April 28, 2020 A Texas Colt Breaks Free

The Liberty Gazette

April 28, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

The cover of the May issue of Flying Magazine sports a brand-new Colt. What’s so special about that? For one, it’s built in Texas. At the former military base in Hondo, Texas Aircraft Manufacturing has made its home. From their hangar, workers at Texas Aircraft are riveting, welding, wiring, and even applying composite material to the new Light Sport aircraft. They’ve set their target: the flight training market. It’s been a tough market to survive in since the 1980s, the beginning of decline of general aviation thanks to absolute greed driven by lawyers, fed by juries, and made possible by legislation (more lawyers). There’s nothing about those changes that has been good for aviation, and the flight training business has been especially hard hit. In fact, many small airplane manufacturers just quit making training airplanes.

The favorite has always been Cessna. The models 150, 152 and 172 have dominated the flight school market for decades. Still do. That means students are flying in airplanes designed in the 1950s. Not that there’s anything wrong with a Cessna 150. It’s a fun little airplane. But it’s old. And no one has really come up with a suitable competitor because it just costs too darn much to produce these days. If you bought a C150 in 1958, you paid between $7,000 and $8,500. In today’s money, that would be a range of about $63,000 to $77,000. You can’t actually buy a new C150 today, but you can buy a C172. The 172 came out just a few years before the 150 and the base price was around $9,000. If you want a new one today, you’d better be ready to fork out $411,000. Granted, the airplane is considerably more modern, with new safety features, improved aerodynamics, and an impressive digital panel which gives the pilot a great big “moving map” right in front.

Photo from https://texasaircraft.com/colt-aircraft/

But some guys in Hondo thought, what if we could do better? What if we could build a better training airplane and keep the cost down? Texas Aircraft CEO, Matheus Grande, and his design chief, Caio Jordao, set out to do that.

Photo from https://texasaircraft.com/colt-aircraft/

After three years in development, the company is now putting out the two-place trainer with beefed up landing gear (to survive those student hard landings), an all-aviation-grade aluminum airframe with solid metal rivets, and a welded-chromoly passenger safety cell for a base price of $167,000. It comes with a sweet avionics package, including synthetic vision and auto pilot. The GRS ballistic parachute for the airplane is optional.

The thing is, this is needed for a service industry that is struggling. Costs need to be kept down so that people can afford to learn to fly. The price point on the Colt will help flight schools offer competitive prices to their students.

The icing on this Texas cake is that many of the employees are former members of the U.S. military. The company recruits from nearby Randolph Air Force Base and Kelly Field. Let’s hear it for Texas!

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 21, 2020 Life Flight

The Liberty Gazette

April 21, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

After twelve years of flying people back and forth to their offshore jobs, Captain Grant Gibbons was looking for something more challenging and more rewarding. He wanted a job with purpose, one that would keep him on the edge. While sitting in the trailer on his two-week shift in south Louisiana, he came across the Lifetime documentary series about Memorial Hermann Life Flight®. After the first episode, he was hooked. This was the kind of flying he wanted to do. His search and rescue training, using night vision goggles, hoisting men from a boat rocked by waves, had given him a taste.

The documentary helped him prepare for the interview. Life Flight made the smart decision to bring him on board. When he takes one of their EC-145 helicopters to a public event, the questions most often asked are how fast and how high. The quick and easy answer is about 135 knots cruise speed and about 800 feet mean sea level. The altitude is based on the fact that they’re operating in Bush and Hobby’s airspace, and 800 feet is what they’ve agreed to. But there’s so much more to know about flying a Life Flight helicopter.

The EC-145 is a twin-engine aircraft operated by a single pilot. They can carry two patients plus a nurse and a paramedic.

Life Flight has six EC-145s at five bases: David Wayne Hooks Airport and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center cover the north part of the Houston metropolitan area; the Pearland Regional Airport is the south base; the west base alternates between Memorial Hermann Sugarland and Katy; the Baytown Airport serves the east side, including Liberty; and the central base is at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center’s new trauma center, the 17-story Susan & Fayez Sarofim Pavilion.

When Grant first joined Life Flight, he served our area from the east base. Here, the calls were more often medical cases than accidents or crime-related injuries. When he got a call from the Liberty Fire Department or EMS, he’d land at the fire department to meet the ambulance.

He’d keep the aircraft running to save time while the medical crew hopped in the back of the ambulance to get information on the patient, then loaded them on the stretcher.

