Host School: Schenectady County Community College
Host Airport: Schenectady County Airport (SCH)
Event Dates: Thursday, October 25th – Monday October 29th
A few members of the Schenectady team put together a great video of the 2018 NIFA Region VII SAFECON, check it out HERE!
2018 NIFA Region VII SAFECON Official Results
Congratulations to the 2018 Region VII Champion, Schenectady County Community College and their Coach Barbara Jones!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
10/29/18 (Monday)
The Region VII Council (NIFA Council Representative Sean Breen, Associate Chief Judge Larry Cutler and Chief Judge Matt Elia) met with the advisors from each of the four schools participating in the regional SAFECON at the annual region business meeting on Monday morning. It was voted at the business meeting that Bridgewater State University will be the host of the 2019 NIFA Region VII SAFECON, date TBD.
The Empire State Aerosciences Museum was gracious to open and allow free entry to any NIFA participants. Unfortunately, the weather never improved enough to hold the Message Drop event, however thanks to the dedicated judges and motivated students, a modified alternative “for fun” message drop event was completed on the ground… This allowed us to identify a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place recipient so we could award the Message Drop trophies even though the results did not factor into the official SAFECON results.
Everyone came together at the Schenectady County Community College (SUNY Schenectady) campus for an end-of-event awards banquet… The full results are linked above.
Building the intrigue before handing out the hardware!
Had to take a quick picture with the team form my alma mater, Bridgewater State University. Their second place finish was an excellent performance.
10/28/18 (Sunday) Summary
Sunday morning kicked off with a briefing followed by the Ground Trainer event held at the Richmor FBO utilizing the Redbird simulator with the newly created “Team Telemetry” scoring module with an all-new and vastly improved sampling rate to increase the scoring accuracy to unprecedented levels.
At the same time a representative from each flight team participated in the safety interview conversation with Safety Judge Larry Cutler as well as Mike Gross, Meagan Miller, Matt Wilson and Chief Judge Matt Elia.
L to R: Matt, Larry & Sean provide a briefing in the hangar before the Short Field Landing event.
Following lunch it was off to the Short Field Landing event, the ceilings raised enough and the winds laid down, providing pretty great conditions for the Short Field Landing event. We saw some excellent landings, with some picture-perfect “full stall configurations” at touchdown.
“The Hill” just beyond the safety area for Runway 4/22 at KSCH provided a great vantage point for spectators during the Short Field Landing event on Runway 22.
The final event of the day was the Simulated Comprehensive Aircraft Navigation (SCAN) event, in the new 70-minute format.
10/27/18 – 2030 – Reminder we will brief at 0800 tomorrow (10/28) morning, breakfast will be served at 0730. See the heat sheet for Short Field Landings & Message Drop events: 2018 Short Field Landings & Message Drop Heat Sheet
For the Ground Trainer the starts times for each school is as follows:
DSU – 0900
SCCC – 1000
RPI – 1100
BSU – 1200
10/27/18 – 1630 – Right about now the Manual Flight Computer Event is kicking off at the Richmor South location, this will be our final event of the day with the exception of a team captain’s meeting at the Richmor South FBO immediately following the Manual Flight Computer Event, at approximately 1730.
NOTE: Teams, please see the Message Drop Event Heat Sheet below. Please complete the information for your team: Aircraft, Pilot & Drop Master for each heat assignment and submit to the Chief Judge prior to 1900 (7pm) this evening.
A few pictures of today’s events:
Larry provides a short briefing to the contestants from SCCC before they climbed aboard the RedBird for their practice session.
SCCC Flight Team members making the most of their practice time in the RedBird.
The preflight event aircraft, a C-152. Special thanks to our mechanic Joe who did an awesome job preparing the aircraft and including his own personal touch with some unique “bugs”.
The final Preflight Event participant making her inspection.
The Aircraft Recognition Event drew a lot of attention along with some chuckles, groans and sighs…
10/27/18 – 1420 – The 230pm team captain briefing at the hangar will be postponed until after the written exams this afternoon and will be held in the Richmor FBO building immediately following the manual flight computer event.
10/26/18 – 1850 – The assignments for the Preflight event and the Ground Trainer practice will be as follows:
Preflight Event: BSU-1000, DSU-1100, RPI-1200, SCCC-1300
Ground Trainer Practice: DSU-1000, SCCC-1030, RPI-1100, BSU-1130
10/26/18 – 1715 – Great news, the weather is looking better for later this weekend! As a result of the progress we made today with the flying events and the new forecast recently issued we have prepared a new schedule, version 5. See the most current schedule below. A hard copy will be provided to each team captain at the briefing that will follow the return of the final Navigation event participant this evening.
