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.