Having their own stretchers with wheels makes a difference because patients can be loaded and unloaded faster. The EC-145 is designed for this type of work, its clam shell doors making it easy to wheel the stretcher in quickly.

These days, based in the northwest part of Houston, Grant receives more on-site calls. These are the ones where he has to land in a football field, on a highway, or another acceptable landing zone. In those cases, the EMS on the scene is responsible for identifying and securing a landing zone of at least 100-by-100 feet. Once the patient is on board, Grant will take them to a hospital within the Memorial Hermann Health System.

While weather can be a factor affecting the decision to fly, the central base does have an instrument approach. This means they don’t have to have perfectly clear weather to bring your loved ones to the Texas Medical Center. They only need at least one mile of visibility and 400-foot ceilings. If the weather isn’t cooperating with those minimums, they can fly to Hobby Airport and rendezvous with an ambulance there. In that case, Life Flight’s medical crew will stay with the patient all the way to the hospital.

Life Flight helicopters are well equipped in the back with different types of blood, a LUCAS device (a mechanical chest compressor), liquid oxygen, narcotics, portable machines to get vitals, and an ultrasound machine to determine whether a patient has internal bleeding. The central-based helicopter is reserved for specialty flights and is also equipped with a balloon pump, an ECMO device (it filters blood), and an incubator for neo-natal patients. Any of the aircraft in the fleet can handle a specialty flight as long as they have a specialty nurse and the necessary equipment on board.

Life Flight helicopters sit prepared to lift off at any time with about two hours and twenty minutes of fuel on board. The average flight only takes about 15 minutes.

Those are some of the facts about Life Flight. But things are different in these days of the virus, and like many organizations, they have had to pivot.

For the greater Houston area, Life Flight will not be the primary means of transportation for those infected with COVID-19. However, one helicopter from the fleet has been reconfigured to accept patients who test positive for the virus. This special helicopter was put into service earlier this month and is based at the central base. Anything that could be contaminated has been removed, like swapping cloth for vinyl, and such. The nurses, paramedics, and pilots wear covers, masks, and gloves. Upon landing to pick up a patient, the copter is shut down to eliminate the rotor’s downwash and potential to spread the virus further. It’s not started back up until the patient is securely in the aircraft. After every mission, the helicopter is decontaminated, everything pulled out and disinfected before it’s put back into service.

Medical crews and pilots are not required to take these flights—it is all voluntary. But enough signed up that the specially-designated virus helicopter is staffed 24 hours a day, a bump up from the normal twelve-hour shift for the central base.

The Life Flight crews are a tight-knit group. Some are single with no children, more flexibility, and less risk of spreading the virus. Grant is comfortable with all the precautions Memorial Hermann has put into place, and he would be happy to volunteer for these flights. He’s the kind of guy who would stop to help anyone in need. But he needs to take care of more people than just himself. He and his lovely wife are parents of a five-year old and are expecting their second child soon. They are also the primary care takers of Grant’s father, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s and lives with them.

So, while he may not be in a position today to take virus patients, you can bet he’s eager and happy to transport others in need. This is where he finds purpose and gratification. As he says, “I can make a difference for someone possibly having the worst day of their life.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 14, 2020 Bon Voyage!

The Liberty Gazette

April 14, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A couple of weeks ago, we found another way to appreciate the extra time we have at home. Not that we couldn’t write more, or drool over the pictures our avionics tech is sending of the new gadgets installed in the Elyminator, but we’re doing a lot of that already. Usually on weekends we were out and about. With that option out the window, down the drain, dead in the water, we turned to our trusty friends at WithLocals.com to comfort the nomad in us.

WithLocals is based in the Netherlands and contracts with people around the globe to offer tours, experiences, lessons, workshops, and more. We used them in Saigon and connected with Vi, who was our guide for a full day tour of the Mekong Delta. That experience was over-the-top amazing.

As this evil virus has spread, trying to bring the world to a standstill, we notice people everywhere pushing forward, pivoting, finding ways to live life within the restrictions we need to observe. The folks at WithLocals brainstormed with their independent contractors and came up with inventive options to offer the same level of one-on-one personal service online. We’re impressed, to put it mildly. We’re not letting our downtime go by watching the grass grow out our windows of isolation. Instead, we’re “going places!”

If your inner gypsy is feeling kidnapped and suffering too, check out the escape hatch in the secret spot on your web browser. Hint: the special code needed appears at the bottom of this column.

