December 24, 2019 Community

The Liberty Gazette

December 24, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

In this very galaxy, relatively speaking, not that long ago (although writing a two-volume book set feels like it), we sought to bring the lines we draw in the air down here to paper. It was always a community thing, and always will be. We feel like we have an advantage because we live in both this community in Liberty, Texas, and in the aviation community. Sharing stories here each week allows us to bring our dual citizenship in these communities together.

Community is a place where a guy who picks up garbage twice a week has so much heart and soul that for our neighbor who is mobility-challenged, he never leaves the trash can on the street, but hustles it up near the house where she keeps it. He makes it easier on her not to have to retrieve it, because he cares.

Community is a place where we can share information about airplanes to the local first responders, as we did years ago in the early days of this column. It’s the place where police and fire fighters want to know more about responding to issues concerning aircraft, because they care.

Community is a place where the local librarian plans cool and interesting events for kids and families, like reading stories and making crafts, encouraging literacy, because she cares.

In 2007, when Cynthia started letting us fill this space in the Gazette, we had heard some people say, “What? We have an airport here?” Soon, the airport began getting recognition for the true asset it is. Its purpose: to serve everyone.

Great blessings came from the entire local community as well as the aviation community to benefit a family with a newborn in intensive care via a fly-in fund-raiser. Bill Buchanan did a live report from our plane as we flew lazy circles over the airport. A flying “poker run” brought pilots from all over Southeast Texas to the Liberty Municipal Airport. They enjoyed breakfast cooked by the Liberty Lions Club, bought fuel (spending money here), and were impressed with the community and the airport.

With it all came recognition that, as they say, in a small town can have a couple different outcomes. Either way, everyone knows everyone. So, when you’re turning and forget to use your blinker and it’s late at night, an officer could pull you over and remind you that it’s important to use your blinker every single time. And in our case, after giving an informational talk about aircraft to first responders, they could say, “Hey, aren’t you the airport people?”

So every week when we bring you another story, whether it’s based on our adventures high in the sky, or something revealing the humanity of our “other” community, we do it with one purpose in mind: to share goodness with our hometown community, Liberty, Texas.


Merry Christmas!

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 17, 2019 New Books

The Liberty Gazette

December 17, 2019

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: As we celebrate the publication of our new book series, Ely Air Lines: Select Stories from 10 Years of a Weekly Column, I’ve wondered if I could pick one favorite out of the 100. I think maybe I can, but only because it’s about Mom. It’s about how important all those little airports are between here and Mattoon, Illinois, where she was born. I’m fortunate that I could go back with her to that first house in her life and walk through the little town that was hers more than eighty years ago and witness her reminisce in “Landing on Memory Lane.”

There are so many other stories about people and places—adventure!—that I cherish, that other than Mom, it’s really hard to pick a favorite.

But what a treasure we received when Tommy Chambers shared part of his father’s diary in “Allan Chambers’ Letters Home.” When we received that, we felt like there just wasn’t anything more we could ever write that would top it.

Then there’s “Sign Me Up!” which Bob Jamison wrote for us when I was out air racing and Mike was busy at work and couldn’t get that week’s piece done in time for the deadline.

And there’s our friend Jed Keck, the other Daytonite. He’s always full of stories, and great ideas for more. It’s not unusual for Jed to email us and ask, “Hey, have you heard about …” so-and-so, and he’ll give us a tip on a great story. He’s usually flying way up there around 39,000 feet; it’s good to have friends in high places.

I love learning of humorous stories and sharing them, such as “Of Turtles and Hares” and “No Rush Like It.” And the variety of types of people we meet in aviation never ceases to amaze and impress me: a basketball star, a sculptor, a professional percussionist, a grandma, war heroes and widows. They all have stories to tell, which, once we hear them, we can’t keep them to ourselves.

Mike: “Time with Dad” is probably my favorite. A heartfelt glimpse at the tasks that await a man whose last parent has recently deceased. My dad was not a pilot, but he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and TWA during the Golden Age of Aviation’s later years – the 1950s. The Lockheed Constellation was his favorite airliner. He was my first airplane passenger.

He, too, was a writer. My brothers and I built him an office in our garage where a foot heater glowed red as he banged away at a heavy old typewriter on cold nights, trying to be the next great novelist. The “w” key was always stiff, and he’d hit it particularly hard.

Then come the stories about courage and standing up against tremendous odds. These always score high. I’m in awe of people who won’t give up.

So much of life is touched by aviation. A mile of highway will take you a mile. But a mile of runway can take you anywhere.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 10, 2019 New Book Series

The Liberty Gazette

December 10, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: It all started on June 26, 2007 after Kevin Ladd suggested we write a piece about the airport which had come under attack by certain politicians. An airport is a city’s front door, so the misguided thought that Liberty shouldn’t have one is a fine “how-do-you-do.” But the pen is mightier than the sword (and more legal), and now here we are in our thirteenth year in this space. We never dreamed it would last this long.

In April of 2017, we had the brilliant idea to compile our favorite stories from the first ten years of Ely Air Lines and put them in a book. Our version of a “best of.” I say “brilliant” because there have been times when we’ve questioned that. It’s a lot of work. We discovered that many of the stories needed a fresh update. A lot can change in ten years. So we set about to update them with more interviews and more research. We handed 100 stories to an editor and thought we were ready to go when at the last minute we decided to take each story to our writers’ critique group in Houston. There are no other pilots in that group, so we were counting on feedback that would help us know we hadn’t written too technically. Since the group only meets once a week, it took time to get through all the stories.

After that, we decided it would be good to partner with another editor, but this time one who is also a pilot and has edited several other aviation books. Best of both worlds. That turned out to be a good idea, but it also set us back considerably in time. So now more than two years after “brilliance” struck, we have a two-volume set to be released on December 20 through Amazon.

There are stories of local friends, as well as people from farther away, and our own adventures. And it all began right here.

Mike: The process of seeking inspiring stories is continuous; we are always on the lookout for more. We each contribute from our own perspective and experience. We each have our own style of writing. A third style emerges when we write as one. There are times when one of us has a special story to share, and then that week’s contribution has a single author.

Admittedly, there have been times when we were almost too busy to make the deadline for the next week’s article. We’d ask on the eve of submission day, “What are we going to write about?” Somehow, it’s all worked out, and we thank Cynthia for the opportunity and space she has given us.

I believe so much of life is touched by aviation; so much good lands at the city’s front door. It’d almost be a crime not to share it. We plan to continue, because a mile of highway will take you a mile. But a mile of runway can take you anywhere.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 3, 2019 Susan

The Liberty Gazette

December 3, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: On February 3, 1959, over the Atlantic Ocean from Paris to New York, Pan Am flight 115 had a sudden emergency. I won’t go into details (you can look those up), but as you can imagine, the 119 passengers on board were frightened out of their wits when they dropped suddenly from a cruise altitude of 35,000 feet down to 6,000 in a matter of minutes. You might notice, depending on your age, this was the same day the music died. 

We all know you’re safer in the air than on the ground, and this story has a happy ending. The crew regained control of the airplane, stopped the rapid descent, and made an emergency landing safely in Gander, Newfoundland. 

Among the passengers was a gal named Susan. Now, Susan was 26 and a go-getter. However, this incident threw her for a loop. She refused to fly on the business trips her career demanded of her. She went to a hypnotist, and the treatment was helpful, but Susan needed to conquer her fear, not put it to sleep. You know where this is going. 

The harrowing incident was beyond her control, but her reaction to it wasn’t. So, conquer it, she did. In 1964, Susan learned to fly. And because she was Susan, tenacious, relentless, on-the-move, Susan, she didn’t just learn and quit. She learned, bought an airplane and became the fourth woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Then in 1967, as an American fluent in Russian, she thought she’d fly her Aero Commander 200, named “Chance II,” from New York to Moscow. But the Soviets found nothing interesting about her idea and denied her entry into their air space, grounding her in Denmark, which would have been her final leg on the way to Moscow. You can read her story in her book, “Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey.” 

