By Tabitha Redder/nw news editor
The NW Campus aviation program came out flying high in the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association Olympics held in the NW Hangar.
NW tied for first place in both the individual and team competitions with Tulsa Technology Center during the various aviation practical projects. Seven other schools traveled to the NW Hangar to compete earlier this semester.
Aviation instructor and team coach Raymond Bacon said the NW students had been preparing for months.
“Unlike in the real Olympics where you pick your best event and compete in that, each member of the team had to perform each event,” Bacon said.
NW aviation student Ian La Vigne tied for first place in the individual competition. He said he felt most confident in the electricity and magneto timing events where students properly timed a plane engine but surprised himself in other events.
“I was actually shocked at how well I did in hardware identification,” he said.
NW aviation student Josh Pate also represented TCC in the PAMA Olympics and said the team worked well together.
“Two of the schools were actually four-year universities,” he said of the competitors. “So to beat them was pretty cool because they’ve had two years on us.”
Although La Vigne shared his first-place title, he was still pleased with his performance.
“Let’s just say I was on cloud 14 for a couple of days,” he said.
