Yellow Jacket Flying Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Yellow Jacket Flying Club (YJFC) is a non-profit, student run organization at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia which exists to provide opportunities for those in the Georgia Tech community to pursue their passion for aviation. The YJFC is open to Georgia Tech students, faculty and staff, and alumni and their spouses and is one of the few well-established university flying clubs in the United States.
The Yellow Jacket Flying Club is richly exposed to aviation and the aerospace industry in a city that claims the world's busiest airport and by an institute with a highly regarded school of aerospace engineering. According to US News and World Report Georgia Tech ranks second among all universities with undergraduate Aerospace Engineering programs[1] and fourth among the nations top engineering schools[2].
The club owns and maintains four to five aircraft at any given time, all Cessna 172 Skyhawks, based out of Fulton County Airport. The club's aircraft are separated into trainers for teaching flight instruction, and cross-country aircraft for touring and use by club members. A group of alumni who are also Certified Flight Instructors train club members and students on a daily basis. YJFC members can choose to pursue their private pilots license, all the way through a commercial license (single engine rating) with the club.
Besides the daily availability of airplanes for personal use, the Yellow Jacket Flying Club is also a social organization. Club meetings are held on a bi-weekly basis and often feature speakers from the aviation community, from flying gliders to getting a job with a major airline. Once a semester during spring, summer, and fall, the YJFC holds a "Fly-In" where members "take over" an airport in the Atlanta area by bringing club planes, and usually several others. During this, the biggest social event of the semester, members challenge each other - and members of other flying organization, to flying events such as spot landing contests and water balloon drops[3].
