Being my turn for pilot-in-command, I grabbed the Aeronca Champ's front brace and pulled myself into the command position. Clyde deHart was relegated to the back seat, though he'd get his turn on this gigantic cross-country flight. Fellow team member Joe Luton had drawn the Tri-Pacer and also our luggage, for our little airplane couldn't possibly carry both fuel and luggage for two. "The kid," Donna Shirley, suffering the inferior status of a lower classman, was relegated to the Cessna 195 with the team's coach and another girl student who came down with the measles the very next day.

We were the pride of Oklahoma, The University of Oklahoma flight team, headed for The University of Illinois to represent our school in intercollegiate flight competition. We were all flight school students who at our experience level (or lack thereof) were undertaking an enormous navigational challenge. Clyde and I marshaled that stout-hearted 90-HP Aeronca Champion, cutting the section lines by about 45 degrees, finger-flying carefully by dead reckoning. We even had a radio, though not much experience with one. This would be good practice for the competitive navigation event.

We'd sharpened our skills, ready to take on the collegiate aviation powerhouses - Purdue, Ohio State, Southern Illinois and Parks College. There was another "kid" from that school up the road, Oklahoma State University, The Flying Aggies. She was an enthusiastic girl by the name of Wally Funk.

The week of competition brought forth every emotion and challenge - the stress of flying perfectly in competition, sleep deprivation and practicing wind problems on the E6-B. When the flying was all over and the trophies counted, we girls got to take a turn around the dance floor with legendary Grover Loening (if you don't know him, look up this brilliant contemporary of the Wright brothers). Oh, did I mention this was in 1959?

Where are they now?

Fast forward to these OU team members today. Clyde has just retired as SW Regional Director of the FAA, Joe as 747 check pilot for United Airlines, and Donna, who directed the United States' Mars program for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has gone back to OU, the school that advised her that girls aren't engineers, and is now associate dean of the Engineering School. That other kid, Wally, still frequents NIFA competitions, sponsoring and judging the safety award.

NIFA has changed a lot and hasn't changed at all since 1959. The powerhouse lineup has adjusted with the University of North Dakota and the two Embry Riddles now dominating the competition. The roster has expanded from primarily Midwestern schools to include all parts of the country and even the Naval and Air Force academies. Now there are more girls. Today the airlines are there in force, recruiting both sexes. The students' skills are sharper, though in reality they have more sophisticated equipment at hand in their trainers. In a later year I brought my three month old baby along as I judged. Bob Hoover was there also with a child, and we shared a baby sitter. That now-grown pilot daughter of mine came this year to judge - and brought her daughter.

Many of the old students come back to NIFA to help with the judging. But through the years, the backbone of NIFA has been The 99s. We don't go for fun. We stand out on the runway in rain/sun/sleet (take your pick - we could have all three on the same day) to note landing distances. Ninety-Nines trudge out to remote nav route turn points with their binocs and water bottles (if we're lucky, we'll have at least one lone tree for a biffy screen) to see if the teams can find their checkpoint. Our most animated conversations are about sunscreen brands.

What is the payoff?

One year when Hazel Jones was chief judge and that devil cancer had her in its grip, each team captain approached the banquet dais with one yellow rose for the "Yellow Rose of Texas" until Hazel was abloom. No one who was there will ever forget it. So love is one coin for the purse.

Pride is another. Watching the kids come back with a pair of airline wings on their breast pockets, or stopping by in their military airplanes hooked this year's senior chief judge, Jody McCarrell. Parental devotion could be cited, for they're all our adopted kids. The drama of it all - pulling for the underdog from a small school or shouting at the landing line for a close landing - gives us a lift.

SAFECON 2001

This year I was in the Bonanza instead of the old Aeronca Champ, this time aimed from Idaho for the action. The GPS confirmed a cooperative tailwind as we crossed the corner of Yellowstone and Mother Nature slyly hinted at what she had in store for us with her wispy standing lenticulars across the Continental Divide. We strapped in tight to ride out the roiling ocean of air which was cruising the contours of the mountains. She spat us out the other side and calmed down as the terrain transformed into the Dakota badlands and eventually rich, black farmland.

