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Aerobatic Flyers from Embry-Riddle are National Champs


Students and Airplane Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 10, 2003 -- Three students from the Sport Aviation Club at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach campus walked away with first and third-place finishes Sept. 26 at the U.S. National Aerobatics Championship in Sherman, Texas.

The club's participation in the aerobatic event was its first at the national level, and Embry-Riddle was the only university that entered in the national (non-collegiate) contest, according to the club's faculty advisor, Richard "Pat" Anderson, assistant professor of applied aviation sciences. "It was the 'big boys' contest," he said proudly.

Nathan Hanford, a senior, is the new national champion in the primary category and Gregory Bruyn, a junior, is national champ in the sportsman category. Senior Devon Pym won third place in the primary category. Eight members of the club competed in the prestigious event, performing their aerial maneuvers in a Pitts Special S-2B, an aerobatic plane.

Besides the Pitts Special, the club owns and flies a 1946 Piper Cub painted in original Embry-Riddle flight line markings and two gliders. The group has 90 members, making it one of the largest student organizations on campus. For more information, go to www.erausportaviation.org.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 25,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.