Hargrave Flyers Info

(updated 11/29/00)

Lee King, '90 email

Lee learned to fly at the Danville Regional Airport while teaching English at Hargrave. He learned in a Piper Tomahawk, but now mostly flies a Warrior or a Cessna 172. The Hargrave strip was a favorite practice area where he would go to practice engine-out procedures. Lee lives near Bristol, VA where he is the Director of Development at Virginia Intermont College. When he finishes his doctorate from UVa in the spring, he plans to devote more time to his flying hobby.
 

 Bob Richards, '76 email

Bob is an EMC test technician for a major testing lab in the Research Triangle Park, NC.  He learned to fly while at Hargrave, and had his check ride on the last day of the school session in 1976.  His first ever flight lesson was in a Cessna 150 flying out of the 1500' airstrip at Hargrave -- before it had been extended.  When he got his license, the airstrip was 3000' and was flying in a Cherokee 140, N6587W, a great old airplane.  He logged a couple hundred more hours after leaving HMA, mostly in a 1976 Cessna 182, though he does have minimal time in a glider, a helicopter, and even 20 minutes in a Ford Tri-motor.  He has not kept his ticket current, though he does hope to eventually build his own plane, or possibly restore an old plane.  He has been very active in radio-controlled model aviation, having competed in a couple of categories.  His 15 minutes of fame came in 1993 when he won a national championship in precision aerobatics.
 

 Tripp Smith '76 email

 

 Brad Sorrells '76

 

 Jim Shaugnessy '69

 

 Harry Keast '54

 

 Cap. Carlos Tronscoso '88 email

I started my aviation career at Hargrave, at the "grass strip" as we called it.  There I flew the Piper Cherokee PA/28-140 under Doc. Spradlin's supervision as my instructor.  After HMA, I applied to the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs but due to the political reasons between Panama and the U.S. I could not attend the academy and got transferred to the Brazilian Airforce Academy.  There I became a fighter pilot, spent four years in Brazil and went back to Panama to serve in the Panama Airforce where I stayed for 6 years.  I then moved into executive flying, flying King Airs 90, 300, 350, all over the Americas.  Let me tell you that I enjoy it like crazy, there is nothing like flying... and all of this thanks to that good man which I will never forget, Doc. Landon B. Spradlin.  Hey Doc, next flight is in your honor!

 

 

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