ERAU Teams Score Second and Fourth

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's two renowned student flight teams placed second and fourth at this year's National Intercollegiate Flying Association's (NIFA) Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON), hosted May 17-23 by the Parks College of St. Louis University.

The university's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus team, the Eagles, moved up to second place in the nation in the competition, an improvement from their third-place ranking of last year. The team won the national championship in 1992. The Prescott, Ariz., campus team, the Golden Eagles - a powerhouse group of flyers who have been national champions seven times since 1993 - came in fourth with 288 points overall, only three points out of third place.

This year's competition involved 335 pilots from 28 aviation programs around the nation. The Eagles also won first place in the Flight Events category and scored first-place finishes in five individual events - Navigation (pilots Derek Herchko and Jon Hester), Computer Accuracy (Derek Herchko), Crew Resource Management (Michael Crowley and Tim Lerner-Lam), Aircraft Recognition (Blake Glass), and Instrument Flight Rules (Steven Pellegrino).

The Golden Eagles's student pilot Cassie Nagle was the nation's top-scoring female contestant, capturing the Candi Kubek Award, and the team of pilots Dustin Hagadone and Josh Seay took second place in the American Airlines Safety Event.

Dave Zwegers, coach of the Daytona Beach campus team, said, "We're pleased that we exceeded our previous years' results, which have been continuously improving -- 10th place in 2005, 6th place in 2006, 3rd place in 2007 and 3rd place in 2008."

Matthew Waterhouse, head coach of the Prescott team, said, "As national champions for the past two years, we went in with high expectations. We were definitely disappointed, but I think losing every once in a while will make our team members appreciate winning the national championship in the future."

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering, educating more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs. Doctoral programs in aviation and in engineering physics are pending approval by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for the University to offer programs at the doctoral level.

FMI:  www.embryriddle.edu