‘Friendship Flight’ Pilot Takes Wing on Teen-Agers

An American pilot who landed in Moscow on a record-setting mission had few kind words for the daring West German pilot who had passed unscathed through Soviet airspace to land in Red Square a scant three weeks before. Indeed, Millard Harmon, 61, made it sound as though he’d like to have the young German’s wings clipped. “Frankly, teen-agers are impetuous, young and really don’t have a whole lot of sense,” said Harmon, of Delmar, N.Y., who landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on a “friendship flight.” Harmon pronounced the stunt by Mathias Rust, 19, who buzzed the Kremlin on his impetuous flight, nothing better than a prank and mused as to why the Soviets had not shot him down. Harmon’s flight itself was strictly aboveboard. The flight from Washington, in which he set a distance record of 41 hours, 31 minutes for his classification of plane, had been cleared with Soviet authorities.

--Another flight that’s turning heads is that of a toy balloon launched from Nashville, Tenn., which survived birds, planes, high-altitude pressure and other aerial hazards before coming to earth in Budapest, Hungary. The balloons had been released in a contest at Cole Elementary School, and the amazing flight of 6,500 miles will mean five silver dollars for the balloon’s owner, second-grader Keisha Johns.

--The patrons of the Lakewood Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan., incensed when a family bought property near the club’s entrance as a site for their mobile home, are in for another rude shock. A farmer tired of seeing “the big guy squashing the little guy” has come to the aid of the family after authorities threatened to seize the property to pay debts. Farmer Jack Nolde has loaned Jake and Becky Eckert $5,500 at 6% interest to pay their debts. The 4.6 acres came up for sale when country club officials stopped paying property taxes on it.

--Up until two years ago it would have been illegal. But the nephew of South Africa’s ambassador to the United States was allowed to marry a woman of mixed race in a match that made headlines in Johannesburg. Although there was no legal obstacle to the marriage of Hendrik Koornhof, 24, nephew of Ambassador Piet Koornhof, to Raehana Bobert, 21, they will have a problem finding a home. Under laws designating where people can live, the newlyweds will probably have to live in an area zoned for those with darker skin.