A 105-year-old man who was the oldest licensed pilot in the U.S. has died.
Cole Kugel died Monday of natural causes at his home in Longmont the Ahlberg Funeral Chapel said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Kugel was the oldest licensed American pilot. Though his license never expired, Kugel’s health certificate, which is required to fly a plane, lapsed in 2001, FAA spokesman Paul Turk said.
But he did take the controls of a small plane less than two months ago, said Lynn Ferguson, a pilot friend and the grandson of one of Kugel’s early flying buddies.
Ferguson took Kugel up in the 1976 Cessna Skylane 182 he had bought from Kugel in 2001, and the senior pilot flew the plane for a while.
Ferguson bought the plane in 2001, the year Kugel’s wife, Mildred, died at age 97.
“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.'”
Kugel was born March 14, 1902, near Lamont in what was then Oklahoma Territory. He began flying in 1929 but had to put the passion on hold during the Depression. When he and his wife moved to Longmont in 1943, he was back in the sky.
“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 of more than 500 pilots across the world age 80 or older. Kugel was a member.
“We’ll miss him and wish him bon voyage as he undertakes his last flight west,” Sloane said.
Two days before he turned 103, Kugel received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Golden Wings Award for aviation pioneers.
Kugel is survived by four nieces and nephews. Services were scheduled for Friday.
