Recipient Of FAA Golden Wings, Guinness Book Of World Records

Aero-News learned this week Cole Kugel, who held the record as the oldest licensed pilot in the United States, passed away Monday at his home in Longmont, CO. He was 105.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Turk confirmed Kugel's oldest American pilot status, though his medical lapsed in 2001.

Kugel was born March 14, 1902, near Lamont in the Oklahoma Territory. He began flying along with his brother Paul, who died in 1991, after catching the flying bug watching barnstormers doing air acrobatics in 1929.

After a brief, involuntary flying hiatus during the Depression, he and his wife, Mildred,  moved to Longmont in 1943 and he was back in the air.

The price of Kugel's first plane was $3,700 when he bought it in 1929, according to the Denver Post. He owned a total of six planes, his preference being four-seater Cessnas.

Members of the Flying Farmers of America, Kugel and his wife took many air trips with the group throughout the U.S. and Mexico.

"He was a rancher all his life and flew from a home strip on his property," said Herbert Sloane, treasurer of the United Flying Octogenarians, a group for pilots aged 80 or older, where Kugel was a member.

Two days before turning 103, the FAA awarded Kugel the Golden Wings Award for aviation pioneers. Just days after his 99th birthday in 2001, Kugel was entered into Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest qualified pilot in the world, according to the Longmont Daily Times-Call.

According to his niece, Kay Sachs of Longmont, whenever someone asked him what his secret for longevity was Kugal would reply, "I just keep breathing."

Kugel sold his last plane, a 1976 Cessna 182 Skylane, in 2001 following the death of his wife. Lynn Ferguson, grandson of one of Kugel's early flying buddies, bought it from him.

"His wife didn't want him to sell it," Ferguson said. "But when she died, he said, 'An airplane is something you ought to go places in. I don't want to go anywhere anymore cause she's not with me.'"

Ferguson last took Kugel up less than two months ago, he said, and let him fly it for awhile, along with neighbor and former flying buddy Norman Wettlaufer. "He flew (the plane) for an hour and a half," Wettlaufer said. "He was in hog heaven. It really made his day."

"We'll miss him and wish him bon voyage as he undertakes his last flight west," Sloane said.

FMI: www.unitedflyingoctogenarians.org