SPARTAN COLLEGE of Aeronautics and Technology student pilots from Tulsa will fly along with instructors into Ponca City Regional Airport for this Saturday’s Fly-In Breakfast hosted by the Ponca City Aviation Foundation. The flight school maintains a fleet of approximately 40 trainer planes like this Cessna 152.
The first Saturday of every month brings the Fly-In Breakfast at the Ponca City Regional Airport hosted by the Ponca City Aviation Foundation, which it turns uses the proceeds to produce its Northern Oklahoma Flight Academy summer camp for area students interested in pursuing careers in aviation.
On this Saturday, June 2, special guests at the breakfast will be a number of student pilots flying in from Tulsa’s Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
Spartan Chief Flight Instructor Beau Schrader will lead student pilots with their instructors flying about 30 of the schools trainer aircraft into Ponca City.
As one of the most comprehensive aviation schools in the Midwest, Spartan College maintains a fleet of approximately 40 aircraft, including Cessna 152s, 172s and Piper Arrows, for advanced complex pilot training. Piper Seminoles are used for multi-engine pilot training and a full-motion Redbird Simulator and Frasca flight training simulators are used in trainalso used by the school.
Spartan is a proud participant in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association competitions at the regional and national level. Students in the flight training school are able to compete at various levels based on individual experience. Spartan’s NIFA trophy case is full of previous awards and trophies earned by the Spartan NIFA team.
All interested parties — and younger students interested in attending the Northern Oklahoma Flight Academy before perhaps continuing on to a school like Spartan College — are invited to attend the breakfast and talk with prospective pilots about their burgeoning careers in aviation.
The Northern Oklahoma Flight Academy is a one-week day summer camp with programs for both middle school-aged and high school-aged students
THE MONTLY Fly-In Breakfast hosted by the Ponca City Aviation Foundation is set for this Saturday, June 2, from 7-10 a.m. In addition to a scrumptious buffet breakfast served for just $8 for adults and $4 for kids, a number of the Regional Airport’s fire and rescue vehicles will be on display.
The annual summer camps are primarily funded through the Fly-In Breakfast events. All students get to see guest aircraft used in medical, law enforcement, and commercial aircraft fields and talk to the flight crews of each. Area private pilots donate their airtime and planes to take students up in the air.
Middle school students build and then fly model rockets. Some build and then fly control-line model aircraft.
The high school professional pilot class receive introductory flying lessons with a certified instructor, and also take a field trip to Vance Air Force Base in Enid.
The space class pilots a computer spacecraft simulator to the moon, and then to Mars. One recent field trip for the space class was to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson.
Also sitting on the tarmac adjacent to the taxiway will be the Ponca City Regional Airport’s fire rescue truck and the facility’s big snow plow truck, kindly provided by Airport Manager Don Nuzum.
As always, a big turnout of area and not-so-local pilots are expected to fly in to the Fly-In in a wide variety of aircraft for attendees to stroll amongst before or after a delicious buffet breakfast that is just $8 for adults and $4 for children served from 7-10 a.m. The menu includes scrambled eggs, grilled sausage, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, biscuits, gravy, and more.
All proceeds from the breakfast are funneled right back into Ponca City, used to sponsor scholarships for young people, to support Ponca City high school career club programs, and event to help out all local schools with clothing items.