So far, we have:

Taken a drive through Berlin in a Mercedes, stopping whenever and wherever we wanted, with our private guide, Miha, a former veterinarian. I remember when the Berlin Wall came down. To see it now is incredibly moving, filled with messages of hope.

Had an amazing time learning how intricately ancient Roman poetry is woven into Roman history, live from Rome, given by Simone, an actor and published poet. Afterward, he wrote a personal poem just for us!

Learned about the birth of debate and democracy live from Athens with Vicky, a teacher working on her PhD. Afterward, she invited us to a different app where she posted a couple of happy debate topics we could have fun with.

Learned about Roman gastronomy and culture, and how today’s most popular foods in various regions came to be. This was a marvelous experience, given by Gabi in Rome. He’s getting us vegan version recipes.

I did “Stretch for the Wine,” which is a private yoga session with Christianne, followed by some really fun chat and wine sipping together, live from Paris. This was my first time ever to do yoga and she was quite patient and didn’t laugh at my clumsiness.

While Mike was out picking up our ordered groceries curbside, I “hung out” in Buenos Aires with Simona. She introduced her sweet family and taught me so much about the staples of life in Argentina. I can't spoil the surprise at the end, so I won't say what it is, but there is a unique and fun surprise. You must schedule this one to find out for yourself.

After Mike got back with groceries, we had a great time “visiting” Prague with our local guide, Erin, who had all kinds of cool spooky Prague ghost tales to share. That was a blast!

Then we met back up with Vicky in Athens for her other offering, about Gods, Myths, and Legends. Oh my, I think I like Bacchus and Poseidon the best.

About mid-week, Mike took a painting class with Sara in Florence, Italy. From the other room where I was working, I could hear her giving instructions, with her Italian accent adding an “a” at the end of almost every word—like the ending of “mama mia!” They painted with “white-a” and “red-a” and worked on brushstrokes and color blending.

We also experienced a super-cool session with Marzia, investigating some of the most interesting curiosities of Venice, direct from her apartment. The locals say Venice is a state of mind.

When Marzia was a child, she found out that even though she loved the natural history museum she went to every day, she loved the explorers the most. From her thirst for their stories, we learned so many things we didn't know about Venice—and Mike has even been there before. And so we paddled along the canal on a virtual gondola to discover Venetian novelties. We’ll share a couple of them, but you’ll have to connect with Marzia for the whole experience.

Did you know that the word “Gazette” originates with the Venetians? An early 17th-century Italian word, “gazzetta” meant “coin.” Since they did not have a word for their first newspaper, they referred to it by what it cost to buy one. The price of the first newspaper was one gazette.

The word “quarantine” also comes from Venice. In the mid-17th century, Europe was hit by the black plague. Ships coming into the port at Venice had to be isolated for a time, and all aboard had to stay there to be sure no one spread the plague further in the city. At first, they were kept on the ship for 30 days, but when that time was up, the period was increased another 10 days. “Quarantina” means forty days, from “quaranta,” meaning forty.

WithLocals offers a variety of family-friendly options, like cooking, music, dance, history, culture, and so much more. For us, signing up for these experiences serves two important goals. First, we are helping to support independent contractors who rely on tourism for a living. We get to meet people on the other side of the world, experience new things, learn stuff we didn't know. And isn't that a lot of the reason why we all love to travel? Second, we are not sitting at home doing nothing. We are traveling in the only way we can right now, and what a fantastic option it is.

If it sounds like something you'd like, you can see what they’re offering now (and they keep adding more) at https://www.withlocals.com/online-experiences/.

Bon virtual voyage!

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 7, 2020 Funniest Sights While Traveling

The Liberty Gazette

April 7, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A conversation topic among women who love to travel: “What is the strangest thing you've seen people do whilst traveling? Figured we could all use the laugh.”

Human nature being what it is, it should be no surprise that responses from around the world ranged from silly to unimaginable to disgusting. We’ll leave the abhorrent tales of humanity out, but the others are worth sharing, starting with a creative message on a sign held up by a panhandler: “Family kidnapped by ninjas. Need money for karate lessons to get them back. Anything helps.”

Did you know that yogurt may help give better relief from sunburn than aloe vera? True story. This German guy had covered himself in yogurt and when asked why, he said over there they do this all the time to cool off from a bad burn. Apparently, this is practiced in Russia, Poland, Croatia, Scotland and probably other places in between. They swear it works better than anything else.

