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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2007)
20 vernonia’s voice my life october 2007 Flying as a Way of Life By Scott Laird Mike Seager loves to fly. That much is obvious. He has spent most of the last thirty years dedicated to flying, to promoting small experimental aircraft, to flight instruction, and to the Vernonia Airport. Seager is a well respected flight instructor, known and admired by his peers and students. He specializes in Recreational Aviation Experimental planes – known as RV’s – named after their creator Richard Van Grunsven, the founder of Van’s Aircraft in Aurora, Oregon. Seager is known throughout that field as a patient and excellent instructor, as well as a great guy. Seager has over 13,000 hours of flying time and 10,000 hours of in- struction time, which is considered an incredible amount of experi- ence. According to one of Mike’s students, “...he’s the guy you would pick if you did a search for flight instructors using the suggestions printed in ‘Plane and Pilot’, ‘Fly- ing’, etc.” Another said “Mike must be one of the most famous people in RV circles, and he’s a re- ally great instructor.” Seager is also community-minded. Not only has he volunteered his time operating the airport, he helps out in other ways. A very recent example was at this year’s Vernonia Night Out. Mike donated two of the most popular prizes for the raffle drawing: two “flight seeing” trips in his plane over Vernonia. Ironi- cally, two sisters, Rebekah and Laura Pakala, of Cedar Falls, Iowa won the trips. They were just visiting Vernonia and leaving early the next day. Seager promptly headed out to the airport, fired up his plane, and took two groups of the family up and over Vernonia for a memorable end to Rebekah and Laura’s visit. Seager moved to Vernonia in 1980 when he purchased Vernonia Cable TV. That was and still is his livelihood. But flying is his real love. As a certified flight instructor, he opened his own aviation school in 1981, operating out of the Scap- poose airport. In 1985 Seager built his own hanger in Vernonia and received per- mission to run his flight school from here, training in Cessnas. In 1987 he built By Dolly Keenon What is it about the fall that trig- gers my need to get out in the woods, when the mornings are crisp and the days warm more slowly? It is a bless- ing to live in a place where I can literally walk out my back door and enjoy the beauty of na- ture. The fragrance of the forest is one of my favorite things. The smell of moss and soil, rich cedar, and the cool breezes put together a sen- sory package unlike any other. My grandmother, my mother, and my moth- er-in-law were my role models during my early years. As a woman who hunts, sometimes it is awkward to share my feelings with my female friends who do not hunt. There were many years that I didn’t get to hunt, as our girls grew and I became a bleacher Mom. But fall always sparked a desire to be a part of the hunt, so we often, as a family, dragged the trailer house to eastern Oregon to introduce our girls to the fun of deer camp. The campfire stories are a family tradition. After a great meal, the glow of a dying fire starts the old familiar tales. Re-telling them just helps them evolve over time, to be a little Seager also shared with me about the history of the Vernonia Airport. “In 1934 the Chamber of Commerce acquired the land and built the Airport, then donated it to the city of Vernonia. The grand opening was in 1935 where 6,000 people were in attendance! It was a very active airport up until World War II, when all civil aviation was curtailed. It became active again in 1952 after the war and then use began to slow down. Seager said, “In 1982 when I got involved, the city didn’t even know they owned it.” For twenty-three years Seager was the manager of the Vernonia Airport and secretary of the Airport Committee, maintaining the facil- ity, cutting the grass, leasing the hangers, and pretty much keeping it operating. “I started giving transitional training for pilots in experimental planes in 1990,” said Seager. “For the first six years I was the only instructor in the country, in fact in the world, do- ing this.” When October Comes his own Van’s RV- 6 Aircraft from a kit, and became very involved in the field of experimental planes. In recent years Seager and the city administration and govern- ment have had some disagree- ments. During that time Seager chose to move his flight school elsewhere, but he still wants to see the Vernonia Airport succeed. Seager has continued to be an advocate for keeping the airport active and under city control. “It is part of our infrastructure,” Seager said. “Expecting it to make money is wrong. The protocol has always been to run it so it at least doesn’t cost the city any money, and we’ve been able to do that.” “I would like to bring my flight school business back to Vernonia,” said Sea- ger. “This airport can be a real public service. We have a layout plan that we completed with a $5,000 grant that State Senator Betsy Johnson helped us get. I would like to see that implemented. We need new hangers. We also have people who want to fly model airplanes out here. That’s a new use and a draw, and we need to get a permanent variance from the city to do that.” Although Seager and the city have disagreed over how the airport should operate, Seager said recently, “I would like to see this facility get back on track and move forward.” bit over the top, but oh, what fun to laugh with family and friends over our hunting tales. My husband Jerry and I have become good hunting partners through the years. We start out in the early morning at daybreak and hunt a familiar trail or draw that we chose. It’s like we are in sync with each other, knowing where the other will be when we reach the next rise. Last year, Jerry and I were walking up a log- ging road, literally holding hands, and my rifle was slung across my back. We had just met up, after hiking a long stretch, and were discussing our plans on which route to hunt back to the truck. We were stopped in our tracks by a nice rag horn bull, standing right beside the road. He bolted in surprise, crashing out of sight, and we had to laugh at our missed opportunity. As an artist, I commit to memory the colors, as the light changes after a fine mist settles in and slowly drapes over the hills. My perception deepens with every subtle change around me as the daylight fades. If I could only capture that on a canvas, and do it justice. My mind’s files are full of scenes I would have liked to paint. I have been close enough to touch a doe as she passed by, not knowing I was there, until she got downwind. Tiny wrens have flitted around me and even sat on my rifle barrel. We’ve often watched salmon spawning in the creeks. Every day that I am out there, I encounter something new. We enjoy the weariness at the end of the day, while we plan the next day’s hunt. If we have been successful, there is work to be done. While Jerry was attending OIT in Klamath Falls, we took a summer class in how to bone out a deer. The local Indian tribe supplied a deer for the extension agent, and he taught us the finer points of properly caring for our winter’s meat. Both of us were raised on venison, and there is nothing quite as good as backstrap and pan- cakes- a special treat for the lucky hunting fam- ily. Jerry’s mother, Effie Keenon, could cook it up tender and tasty, right next to a pile of fluffy, homemade flapjacks. I’ve learned a lot of things from Jerry’s par- ents. Their love of the woods, and enjoying it together, was a natural way of life for them. Whether fishing or hunting, who better to spend the time with? My life has been blessed, because we share a wonderful heritage and a common love for the outdoors, and look forward to the time when the leaves turn gold, and the winds begin to move summer out and winter in. Dolly and Jerry are long-time residents of Vernonia.