Community Service

Harrisonburg pilot Jeff Harris gives ill people a lift - literally

Daily News Record
Friday April 18, 2003
Story by: Brad Jenkins
Photos by: Mike Reilly

Somewhere above New York, where mountains look like mere hills and roads like skinny, squiggly snakes, Kimberly LaHart is asleep, oblivious to the scenery below.

LaHart has been asleep since the plane took off in Pittsburgh, Pa., about an hour ago.

Nothing - not a fast takeoff or a choppy approach to the airport at her destination - has jolted her from the slumber.

Jeff Harris, meanwhile, is in the pilot's seat, listening to flight control on his headset, watching his plane inch along the map on a global-positioning system and occasionally adjusting levers as he cruises at 200 mph about 8,000 feet above the ground.

Harris, of Harrisonburg, is a volunteer with Angel Flight, a group that provides free flights for ill patients. He is one of about 30 pilots in western Virginia who offer the service.

Not until the three tires of Harris' Cirrus airplane rumble onto runway six in Elmira, N.Y., does LaHart fully wake up.

Here, she'll transfer to another plane flown by another Angel Flight pilot for a quick jaunt to Queensbury, N.Y., where she lives.

In all, it's about a three-hour trip from Pittsburgh to her home when LaHart flies.

Riding in a car would have meant eight uncomfortable hours for LaHart, who is still weak and tired three years after having multiple organ transplants.

LaHart's most recent trip to Pittsburgh - her 10th on an Angel Flight - was part of a routine check-up following a liver, pancreas, bowel and bone marrow transplant three years ago.

In her frail condition, LaHart has temporarily given up driving, and finding someone to drive her is difficult since her friends have to work.

Steve Patterson, executive vice president of Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, says LaHart's situation is common. "Many of the patients we serve don't even have a car that could make it" to the hospital, he says.Angel Flight flew 10,000 missions last year, serving about 2,600 people, Patterson says.

Angel Flight uses nearly 5,000 volunteer pilots like Harris who donate their time and planes with no reimbursement.

The corporate office sends out e-mail alerts when a patient needs a flight. Interested pilots then send a note back, and Angel Flight coordinates the mission, which could require connecting or non-stop planes.

Curt Hartman of Harrisonburg started flying missions three years ago after a friend died of cancer. He and that friend had enjoyed flying together.

At about the same time, an Angel Flight mission crashed near New Market, and the two events sparked something in Hartman.

It's a real good example of what people can do with light aircraft. You can really do some good for a community," says Hartman, who flies a Piper Navajo.

Not just any pilot can fly for Angel Flight. A volunteer must be able to navigate using instruments and must have 250 hours of in-command flight time.

Hartman's job at Hartman Motor Sales in Harrisonburg is somewhat flexible, so he can fit the missions in as he has time.

Harris' flexible job as a financial planner has allowed him to donate his time, too.

At his day job at Jeff Harris & Associates Inc., Harris assists wealthy clients manage their wealth. When he takes an Angel Flight, he sometimes sees people at their lowest.

"I've been amazingly blessed with a good marriage and healthy children," Harris says. "These people have serious health problems. If I can do something to make that a little better, then I feel a sense of satisfaction."

It's a satisfaction rooted in snippets of memories about patients he has flown to areas as far as Indianapolis.

Patients like Andrea Mangum, who is married with three children.

When Harris picked Mangum up in Pittsburgh during his first year as an Angel Flight pilot last year, she didn't say much. The prognosis for the cancer growing inside her wasn't good.

"I saw her when she was probably at her lowest," Harris said.

But in a letter he later received, the woman wrote that the tumor was gone. Harris, who sometimes prays with the people he flies, calls it a "miraculous event."

Mangum's letter is now displayed on a poster with photos of his Angel Flight missions.

Hartman's patients have left impressions on him, too. A newborn who had to have heart surgery. A young kid with cancer whose happy, talkative nature reminded Hartman of his own son.

The pilots have left impressions on the patients, too.

One woman who flew with Harris was stunned when she saw Harris' plane, which he had just bought at the time.

"You mean you'd fly someone like me in your new plane?" the woman asked.

"That impacts them - that someone cares enough to do something for them," Harris says.