But one that will leave you scratching your head is the lady in the Milan airport waiting for luggage. She pulled out her bright red lipstick, applied it in a normal fashion where it belongs, but then proceeded to apply it all over the outside of her ankles. We may have answers for the yogurt, but we haven’t yet figured out ankle-lipstick.

Driving a high-seated vehicle (even a dually will do), you get to see a lot of things, including some which you probably wish you hadn’t. A couple was spotted traveling the highways of northern Minnesota in the nude. Correction: she was sporting a road map.

And sometimes, you learn stuff. Like the gal in the middle seat on a long flight home from Germany did. She wondered why the man next to her had put tape over his mouth before going to sleep. Not Scotch tape, but serious tape. Apparently, he had read an article about it. Maybe this one. Learning is good, and right now we have plenty of time for that.

One novice hiker visiting the Grand Canyon was puzzled by the two guys she saw, each carrying two one-gallon plastic milk jugs. Milk still in them. She later learned from some hardcore hiking friends in Arizona that drinking milk before a big hike helps avoid dehydration. Seems the fat in the milk helps absorb and retain water. A new wrinkle in the brain when she discovered that trick.

Differences in culture are important, too. When one American woman visited a family in Morocco, they had given their guests very pretty paper napkins at dinner. After the meal, this lady, without thinking, crumpled up the used napkin. She later saw them uncrumpling it and learned that they hoped to be able to re-use napkins as long as practical. This was not a wealthy family. They lived in a remote location and were generous hosts just trying to get by.

In many poorer countries, it is not uncommon to see the lengths people will go to re-use an item for as long as possible. A group of friends traveling in Mexico stopped at a little house along the roadside to buy some Cokes. The drinks were in glass bottles. When the group asked for the Cokes “to go,” the vendor naturally poured the contents out of the bottles and into baggies, inserted a straw in each, and tied a twist-tie around them. Because the shopkeepers must pay for the Coke bottles, they don’t want those going out the door. Another couple learned this in Brazil when they assumed that they could order a Coke from a street vendor and started to walk off with the bottles. Much arm-waving ensued and eventually they understood they must surrender the valuable bottles and settle for drinking out of sandwich bags.

Of course, plastic baggies aren’t the only drink vessel. In Mexico, parts of Canada, and Australia, drinking beer out of one’s boots is completely normal. It’s called a “shoey.” Don’t kid yourself that these were new, clean boots. They were dirty, sweaty boots that had been worn all day. We hear it’s also popular among the whitewater rafting and kayaking community, where they call it a “bootie beer.” You’re supposed to down one from the boot if you swim a rapid.

One of the more bizarre behaviors reported was the couple yelling back and forth through a hotel hallway, trying to sort out a large group checking in with numerous pieces of luggage. Suddenly, they started barking. No joke. Barking like dogs. One man asked what on earth they were doing barking, and to everyone’s surprise, the couple admitted that’s how they communicated best!

For those who don’t travel much, these stories may seem unbelievable. But this is a true sampling of the world. One Finnish citizen who didn’t get out much was traveling on a local train and met a couple from California. This, to him, was amazing and exciting and brought forth images of the greatest western movies of all time. While he probably couldn’t name them, visions of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin danced in his head. These men of men moved him to show the Californians over and over again that he knew how to quick-draw a gun from his imaginary holster, because, of course, surely they still do that in the bear-filled, wild, wild west of California.

Maybe he doesn’t catch up often on the news while living up there in Finland. Or maybe he’s like the woman seen reading a book at an airport, who, as she finished each page, she would tear it out, crumple it up, and throw it away. Why? Because that way she never lost her spot.

I imagine if I’d been reading one of my Scottish history books I would have been as surprised as our friend Jody was when she disembarked from a transatlantic flight and saw a man ahead of her exiting the same airplane in full medieval armor. Jody said disappointingly that at no point during the 10-hour flight had she seen her knight in shining armor.

Then again, one could almost miss even Elvis. While staying at a hostel in Rome, one young lady saw an Elvis impersonator wheeling a suitcase down the corridor. The sight struck her fancy, so she sneaked a photo of him. To her surprise, she later learned that he was staying in the same hostel room and she was in the bunk above him. How many of you can say you slept above Elvis for a few days?

