January 28, 2020 Elys go to the Theater

The Liberty Gazette

January 28, 2020

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A notorious medieval Scottish ancestor of mine left tremendous material for a dramatic tale to be told. In fact, about halfway back in time between him and me, another ancestor wrote a couple of lengthy novels about the trouble the old baron had gotten into. The stories are full of intrigue, no matter whose side you believe.

When I first heard of the baron’s reputation and activities, I planned on writing a novel. But life happens, and I put my notes away for a couple of decades. When I took them out again, I thought, hey, this is so dramatic, it should be a play!

After returning from my research trip to Scotland last year, I enrolled in a playwright course in Houston. I’m now taking my second course and learning lots. We had been frequenting Main Street Theater in Houston. They do a lot of Shakespeare, as well as smart, new plays. That’s how I discovered Guy Roberts.

Guy is originally from Houston, but he now lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He is the founder and CEO of the Prague Shakespeare Company and one of the foremost living experts on Shakespeare. He’s given TedTalks on Shakespeare and can recite any of the bard’s plays backward and forward, in his sleep. We’ve seen a few of his productions when he’s brought them back to Main Street Theater. So as I began converting my partially-written novel into a play, I thought of Guy. That’s when I started dreaming what I thought was the impossible dream.  If there was one person in the world who I would want to read my play and give me feedback, it would be Guy Roberts.

During my first playwright course, I asked the instructor, Elizabeth Keel, an accomplished playwright and director in her own right, if she knew Mr. Roberts. I was elated to find out that of course she does! About the time the playwright masterclass began, a promotional post card arrived in our mailbox from Main Street Theater. “See Guy Roberts as Hamlet, in January!”

Elizabeth introduced us by email, we bought tickets to Hamlet, and after the show, we joined Guy and his assistant director at an English pub down the street.

“Yes!” he said. “Send it, I’ll read it.” Then he asked all kinds of questions about the play, and when he seemed satisfied with my answers, and provided a few tips, he leaned forward and said, “But you two are pilots, right?” Yep.

“Why don’t you write a play about what it’s like flying up there, in the front of the airplane? We don’t know anything about what it’s like. I’d really like to see a play like that. In fact, I might produce it. That’s your next project, after this one is finished!” He looked and Mike and me, and he was serious. So, it looks like there may be a stage in the future of Ely Air Lines.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 21, 2010 Curtis and Jim

The Liberty Gazette

January 21, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Our friend Curtis Laird thought of another story from his days in Vietnam. Actually, he’s thought of more than one, but we can only fit in one at a time.

Curtis: Back in November of 1966, I had a small detachment of UH-1D helos with crews at a place called Phan Rang. Our mission was to provide support to a Korean regiment, which was in turn providing outer security for the construction of the Phan Rang air base.

One morning, as we were preparing to launch for our missions, a young Air Force dog handler walked up and asked if he could fly as my gunner on some of the missions. He stated that he was current on the M-60 machine gun, which was our primary armament.

When time permitted, my crew and I took the Airman out over the South China Sea and checked his gunnery skills. Everything went well, so we started working him in on some of our missions. This gave me the opportunity to give my crew members a day off. I kept my fingers crossed that Army headquarters would not find out about this.

A few days later, an Air Force captain stopped by and asked if he could fly as my co-pilot someday. I said, “Sure, why not?” I already had an Airman flying with me, one more wouldn’t hurt.

So, on this particular day, half of my four-man crew were Air Force personnel. This was about the time that Army headquarters found out about it. Needless to say, I was reminded of my careless and negligent manner in which I was flying and operating my aircraft.

Now, we fast-forward 45 years to 2011. I received an email from an individual asking if I was the officer who let him fly as gunner on occasion. I immediately replied that I was the guilty party. We have been in touch ever since.

One more fast-forward. In October 2019, the gunner notified me that he and his wife would be flying down from New York to visit with me and my family. They arrived on November 7. It had been 53 years to the month since I had seen Jim, and we both agreed that we had gotten a little older.

