The War Eagle Flying Team doesn’t compete on the normal field. It competes on the airfield.
Students in Auburn University’s aviation program will take their flying skills to a national championship in Columbus, Ohio, from May 9–14.
The team is part of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association, a group of college aviation programs that organize competitions for students.
“That can be explained as the NCAA of flying,” said Hampton McDonald, junior in business and safety officer for the War Eagle Flying Team.
McDonald had his first flight lessons when he was 13 years old. Starting young is common theme with many of the flying team’s pilots.
The team practices every Sunday at the Auburn University Regional Airport. They compete in several knowledge-based events, but it’s the air events that take the most practice.
Peter Wolbart, sophomore in aviation management and the team’s top pilot at their most recent competition in Melbourne, Florida, in October, explained the events at a practice open to the media Sunday, Feb. 28.
Three events are held in the air: a navigation event, a message drop event and a landing event.
The message drop event is where a pilot drops a small container 200 feet above the ground to hit a target.
The landing events are broken into two categories, a power-on and power-off event. In both events, the pilot tries to land the plane on a target line on the runway. In the power-off event, the plane’s engine has to be in idle on the final approach.
“I got involved as a freshman,” Wolbart said. “I came out here and figured it would be a good way to get involved in a campus activity.”
Wolbart also got his start early at 15 years old and obtained his pilot’s license when he was 17.
“I’m not doing any more training,” Wolbart said. “I’m kind of building my flight time by training other students here at Auburn, and I’ll probably do that for another two or three years. Then I’ll be off to the airlines.”
During the Sunday practice open to the media, pilots were practicing their landing skills. Two orange road cones marked the target line on the runway.
Members of the team not flying sat in folding chairs next to the runway and watched for when the single-engine Cessna 172’s wheels touched the runway. As the plane came in on approach, the wind was blowing constantly at 15–20 mph, which made conditions tougher. The pilot landed the plane in the tough crosswind but overshot the target and immediately throttled the engine back up to take off again.
“Twenty-five feet over,” a member of the team said over the radio to the pilot.
At one point during the day, there are five planes in the air circling the Auburn airport practicing landings.
The sound of airplanes circling above is what got McDonald interested in aviation, whose home was near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“I’m from Atlanta, so Delta Airlines tends to fly over the house every 10 minutes,” McDonald said. “That was my start in aviation, and I’ve been in love ever since.”
Auburn has one of the nation’s oldest aviation programs, and that’s what drew McDonald to it.
“I chose to come to Auburn because I love the city and I love the history of the aviation program,” McDonald said. “I’ve heard so many good things in the [aviation] industry about Auburn.”
During the practice, McDonald took a flight over campus where the baseball match between Auburn and Southern University could be seen from 2,000 feet, and a flock of birds gleaming in the sunlight passed between the plane and Jordan-Hare Stadium
Those sights are part of the reason McDonald and his teammates said they love flying.
“I love the freedom of it,” McDonald said. “There’s so much space in the air.”
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