Dowling College's Flying Lions Flight Team Qualifies for their Sixth Straight National Flight Competition

The Dowling College Flying Lions Flight Team hosted the 2014 Region VII Safety Conference flight competition on the airport grounds of the Brookhaven campus. Their strong showing has won them a spot at the 2015 National Safety Conference, their sixth consecutive appearance in that event and will afford the team the opportunity to compete among the best teams in the country on a national stage.

The flight team competitions are comprised of precision landing events and navigation events, as well as ground events that require accuracy and excellence in flight planning, the use of flight planning tools, aircraft recognition, and flight simulation. The competitive nature of these events allows students to use the skills they learn in the classroom and develop them well beyond FAA standards, all of which are centered around the theme of safety, which is imperative to the aviation industry.

In the flying events, the Flying Lions team captain Clifford Daly earned 40 points with a 1st place effort in the short field precision landing event.

The Flying Lions also demonstrated a solid showing in the ground-based events. In the ground trainer event, where students fly a simulator to demonstrate accuracy, the top three positions were dominated by Dowling students. Clifford Daly led the effort with a 1st place performance, along with Victor Castillo in 2nd, and a close 3rd place by Alex Mejia.