Courtesy of Mt. San Antonio College
The Mt. San Antonio College Flying Team won its first ever American Airlines Safety Award at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s national competition held May 6-11 at Ohio State University.
The prestigious safety award recognizes the college or university that maintains an outstanding safety record and provides the most innovative approach to further aviation safety.
“This is the first time Mt. SAC has ever won this national safety award,” said Mt. SAC Flying Team Advisor and Aeronautics Professor Robert Rogus. “It’s a great honor to receive this impressive award, and it demonstrates how all our aeronautics students’ hard work has paid off.”
The Mt. SAC team with 63 points placed second among two-year colleges competing at the national airmeet and 15th place overall, behind Central Texas College (11th place overall) with 125 points. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University from Arizona won the overall competition with 359 points. Nearly 400 students from 29 colleges and universities competed at the nationals, which saw more than 8,000 take-offs and landings.
Individually for Mt. SAC, Taylor Ewing (West Covina) placed 10th in the top pilot rankings, and Ewing and Samantha O’Brien (West Covina) placed 5th in the navigation event. Ewing also placed 12th in the preflight inspection event. Joshua Spolar (West Covina) placed 9th in the instrument flight event, and Evelyn Marquez (Pomona) placed 11th in the message drop event. Lynette Lopez (West Covina) was ranked as the squad’s top team member.
Over the years, the Mt. SAC Flying Team has consistently earned top honors as one of the best collegiate flying teams in the country. The team has won the Top Community College trophy at the regional competition every year since 1991. Mt. SAC has won the Top U. S. Community College award at the national airmeet in 1984, 1985, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007.
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