This year 26 teams, 23 from four-year Division I schools and three from two-year Division II schools, competed at the national Safecon. To qualify to compete at Salina, these teams took the top spots at last fall's regional Safecons.
Whether it's a regional or national competition, a Safecon is composed of flight and ground events that emphasize the fundamentals of flight. Ground events include computer accuracy, simulated comprehensive aircraft navigation (SCAN), preflight, aircraft recognition, IFR simulator, crew resource management/line oriented flight training (CRM/LOFT), and a ground trainer event. Flying events include Short-field landings, power-off landings, VFR navigation, and message drop. There is also a certified flight instructor event for team coaches or advisors. Except for the CFI event, all scores count toward team and individual standings.
Students are challenged with 40 to 90 questions, depending on the event. Many have multiple-choice answers, but occasionally students find a few fill-in-the-blank questions. Computer accuracy, preflight and SCAN are timed events, and time is the tie-breaker when necessary.
Computer accuracy tests the competitor's competence with a manual E6B or CR3 computer. Exam problems include time/speed/distance, wind correction, conversions, and mach calculations. Many of the problems have multiple parts that require competitors to use nearly all of the computer's functions to answer a single problem.
SCAN is a highly detailed cross-country planning event. This timed event tests all aspects of cross-country planning including weight and balance, aircraft performance, the federal aviation regulations, sectional charts, and weather interpretation.
The aircraft recognition event is more difficult than it sounds. Competitors look at a projected slide of an aircraft, or some part of an aircraft such as the flap, for three seconds. They have 15 seconds to choose (or sometimes fill in) the aircraft's manufacturer, model number, and common name.
The preflight event's name describes it. Competitors have 15 minutes to find at least 30 discrepancies (or bugs) on a specially prepared aircraft. These bugs may include a reversed prop, disconnected emergency locator transmitter, or missing bolts.
The ground trainer event, called "sim," pits the competitor against a flight training device. Pilots must fly a predetermined pattern, which they receive five days before the event, under instrument flight rules while holding the correct altitude, heading, and airspeed with minimal deviations. A computer records deviations and calculates the score.
The IFR Simulator event tests a competitor's proficiency in flying a route that includes holding patterns, instrument approaches, and diversions to an alternate. The profile must be flown as precisely as possible under instrument flight rules. Again, a computer scores this event.
CRM/LOFT was a new Safecon event in 1998, and it didn't count for team points. But it challenged competitors just the same. It required two team members to fly as a crew in a Mechtronix Systems Beech King Air 200 simulator (with wrap-around visuals) that did everything but move. Competitors must work together as a crew and handle both normal and emergency situations during a cross-country flight.
NIFA flying events are particularly challenging, and they involve more people than just the pilot. Not only do the judges score the pilot's flying, they scrutinize the safety of every move the pilots and their ground crews make on the ramp. Teams supply their own airplanes, which have a engine, fixed landing gear, and a fixed-pitch propeller. Cessna 150s, 152s, and 172s are the most common aircraft, followed by Piper Cherokees and Aerospatiale Tampicos. Many teams prize their Cessna 150s because their 40 degrees of flaps often save the day in spot landings.
Short-field landings (commonly referred to as power-on landings) are the same ones required for a private pilot's certificate, but the tolerances are a lot tighter. The pilot must fly a normal traffic pattern and land as close as possible to a line chalked on the runway. Judges watch from the runway sideline and sing out when the main wheels touch.
The line is within a 300-foot box (100 feet prior to and 200 feet after the line), and pilot scores are based on how many feet the main wheels touch down from the line. Once pilots reduce power, they lose points if they increase it again. Generally, pilots make three landings, and a judge monitors the competitors with a directional microphone. Naturally, safety comes first and competitors are disqualified for unsafe or marginal flight.
Power-off landings are like the short-field spot-landing event, except that pilots must reduce power to idle on downwind and abeam the target line. They are allowed to clear their engines once "in a normal manner." A judge monitors engine power with the listening device, and other judges are spaced around the traffic pattern to score this part of the flight.
For these landings, pilots receive technique penalty points for any deviations from the pattern. Judges also add penalty points for bounces, being off-center, for excessive sink rates, etc. If a competitor bounces, the second touchdown counts. The greatest challenge facing 1998 "landers" was Salina's runway. A former U.S. Air Force B-47 base, the main runway measures 13,337 feet by 200 feet, and competitors took every opportunity in the scheduled practice time before the competition.