Jim has done well since our Vietnam days. He got his college degree, started a business in the aviation industry, and wrote a book, titled, “The Sky is Not the Limit.” And, he has a wonderful family.

Linda: What winding paths our lives take. Who would have thought how the lives of a young Air Force dog handler and an Army helicopter pilot would end up 45 years later?

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 14, 2020 Lost Planet Airmen

The Liberty Gazette

January 14, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: In 1949, a 12-episode movie serial called “King of the Rocket Men” featured Dr. Vulcan, an evil genius who only appeared as a shadow, and who planned to conquer the world. Of course, he had to eliminate the good guys—the scientists who were making America great.

A couple of those good guys who narrowly escaped Vulcan’s dark plot developed an atomic-powered rocket backpack which they attached to a leather jacket, and a bullet-shaped helmet and a ray gun. With these inventions, they would fight the sinister Vulcan in a tug-of-war throughout the dozen shows, eventually stopping him from taking over the world.

The flight sequences were inspired by the Buck Rogers comic strip; accomplishing the scenes with special effects is amusing to read in the 21st century. To make the main character, Jeff King, alias Rocket Man, appear to fly across the landscape with his jetpack, specialists ran a life-size dummy on pulleys along a wire tilted at a downward angle to the horizon. This was the same way they had achieved the flying look for “Captain Marvel” in 1941. For the shots where they had to show a real person, such as for take-off, they placed a springboard just below camera view. The work was shared among three different stuntmen. For landing shots, the actors just jumped down into the view of the camera. Edit it all together, and it sort of looked like a guy leaping into the air, flying, then landing on his feet like a cat.

A few years later, the production company (Republic) put all those episodes together to create a 65-minute feature film version and changed the title to “Lost Planet Airmen”.

Linda: Remember the song, “Hot Rod Lincoln” a top hit in the early ‘70s? Charlie Ryan wrote it, but the popular version, the one I remember, was recorded by a group called Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. Listening to the song recently, I wondered where they got the name for their band. George Frayne IV, the lead singer, took the stage name Commander Cody, similar to Commando Cody, the character in another 1950’s film series, and the rest of the band stayed in tune with the 1950’s movie theme as the Lost Planet Airmen.

Interestingly, Charlie Ryan’s song was a response to Arkie Shibley’s “Hot Rod Race” about a Ford and a Mercury neck-and-neck when suddenly a kid whizzes by in a souped-up Model A. Ryan wanted to give the kid’s perspective. He beefed up the story like the kid did the Model A.

Several different singers recorded the song, including Johnny Bond, who then wrote a sequel called “X-15”, which elevated the stakes to an air race in a North American X-15, a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft flown by NASA and the U.S. Air Force. To the beat of “Hot Rod Lincoln” it begins, “Gather ‘round you cats, and you will hear ‘bout a race I had in the stratosphere…”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 7, 2010 Living Room

The Liberty Gazette

January 7, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The wind bit my face and snow blurred my vision as flakes melted on my glasses. It was a bit chilly as I scanned the city from the Living Room and felt an incredible sense of accomplishment.

This isn’t a room but a lookout point in the nosebleed section of the Wasatch Range above Salt Lake City. I made it here via a two-mile packed snow path that weaved through snow-choked canyons, climbing up the mountains more than a thousand feet above the city’s upper tier. It’s not the top, which is thousands of feet above, cloaked in heavy drifts of snow and clouds. But I’m not exactly Jeremiah Johnson either. However, there is a feeling of exhilaration having made the journey here. Pictures cannot convey what is only available to those who make the effort.

Linda says I am in my element here. She’s right, I love the mountains. I used to climb them, but it had been more than twenty years since I kicked steps in the snow, climbing to these heights.

