It has been nearly two years since the inception of the Wisconsin Flying Team. Through out these two years, we learned to work with each other as a team, honed our skills as pilots, and grew ourselves into practicing true airmenship. We experienced our first regional competition in 2013, our second in 2014, and now our first national competition. It has been a true journey for all of us, current team members and team alumni alike.
However, none of this would happen if it was not for our dedicated and selfless coach, Paul Valenstein. Being a NIFA alumnus and Wisconsin native, Paul initiated the founding of our team with the hope of bringing Wisconsin to the national stage of collegiate aviation. He has been coaching us ever since our inception, and he had achieved just that this past week. It was a proud week for him, for all of us. But as a team, we are not simply thankful for Paul's effort in bringing us to the national level. In the grand scheme of our team's development, he volunteered his time to coach us on a weekly basis, took time off from work to join us at the competitions, and have since given us a wealth of information on becoming better pilots and working together as a team. Because of this, we are all greatly indebted to him.
We are also very appreciative of our adviser, Dr. Chris Johnson. Without his continuous support, we would not be where we are today. He has been working ceaselessly in promoting aviation within the UW community, and we as a team benefited greatly from his work. We have been granted access to his lab's flight simulator on a weekly basis, which greatly helped us improving our simulator techniques. Also, Chris ferried our only competition plane to the regional competition last year which enabled us to compete, score, and being invited to nationals this year. On top of that, he devoted a great deal of his time in developing our team strategically such as exploring the opportunity of hosting future regional and/or national competitions in Wisconsin.
These two people are instrumental to our team's success and our path for future development. Their dedication and volunteerism are hard to come by. For that, we are immensely grateful.
However, none of this would happen if it was not for our dedicated and selfless coach, Paul Valenstein. Being a NIFA alumnus and Wisconsin native, Paul initiated the founding of our team with the hope of bringing Wisconsin to the national stage of collegiate aviation. He has been coaching us ever since our inception, and he had achieved just that this past week. It was a proud week for him, for all of us. But as a team, we are not simply thankful for Paul's effort in bringing us to the national level. In the grand scheme of our team's development, he volunteered his time to coach us on a weekly basis, took time off from work to join us at the competitions, and have since given us a wealth of information on becoming better pilots and working together as a team. Because of this, we are all greatly indebted to him.
We are also very appreciative of our adviser, Dr. Chris Johnson. Without his continuous support, we would not be where we are today. He has been working ceaselessly in promoting aviation within the UW community, and we as a team benefited greatly from his work. We have been granted access to his lab's flight simulator on a weekly basis, which greatly helped us improving our simulator techniques. Also, Chris ferried our only competition plane to the regional competition last year which enabled us to compete, score, and being invited to nationals this year. On top of that, he devoted a great deal of his time in developing our team strategically such as exploring the opportunity of hosting future regional and/or national competitions in Wisconsin.
These two people are instrumental to our team's success and our path for future development. Their dedication and volunteerism are hard to come by. For that, we are immensely grateful.
