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