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October 20, 2006

Aviation department to host regional flying competition Nov. 6 – 11

The ULM aviation department will host the Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON 2006), an annual regional flying competition, from Nov. 6 – 11 at the Monroe Regional Airport as well as the Col. William T. Hemphill Airway Sciences Building on the ULM campus.

SAFECON is held under the aegis of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA). Colleges throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are expected to participate.

The various events include a spot landing competition consisting of a power-off landing and a power-on landing called a short field approach. The student’s navigational skills will be tested with a cross-country flying event without the use of radio navigation equipment, focusing only on the dead reckoning and pilotage skills of the crew.

For a lower altitude workout, a message drop event will test the crew’s ability to drop a small object into a target zone from only several hundred feet while at cruise airspeeds.

There are also chances for the ground-bound contestants. A flight simulator event will test a pilot’s ability to hold headings, altitude, and airspeed under simulated instrument flight conditions.

An aircraft recognition event will challenge students with photos of unidentified aircraft types. Computational skills will be measured with a manual flight computer event (E6B) as well as a simulated flight planning written test.

NIFA’s mission statement is to develop and advance aviation education; to promote, encourage and foster safety in aviation; to promote and foster communications and cooperation between aviation students, educators, educational institutions and the aviation industry; and to provide an arena for collegiate aviation competition.

The aviation department acknowledges the Monroe Regional Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Tower, NIFA, Monroe Air Center, Hangar One, ULM's College of Business and CenturyTel Aviation as contributing vital support.

There is a need for aviation judges for the various individual events. Anyone with an aviation background or experience wishing to participate as a judge or assistant judge may call Jeff Taylor with the ULM Aviation program at 318-342-1786.

For more information, contact 318-557-9550 or 318-450-2412 or email safecon@ulm.edu or jtaylor@ulm.edu.

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