But hey, what’s a Russian attempt at insult to a woman like Susan? “Nee-chee-vo” (that’s “nothing” in Russian). 

In 1970, she and her race partner, Margaret Mead (not the anthropologist) won the Powder Puff Derby, and she so impressed the aviation world that Learjet asked if she’d learn to fly a Lear and help market their aircraft. She was a busy woman, so that only lasted a little while, but she did find time to earn her instrument rating, commercial single and multi-engine land, and private pilot glider certificates. She wouldn’t let February 3, 1959 be the day her music died. 

Her fear of flying extinguished, Susan boarded airliners with confidence, which, as I mentioned, was necessary for her career. You might recognize Susan Oliver, highly sought-after actress and director, as "Vina," the lead lady character—“the green girl”—in the first pilot Star Trek episode, “The Menagerie.” She accepted many acting roles, playing opposite all the major male stars, in shows such as Wagon Train, Twilight Zone, and Magnum, P.I. She directed episodes of M*A*S*H and Trapper John, M.D. 

But she also flew. Because she overcame. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 26, 2019 Abby's Turn

The Liberty Gazette

November 26, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By special guest author, Abby

Hi, my name is Abby. I’m the furry four-legger who lives with Mike and Linda. I wanted to share what I’m thankful for, so while they were sleeping, I accessed Google Translate to get my thoughts onto their computer. I have so much to say about airplanes and flying, and given they’ve had this space every week for twelve and half years, I don’t feel bad about hijacking it just once.

When I was a young girl, the Elys found me at a shelter. I had been paired in a crate with a boy named Chip, and the lady from the shelter talked them into taking us both. I’m glad we came to Liberty to live because when they leave the big front door open, I love to watch through the glass door and bark at all the people who go by. I also bark at the deer at night, but those coyotes and hogs, well, they’re kind of scary.

But you know what’s not scary? Flying! Okay, I will admit I was a wee bit nervous the first time. But when we landed in Llano and got out to sniff the grass… ah, the new smells! The new spots to pee! It was doggie paradise!

And you know what? There are more dogs like me who have been helped by pilots and airplanes. I heard Mike and Linda talking about a program called Pilots N Paws, and it warms my heart to know that so many people who fly love animals that much!

My tail can’t stop wagging from reading all the wonderful stories on the Pilots N Paws website, http://www.pilotsnpaws.org/.

Like Mary and her husband, Todd, pilots from Hunstville, Alabama. On their 73rd Pilots N Paws flight, they flew eight puppies to Jacksonville, Florida, where another pilot took them on to their final destination in Sanford. This was Mary’s way of celebrating her birthday. I’m going to quote her here, because I love what she said. “Unfortunately, many others aren’t as lucky, and as you all know, the only answer to this devastating issue is to spay, neuter, and rescue. All of these dogs are really sweet, and they deserve to be curled up on the living room floor at night—not tossed out like trash.” I love you, Mary!

Oh, and Brad. He is so handsome! You must check him out on the website. I’m thinking of asking Mike and Linda if they’d like to take me to Florida to meet him. Brad was living in a shelter in Bainbridge, Georgia when the Pilots N Paws group offered to help get him to the Labrador Retriever Rescue near Tampa. Pilots Preston and Jenna flew him there, and now he’s in safe hands. He’s so good-looking, I bet he’ll have a forever home in no time!

And I don’t even mind that they help cats, too. In fact, I would be thankful if that orange cat that runs the neighborhood got on a one-way flight somewhere.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 19, 2019 Challenge Air

The Liberty Gazette

November 19, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: It’s that time of year again when pilots eager to share their love of flight descend on Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport and meet up with families of special needs children and a hundred volunteers. The day is simultaneously rewarding and exhausting. I always come away with a few favorite stories. One this year is about a young man with Down syndrome. A recent high school graduate who had served in the JROTC, graduating with the rank of Major, he was one of the last co-pilots to fly before the sun set.

He returned to the hangar, escorted under the balloon arch and down the red carpet lined with cheering fans, and met his mom at the end. I turned back to look again, and saw his mom wrap her arms around him, his head buried in her. I walked over to them and asked, “Is everything okay? Is there anything you need?”

His mom just smiled and replied, “No, thanks, we’re fine. He’s just overwhelmed. His grandfather flew bombers in World War II, so flying in a plane today is very important to him.”

That’s enough to move me to tears, too. Here was one proud young fellow who had just flown with a special mission in mind: “I flew for my grandfather,” he said.

The great celebration in the hangar included clowns, face painting, arts and crafts, the Chick-fil-A cow, the H-E-B walking grocery bag, Santa Claus, and someone in a pink dinosaur costume. Families and volunteers danced to the music the disc jockey blasted out from hi-fidelity speakers, and everyone loved it. Except, that is, those who are sensory sensitive. Mostly, kids with autism.

“Special needs” covers a wide range, and events intended for “special needs kids” are too often planned without regard to the special needs of kids with autism who cannot take heavy doses of stimuli. I learned this from Jennifer and Wes, a couple who brought their son to Challenge Air last year. “The flight was great,” they explained, “but the rest of it is too much.” So, they offered to make it better for other kids this year.

They set up a walled tent and equipped it with individual floor mats, bean bag chairs, small hand-size plush toys perfect for squeezing, and weighted blankets. This was what they wished had been there last year when their son was bothered by all the noise and activity while awaiting his turn to fly.

One boy came in and immediately lay down on one of the floor mats, finally in a quiet space where he felt comfortable. He tapped the floor mat and said, “Like.” When Santa Claus peeked in the tent to check on how things were going, Jennifer invited him to lie down quietly with the boy. There, in his own element, calming before his flight, he and Santa had a heartwarming bonding.

Thanks to Jen and Wes, the sensory-sensitive tent was a big hit. We look forward to its expanded presence next year.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 12, 2019 Auto-land

The Liberty Gazette

November 12, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Electronics manufacturer Garmin announced at the end of last month a project they’d been secretly working on for eight years – Garmin Autoland – which they say can save an airplane with an incapacitated pilot or even take over and land when the weather is too rough for the pilot to land.

Eventually they may offer this for small aircraft such as ours, but for now, they’re starting with small jets, the Piper M600, and then the Cessna Vision Jet. Aircraft must be already equipped with the Garmin’s G3000 advanced navigation system and auto-throttle.

It took the dedication of over 100 Garmin engineers to come to this marvel that is being so widely celebrated in the aviation industry. Among those were human factors experts whose input included requirements built so that non-pilot passengers would be able to switch on the device and understand what’s happening.

The company has already flown more than 800 auto-lands while testing in a variety of aircraft, including piston airplanes. And it seems they’ve thought of everything. All the pilot has to do before flight is show the passenger(s) where the button is, and explain that if the pilot becomes incapacitated, just push that button. The airplane will take over from there.

It will find the nearest safe airport to land on, it will radio for emergency help, it will slow the plane as it descends and lower the landing gear and flaps. It will line up and land right on the center line of the runway, slow to a stop, and shut off the engine(s).

On three screens, passenger(s) will be advised of what is happening at all times, including a map showing the path the airplane is taking, a view with synthetic vision, and a timer advising how many minutes and miles to go. There is also voice command, which will warn passengers not to touch any controls, and when the airplane lands, instructions how to open the doors to exit.

This news has been the buzz ever since it hit the skies, and my friend Yasmina, with whom Mike and I have conducted many a Pinch Hitter course, texted me the morning of the announcement, saying, “I guess we won’t be teaching non pilots how to land airplanes anymore!”

Mike: Avionics have come a long way since I started flying over forty years ago. These tools have made life easier in the cockpit, allowing pilots to stay on top of everything that goes on while flying. Technology is also being tested on simulated hijacking scenarios so that a remote pilot can take over and land the aircraft.

