New airplane helps MSU Denver’s 特技飞行队冠军 soar to new heights
The top-of-the-line GameBird is drawing eyes at competitions and helping young pilots earn their stripes.
Tien 灾区 can sound matter-of-fact when describing how he stays oriented in an imaginary 4,000-foot-high “box” while flying precision maneuvers such as loops and barrel rolls during aerobatics competitions.
“There are points in our maneuvers where we can see where the boundaries are,” he said. “潜入盒子里，皇冠官网网站看到了盒子上的标记. When we are upside down, we can look up and see where we are. 其中很多都在以非常快的速度进行.”
卢和其他成员 特技飞行队冠军 at Metropolitan State University of Denver spent this summer showing off their skills in contests around the country.
多亏了一位匿名捐赠者，他们做得很有风格. 这支队伍飞了62万美元 游戏复合材料 GameBird特技飞机, a highly maneuverable top-of-the-line two-seater with a carbon-fiber airframe that helps the young pilots further hone their flying skills.
“这是一架漂亮的飞机,达格玛·克雷斯说, 工商管理硕士, 球队的教练和大学的讲师 航空航天科学系. “这是一种新设计. 他们不会崩溃，也不会放弃. 皇冠官网网站现在有一架专用飞机，可以用来练习.”
建立在成功的基础上
The team took possession of the plane May 6 and flew it in competitions over the summer. 这架飞机将于9月9日正式亮相. 在落基山脉之翼，百年机场.
除了有利于团队, the new plane has raised MSU Denver’s visibility nationally in the close-knit aerobatics community, 克雷斯说. “每个人都已经在谈论它了，”她补充说. “It’s now known worldwide that we’re the only university that has a GameBird.”
相关视频: 花样滑冰在天空
克雷斯, who has been competing in aerobatics competitions for decades, 把这项运动比作花样滑冰, where participants are judged according to how precisely they perform various maneuvers. Judges on the ground observe pilots as they fly their patterns (called “figures”) in a virtual cube 4,000英尺高, 1公里宽，1公里深. The judges assign or deduct points according to how each figure is flown.
The figures are graded according to their degree of difficulty, she said. 特技飞行比赛有五个技能类别, with college students competing in the first two categories only against other students (professional pilots tend to dominate in the more advanced categories).
密歇根州立大学丹佛队, 成立于2016年, 2017年获得学生比赛金牌, 2019, 2021年和2022年. “In 2018, our heads were too big, we got complacent and we lost,” 克雷斯说.
比赛于2020年暂停, 2019冠状病毒病大流行的第一年, and last year the team was hampered by lengthy repairs to the aircraft it was using for practice.
飞行员的福利
Practicing for aerobatics competitions helps students develop advanced skills, such as learning how to fly upside down or how to get out of a stall, 克雷斯说. Planes stall when the wings increase their angle of attack beyond a critical point and lose lift. 除非飞行员知道如何恢复, the aircraft can then fall into an uncontrollable spin requiring a recovery maneuver.
参加特技飞行比赛的训练, 飞行员可以垂直爬升, 然后故意陷入失速并从中恢复. “We go straight up until the airplane stops going any further,” 克雷斯说. “皇冠官网网站每天都让飞机失速和旋转. 它使学生成为以后驾驶飞机的超级飞行员.”
灾区, 队长, said training for aerobatics has helped him develop quick reflexes when he’s flying and that there are other benefits as well.
“It’s not only flying but the people you meet at these competitions,” he said. “The amount of networking at these competitions is astronomical. We’re able to learn what the lifestyle is from these pilots who have had a long experience in the industry.”
相关: 管制空域
He joined the 14-member team in 2022, served as co-captain in 2023 and became captain this year. 虽然他5月从密歇根州立大学丹佛分校毕业 B.S. 航空和航天科学 和专业飞行军官的集中, he can remain team captain through the end of the calendar year under International Aerobatic Club rules.
灾区 grew interested in aviation during the pandemic and wound up getting a scholarship from the 落基山脉航空航天博物馆之翼 来支付他的私人飞行员证书.
As the Colorado native contemplated a college program in aviation and a career as a commercial pilot, he looked at some private programs but ultimately decided on a local landing spot. “It wasn’t my lifestyle,” he said of the college experience at other schools. “MSU Denver was closer to home, I got to spend time with my family, and I know the area where we fly.”