VFR navigation (NAV) is an intense event where two competitors, a pilot and navigator/safety observer, fly a cross-country with legs ranging from 70 to 120 miles. The crew completes the flight plan prior to takeoff and then attempts to fly as close as possible to their plan. Estimated time en route, fuel consumption, and total time must be as accurate as possible over each waypoint. If this sounds simple, keep in mind that the number one crew probably arrived within one second of its estimated time over at least one waypoint.
Last but not least is the message drop event. A crew of two, a pilot and dropmaster, attempt to drop a six-inch-long balsa wood message container with a 30-inch streamer that, combined, can weigh no more than 2.5 ounces, into a 55-gallon drum from no lower than 200 feet AGL and no slower then cruise speed. Each crew gets two chances for a combined score. Points are graduated by the distance from the target.
As you can see, most of the events center on basic private pilot skills. This, after all, is the point of competition. All pilots learn these basic skills, and they use them throughout their flying careers.
NIFA competitors hone these skills to the finest degree. The winning "landers" consistently put their airplanes' wheels within feet of the landing line. "When you're flying in competition, it's just you, the aircraft, and the line," says Lance Koberg, veteran flight team competitor and preflight coach for Embry-Riddle's Eagles Flight Team (Daytona.)
Some events can be particularly intimidating because of the number of competitors. This Safecon was my first, and computer accuracy was one of my events. It was one thing to compete against my teammates to decide who'd represent the team in this event, but it was quite another to sit in a hangar and compete against 140 of the top mechanical computer demons in the nation.
Before arriving at the Safecon I first tried to imagine what competition might be like, and I figured that it couldn't be any more intimidating than a checkride. Wrong. It was not myself and an examiner - this was "Tony Costello from the Eagle's Flight Team versus the nation."
Offering me hope, Jenna Halsey, a veteran competitor from Purdue University, said "It's not as intimidating the next time around because you know what to expect."
This isn't to say that it's any less difficult. Both rookie and veteran competitors prepare all year long for the regional and national events. Most flight teams are extra-curricular activities, but to be competitive, "you have to treat it like a class," said Brandon Martin, veteran competitor and SCAN coach for Embry-Riddle (Daytona). "A top SCAN competitor probably spends 25 hours a week practicing."
The best part of Safecon is the fact that it's more than the competition. You're part of a team working to make your school number one in the nation. It's a good feeling to know that everyone on the team is right there with you, working towards the same goal.
Promoting excellence in aviation is what NIFA is all about. When I first came to Embry-Riddle four years ago, it was nice to finally meet people who loved aviation as much as I do. It was still better to find people, like those on the flight team, who are truly devoted to being the best in their fields. NIFA offers the opportunity to bring all of these devoted individuals together in one place.
We college pilots all come through some great universities and get quite an education, but in the end, our certificates and ratings are no different than the next pilot's. But an organization like NIFA can make those college years richer by fostering the competitive spirit and enthusiasm that lives in all pilots to be as good as you can.
More important, the competition allows us to make new friends and share flying and academic experiences. These new friendships are quite apparent at the awards banquet, where teams cheer as loudly for each other as they do for themselves.
At the 1998 Safecon, Western Michigan University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Prescott, Arizona, and the University of North Dakota placed first through third respectively for the Division I national trophy. Central Texas College, Texas State Technical College, and Miami-Dade Community College took the top three spots for the Division II title.
Teaching Test
By NIFA rules, students who hold a flight instructor certificate cannot compete at Safecons. Rather than discontinue their participation in the competition, CFIs stay on as coaches. To highlight the important contributions all CFIs make to aviation, the National Association of Flight Instructors and Flight Training created, sponsor, and judge the Safecon CFI event.
The event is open to all of the teams' CFIs, and it focuses on what instructors do best - teach. Like the other Safecon events, the CFI challenge has a ground and flight component. In 1998, 13 instructors competed, twice the number that participated in the inaugural event, held last year.
In the ground event, the instructors taught the judges, NAFI Executive Director Sean Elliott and me, a 15-minute ground school lesson on why an airplane stalls. We judged them on presentation, enthusiasm, accuracy of information, visual aids, and student evaluation. For the flight half of the event, the CFIs demonstrated a normal takeoff and landing, and we judged them on aircraft control, accuracy of information, presentation, and interaction with the student (who didn't touch the controls).
The CFIs did uniformly well, but the top five spots went to these teachers of flight: Michael Funk (left), Southern Illinois University; Theodoros Theodosiadis (center), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona); Gary Niemann (right), Central Texas College; Darrin Silver, San Jose State; and Norm Monastesse, Texas State Technical College.
