Southeastern Aviation Flight Team competes in National Competition

May 18, 2022

The Southeastern Oklahoma State University Competitive Flight Team recently placed 13^th in a national competition of the 28 largest University flight programs in the United States.

This highly competitive annual National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s (NIFA) 2022 SAFECON featured competitive events such as precision navigation, aircraft recognition, accuracy landings, and simulation events with expert industry judges officiating the competition and scoring. The event, hosted by the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, featured more than 500 competitors.

“I am exceptionally proud of our team, especially knowing this was the first national competition for the majority of the team, ” said Southeastern’s Chief Flight Instructor and team coach Kyle Thomas.

Southeastern will be hosting the regional competitions in October 2022 in Durant.

Following were the top finishers from Southeastern:

Top 10 finishes

Traditional Navigation 5^th Place Trey Bradshaw and Kyle Lyons

Top 20 finishes

Traditional Navigation 16^thPlace Justin Nichols and Joseph Roberts
Top Pilot 14^thPlace Trey Bradshaw
Message Drop 16^thPlace Danilynn Brown and Joseph Roberts
Power Off Landings 13^thPlace Justin Nichols
Short Field Landings 18^thPlace Mackenzie Kraus
CRM Loft 20th Place Mackenzie Kraus and Daniel Hair