SAFECON Comes to Oshkosh

For the first time in the event’s extensive history, the National Intercollegiate Flight Association (NIFA) SAFECON flight competition is coming to Oshkosh.

Broadly recognized as the premier collegiate flight competition, the 08 through 13 May 2023 throwdown will see upwards of five-hundred young aviators representing more than thirty U.S. colleges and universities compete for awards in a variety of aviation disciplines including in part: landing, navigation, preflight, flight-planning, crew based simulations, safety, and sportsmanship.

The entirety of the SAFECON competition will be hosted on the EAA’s turf—to include the Oshkosh convention grounds and the Association’s Aviation Museum’s new EAA Education Center. All ground, spot landing, and flying events will be held at Wittman Regional Airport (OSH)—excepting the cross country competition, which will depart OSH and briefly leave the area.

While SAFECON activities are not organized spectator events, the competition will render Wittman Regional Airport a lively locale indeed. Even the sanctioned practice activities—which kick off 04 May—promise to be well-attended.

EAA vice president of communities and member programs Rick Larsen stated: “This competition brings together the nation’s top collegiate pilots to showcase their flying skills. Many of the competitors in SAFECON are those who become the next generation of top professional pilots and flight instructors.”

Thanks to the establishment of NIFA—which serves as a forum, competitive and non-competitive, for collegiate aviators—the SAFECON competitions have evolved from informal, pre-WWI hootenannies to Ivy League school events in the 1920s and ‘30s to egalitarian 21st Century celebrations of flight enjoyed by all classes of aviation’s youthful adherents.

The 2023 iteration of NIFA’s SAFECON competition is supported, also, by Wittman Regional Airport, the Oshkosh Convention and Visitors Bureau, Midwest ATC, and Basler Flight Service.

FMI: www.safecon.nifa.aero