But as nifty as these gadgets are, they are just tools. However smart these machines seem, artificial intelligence will never replace the pilot’s reasoning, born from skills developed by good training, and judgement developed through experience. Falling back on tech as a safety device is okay, relying on it as a primary or sole means of operation is a recipe for disaster.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 5, 2019 A Different Windy City

The Liberty Gazette

November 5, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When high winds hit New York City in mid-October, many flights were delayed or canceled. The average delay was just over four hours for those who had not yet departed for New York. For those enroute, the average hold time in the air was 44 minutes. Flights operated with smaller aircraft that have less capability for landing in high crosswinds were nixed altogether. Those mostly were coming from cities closer to New York, whereas larger aircraft are used for longer distances. And how did I come by the details of this not uncommon scenario at this particular time? Mom’s bucket list.

Mom said the last thing she wanted to be sure she did before she leaves this life was to go to the top of the World Trade Center with her three daughters. She wanted a “ladies-only” weekend trip to New York City where we could have a slumber party in a hotel on Times Square and take in Manhattan. I’ll do anything for my mom. Even that.

My sister Diane flew from Bellingham to Seattle, and then took a direct flight from Seattle to JFK on a Boeing 737-900. The crosswinds at JFK were reported to be straight out of the west at 29 knots, gusting to 37. The runways are oriented northeast-southwest, and northwest-southeast. Just picture an X. Those are the options for landing. With the wind coming from straight west, no matter which runway you pick, you have a crosswind. However, it wouldn’t be a direct 90-degree crosswind, since you’d be angled one way or another. Using the highest number, 37-knot gusts, the indirect crosswind came to about 28.3 knots at JFK. That number is well within the 737-900’s capabilities, as long as the runway is dry and in good condition.

However, Mom and my sister Barbara were coming from Indianapolis, a much shorter distance. Their chariot was an Embraer 175. The maximum crosswind of this aircraft is about 7 or 8 knots less, putting them much closer to their limitation. With the forecast calling for continued high winds throughout the night, the airline canceled that flight.

And here I was, heading to Bush Intercontinental, for a flight I knew would be delayed, but on an aircraft I knew could land there.

Long story shortened, we all made it. Mom and Barbara caught a different flight, and I was the last one in, arriving around 1:00 a.m.

Mom won’t be deterred, so we got up early enough to walk Central Park and experience the famous Russian Tea Room, one of Mom’s favorite places. The rest of the weekend included seeing Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway—in Yiddish; dinner at the exclusive Patsy’s Italian Restaurant (where Frank Sinatra had his own spot), and we even scored one of the five tables in the Sinatra Room; and lunch at the top of the World Trade Center, the impetus for this trip.

Mom was determined to take part in the victory of being American, rising from the ashes, no matter which way the wind blows.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 29, 2019 Colorado Cool-Ade

The Liberty Gazette

October 29, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: The CH-54 Skycrane is so unique looking, it draws a lot of attention. But sometimes, you might not want as much as you get. Last week, Curtis Laird told part of the story of picking up a cargo pod at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, using the big Crane to carry it to Fort Benning, Georgia. This helicopter can carry about 20,000 pounds. It’s no lightweight.

The first leg of that trip was the adventure he shared last week. Here’s what happened after the fuel stop, on the second leg.

Curtis: We planned our next fuel stop to be an airport in Mississippi. As we landed, we immediately realized this airfield was the headquarters for the Mississippi Highway Patrol Aviation Division.

Now a CH-54 draws about as much attention as a B-52, and it wasn’t long before a bunch of them Mississippi pilots had gathered ‘round to ogle our aircraft. The shut-down procedures take a few minutes to complete, and once we had that done, we got out to stretch our legs just as one of the state troopers walked up and asked to look inside the pod – the cargo we were carrying.

Our quick-thinking crew chief advised the trooper that there was classified material on board and no one was allowed within twenty feet of the aircraft.

We filled up with fuel and got on our way, our last leg of this trip back to Fort Benning. Once we were in the air, I asked the crew chief why he told the trooper there was classified material on board. The last time I had checked, there was nothing there but a tarp with a few pieces of luggage under it.

Then someone on the intercom mentioned that some of the guys at Fort Benning would like to have some “Colorado Cool-Ade” and there were a few cases under that tarp. Of course, they were referring to Coors beer, and figured the fine trooper might be a bit surprised if he saw it.

Mike: From firefights and tarantulas, and John-Wayne-style defense in Vietnam to smuggling coveted brew into Georgia that back then you couldn’t buy east of here, Curtis Laird’s accumulated adventures have turned him into a storyteller. If you run into him in the grocery store, take advantage of the opportunity to hear some more, because, as Harry Reasoner explained, “A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying, immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter. That is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot.”

Indeed, the helicopter pilot is a different breed. They must anticipate trouble, and as a result, they dance to the beat of their own drum.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 22, 2019 Laird Stateside

The Liberty Gazette

October 22, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: We’re back with more from Curtis Laird, this time, flying here in his own country.

Curtis: While stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia as operations officer of the 478th Heavy Helicopter Company, we received a mission to fly a CH-54 “Skycrane” to pick up a cargo pod at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This helicopter weighs about 20,000 pounds when it’s empty. It can carry so much load and still fly weighing as much as 42,000 pounds. The fuel stops on the return trip were the places that gave me more stories to tell.

Nearing our first stop, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, we advised the tower controller we’d be refueling. To our surprise, they advised of “a situation in progress,” and they’d direct us where to park. Unfortunately, they were leading us to a light load parking area. To top it off, the area had just been paved with asphalt. Fresh asphalt in Louisiana in July could be a problem for such heavy aircraft. We’d be taking on several thousands of pounds of fuel and if we parked there, we’d sink for sure. Somehow, this information fell on deaf ears. They told us to stay put and a refueler would be with us shortly. When we were ready to depart, we were told again to wait. All this time, our helicopter’s weight (now heavier with full fuel) couldn’t have been good news for that new paving job.

My solution to this problem was to request a vertical take-off to 5,000 feet. Then, whatever “situation” they had in progress wouldn’t be affected by us taxiing or otherwise being in the way. By this time, we had sunk eight inches into the asphalt, so I advised the tower controller we’d be upward bound as soon as we got unstuck. To accomplish this, we rocked the bird to loosen it from the sticky stuff. The “collective” is what you pull to make the helicopter go up. I pulled it up to my armpit, and in about a minute we were straight up, 5,000 feet.

Since they’d been so difficult to work with just getting fuel, I had one last “dig” for them before we were out of their airspace. “You’ll need to get someone out to that parking apron,” I said, “and fill those holes before someone taxis into one.” The silence was golden.

The controller evidently wasn’t familiar with the capabilities of our ship. The Skycrane set several records back in 1968: A vertical climb to 9,800’ in one minute, 38 seconds; a vertical climb to 29,000’ in seven minutes, 54 seconds; and a max ceiling (the highest it could go) of 31,400’.

The next flight offered a bit of a surprise.

Linda: You’ll have to wait until next week for that one. But it’s worth it. Here’s a hint: that CH-54 is so unique looking, it draws a lot of attention. Sometimes, you might not want as much as you get.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 15, 2019 Curtis Laird on How to Drop Gunpowder

The Liberty Gazette

October 15, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Remember last week’s story from the Literature of Laird, about him going all John Wayne and getting those seven dump trucks in a circle to protect their aircraft overnight from the Viet Cong? That happened in Kontum and just a few days later, he was assigned another mission to fly back there again.

Curtis: On that next mission, it seemed the enemy wanted to make everybody miserable as they started a periodic shelling of the airfield and some of the surrounding area. We were flying loads of gunpowder and projectiles to the friendly artillery as they were trying to make the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese miserable also.

These loads we carried with our heavy-duty helicopters called Cranes averaged between 14,000 and 15,000 pounds each. That’s a lot of gunpowder. We were in-bound with our first load when we radioed those in charge at the Kontum airfield to ask where they wanted us to release it. We were quite surprised at the instructions. It seemed the bad guys were trying to knock out the airfield, and we would have to deliver the loads onto the beds of moving five-ton trucks.

The “plan,” if you want to call it that, was as we would make our approach, a truck would zoom out of a revetment and race down the runway, dodging the craters from their mortar attacks. We would approach the moving vehicle from the rear and deposit the load in the bed. The truck would continue, darting back into another revetment for safety. Like other unique situations we encountered in war, this was another one of those “no rehearsal” exercises.

