[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO COLE KUGEL

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                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 11, 2001

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to pay tribute 
to Cole Kugel. At the age of ninety-nine, Cole is the oldest certified 
pilot in the nation. For over half a century, Cole sat side by side in 
the cockpit with his wife Mildred, soaring in one of the six planes he 
has owned. Flying safely at any age is a challenge. To have done it for 
as long as Cole has is truly an accomplishment. Cole began flying in 
1929 and never once crashed or even damaged a plane.
  Many people might say that flying for over seventy years without a 
scratch to show for it is just plain lucky. I'm told that while luck 
might keep you flying, it is good judgment that brings you home at the 
end of the day. Cole Kugel has been blessed with an abundance of good 
judgment. For over seventy years he has used his head to safely bring 
back every plane he has taken off in. Today, he continues to use that 
judgment. He has said that when his certificate comes up for renewal by 
the FAA this year, he probably will not renew it. To willingly walk 
away from something you love when you realize that you may not be able 
to do it like you used to I believe is the epitome of good judgment. I 
applaud Cole for loving flying so much yet still walking away from it 
while he is on top.
  Mr. Speaker, I am attaching an article about Cole from a recent 
edition of the Denver Post. I ask my colleagues to join me in saluting 
this heroic individual and to wish him a safe landing wherever the 
winds shall take him.

                   Oldest U.S. Pilot Faces End of ERA

                           (By Kevin Simpson)

       Monday, September 10, 2001--LONGMONT--Throughout the 
     rambling house where Cole Kugel lives alone, airplanes still 
     take flight--images in photographs, models on pedestals, even 
     a replica constructed entirely of 7-Up cans that dangles from 
     a perch on the patio.
       But Kugel let go of the plane he cared for most--the 
     single-engine Cessna Skylane hangared at nearby Vance Brand 
     Airport--last spring, just about the same time he lost the 
     bigger love of his life, his wife, Mildred.
       Together, the events signaled the end of an era.
       Kugel, who at 99 is the oldest certified pilot in America--
     and one of only 30 over the age of 90, according to the 
     Federal Aviation Administration--figures that maybe he has 
     soared long enough. The man who helped lay down the gravel 
     that formed the city's first airstrip may not try to renew 
     his certification when it expires in a few weeks.
       And he sold the plane emblazoned with the registration 
     29CM.
       ``Twenty-nine Charlie-Mike,'' Kugel says wistfully, echoing 
     the words he'd radio to the airport tower. ``But the letters 
     really meant Cole and Mildred.''
       As early members of a group of aviation enthusiasts called 
     the Colorado Flying Farmers, they sat side by side in the 
     cockpit for more than half a century before a succession of 
     strokes finally took her in June at age 97.
       ``It just indicates that plane was their baby,'' says 
     Warren Rempel, who has known the couple for 40 years. ``They 
     were in the flying game together. Then came the day she 
     couldn't get out anymore. And he said if she couldn't go, 
     then he wouldn't be doing a lot of it either.''
       Mildred never was certified, but took enough lessons to 
     know how to put the plane down safely if anything ever 
     happened to her husband in mid-flight. In the last year and a 
     half, though, her health declined to the point where she 
     could no longer take her accustomed seat in the Cessna.
       ``She told him on many occasions, ``Don't you sell that 
     plane until I'm gone,'`` Rempel says. ``I heard her say it. 
     And he didn't sell it.''
       The transaction happened almost by chance, when local 
     veterinarian Lynn Ferguson, whose grandparents had flown with 
     the Kugels, called to talk flying. Ferguson had offered to 
     buy the plane three years earlier, but Kugel, citing his 
     wife's admonition, had declined.
       But in May, as Mildred's health failed in a nursing home--
     and Kugel would go nowhere without his flying partner--
     Ferguson found that things had changed.
       ``He said, `Maybe we ought to take it up and see if you 
     like it,' `` Ferguson says. They struck a deal just days 
     before Mildred died.
       Kugel has tried not to dwell too much on the sale of the 
     Cessna and the larger loss that accompanied it. But he takes 
     some solace in the fact that the plane will remain nearby, 
     where he can still go see it.
       And a stipulation in the sale agreement provides that he be 
     allowed to take it up next March 14--``if I'm still here''--
     on his 100th birthday.
       The FAA requires a physical exam every two years for 
     medical certification for a third-class pilot's license, and 
     some minor vision trouble with one eye gives Kugel pause, 
     although he doesn't think that would necessarily keep him 
     from passing the exam.
       ``But as old as I am, maybe I ought not to be flying 
     anyway,'' he says. ``I feel competent, but as you get older, 
     everything about you gets out of order and slows down. And a 
     plane is an expensive item to have sitting around and not use 
     it.''
       If he doesn't get recertified, he said, he'll still take 
     his century flight with Ferguson. Kugel embraced aviation as 
     a young man for the most prosaic of reasons: ``Because I 
     wanted to go someplace.''
       In 1943, Kugel and his wife left their Oklahoma farm to 
     farm cheap land near Longmont. He remained a farmer most of 
     his life, resuming the flights of fancy that had been 
     grounded by the Depression. He bought his first plane in 
     1946, 17 years after he learned to fly in an open-cockpit 
     biplane. Over the years, he owned six before selling the 
     Cessna.
       ``I never busted one up,'' Kugel says. ``I miss it, but 
     maybe it's better.''
       Rempel tries to put it in perspective. ``When a guy goes to 
     99 before he sells his plane, and still has his physical 
     certification, he's done pretty well,'' he says. ``At this 
     point, I'd have to say Cole represents the goal we'd all like 
     to attain in terms of longevity and mental acuity. He's alone 
     at the top.''

     

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