I came to Salt Lake City because a corporate pilot friend needed me to cover this year-end five-day trip for him. My regular job’s work schedule was light after an intensive Fall, so I welcomed the opportunity. Most people associate this area with skiing and many of them clogged by in the hotel in their plastic boots. Kids ran around trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues.

While I like skiing, I prefer climbing. Physically taxing, it is straight forward. You just put one foot in front of the other, sometimes kicking a toehold, and then take the next step. At 5,000-plus feet above sea level the air is thin, necessitating more controlled breathing in sync with my pace. Sometimes the gradient increases and the pace slows but doesn’t stop, and I eventually achieve my goal. It’s like anything worthwhile. You stay with it until its done.

Descending from the climb is often more treacherous; following the path of least resistance has its own pitfalls. The trail was narrow with steep drop-offs. The dropping temperatures caused the snow packed by people who trod before me to become icy and slick. I didn’t have crampons—those spikes that mountaineers wear on their boots and the FAA frowns upon in carry-ons—and no ice-ax to help arrest a fall if I took one. I could make my own trail, but there was the danger of post-holing—putting my boot through the unpacked snow and finding a cavity under it with my foot encountering who-knows-what. So, working my way down took just as long as the way up.

Flying and climbing, it’s a great way to finish one year and move into the next. I look forward to the new decade, more challenges and peaks to reach, knowing that while my path may meander a bit, sometimes taking side-tracks, I will keep moving through the blizzardy landscape putting one foot in front of the other and moving ahead.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 31, 2019 Last Flights of 2019

The Liberty Gazette

December 31, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Thanks to good weather, the end of 2019 was filled with flight. On one of those lovely blue-sky days we moseyed west to the historic Stinson Municipal Airport. This airport began life in 1915 when Emma Stinson and her four children leased five hundred acres from the city of San Antonio. They opened Stinson School of Flying, where students were beneficiaries of passionate patriotism and piloting.

Katherine, Eddie, Marjorie, and Jack Stinson made significant contributions to aviation, and the airport named for them is the second oldest continuously operated airport in the country. Only College Park Airport in Maryland, built by the Wright Brothers in 1909 is older.

We love the old stone-faced art-deco style terminal, which was built in 1936. The building got tender loving care for its seventieth birthday when the city renovated and expanded it while retaining most
of the original structure. Inside, photographs and memorabilia decorate the halls chronicling Stinson Field over the past century.

The next day was also severe-clear, so we opted to go north, toward Granbury. The city of Granbury keeps several courtesy cars available for people who fly into their airport and want to go into town.

It’s good for the businesses and the city. They figure you’ll spend money there, at least for lunch. The Granbury airport has a really nice terminal building with a porch that wraps around the west and south sides. In Cracker Barrel style, comfy rocking chairs line the porch, perfect for watching take-offs and landings. Bring your own score card, if you dare.

Inside the roomy terminal, pilots and friends sit a spell to talk about airplanes and the wonderful freedom of flight. It’s always this way when we stop in at Granbury. Always filled with happy, friendly people.

After we fueled up the Elyminator, we messaged our friend AnnElise Bennett, who lives at Pecan Plantation airpark, just nine miles from Granbury. We hopped over and got the grand tour of her new house and the hangar where her Cessna 182, “X-Ray,” lives. We also happened upon several neighbors, most of whom we already knew, making for an impromptu reunion of friends.

Day Three was hanging on with decent weather again, so we ventured southwest to Mustang Island. What a great scenic flight along the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast!

Not far from the island, we noticed circles on the ground—bomb craters. Along that route, there had once been towers where observers watched how close the students came to hitting the targets. Amazing that the rings of the craters still show up, decades later, despite floods and high winds.

At Mustang Island Airport, you can rent golf carts to go into town. Our picnic lunch on the island was superb, and the flight back made us think of a quote by William Langewische: “I ask people who don’t fly, ‘How can you not fly when you live in a time in history when you can fly?”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com