Although we all had a lot of apprehension about surviving this plan, fortunately, it worked. Three weeks later, my unit relocated south about 120 miles, and there was no more Kontum for a while.

Linda: When Curtis was back in the U.S., he flew medivac for the U.S. Army. That experience showed him that people are capable of doing the worst things to each other, no matter what country they’re in. But he also had some interesting experiences flying here stateside. And talk about the importance of being flexible, ready for anything and ability to “turn on a dime”… Fortunately, Curtis’ previous forays into adventure taught him to think fast on his feet. Like that time he was flying from Fort Benning, Georgia to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to pick up a cargo pod for the 478th Heavy Helicopter Company.

Nearing the fuel stop at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, Curtis and crew advised the tower controller they’d be refueling. To their surprise, the controller advised of “a situation in progress,” and they’d direct the helicopter where to park. Unfortunately, they led them to a light load parking area which had just been paved with asphalt. Fresh asphalt in Louisiana in July could be a problem for such heavy aircraft. Come back next week for that story and more.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 8, 2019 Curtis Laird's John Wayne Moment

The Liberty Gazette

October 8, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: When Linda and I visited Vietnam a couple of years ago, our Mekong River tour guide, Vi, explained that the area was once heavily populated by tigers. Linda asked, “Where are all the tigers now?” Vi said with a grin, “They went to the restaurants.”

Curtis Laird is back this week with more from his time in Vietnam.

Curtis: Upon arriving “in country” for my second tour, in August of 1968, I received numerous briefings and an update on the tactical situation. A few days later, I was in the cockpit getting my in-country checkout, and it felt good to be back in the air again. A few days after this, I was flying missions with a more experienced aircraft commander. One of those missions I remember well was to fly to Kontum and extract two 155mm Howitzers from a mountaintop fire base and deliver them to the Kontum airfield.

The first lift went well, and we returned to the mountaintop for our second lift. After hook-up and hover check, we transitioned out of the fire base enroute to the airfield. It was then that the #1 engine dropped completely offline. This created a situation all aviators hate to be caught up in.

We contacted Kontum and advised them of our problem, and that we would try and release our 15,000-pound load by the runway. The plan was to make a modified running landing and release right before touchdown. We went over the plan with the flight engineer and crew chief. All agreed, this was our best option. There would be no rehearsals.

Fortunately, the plan worked perfectly. After the artillery guys got their guns and left, we checked the aircraft over and determined the engine malfunction was due to a mechanical problem. Unfortunately, the needed parts would have to be flown in from Camp Hollaway in Pleiku. It was getting dark, and we were in the rainy season which meant the flight crew would have to stay overnight in the bunkers. The aircraft would be left out in the open, a prime target for the enemy.

However, there happened to be an Engineer Dump Truck Company in the area. After locating the commander and explaining our situation to him, he agreed to let us borrow seven dump trucks to surround our aircraft. We hoped the trucks would protect the helicopters from rocket and mortar fire.

After positioning the trucks, we all retired to the bunkers where we spent a restless night. There were many explosions overnight, but mostly from a distance. The maintenance crew flew in the next day with the parts, and by the time we were back up and flyable, it was already getting dark again. But we were not keen on spending another night in Kontum, John Wayne style, so we flew back to Camp Hollaway, that being the lesser risk.

Linda: Good thing the tigers were gone by then. The people there were bad enough.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 1, 2019 Curtis Laird's Wildlife

The Liberty Gazette

October 1, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We met up with Dayton’s Curtis Laird again. That always results in storytelling, you know. During his tours in Vietnam, the veteran helicopter pilot took time to see the beauty of the country and the wild, wildlife.

Curtis: The beaches and coastal area of Vietnam are amazing. White sand, blue sea, and coconut palms made me wonder if Robinson Crusoe was following me. I’d marvel at the full moon over the South China Sea, and especially the contrails of about twenty-five B-52s, in the moonlight.

On one of my daytime missions along the coast, we were to fly from Qui Nhon to Nha Trang and recon some islands. There was a little scud (low clouds) onshore, so we flew about a quarter mile offshore. A few minutes into the flight, I saw on the horizon what appeared to be a swift boat. These were not common in this area. As we closed in on it, we ruled out boat but still could not identify it. I told the crew chief and gunner to ready up. We were going to check it out. Upon close observation, we discovered we’d prepared for battle with a giant oceanic manta ray on a feeding frenzy. It was a beautiful sight, as it would lift its wings out of the water, then slap the surface, then swim around and feed on its prey. We estimated it to be fifteen feet from wingtip to wingtip, but those rays can get over twenty-five feet.

Some of the other coastal wildlife and fowl are wild deer, ducks, peafowl, cuckoos, pheasants, and lots of no-shoulders. That is, snakes.

Going inland to the central highlands, it’s like entering a different world. Lush vegetation, waterfalls, valleys with steep slopes of greenery. There are wild boar, bear, monkeys, and green, blue and yellow parakeets, which leads me to another tale.

We were coming off general support status, relocating to provide assistance to another unit. The flight leader decided we would fly low level in loose formation. There were some uncomfortable feelings about this. There we were at treetop level (sometimes referred to as the nap of the earth), twelve aircraft going about 90-100 knots. Well into the flight, the leader made some erratic movements. We thought he was taking fire, but he came up on the radio and advised he’d had a bird strike. That was a relief given the alternative, but it did leave a big hole in the left chin bubble.

After things settled down from that excitement, I saw a blue cloud fly by. The radio came to life again. Some of the other crews had seen it also. Then we saw a green cloud about the same size as the blue one. That’s when we discovered we had flown right through parakeet country, putting its residents in panic mode.

Mike: Come back next week for another installment of Laird Storytelling.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 24, 2019 Turnberry and the Bruce!

The Liberty Gazette

September 24, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: “At the round-about take the SECOND exit,” repeats in my head even though we’ve been back from Scotland almost two weeks. The GPS’s message seems permanently planted in my brain. While recently visiting the Scottish Lowlands, I renewed my familiarity with driving from the right seat on the left-hand side of the road while turning right around traffic circles. A lot of traffic circles. The rental car’s navigation system sounded irritated when I did not follow its prompts. At least I didn’t have to shift gears, thanks to the automatic transmission, somewhat of a luxury in Europe.

Linda was on a mission, and I was the designated driver. She is doing research on a notorious ancestor of hers, one Sir Robert Logan, who provided a great deal of material suitable for an epic play. Today’s destination was the ruins of Turnberry Castle, south of Ayr, and the birthplace of Robert the Bruce, a former king of Scotland, also her ancestor. There isn’t much left of the castle, but it provided an opportunity to see part of the country’s west coast.

A lighthouse built in the 19th century now stands where the castle walls were tumbled down early in the 14th century. But some of the old walls are still visible. We took advantage of a break in rain showers and walked half a mile from the parking area through a golf course. That’s when I discovered this was also a Royal Air Force base, not once, but twice. In fact, the paved path on which we strode cut across the middle of a slab of runway.

The links existed before World War I. When the fighting began, the property was requisitioned and turned into a training base for the Royal Air Corps. Cadets spent three weeks learning to fly and shoot guns in aerial combat. When the hostilities were over, it was reverted to long, rough fairways, soft, manicured greens, and a boatload of sand traps.

During World War II, once again it was enlisted. The RAF’s Coastal Command trained pilots in torpedo-bombers to drop a new kind of bomb, the “Highball,” that bounced along the water into the sides of enemy ships. But they never used it in battle. Later, the RAF based their Consolidated B-24 Liberators here. They carried torpedoes, depth charges, and rockets, for knocking out German U-boats in the Atlantic.

From a small hillock, the runway seemed short. The wind whipped, and the rain splattered. A monument to the lost airmen of World War I overlooked the torrential waters of the Firth of Clyde. A bump of granite that formed a dome over a volcano long ago stuck out of the sea. They call the rock Ailsa Craig.

