Kent State Aeronautics Student Flying High After Winning Landing Competition

Ryan Weber's aeronautics skills are taking off ... and landing, really well. 

The Kent State University aeronautics student from Chardon won the top spot in the power-on landing competition at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’ s Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON 2013) in Columbus on May 11.

More than 300 students from 30 colleges across the United States were hoping to be national champions like Weber. There were 8,000 landings and take-offs during the competition. Click here to find out more about SAFECON. 

Weber is a member of Kent State’s Precision Flight Team and has competed against more than 140 students from aviation colleges and universities across the nation. 

“Winning the SAFECON short-field landing national championship has been one of my greatest moments,” Weber said in a prepared statement. “All my training and practice came down to one event. I cannot explain the emotion that came from the win. It has been a challenging, but fun road.”

The university shared its pride in Weber in this Facebook update, which garnered more than 200 "likes" on Wednesday.  
 
Kent State Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Precision Flight Team advisor Richard Mangrum described Weber in a prepared statement as an accomplished aviator whose achievements have far reaching benefits for all of the traveling public because he and other successful student pilots like him will end up as crew and pilots for commercial airlines.

“We are all very proud of his accomplishment,” Mangrum said. “Being the best at a landing competition with the top teams in the nation competing is a very strong statement about his abilities. The Kent State Aeronautics program has a long and successful history in doing well and winning the top spot in the short-field landing and the power-off landing events; we have several national champions to our credit. It is evidence that our program is truly among the elite flight training programs in the country.“

In the competition, Weber flew a Cessna C-150 that is famous for its Kent State Golden Flashes paint job. The plane was donated by Calvin Carstensen, a retired assistant coach of the university’s Precision Flight Team and competition judge.

“Ryan is now the number one power-on lander of a single-engine airplane of all the flight training students in the nation,” Carstensen said in a prepared statement. “This is a top award distinction worthy of celebration at Kent State.”Kent State’s Precision Flight Team previously received the prestigious Loening Trophy, a perpetual trophy presented annually to the outstanding all-around collegiate aviation program in the nation during SAFECON 2011.

For more information about Kent State’s aeronautics program, visit www.kent.edu/caest/undergraduate/aeronautics.