Bronco flight team hopes to soar in national competition

By Ranchithaa Anatory
Western Herald

(Photo Courtesy of Steven Tktachuk) Sky Broncos Precision Flight Team. Front Row Left to Right: Kaitlin Klingler, Kyle Johnson, Drew Pearson, Andrew Seguin, Jared Neterer, Kate Meyer. Middle Row Left to Right: Lee Wierenga, Kyle Mallory, Jeremy Jackson, Ben Hastings, Robert Bowden, Erick McDaniel, Matt Ziomkowski. Back Row Left to Right: Kevin Kotewa, Dave Lerond, Nate McCune, John Robbins.

Having placed among the top four in the nation for 17 consecutive years, Western Michigan University’s flight team are not to be messed with.

On May 12, WMU’s precision flight team, the Sky Broncos, headed for Cahokia, Ill. to participate in the national competition organized by the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (N.I.F.A).

The competition, held May 18 through May 22, consists of 11 sub events with three main categories, ground events, simulator events, and flight events. To compete at the nationals, teams must win or place second in the regional competition.

The Sky Broncos placed second last October at N.I.F.A’s Region III event at Kent State University, qualifying for the nationals. They competed against schools from the region including Kent State, University of Cincinnati, Ohio University, and Ohio State University. Teams representing about 30 top aviation schools in the nation make up about 400 pilots that compete in the competition.

The team traveled with four competition aircrafts, two C- 150s for the landings competition and two Cirrus SR- 20s for the navigation competition.

“For this national competition, we have a traveling team of 15 members, two members of the team were not able to travel due to budget restrictions,” said Steven Tkachuk, head coach of the Sky Broncos and a faculty specialist in the College of Aviation.

Tkatchuk had been the team’s assistant coach since 2002 before becoming the head coach a year ago.

Although all the team members are students of WMU, not all of them belong to the College of Aviation.

Kevin Kotewa, a recent WMU graduate, is the team leader for this year’s competition.

“It is going to be a hard competition this year,” Kotewa said. “There are a lot of teams who are going to give us a run for our money. We are well prepared though, and it is going to be a good competition this year.”

For more information on the Sky Broncos team, visit www.wmuskybroncos.com and for further information on the competition, visit www.nifa.com.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=6115

Posted by HeraldAdmin on May 21 2009. Filed under Breaking, Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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