I imagined heavily laden B-24s lumbering down the hastily constructed concrete runways into windswept skies. I listened for the rumble of their radial engines. I’d much rather hear that than the GPS voice enthusiastic about a roundabout.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 17, 2019 More Aerial Adventures of Will Smithson

The Liberty Gazette

September 17, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Will Smithson has landed out in a glider nine times, so far. That means he’s not made it back to the Soaring Club of Houston’s grass runway and someone had to come pick him up. Depending on where he lands, either a tow plane will come, or, if he doesn’t make it to an airport, someone will drive Will’s car and trailer, help him disassemble the glider, and drive back. It’s inconvenient, but glider pilots prepare for it.

The first time he landed out in a glider, he ended up in a field, where the grass was four feet high. Tall growth can make it hard to determine from above how much father the ground is below. Just before landing, the pilot must enter the flare, pulling the nose up slightly for a smooth landing. However, Will flared too high, because he thought the grass was at ground level. “Before I touched down, grass and seeds were flying everywhere, all over the canopy. The ground wasn’t where I expected it to be.”

The rest of that landing was uneventful, and most of his other land-outs haven’t been that thrilling. “The land-out itself isn’t a big deal, as long as you pick an appropriate field. I’ve done it so many times that now it only takes me twenty to thirty minutes to take the plane apart.”

But there was that one time. As the thermals dissipated, he realized he would have to land. “By then, I was pretty confident I could land anywhere. The field below me was about fourteen hundred feet with a fence in the middle. ‘No big deal,’ I thought, ‘I can get over the fence. I’ll put out the spoilers and have six to seven hundred feet to stop.’ But close to the ground, I saw it was going downhill. I was moving forward, still trying to get the glider to touch the ground.” The slope wasn’t discernible from the air.

Finally, Will touched down, but on the ground roll, the fence and trees seemed to be coming at him fast. He applied full right rudder and aileron and stopped 80 feet from the trees, ground-looping the plane. Fortunately, there was no major damage.

In the moment, Will says, “I was so busy flying the plane, that I wasn’t scared. My only thought process was flying and landing the plane. But after that, I figured my risk tolerance was too high. I needed more of a buffer.”

Someday, Will would like a plane with a motor, because then he can be more adventurous. Meanwhile, his brick award is at home. It’s actually a foam block painted red. But it's not the only recognition he received at last year's banquet. He also won first place in sport class local competition, the spirit of soaring award, and the taco award—a special one club members made up just for him because, “Ask anyone who picks me up. My car is a mess.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 10, 2019 The Aerial Beginnings of Will Smithson

The Liberty Gazette

September 10, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

The little black thing Will Smithson saw in the air looked like a bird. It wasn’t really soaring in circles, as he was accustomed to seeing them do, but perhaps it was just doing its thing. As he commanded his glider closer, taking advantage of the lift provided by the thermal, he could finally make out what that “bird” was doing. It was a trash bag flitting around, stuck in the updraft.

Will had always been interested in aviation. When he was 22, he tried to find the cheapest way to fly. His internet search introduced him to hang gliding. He knew as they were climbing to altitude on the demo ride that this could be his entry to the flying world.

Will learned how air rises and moves, and that thermals give you lift. But with hang gliders, you’re always “landing out,” meaning when there’s no more lift, you’re coming down, and landing where you are, as opposed to returning to land at an airfield. After four years of this, he wanted something more. Another internet search resulted in his discovering that gliders have a 40:1 glide ratio, which sure beat his hang glider’s 12:1 ratio. By moving up to a sailplane, he’d get forty feet forward for every one foot down. That would sure improve his chances of finding those thermals and staying aloft longer.

In January 2017, Will went to the Soaring Club of Houston and took a demo ride. He was hooked and joined same day, saying, “I thought it was expensive. But then talked myself into it, because you only live once, and this is what I wanted to do.”

Will sold his hang glider and bought a sailplane. Someday, he would like to fly powered aircraft, but for now, he’s learning so much about soaring, he can’t give it up. “You’re engaged for four or five hours, always busy, always thinking what’s ahead, what’s in the next cloud, engaged the whole time.”

In fact, he says soaring has ruined his life completely. “Friends want me to join them on trips, like going back to Honduras, where I grew up. But there aren’t any sites to see there. Why go, when I could spend that money on flying? I want to be flying my glider! One-third of my day I spend thinking about cross-country flying. It’s the first and last thing I think about—when I wake up, and when I go to bed.

Over the past two and a half years, Will has learned a great deal about himself as well as aerodynamics and thermal dynamics, because he’s willing to push the limits. All that time spent hang gliding increased his comfort zone for landing anywhere.

“Landing out,” he says, “I’m pretty well-known for that.” At last year’s awards banquet, he was given the brick award and dubbed the land-out king.

Next week we’ll share some of his wild soaring adventures, including one that made him rethink his tolerance for risk.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 3, 2019 My Scottish Airline, Loganair

The Liberty Gazette

September 3, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Once upon a time, before I was born, William Logan owned a construction company in his homeland Scotland. Willie, as they called him, had projects all over the country, and he’d hire an air taxi (charter) to fly him to work sites farther away. The same year I popped into the world and was given the family name Logan as my middle name, that air taxi company faced financial troubles. Since Willie relied on the economy and efficiency of air travel for business, he bought the company and re-named it Loganair. They had one airplane, a Piper Aztec.

Now I’ve flown an Aztec, or as some call it, an “Az-truck.” It’s an okay airplane. Great for training in multi-engine aircraft and, I suppose, for starting an airline in 1962. You gotta begin somewhere. There was a lot of paperwork to do, approvals required from the government and all that red tape. As my parents were celebrating my first birthday in October, Loganair took off on its first scheduled flight, a short hop, Dundee to Edinburgh, where Willie was the main contractor building the Tay Road bridge, one of the longest in Europe.

Business grew when they won the contract to deliver newspapers to Stornoway, an island in the Outer Hebrides, about halfway to Iceland. When they unloaded papers from the Aztec, the sheepherders filled it back up with woven cloth to take to Harris Tweed. Then came contracts for service to other islands and an air ambulance. The fleet expanded to five aircraft based at Glasgow.

Things were going great, until January 22, 1966, when Willie wanted to return home from a construction site late at night. The weather was cloudy, and the dispatcher told him there was no suitable aircraft for flying in low clouds at night. No problem, he’d take a train. Or not. He changed his mind and called another air taxi company, which turned out to be a deadly mistake. That operation was unapproved, and the pilot was unfamiliar with the area and carried no navigation charts. When he descended through the clouds, the airplane hit a hill and that was the end of Willie Logan. The insurance claim was denied, and the construction company dissolved.

But the bank took over Loganair’s assets and eventually found a buyer. The airline is still based at Glasgow, now with a fleet of 25 and even has its own registered tartan, the clan design painted on the tail.

Among the over 40 routes they own throughout Scotland, England, and the Channel Islands, is the world’s shortest commercial flight. Depending on the wind, it takes Loganair’s Britten Norman Islander about 80 seconds to fly 1.7 miles between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands. With a population less than 100, building bridges isn’t economical. The only other option is a very slow ferry, making the hop in an eight-passenger Islander the most popular choice. Someday, I’d like to take that flight in an airplane with my name on it.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 27, 2019 The Last Day of Re-Flights

The Liberty Gazette

August 27, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We had great fun filling the week with re-flights around Southern California. Flying select cross-country flights with Mike allowed me to share in his memories of his earliest days aviating.

He still has friends out there where he grew up, and one couple invited us to stay the night before we started our long flight home. They rounded up another friend Mike grew up with, and we all went to dinner together. Since we’re vegan, Asian restaurants make a good choice when we’re with a group of meat-eaters. Avocado rolls and edamame are always on the menu.

Mike’s buddies wanted to know what he was up to, what this trip west was all about. He’s writing a book of historic interest for pilots on the significant changes that have occurred in the way we fly, since he began his journey in flight training 44 years ago. For research, we took the same type of airplane he learned in, back to the same airspace, and retraced his chem trails, noting differences in FAA regulations, shape and size of controlled airspace, changes in the number and busyness of airports and air traffic control towers, and much more. Technology has changed much of the way we fly, too. Both in and outside the cockpit, technological advances have made flying easier, even in the crowded skies over Southern California.

