Women’s Air Race Team places among top teams in national competition
Aviation is well known for being a male-dominated field. Because of this, K-State Salina empowers women in the field to soar — both in the air and the classroom.
Most recently, the Women’s Air Race Team showed off its skills at a nationwide, female-only aviation race — the Air Race Classic. The race provides competition, networking and challenges in various essential skill areas.
“Competition is a great way for students to learn to be in tense situations,” says Tysen Pina, aviation department head. “They go through adversity where they have to make accurate split-second decisions — a great example of what life as an aviator is like.”
K-State’s Salina campus sent four women, forming two teams, for the race. The teams traveled over 30 hours and totaled approximately 2,400 miles in the air. This year’s race, which spanned from Carbondale, Illinois, to Loveland, Colorado, tackled challenges relating to weather navigation, Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, and aeronautical decision-making.
“This experience made me a better pilot because I got real-life, real-time experience of cross-country navigating outside of a training environment,” shared Sydney Oyer, senior in professional pilot. “Not to mention, we met so many amazing women from other collegiate programs. Everyone was incredibly supportive and gave great insight into being a better professional.”
Oyer was paired with Roxana Linares, a 2024 graduate in professional pilot, on Team Sky Cats, taking third place in the second leg of the race. Macy McMillan, a 2023 graduate in professional pilot, and Justina Astraukaite, a 2024 graduate in professional pilot, formed Team Sky Chicken, also snagging a top 15 spot out of the 60 competing teams.
To learn more about the how to support women in aviation, check out https://ksufoundation.org/impact/good-for-k-state/what-if-more-women-worked-in-aerospace/
Written By: Abbigail Marshall
