Hinds Community College flight team members recently returned from the National Intercollegiate Flying Association's National Flight Competition held at Parks College in St. Louis, where they finished 17th in the flying events competition and fourth place overall in the nation among two-year school aviation programs.

Several Hinds pilots received individual honors for finishing within the top 10 in different events. Team captain Ronnie Pennington of Crystal Springs and Stephen Griffin of Pearl placed eighth in the nation in Message Drop while Justin Teasley of Crystal Springs took ninth place honors in Simulated Flight.

The 2009 Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON) fielded qualifying flight teams from 28 colleges and universities from across the country. More than 300 pilots competed in 15 different ground and flight events including landing accuracy, simulator flying, flight computer accuracy and safety related competitions.

The Hinds group competed as a team at SAFECON for the first time this year; but in 2008, one member, Ronnie Pennington, competed individually and won Regional Top Pilot, said Randy Pearcy, HCC aviation department chairman.

"As this was our first trip to nationals as a team, I would be happy with a top 20 finish," Pearcy said. "And since we accomplished that, we can look forward to only improving upon this year's performance at this fall's regional competition at Delta State University, and hopefully, again at nationals next spring."