On the way back from the Japanese sushi house, at a stoplight, we thought Leandro, whose big truck we were in, was messing with us, pumping hydraulics or brakes or something. The truck was a-rockin’! Randy, Nancy, and I were laughing at Leandro, saying, “Okay, that’s enough bouncing the truck.” But just then, Mike hollered, “Look at the traffic lights! He’s not doing it—it’s another earthquake!”

Only one day after my first quake, I had just experienced my second. It came from the same epicenter, but jostled us with more magnitude, 7.1 this time. To me, it was exciting. When we returned to our hosts’ home, their dining room chandelier and heavy window blinds were still swaying.

As we do when hurricanes threaten us here, everyone turns on the TV news to find out what they need to know. From the local news channels, I learned about Dr. Lucy Jones, an amazing expert from Cal Tech. She’s been at this a long time and reports what’s happening geologically. Somehow, she takes complex technical details and makes them easy for non-geologists to comprehend. No wonder she’s so popular.

Departing the next morning, we flew the rest of the day and overnighted in Las Cruces. Landing back home the following day, we tucked the Elyminator back in the nest, and tallied it all up: 10 days, 41.7 hours of flight time, 4,075 nautical miles, 32 landings, 21 pages of notes, 2 earthquakes, many good friends, and loads of memories.

Every day of this adventure was chock-full of fun. These past few articles have been teasers for Mike’s upcoming book. We’ll let you know when it’s out.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 20, 2019 Strawberries

The Liberty Gazette

August 20, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Strawberries sold for $5 a flat back in the 1980s. A flat holds 12 pint-sized baskets and I could fit about a dozen flats in the nose of a Beech 99, a twin-engine turboprop, without crushing them.

When I flew freight for Cal Air back then, I’d hop around to all these cities in Southern California, at first collecting cancelled checks and later moving up to flying UPS feeder duty out of Ontario. One of the regular runs I flew had me laying over in Oxnard for the day. With some of the richest soil in all the country, it was a strawberry-growing place if I ever saw one.

Before leaving the airport in the morning, some of my fellow pilots would hand over a five and place their order for strawberries. After making my morning run and offloading cargo in Oxnard, I’d head out to fill those orders—strawberries fresh from a farmer’s field. I’d bring them back to all the pilots at our base, and I’d save some to bring back home to Mom.

Linda: He was probably hoping for homemade strawberry pie in appreciation for his efforts. His mom was a great cook.

During our re-flight of the early days of Mike’s first logbook, on approach into Oxnard, I wondered if all those rows of ground covered with big white plastic might be strawberry fields. But then, we had no room for a flat of strawberries. We were already near maximum gross weight with the camping gear and a week’s worth of stuff. Still, I could imagine the taste of fresh strawberries just then.

That reminds me of a side-story about strawberries. Humor me a random interlude. When I moved here to Liberty, my brother-in-law, Rusty Blue, was keeping a garden in my back yard. I wanted fresh strawberries, so I told him that would be a good thing to plant. Of course, he suggested if that was something I wanted, then I should do the planting. But I know my brother-in-law. All I had to do was go buy the tray of strawberry plants and place them by the garden. Sure enough, he stuck them in neat little mounds. They produced sweet berries!

But back to Oxnard. As we were on final for the runway, just over the highway, besides wondering if all those covered fields had juicy red fruit growing, I wondered if the people on the road below us could read the words on the bottom of the Elyminator – “Stuck In Traffic?” I’ve enjoyed having that sign on the bottom of the airplane ever since we put it there in 2012. It gets lots of laughs.

Mike: I rarely carried any cargo in the nose of that Beech 99 other than the strawberries. So, the evening flights back to Ontario during harvest season often meant the sweet scent wafted its way through the airplane during the thirty-minute flight. It also made that airplane the most popular and welcomed on the UPS ramp.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 13, 2019 Favorites of the Re-flight

The Liberty Gazette

August 13, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When the person you love tells you stories of a time pre-us, you long to know what it was like. Flying the routes with Mike that he flew when he was a new pilot gave me an opportunity to explore today’s airspace in yesteryear’s flights. Of the many airports we landed at, I picked five favorites.

Kern Valley was one (my first earthquake). Others were Long Beach, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, and in a way, El Monte. I wrote about those first three over the last couple of weeks.

A few years ago, we stayed a weekend at Avalon on Catalina Island. Unfortunately, this time, we couldn’t stay, but landing at the “Airport in the Sky” and spending thirty minutes at the restaurant/gift shop was nice. Avalon is romantic, so you can bet we’ll be back. Probably when the Zane Grey Hotel re-opens after remodeling.

Why El Monte? Because that’s where Mike learned to fly. This was where his story began. And it was my first time there. When the tower controller instructed me to fly over the Santa Fe dam and follow the water toward the runway, I couldn’t tell immediately where that was for all the congestion below. But Mike was taken back to a place long forgotten. From that moment on, the week of re-flights created its own special place in our hearts.

We dropped in on Burbank and visited one of Mike’s former co-workers still at Ameriflight (formerly California Air Charter – CalAir). Pete handed Mike his I.D. photo from 1985, in which he looked a bit different than today. The guys reminisced a while, then we took off to replicate the first leg of his first flight for CalAir. It was a short one, Burbank to Riverside, about 30 minutes. On October 1, 1985, young Mike carried 1,100 pounds of canceled checks and bank mail in a Piper Lance.

Approaching to land at Riverside, I laughed in appreciation of the “note” at the end of the runway. Painted in large white letters is, “Wheels,” a nice reminder for every pilot, every time, to check that their landing gear is down.

I cannot imagine what it felt like for Mike to revisit this flight, but it swirls in my heart. In the years since then, he’s been the chief pilot for an international corporation, flying all over the world, and people have come to him from around the globe for instruction in flying jets. To come back to Riverside, flying that first leg from Burbank, thinking about the freight he carried, must have brought a tidal wave of thoughts and emotions. He had to be on time in those days before electronic banking. In the Piper Lance, every minute it took to get his cargo to its destination meant thousands of dollars in interest. Later, when he flew canceled checks in a Learjet, he carried billions, with every minute being worth millions. That’s more than a flat of strawberries, which I’ll tell you about next week.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 6, 2019 Shaken, But Not Stirred

The Liberty Gazette

August 6, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: My first earthquake experience happened July 4 this year, as we prepared to depart our camp-by-your-airplane spot at Kern Valley Airport. What a feeling, the earth moving as we stuffed our gear into the baggage compartment! We didn’t know yet where the epicenter was, or the magnitude. The runway looked fine, so we took off, back over Lake Isabella and headed up the Owens Valley at 8,500’, part of a route Mike used to fly regularly. There’s so much history and geology there.

Mt. Whitney

With Lone Pine Airport off our right wing, and Mt. Whitney off our left, we were between the highest and lowest points in the Continental U.S.: Mt. Whitney is 14,491’, and just 88 miles away is Bad Water in Death Valley, elevation minus 282’!

Lone Pine Airport

We flew north, over the Alabama Hills. From the sky, it was just a little clump of hills, but this has been the most popular location for filming Westerns since the silent movie days of Tom Mix. Many scenes in John Wayne movies were shot there.

The perspective from the Elyminator above this grand valley is stunning, but not void of some sad history. We had a good view of Manzanar, the U.S. internment camp where Japanese people were held during World War II. The airstrip is still visible, as are the outlines of former campsites, now lined with dark clumps of trees across the road from the airstrip. There’s a museum there that tells the history. It was a time of panic in the U.S., and we did the best we knew in a time of fear. If you saw the movie or read the book, “Unbroken,” you know what we feared.

Manzanar

Flying over Manzanar on Independence Day had a sobering effect—oh, the wars we’ve fought. But the next town up the valley was, appropriately, Independence. We circled over Independence and flew back down the Owens Valley, past Mt. Whitney again, and headed to Inyokern to fuel up. That’s where we would learn more about the earthquake.