She may not have seen his show, but one might say she got her money’s worth. Which is pretty much all the Australian boyfriend was trying to do as his American girlfriend suffered a lengthy wait outside the restroom during their trip to Europe when he first discovered you have to pay for access.

For some well-traveled Gazette readers, the notion of paying for the privilege to potty in Europe is not new. However, this last story might be one no one here can claim as a shared experience. One traveler stuck in traffic, waiting for an accident to clear, watched a woman dance with and kiss a tree for ten minutes. She got to witness the whole relationship play out in front of her, including the demise, when the woman yelled at the tree, slapped it, and walked away.

We hope you’ve found this mini collection of unusual travel stories educational and amusing. We may, at some point share travel etiquette, because it really is important not to deny the person in the middle seat both armrests. That, and other stories.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 31, 2020 Welcome Home, Josh Sullivan

The Liberty Gazette

March 31, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Liberty High School graduate Lt. Col. Josh Sullivan completed his last combat mission for the Air Force on March 19th, 2020. He is now home from his last deployment and will be starting a new chapter in his Air Force career. We got to chat with him about 24 hours after he arrived home.

We first met him at the Liberty Municipal Airport in 2007, just five months after starting our column. We knew right away we’d met a hero. After graduation, Josh received an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. In flight training, he discovered he loved aerobatics and flying in tight formation with other aircraft. Both are important skills for combat flying.

Eventually, Josh entered the training program to fly the C-130. Ten years after serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel, serving in the Air Force Special Operations Command. Josh’s story appears in Volume 1 of Ely Air Lines: Select Stories from 10 Years of a Weekly Column, a copy of which you can pick up at the Liberty Gazette office.

Josh was last deployed as the Commander of the 16th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron, a storied squadron going back to the days of Vietnam. They fly the AC-130W Stinger II gunship. The original moniker for this type of aircraft was “Puff the Magic Dragon” because it looked like it belched fire as it spit thousands of rounds a minute at the enemy. The Stinger II is far more advanced than those used in Vietnam. According to the Air Force’s fact sheet, the AC-130W is a heavily armed variant of the C-130H Hercules designed for close air support, armed reconnaissance, interdiction, night search and rescue, and airborne command and control. It’s a four-engine airplane that uses a complex weapons suite to employ 30mm and 105mm guns, as well as AGM-176 Griffin missiles and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs. The unique gun fire control system, along with two MX-20 sensors, allow the crew to simultaneously engage two targets geographically separated by up to one kilometer with separate guns. A comprehensive precision strike package gives the crew a standoff capability to employ missiles or bombs before moving into the gun orbit, enabling the ultimate flexibility in dynamic operations.

A more recent video from operations aboard a Spectre Gunship in Afghanistan is available at https://www.americanspecialops.com/usaf-special-operations/aircraft/ac-130/
Josh’s role was providing close air support for Special Operations forces. Among the challenges they faced were leading folks through the Iranian ballistic missile attack and protecting Special Operations forces getting ISIS out of Iraq. On the country’s west border is Russian-backed Syria; on the eastern border is Iran, a hostile area all around.

But for now, that’s behind him. Coming home is always an emotional event. The last time Josh was home, he surprised his kids at school. But this time, they surprised him. Hiding in the bed of their pick-up, Josh didn’t see his kids until he opened the tailgate to throw his luggage in.

Like everyone else, military personnel are affected by this virus and the necessary constraints put in place. On the way home from Iraq, Josh and others could not leave the plane every time it stopped for fuel or for a pilot break. Normally, they would stop and spend the night somewhere on the long trip back. But without that luxury, they stayed aboard for about 45 hours without getting off. After 50 hours of total travel time, he finally made it home. But he’s not complaining – he says he’s blessed to get out, as theirs was the last plane out for next 30-60 days.

At least until mid-May, there’s a stop to all training and relocations. But once this thing is past, Josh’s next job will be as Air Force ROTC Detachment Commander for San Jose State University in California. He will also serve as Chair of Department of Aerospace Studies. He’ll work at the university for a few years until he reaches 20 years of service. Then, he’ll have the choice to either retire and go fly for an airline or stay in and return to Special Ops.

Currently, he’s quarantined for 14 days, having come from outside the country. At home, he’s re-integrating. “My wife has been handling a lot when I’ve been gone, so we’re learning how to make adjustments.”

Thank you for your service, Lt. Colonel Sullivan, and thanks to your family for their sacrifices as well. Welcome home.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com