Flight team claims 10th straight regional title

James Curry (center), one of the Liberty University NIFA team’s three coaches, accepts the Region X team trophy.

For the 10th year in a row, the Liberty University School of Aeronautics’ National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) team won the Region X competition, held this past Wednesday through Saturday at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.

The facility is the location of Liberty SOA’s flight training affiliate program, launched last December, which also entered a team in the competition.

Liberty flew well above the rest of the six-team field, accumulating 724 points to place ahead of Averett University (530), the U.S. Naval Academy (453), Guilford Technical Community College (308), Liberty-Newport News (244), and Hampton University (43).

The first-place finish gives Liberty an automatic entry into the NIFA SAFECON national championships, set for May 11-15 at Ohio State University Airport. Last spring at nationals, Liberty posted an all-time best fifth-place finish.

Daniel Hartman (right) receives the top pilot award for the second year in a row at the NIFA team’s Region X event, held at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.

Liberty had the top three pilots at the Region X competition — Daniel Hartman (143 points), who defended his top pilot award from last fall, Charity Holland (123), who also dominated the top-scoring female pilot competition, and Evan Thrams (102).

Liberty SOA certified flight instructors Zach Floto, James Curry, and Sean Clayton were awarded co-coaches of the year for Region X.

“The coach of the year award is usually given to one coach but I asked for an exception as our team of three coaches had done such a fantastic job,” said John Marselus, associate dean of the School of Aeronautics who for the fifth straight year served as the team’s advisor and the Region X safety officer. “Two of the coaches were the No. 1 (Floto) and No. 3 (Curry) pilots in the nation from last year’s national championships so it was great to have such wonderful coaches. Each has been critical to putting together an extremely young team this year. They have focused the team into doing their very best and honoring the Lord first and foremost and leaving the results to Him.”

Most of last year’s team graduated or were no longer eligible to compete, so more than 80 percent of the members of this year’s team were new to NIFA. They learned quickly enough and carried on Liberty’s tradition of success due to the exceptional instruction they received.

Hartman claimed first place in the navigation ranking with 52 points, finishing ahead of teammates Kyle Gallagher (98) and Holland (122.76). He also posted the best score in power-off landing with 17 points, beating Holland (95) and Thrams (fourth with 141), and short-field approach and landing with 85 points, and placed second in aircraft recognition with 118 points.

Also for Liberty, Charles Trible had the best ground trainer ranking and Rodney Feimster recorded the best simulated comprehensive aircraft navigation (SCAN) ranking while Sean Cothran, William Hartley, and Brandon Harrison placed second through fourth, respectively, in computer accuracy.

• Complete results are posted online.