Approaching Inyokern, we tuned in their common traffic advisory frequency and heard the pilot of a TV news helicopter asking if she could get to the self-serve fuel pump or if there was a fuel truck. Aha! The news must be covering the quake! Mike figured we must be near the epicenter.

CHiP at Inyokern

The California Highway Patrol had landed for fuel in their Cessna 206, as did about four more TV news helicopters. We talked with the airport manager and his fiancé, and learned the epicenter was in the next town, Ridgecrest, only about 30 miles from where we had camped. Magnitude 6.4, with several aftershocks forecast.

Helicopters were transporting patients from the damaged Ridgecrest hospital to hospitals in Lancaster and Palmdale. Other buildings were damaged, too, but the CHP pilots said so far, the roads looked okay.

With fuel in the wing tanks, we took off for more destinations, a couple of which are on my “favorites” list. I’ll tell more next week.

TV News Helicopter at Inyokern

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 30, 2019 Earth Shattering

The Liberty Gazette

July 30, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Ever camp out near a rushing river? Parts of California’s Kern River have Class VI rapids, the highest rating on the International Scale of River Difficulty. Those are death traps for rafters or swimmers, but where the water flows slower, Class I through III are easily enjoyed by the average person.

Lake Isabella

I don’t know the class of the rapids closest to the airport’s campground—maybe Class VI—but about 500 yards from our tent, it sang us to sleep. It was delightful!

Everything about coming to Kern Valley Airport was delightful. I loved the approach to the airport from the south. Just around a mountain, Lake Isabella came into view. Surrounding mountains reflected in her mirrored surface. With the lake off our right wing, we descended into the valley. On the left, and all around the runway, the mountains kept us from flying a wide pattern to land. The visual cues while descending with high terrain all around is fascinating and seems somewhat movie-like. It’s certainly 3D at its best!

We secured the Elyminator with tie-down ropes, set up camp and cooked primitive-style with the latest equipment from REI. The airport’s grassy area caters to fly-in campers in a way every non-airline airport should do. Since there are about 600 airline airports in this country, and about 17,000 non-airline airports, we need the other 16,950 airports to look to Kern Valley as an exquisite example.

Camping at Kern Valley Airport

The entrepreneurial veteran who shuttled us to town for a sunset dinner brought us back later to settle in under billions of stars. Coyotes and jack rabbits ran by in the cool evening, probably wondering who invited us.

The next morning, July 4, we began packing our gear and loading the airplane in preparation for some sight-seeing. I’ve always wanted to fly the Owens Valley, Mike has talked about it so much, as it was part of a route he used to fly regularly. As we were at the baggage compartment, Mike on his knees, stuffing the sleeping bag in, me standing next to him, handing him stuff, suddenly, I felt funny. Surely, I wasn’t getting dehydrated, was I? Maybe I was, I thought my head felt kind of funny, and I wasn’t used to the dry heat.

But no, it wasn’t that at all. A few seconds later, Mike yelled, “Earthquake!”

So, I wasn’t getting sick after all! That was my first earthquake, and now I know how disorienting they are! It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Not like the drama Hollywood has produced, although I’m sure they can be that devastating. One of my sisters was living near the epicenter of the Northridge quake in 1994. There were 57 fatalities reported from that one.

But we were not near any buildings, just mountains and lake. We didn’t know where the quake’s epicenter was, or the magnitude. The runway looked fine, so we took off over Lake Isabella. Come back next week and we’ll fly the Owens Valley together.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 23, 2019 Mike's Re-flights

The Liberty Gazette

July 23, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When I accompanied Mike on his venture back to recreate the earliest pages of his first logbook, something special happened. Landing at the airport in El Monte, California was the first of many places that helped put together so many stories I’ve heard him tell over the years. I didn’t know him 44 years ago when it all began, when he soloed in an airplane for the first time. I was only 10 when he took his first flight. That’s why going back with him had so much to offer. The trip brought me right to the places he’s talked about. The high desert and mountains he loves made their way to my own eyes, and straight to my heart. And now I have my own memories and can picture the area that birthed my favorite pilot.

Long Beach

While his purpose was to document the many changes that have occurred in flying over the past four decades, I soaked in the exciting combination of newness, yet virtual familiarity. Finally, I was flying the flights of his storytelling!

Three of my favorites were Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and Kern Valley.

The Long Beach airport is super cool in a way that’s hard to explain to non-pilots. It’s a busy but spacious airport, with a friendly, small airport feel. Big jets and small prop planes are treated the same here. Kind of like Ellington in south Houston. I also have friends in Long Beach. Nina, who owns a helicopter flight school, and Tanille, who’s working for SpinLaunch. It’s always good to run into friends when you’re far from home. We felt welcome, and the Elyminator was well cared for, parked safely on Ross Aviation’s ramp.

Santa Barbara

Over Santa Barbara, I was awed. The blue-green sea snuggles up to the sandy shore; the mountains just beyond, standing guard. The view from the air is stunning. We parked on the ramp of Signature Flight Support. Usually, the facilities of this world-wide company are upscale. I figured their Santa Barbara location would be a real high-falutin’ place. Was I ever surprised to roll up to a mid-twentieth century hangar and find a humble lobby—the irony of such a simple, old building at an airport where billions of dollars are based! I loved it! It was like going to Chez Nous in Humble and ordering a burger and fries; like your husband’s comfy, old recliner in your new mansion.

Speaking of comfy, the nearby rushing Kern River made for sound sleeping in our tent on the grass next to our plane at the Kern Valley Airport next to Lake Isabella. The mom-and-pop airport cafe even had a separate vegan menu. This was the Fourth of July. On the fence post along the walkway to the diner, a raven perched next to a flowerpot with an American flag stuck in it and looked hopefully through the window at us.

Raven at Kern Valley

There’s so much more to say, so I’ll pick up next week where I’m leaving off here with some earth-shattering news.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 16, 2019 Re-flights

The Liberty Gazette

July 16, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: El Monte, California was where it all began forty-four years ago, when I soloed in an airplane for the first time. There are many public airports in southern California and many flight schools. I picked El Monte Skyways because it was closest to my home. I didn’t have a car because all my money from after school jobs went to flying. I took the bus to school, work, and the airport.

I’ve wanted to go back, reconnect with old friends and re-fly several of my student flights, to see if things are different now. I’ve changed—I’m seasoned. The shape and volume of controlled and restricted airspace have also changed, as have means of navigation and FAA regulations. This was what I wanted to see, the changes flying in the complex and congested area around Los Angeles today.

As Linda flew the Elyminator, I listened to radio chatter and the stream of instructions issued by controllers. When the El Monte tower controller said to fly over the Santa Fe dam and follow the water toward the runway, memories clicked. I was taken back to a place long forgotten.

It was beyond that dam where, as a student, I practiced aerial maneuvers and flew patterns low over the ground. Sometimes, I did this in smoggy conditions. I’d get a special clearance to fly in low visibility. Then I’d follow the flood control channel from the dam’s spillway to a straight-in approach to the runway. The sky is still hazy some days, but it isn’t nearly as bad as I remember it.

Duplicating several cross-country flights from my first logbook, we landed as far south as San Diego Brown Field, only a mile from Mexico and as far north as Kern Valley in the Sierra Nevada, where we camped next to our airplane. We scooted through a special corridor over Los Angeles International to have lunch in Santa Barbara. We could do this more efficiently now, because we have GPS to navigate more directly. This equipment didn’t exist when I was a student.

As we flew between mountains, over deserts and along the sea, Linda took notes as I explained the differences from my new pilot days, such as several of the old airports that no longer exist. Due to politics and greed, houses and industrial parks have replaced them. In one instance, a replacement airport was built only to be threatened by further urban sprawl.

Further, redesigned airspace has added rules in convoluted layers in altitude, designating where one must have a clearance to fly. As a result, activity has increased on already overcrowded radio frequencies. We rarely had a break from the constant staccato of pilot-controller verbiage flowing through our headphones.

