Los Alamos High alumnus selected for Air Force Academy flying team

A former Los Alamos High School Hilltopper has landed one of the Air Force Academy’s rarest student roles. Michael “Mikey” Bane was selected as one of just nine cadets for the U.S. Air Force Academy’s flying team, a slot that puts the Los Alamos native into a highly competitive aviation pipeline in Colorado Springs.

For Los Alamos families, Bane’s path is rooted in the same places and programs many students know well. He ran cross country and track and field for Los Alamos High, and local sports coverage also showed him competing in alpine skiing before graduation. A scholarship note last fall said he planned to major in aeronautical engineering at USAFA and compete on the academy’s cross country, marathon or triathlon teams. That note also said he had qualified and medaled three times at the District Cross Country Championships.

The Air Force Academy says cadets interested in precision flight must already hold an FAA Private Pilot Certificate, then compete through a process that includes overall performance, aviation knowledge testing, an essay, an interview, a graded simulator session and a graded flight. Selected cadets are trained in precision landings, cross-country navigation and instrument flying. USAFA says its airmanship programs involve about 2,500 cadets each year, underscoring how narrow the path is to the flying team.

The Precision Flying Team itself is one of the academy’s most selective aviation groups. USAFA describes it as a 28-cadet team that flies T-51 and T-41 aircraft in National Intercollegiate Flying Association competition. The academy says the team has won its regional competition 33 years in a row and finished fifth nationally most recently. Airmanship oversight is managed by the 306th Flying Training Group, and the 557th Flying Training Squadron operates the cadet Flying Team at Davis Airfield.

The academy’s own flying team site says the unit is nationally ranked, fields 27 flying members plus optional ground-event members, and has been coached by Bert Boyce for 24 years. It also says new members help support the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds’ graduation demonstration in May. For Los Alamos, Bane’s selection turns a familiar student-athlete story into a rare hometown aviation success, one that began in local classrooms and playing fields and now reaches one of the academy’s most elite training environments.