The Embry-Riddle Eagle Athletics Department has had a great amount of success this year, winning three championships in Men’s Cross Country, Men’s Golf, Women’s Golf and finishing as runner up in four other sports. This success helped to secure their first ever Cal Pac Commissioner’s Cup – and the success does not stop in the athletic arena.
The Eagles have translated their success into the classroom as well this spring, posting an impressive 3.313 cumulative GPA for their 200 scholar-athletes.
“It’s extremely impressive how these students can coordinate their athletic and academic commitments; they are truly the epitome of scholar-athletes,” said Jaime Long, assistant athletic director. “It is incredible to have an overall GPA of 3.313; most programs strive for a 3.0, but our athletes have pushed themselves to accomplish so much. It is humbling to witness their incredible work ethic. What’s even more impressive is the majors that these athletes are pursuing: aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, aviation business, global securities and intelligence studies, forensic biology.”
Three Embry-Riddle Teams Competing in Air Race Classic
Teams from Embry-Riddle’s campuses in Prescott and Daytona Beach, Florida will represent the university in the 2015 Air Race Classic (ARC), a four-day international flight competition for female pilots beginning June 22.
Flying for Prescott are pilot Claire Schindler and co-pilot Erica Diels, supported by their ground crew and maintenance team. Last year, the Prescott team finished fourth in the collegiate category and tenth overall.
The women were selected for this prestigious competition by Embry-Riddle College of Aviation administrators on the basis of their piloting skills, their competitive spirit and their knowledge of aviation, safety, navigation, meteorology and crew resource management. All teams will fly Cessna 172 aircraft from the university’s fleet.
The Embry-Riddle teams will compete against 52 other teams from around the world, including 17 teams from other universities. This year’s race begins at Stafford Regional Airport in Fredericksburg, Virginia on June 22. The racers must navigate and check into airports in 10 cities on the 2,500-nautical-mile route, completing their journey in Fairhope, Alabama on June 25.
Embry-Riddle racers have long delivered impressive performances in the Air Race Classic. A Daytona Beach team has participated every year since 2007, finishing four times as the No. 1 team in the collegiate division, and has finished as high as No. 2 in the overall competition twice. Prescott has taken part every year since 2009, ranking as high as No. 2 in the collegiate division and No. 6 in the overall competition.
Schindler is from Springfield, Virginia. She is currently working on her commercial single-engine rating while pursuing a B.S. in Aeronautical Science. “Amelia Earhart inspired me to want to fly and now I get to represent such an incredible school in a race she started and I get to do it all with my amazing advisor, who I hope to learn a lot from,” she said.
Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Diels is a flight instructor and an assistant professor of aeronautical science at the Prescott Campus.
Follow Schindler and Diels during the Air Race Classic at https://www.facebook.com/groups/115978801779445/
Other schools fielding teams in the Air Race Classic are Indiana State University, Jacksonville University, Kansas State University, LeTourneau University, Liberty University, McGill University, Purdue University, Quincy University, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Texas State Technical College, University of North Dakota, Vaughn College and Western Michigan University.
About the Air Race Classic
Originally known as the Powder Puff Derby when it was established in 1929, the annual cross-country race is sponsored by Air Race Classic Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public awareness of general aviation, presenting and promoting the tradition of pioneering women in aviation, demonstrating women’s roles in aviation and encouraging and educating current and future women pilots.
Each ARC aircraft is judged against its own handicapped cruising speed and teams must follow the route as closely as possible while improving their average speed, a format that focuses more on piloting skills and decision-making than on speed alone. For more information, go to http://airraceclassic.org. QCBN
By Bryan Dougherty
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