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