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.

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