illinois University was fourth with 271 points, and the U.S. Air Force Academy placed fifth with 270 points. Indiana State University hosted the weeklong competition, which concluded May 22, at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field. About 450 students, representing 28 aviation colleges and universities from across the country, participated, said Corey Hill, president of SAFECON 2010 and an Indiana State student. Jim Higgins, coach of the UND flight team, was also recognized as Coach of the Year. “For sure, our winning the national championship is an unequivocal testament to the character of UND’s overall aviation program,” said Higgins, an associate professor, UND alumni, and a former captain of the UND Flying Team. “This was a complete team effort—by team I mean the entire organization, firing on all cylinders. This was a very hard-working group with a strong sense of UND pride.” About 70 schools are members of NIFA, but only about 30 qualify for the national competition, which is based on regional wins. Click here to view complete results.		A University of North Dakota student flares one of the school’s Cessna 150s during Safecon’s short-field landing competition. Photo credit: AOPA Online Jamie Marshall, a junior at UND, competes in the aircraft preflight contest at Safecon. Photo credit: AOPA Online

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