The countryside was replete with lakes and standing water as this year the Midwestern thunderstorms dumped their product early instead of going on to replenish Lake Michigan. My granddaughter passenger, whose great-grandmother had recently gone to heaven, remarked upon experiencing her first colossal thunderstorm, "I hope great-grandma's not getting wet."

Our host, the University of North Dakota, awed us with their "flight school." What a phenomenon John Odegard hath wrought when he came home to the northland to put a little flight program together alongside the university's more traditional academic offerings.

The Winners

The University of North Dakota proved that they were collegiate's national champs. Pushing them were Western Michigan in second place and Embry-Riddle, Prescott, taking third. The top two-year school was Texas State Technical College. They also captured Wally Funk's Safety Award.

Am I prejudiced for the female pilots? But of course. However, they didn't need my help but flew themselves directly to the trophy table. Miranda Barnes of Southern Illinois University was named Top Woman Pilot, a trophy sponsored for many years by the All-Ohio Chapter. She also took home the Candi Kubeck scholarship. We can take great pride in having our name associated with Tracy Nettleblad, The Ninety-Nines Achievement Awardee, flying for the Air Force Academy.

Next spring will find NIFA at Ohio State University. Come along for the ride.

NIFA: How it all began
By Elaine Morrow, Minnesota Chapter

The National Intercollegiate Flying Association's continued existence is significantly based on the support and involvement of women pilots, most particularly in the area of judging. More than 65 percent of the names on the judge's list are women. And NIFA's last three senior chief judges have been women!

But it was not always so. Intercollegiate competition in air games had its humble beginning in 1911 when AERO magazine reported on the first intercollegiate glider meet at which seven colleges met to compete with gliders weighing from 60 to 150 pounds. Volunteers from the flying colleges represented in that initial contest went on to design and pilot gliders in World War I.

A meeting in 1935 brought 74 men and women interested in college aviation programs together to organize a college flying competition called the National Collegiate Flying Club - operated under the auspices of the National Aeronautic Association. The first regional competition was held in Northampton, Maine, in May 1935, with eight schools competing. By early the next year, 50 collegiate flying clubs were enrolled in NIFC.

NIFC later became NIFA in 1972 when as many as 60 schools and more than 700 competitors entered the annual event. A more manageable qualification system meets were established to narrow the number of national competitors to no more than 26 schools.

In 1994, Ninety-Nines Hazel Jones, Pat Roberts, Carole Sue Wheeler and Jan Maxwell were responsible for helping the judges' manual used in today's events. Subsequently, Jody McCarrell redesigned the navigation flying event, and it has become the benchmark by which excellence in precision navigation is judged.

NIFA is a nonprofit organization that barely brings in sufficient funds to provide minimum services to its member schools, so NIFA counts heavily on volunteers. Jody McCarrell is the current senior chief judge. She is responsible for maintaining a qualified cadre of judges. There are more than 400 judges in its database. These judges are aviation industry and association representatives, aviation enthusiasts, military personnel, NIFA associate members, and members of The 99s. Most judges are former competitors or people who have sons or daughters who competed in NIFA competitions when they were in school.

In return for their time and expenses, judges receive thanks and gratitude from NIFA and a free banquet ticket. But what they receive from the competitors is the satisfaction of seeing the excitement on the faces of the competitors and the judges relish giving back some of the joy aviation has brought to them.

NIFA COMPETITIVE EVENTS

Competitive air events include precision landings, a complex navigation exercise, a message drop using a carefully designed object and a precision flight. In addition, ground events cover computer accuracy, aircraft preflight inspection, aircraft recognition, electronic flight computer tests and a simulated comprehensive aircraft navigation exam. In all of these, safety, educational skills and sportsmanship are of primary importance.