FARMINGTON – It’s a family thing. Harley Sargent and son Mike Sargent have a passion for flying.
Harley, 69, of Strong learned to fly without a radio, using visual flight rules and following charts.
Mike, 43, of Farmington flew with his father when he was 10. He learned his father’s techniques and more modern ones, too. He uses the radio and a global positioning system, punching in where he wants to go.
Mike is teaching his daughter, Kristi, 14, to fly the skies.
Kristi shares the gene and the passion, said her mother, Tari Sargent.
While the family was reminiscing about flying, all discussion suddenly stopped.
Mike looked at Tari and said, “Jet.”
It’s a common occurrence when they hear a noise overhead that they try to determine what kind of aircraft it is.
That’s how high the passion goes, Tari said.
Up in the air
Harley became interested in flying when he was about 20 and single. He was on fire watch duty at a tower on Squaw Mountain in Greenville. He watched people flying their small airplanes to the remote area from the tower.
It was a four-mile walk to the tower from the road, he said.
While he was a student pilot, he bought his first plane, a 1946 Taylorcraft. It cost $650 with skis.
He made $32.50 a week at the seasonal job, working nine-hour days, seven days a week.
“I saved $12 to live on and spent the rest on flying,” Harley said.
For a while he was buying a plane a year.
He sold his plane when he got married and started raising children, but he picked up the hobby again years later. That’s when Harley started sharing his love of flying with his sons.
In Mike, the passion continues. He got his pilot’s license in 1998.
It’s the thrill’
Mike, who works for MeadWestvaco in Rumford, and Harley, who is retired but works part-time at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, took a trip in July in Mike’s two-seater 1938 Taylorcraft to Ohio, where the plane was made, for a reunion.
Harley is “between planes now,” he said with a laugh as he looked at his wife, Joan.
Both men favor Taylorcraft planes.
The two flew 864 miles in the 18-hour round trip.
Mike piloted from the left, the actual pilot’s seat; Harley piloted from the right seat because he didn’t want to deal with the radio.
The plane held up well.
“Most people think because it’s old, it’s going to fall apart,” Mike said, “but I keep it well maintained.”
The Taylorcraft has no electronic system in it, Mike said; it’s just a basic startup hand-prop.
The plane, which Mike bought from his father, picked up a couple of awards: for being the oldest Taylorcraft and for flying the farthest.
“It’s the thrill of flying, and it’s relaxing for me,” Mike said. “I enjoy it.”
His father agreed.
“In the past, in my day, it gave me a sense of freedom,” Harley said. “I could go off and fly in any direction, but nowadays you almost have to file a flight plan.”
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