Nicoletta Fala, Ph.D.

FLYING

FLYING EXPERIENCE

I am an instrument-rated commercial pilot and flight instructor. Through various flying activities, I had the opportunity to fly over twenty states. My favorite flights have been over the Niagara falls, the Ozarks, and the lakes of Minnesota.

I have included some of my lesson plans on this website for non-commercial use.

Logbook

Airports visited

PURDUE PILOTS, INC.

My flying club leadership experience stems from my executive board positions within Purdue Pilots, Inc. (PPI) a student-led flying club based at Purdue University (KLAF). PPI owns three airplanes (a Cessna 150 and two Piper Warriors) and aims to provide low-cost flight training and aircraft rentals to Purdue-affiliated persons. I have been involved with PPI for eight years and was elected in various positions: Secretary, Public Relations Officer, Vice President, and finally President of the club.

Some of the initiatives I took one while in a leadership position were:

1. starting a weekly Study Group for members working on their Private Pilot Certificate or Instrument Rating,
2. implementing safety meetings in our club,
3. automating and computerizing our attendance, grounding, and check-in process,
4. increasing our membership size,
5. changing the fleet (selling, buying, and ferrying the new airplanes),
6. starting our Air Race Classic team and obtaining funding.

AIR RACE CLASSIC

I flew in two Air Race Classic cross-country races, in 2017 and 2018. I founded our Purdue Pilots Inc. Air Race Classic team in 2017 to improve representation of women in aviation and increase the ratio of women in our flying club. I wrote grant proposals and secured funding for three years through the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue and Rockwell Collins.

Our participation in the race has resulted in a few articles and videos:

• Two Purdue teams to compete in the annual Air Race Classic, Purdue University News.
• This pair of Purdue pilots are going the distance, quite literally: BTN LiveBIG, Big Ten Network.
• Purdue teams to take off in air race, Inside Indiana Business.
• Purdue Pilots Inc. compete in the 2017 Air Race Classic, Purdue College of Engineering.

• Dual Purdue teams flying high in annual Air Race Classic, Purdue University News.
• Purdue students flying high to compete in Air Race Classic, WLFI.
• 2018 Air Race Classic competition, Purdue College of Engineering.

AEROBATICS

In 2018, the International Council of Air Shows provided me with the Lovelace-Drake scholarship to complete an aerobatics course covering basic Sportsman-level aerobatic maneuvers and sequences with Billy Werth at Grayout Aerosports, LLC.