Schedule Revision 5 – 10/26/18
10/26/18 – 1630 – We will hold a briefing following the return of the last Navigation team at the hangar this evening.
Delaware State University moving a Navigation aircraft into position for fueling.
Bridgewater State University Flight Team members position their aircraft for fueling during the Navigation event.
10/26/18 – 1215 – We’ve completed the Power Off landings event, and due to the weather we are going to take advantage of the day and transition to the Navigation event. Stay tuned for more information.
10/26/18 – 0815 – Teams, please see below for the most updated landings heat sheet with some minor aircraft tail number updates. We are still on track for a briefing in the hangar at 0830.
A big turnout for the morning briefing!
The region council (Sean, NIFA Representative; Matt, Chief Judge & Larry, Assistant Chief Judge). It’s highly likely Matt was explaining the significant advantage associated with utilizing VORs during the Navigation event…
10/25/18 – 2355 – Teams, see below for the updated schedule of events. Please keep in mind this is flexible and will be dynamic as the event progresses. Also below is the complete heat sheets for the Power Off and Short Field landing events tomorrow.
Schedule Revision 4 – 10/25/18
The judges group during the General Contestant Briefing.
The General Contestant Briefing in progress…
10/25/18 – 1900 – Attention teams, as requested at the General Contestant Briefing please provide the information for your landing event participants to Chief Judge Matt Elia by 11pm this evening via email. Include the heat and position assignment with the pilot’s name and aircraft tail number (Example: Short Field Landings, Heat 1, Position 1, Matt Elia, N12345. Heat 2, Position 4, Adam Scott, N98765). You can find the list of heat/position assignments HERE.
Making the landing box on Runway 22!
Not pictures was the cold and wind, pictured is Chief Judge Matt Elia working on the target line on Runway 22.
The landing line and box are down on Runway 22 at SCH! Who’s ready for some landings?
10/19/18 – Today team advisors received the General Arrival/Safety Briefing (GASB) for the upcoming SAFECON. The information included in this email and attachments should be considered “Need to Know” for all participants in the upcoming event, the items are each available below as well. Attendees should also remember that the event will be held in upstate New York during late October, please prepare for and dress for the elements.
R7_ADMIN_2018 Pre Arrival Briefing RBF
R7_ADMIN_Region VII SAFECON Competitor Certification – Rev. 4 – 101818
R7_SAFE_Safety Award Assessment – Rev. 3 – 100915
10/17/18 – As a result of only have four (4) teams participating in the upcoming NIFA Region VII SAFECON this year we will be increasing the number of participants in the preflight event from two (2) per school to three (3) per school. Teams, please plan accordingly for this additional aircraft preflight event slot.
10/8/18 – As a result of a recent vote of Region VII team advisors we will move forward this year with one category of Navigation in the “unlimited” fashion. As this will be the first time we have run the Navigation in the “unlimited” fashion there are a couple of items for each team to keep:
1. Participants planning can utilize anything allowed by the FAA for a flight test (practical exam).
2. Participants must be able to prove the currency of data for planning. For a physical chart the valid dates are included on the chart itself, participants utilizing ForeFlight (or another electronic charting option) must also be able to prove the currency of the digital database. HINT: The judges will be asking for this, the data must be current.
3. Participants must still show their planning before being dispatched for the Navigation event.
PREFLIGHT: The preflight aircraft will be either a Cessna 152 or a Cessna 172. The exact type will be narrowed down at the General Contestant Briefing, but this should provide some additional focus for teams preparing for the event.
10/5/18 – The Preflight Event aircraft will be either a Cessna 152 or Cessna 172, the exact type will be identified at the General Contestant Briefing on Thursday, October 25th. Stay tuned for a tentative schedule as we close in on the event. The Region VII SAFECON this year will include 4 teams:
- Bridgewater State University
- Delaware State University
- Reneelaer Polytechnic Institute
- Schenectady County Community College
Prior Info – More event information coming soon! The tentative plan is for the General Contestant Briefing to be held late in the day on Thursday, October 25th, with the events taking place Friday – Monday morning with an awards banquet in the later afternoon, early evening of Monday, October 29th. Check back regularly for updated information!
KSCH TRAFFIC PATTERN LIMITS:
Remember, these are not depictions of the traffic patterns to be flown, these are the boundaries that should contain a normal traffic pattern.
Runway 4, left traffic.
Runway 10, left traffic.
Runway 22, left traffic.
Runway 28, left traffic.
