Our son Troy is starting his sophomore year at Saint Louis University (SLU) and is a Flight Science (Professional Pilot) major. Yesterday he earned a position on SLU’s Competitive Flight Team, The Flying Billikens. There are 8 student pilots on the team, including Troy, and they will compete over the next month for starting positions representing SLU in regional competition (they are in region 6) at Kansas State University in mid-October. Practices are at 6am at the St. Louis Downtown Airport, SLU's home airport.
There are approximately 100 universities nationally that have competitive flight teams and are members of NIFA, The National Intercollegiate Flight Association, which is like the NCAA to competitive flying.
There are 9 NIFA Regions nationally. SLU competes in Region 6 against Iowa State, Kansas State, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin to name a few. Universities in other regions include the Service Academies, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and Navy, plus Auburn, Cincinnati, Embry-Riddle, Florida Tech, Indiana State, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Purdue, San Jose State and Western Michigan.
Some of the competitive events are Power Off Landing, Short-field Landing, Message Drop, Simulated Comprehensive Aircraft Navigation and Traditional Navigation.
The winners of the 9 regional competitions then go to Super Regionals and those winners then go to the National Finals every year, just like college baseball/ softball, soccer, hoops, etc.
So, Troy’s college sport is Competitive Flying, which works hand in hand with his academic major of Flight Science and his career goal of being a Professional Pilot. As he told me, "this will make me a better pilot, and I'm competing in the fastest of all college sports at the highest level."
Had any of you heard about Competitive Flying in College before, as I hadn't before Troy attended SLU.
There are approximately 100 universities nationally that have competitive flight teams and are members of NIFA, The National Intercollegiate Flight Association, which is like the NCAA to competitive flying.
There are 9 NIFA Regions nationally. SLU competes in Region 6 against Iowa State, Kansas State, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin to name a few. Universities in other regions include the Service Academies, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and Navy, plus Auburn, Cincinnati, Embry-Riddle, Florida Tech, Indiana State, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Purdue, San Jose State and Western Michigan.
Some of the competitive events are Power Off Landing, Short-field Landing, Message Drop, Simulated Comprehensive Aircraft Navigation and Traditional Navigation.
The winners of the 9 regional competitions then go to Super Regionals and those winners then go to the National Finals every year, just like college baseball/ softball, soccer, hoops, etc.
So, Troy’s college sport is Competitive Flying, which works hand in hand with his academic major of Flight Science and his career goal of being a Professional Pilot. As he told me, "this will make me a better pilot, and I'm competing in the fastest of all college sports at the highest level."
Had any of you heard about Competitive Flying in College before, as I hadn't before Troy attended SLU.