Donations

contact:

Duane L. Abata
Dean of Engineering
and advisor to the
Hardrocker Flying Club

605-394-5264
duane.abata@sdsmt.edu

This is a special club available to students at SDSMT. The club has been in existence for nearly fifty years! We have had several airplanes and have offered the opportunity to learn to fly to all students at this excellent engineering and science focused university.

We need your help. Our plane is financed through the SDSMT Foundation. Our membership and hourly rates are kept very low for students. Alumni and friends of SDSMT who are active in the club pay much higher dues and rates to offset lower student rates. We are still trying to pay off even small amounts of principal to our loan while keeping the plane accessible to students at a very modest cost to them.

Please consider a donation or endowment to this student based club. You can earmark your gifts in several ways:

reduced rates to students
'flying scholarships' to students
loan reduction to the Foundation
assist with maintenance or perhaps purchase much needed upgrades to our plane
endowments (gifts of $100K or larger)

Text Box: Your donation is tax deductible! Please consider a donation, large or small, to the club. Contact one of the faculty advisors listed on this website, or communicate directly with the SDSMT Foundation. They have been good to us.

Thank you for your support. Many of you have already helped us. Our students here at SDSMT come from ranches and farms, small towns, and moderate and low income families in South Dakota and the region. All of our students are high achievers, otherwise they wouldn't be here at this excellent institution. We want to give them the opportunity to fly. We want them to excel in their studies and further assist them with their careers. Like you, they will be successful.

We extend our warm appreciation to the SDSMT Foundation for continued support. The Foundation has been extremely helpful with necessary loans to purchase the plane and maintain the plane in good working order. We just purchased a new engine for the plane that replaces the previous engine which reached it's useful lifetime. Needless to say, we are deeper in debt.