selaer Aeronautical Federation, RPI’s flight club, to that distinguished list. The team recently competed in the Northeast Region National Intercollegiate Flying Association Safety and Flight Evaluation Competition, at Trenton-Mercer Airport in NJ, and finished in first for the first time in their history. Pat Tembreull ’04 earned the honor of Top Pilot.

“This flying club has the best group of pilots I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been involved in the club,” said Sam Potterf, advisor to the Rensselaer Aeronautical Federation. “Each team member commits to his or her own success. These pilots want to win and enjoy themselves in the process. That attitude commands success.”

RPI’s flight team was one of only two teams in the regional competition, that did not represent accredited flight schools. The team faced tough competition from Wilmington College, Delaware State University, the College of Aeronautics, and others during the competition. “It’s fantastic being number one. [We] beat some schools devoted exclusively to flying,” said Chris Mather, vice president of the Rensselaer Aeronautical Federation.

Although the Rensselaer Aeronautical Federation has sent teams to the regional competition for the past ten years, it hadn’t achieved better than second or third place prior to this year’s first-place finish. “We really did well. It’s tough because we don’t really have as much time to practice as other schools [with flight schools]. It’s great to win it,” said Luke Yetto,

president of the Rensselaer Aeronautical Federation. During the flight competition, flight teams competed in events created to sharpen pilot aviation skills and to promote safety, such as short-field precision landing, power-off precision landing, precision message-drop, and precision instrument flight with the use of a simulator.