In 2003, she received the
"Lady Antiquer of the Year Award" from the Antique Aircraft
Association in recognition of her aviation writing about antique and
vintage aircraft.
Sparky Barnes Sargent
recalls the moment she became enamored with flying.
"I was writing a
story about a local glider operation for a weekly newspaper during the
summer of 1985, and was invited to experience a sailplane flight,"
she says. "As we soared soundlessly over the lush Blue Ridge
Mountains, I knew I was hooked."
And since becoming a
full-time aviation writer and photographer in 2001, Barnes Sargent has
hooked countless of others in her stories about planes and the people
who fly them.
For her work in
communicating the excitement and romance of flight, she will receive the
Bax Seat Trophy tonight in a presentation in Theater in the Woods. The
award is named in honor of FLYING Magazine columnist Gordon
Baxter and has been given annually since 1998.
Barnes Sargent became a
pilot before she became an aviation writer. She began taking flying
lessons in a Schweizer 2-22 sailplane and earned her private certificate
the following year. She earned a commercial certificate for gliders in
1987 and added a private single-engine land rating in 1989.
"Soon after, my
father helped me transition to flying tailwheel aircraft in his 1946
Aeronca 11AC Chief, and displayed an abundance of gentle patience
and good-natured humor as he helped me recover from bouncy landings and
steadied my squirrelly takeoffs," Barnes Sargent recalls.
"After that, I knew I wanted my own vintage airplane because I
loved the grass-roots style of flying, so I kept saving my money and
finally purchased a 1948 Piper PA-17 Vagabond in 1993."
She enjoyed flying the
"Vag" for a number of years and then took on another aviation
challenge—restoring the plane at the same time she was going to
graduate school to earn her master’s degree in industrial technology;
the Vagabond restoration was the focal point of her thesis.
Barnes Sargent says she decided to
concentrate her writing on aviation when she finished her master’s
degree. Today the former newspaper reporter writes primarily for Private
Pilot, Custom Planes, General Aviation News, Southern Aviator, and Vintage
Airplane.
She says she doesn’t
consider being an aviation writer a job. "It’s a wonderful
experience to listen to the stories that passionate aviators and
mechanics share about their flying adventures and the airplanes they fly
and maintain."
"When I have a sense
that a good story may unfold, I’m like the proverbial child in the
candy store—I’m hungry for it! I feel very fortunate to be able to
combine my passions for aviation and writing, and have the opportunity
to ‘capture’ various facets of our collective aviation heritage
through photography and the written word."
Barnes Sargent says she
enjoys the entire process—from wandering the flightline and looking at
airplanes to meeting and talking with interesting individuals and
writing their stories, and to finally seeing the articles on the
printed page.
In fact, she says she
sort of "adopts" the people and aircrafts she writes about, at
least for the duration of writing the article—and oftentimes longer,
when friendships are nurtured over time. "This, for me, is a
natural result of immersing myself in their stories in order
to share them in a public venue."
