Central Texas College is hosting the Region IV Intercollegiate Flight Association Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON) all this week.
More than 100 student pilots from Central Texas College, Texas State Technical College, LeTourneau University, Louisiana Tech University and Hinds Community College are competing in a series of flight and ground events at Skylark Field in Killeen.
"We look forward to it. We love to get up in the air and fly," said Shawn Tschoepe, captain for the Central Texas College Flight Team. "We get to connect with people not in our program, kind of work on that networking and make friends in the field because one day we will be working with them."
Some of the events include computer accuracy, landings, aircraft identification and navigation. The students will be judged on their performance.
"It encourages aviation safety, it encourages a greater skill in aviation," said Rick Whitesell, chief flight instructor for Central Texas College. "Most of these students that are competing in this competition today are going to go out and work for an airline and we definitely want everybody to be safe doing that."
The competition will wrap on Friday with an awards ceremony. The winners will move on to the national flight competition.
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