In this “going back” adventure, we put 41.7 hours of flight time on the Elyminator over 10 days, flew 4,075 nautical miles, made 34 landings, wrote 21 pages of notes, experienced 2 earthquakes, saw many friends, and made loads of memories. And I noted, so much has changed.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 9, 2019 KSHN FM Memories

The Liberty Gazette

July 9, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: The morning of June 28, Bill Buchanan rocked this part of the world when he announced the sale of KSHN FM.

When he said, “I hope we’ve been of some positive service to this community,” we imagine everyone in Shine All 9’s listening area reflected on stories that confirm Bill’s hope. In fact, it was Hope we thought of.

Besides regular broadcasts of high school football games, the Partyline, and local news, for weeks leading up to Saturday, May 31, 2008, Bill, news director Tiffany York, and others joined forces to pull off an outstanding benefit fly-in. It’s is one of many memories we hold dear, which KSHN helped make a success.

Emotional and financial hardships had descended on a local man and his wife when their second pregnancy ended early with the premature birth of twins. The one baby who survived was hospitalized quite a while, and the bills and upheaval brought trying times with daily trips to the medical center. Their uninsured portion was just shy of $13,000.

Bill promoted the fly-in and as usual, his radio station became the hub for donors and sponsors to join in support. Tiffany put long hours and hard work into planning and logistics, and on the day of the event, it all paid off.

Mike: I took Bill up in our Grumman Cheetah so he could see the sights from above – all the airplanes, the lines of cars, and all the kind-hearted people who had heard Bill talk about the fly-in, whose heartstrings were pulled at the enormity of the burden one local family was asked to bear. From the air, we watched in awe of what people can do for each other.

We flew circles above their remote transmitter. Bill had the birds-eye view and gave a report like none other, which brought more people flocking in.

I’ll never forget that flight with Bill. He spoke into his microphone in one hand and with a radio in the other, checked that his voice was making it down to their audio equipment. Tiffany took care of the rest.

The donor list took up several poster boards hung along the fence. And in the end, Prosperity Bank employees reported over $13,000 raised.

I had a blast flying him, and I’ve enjoyed running into him many other times since then. I can’t help but feel impacted by the sale of the station to KSBJ.

Linda: At 11:30 p.m. on Monday, July 1, the last Community Bulletin Board came on. Then we heard Tiffany’s voice. “It’s twenty-four minutes before the hour and yes, you are still listening to KSHN.” Three songs followed, as we watched the clock: Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” Toto’s “Africa,” and The Beatles’ “Fool on the Hill.”

In the final twelve minutes, she again explained how to listen to KSHN.com online via TuneIn Radio. They played the theme from “A Summer Place,” and then she and Bill said good-bye from the terrestrial station.

“So long everybody.” Bill squeezed out the words, as the Partyline theme began one more time. “So long, we love you, thank you very much for your support.”

As do we, Bill. As do we.

KSHN FM August 8, 1991-July 1, 2019.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 2, 2019 Toddie's Rocket

The Liberty Gazette

July 2, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Clint and Toddie were buds. Both hailed from the Big D, both invested in real estate development, oil, and restaurants. When Clint founded the Dallas Cowboys, Toddie bought a piece of that, too.

Clint was a hands-off owner, trusting the experts he hired to do their jobs. He also loved practical jokes. Before the Cowboys’ first Superbowl, he wrote to Coach Tom Landry: “Dear Tom: I have taught you all I can. From now on, you're on your own.”*

While Clint Murchison lived large, he didn’t live all that long. The last few years of his life, he was bankrupt and battling a rare nerve disease, wheelchair-bound until his death at age 63.

Toddie Lee Wynne’s life went a little differently. He and his brother built Six Flags in Arlington in 1961, the name honoring the six countries that have held power in Texas: Spain, France, The Confederacy, Texas, United States, and Mexico.

Many years before, not far away, the Cuellar family had worked as cotton pickers and cow hands on a ranch in Kaufman. The matriarch was a mother of 12, and accustomed to cooking big meals. One weekend, to help make ends meet, she made extra food and sold it at the county fair. Her dishes were such a hit, she made more money that weekend than the whole family had the entire year. From that success came the El Chico chain of restaurants.

The Wynne family loved Mama Cuellar’s cooking so much, that when they opened Six Flags, one of the first restaurants in the theme park was El Chico. This, friends, is how we got introduced to Tex-Mex. Tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, guacamole, thanks to the Cuellars, and Toddie Wynne.

And here comes the aviation part. It is bitter-sweet.

Toddie partnered with the U.S. government and the state of Texas to purchase Matagorda Island. His one-third of the enclave was the southwestern end, with plenty of room for an airport. Toddie kept his DC-3, and later his Convair there. Oh, the luxury! Astronaut Deke Slayton would fly in and give impromptu airshows. Imagine the parties!

In 1981, his real estate business partner David Hannah II convinced him it was also a great place to relocate their Space Services, Inc. Unfortunately, their Percheron rocket exploded on the launch pad during an engine test. That’s okay, these things happen. Just ask Elon Musk. You regroup, try again.

In 1982, they launched the Conestoga I rocket. It shot 30 miles straight up, as planned. But Toddie would never see the success of his most interesting investment, the first privately-owned rocket to go into space. While waiting for the launch, he had a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital.

Both launch pads are still visible. On the website Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields, you can see aerial photos and old aviation charts that keep the history of Wynne Airport alive.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

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 * Dick Hitt (1992). Classic Clint; the laughs and times of Clint Murchison, Jr. Plano, TX

June 25, 2019 Airplanes and Eateries

The Liberty Gazette

June 25, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The familiar sound of taxiing aircraft lured me out of the cool shade in our hangar. Reverberation from twin propellers rattled all the heavy metal doors. Two Cessna Skyhawks soon appeared rounding the far end of the row of T-hangars. They waltzed their way along, stopping a few units away.

As their engines clattered to a stop, I sauntered over to my hangar neighbors Selby and O.J. to say hi and find out where they’d been. They don’t usually go far, maybe just a quick flight across the bay to Anahuac. They’ll throw bikes in the back of their planes to ride the six or seven minutes from the airport to the Dairy Queen on Ross Sterling Avenue. The destination isn’t as important as the flight. They don’t need much of a reason, they do it just to fly.

Then the process starts. It’s nearly a ritual: move their cars out of the hangars, carefully push their planes back in, start wiping bugs off the wings. They don’t use anything exotic, just Pledge. They clean their windows, check the oil, maybe adjust something on the engine or airframe. When they’ve finished, it’s just as important to check out what the other has done and talk about it at length. Maybe give advice. Inevitably, someone will show up to offer unsolicited ideas. This is a regular pilot ritual at friendly little airports across the country; first you fly, then you clean and fix, which often takes longer than the flight, then you talk about it.

On Saturday mornings several pilot friends meet for breakfast with the intention of deciding where to fly next. From Baytown, where most of them roost, there are half a dozen places within a half hour flight.

Lufkin has a diner on the airport as does the Texas Gulf Coast Regional airport in Brazoria. Brenham’s Southern Flyer Diner recently reopened for business. Local pilots cheered as did the residents of Brenham who dine while watching airplanes come and go. Liberty’s Jax Hamburgers was recently descended upon by the Baytown group. They used the airport’s crew vehicle to shuttle more than a dozen visiting aviators to the eatery. With copious amounts of burgers and fries consumed, would that added weight prevent their takeoff?

Pilots don’t need a reason to fly, but if there is a nice place to go just for an excuse, that’s enough. Last weekend the place to go was Weiser Air Park on the west side of Houston. This time, it wasn’t pilots’ love of food that provided the impetus. It was to say good-bye. After 56 years, “the country’s friendliest airport” is shutting down. The land that holds its privately owned thirty-four-hundred-foot runway will become an industrial park. The owners hosted a huge going-away party with barbeque and ice cream for the pilot community and anyone else who happened by. While pilots use anything for a reason to fly, the journey home from this affair did so with a heavy heart.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com