The Liberty Gazette
November 3, 2020
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Linda: Picking up where I left off last week, our birthday trip, a fly-bike jaunt to Lafayette, Louisiana, there were some clouds along the route, so we filed an IFR flight plan. This requires we talk with air traffic controllers, as opposed to flying VFR, where it can be optional.
Anyway, this story is about what it’s like when you come across someone who really stands out. As we scooted east, the first controller handed us off with a frequency change to the one handling the next patch of airspace. It was that moment when I heard the most vivacious, friendly, welcoming voice I have ever heard on the radio. So upbeat, charming, and engaging. And all she did was say the usual things a controller says to a pilot. But after I answered, which gave away that I’m a female pilot, she gave the “secret” handshake we have, we women in aviation. “…And happy Saturday!”
When I got home, I asked around, who was working that sector that day? My description elicited only one possibility—Anna Mitchell. I had to know more about this lady who outshines the rest.
Anna takes her job seriously and loves what she does. She’s been doing it 32 years, since graduating with a degree in biology.
“Communications can seem like the hardest part of flying,” she says. “Some pilots are terrified of talking to controllers, afraid they might say something wrong. I want to do everything I can to put them at ease.”
She grew up around airplanes. Getting in one was as normal as getting in a car. Her father had flown B-52s and flew several small airplanes, in which Anna often rode along. She and I have that in common; I call it “Daddy’s little shadow.” Her father and mine had something in common, too. He always told her, “There’s nothing you can’t do that a man can. Do what you want and do it well.”
Anna’s first job directing pilots was in the tower at a small airport in Columbia, Missouri. Not everyone starts like that, and Anna values that experience because it allowed her to see things, such as the effect of wake turbulence on small aircraft. “I saw a Cessna 172 following a C130, and flip in the air from its wake turbulence. I know how important my warnings are!”
While some may think of her as a nameless, faceless voice, she can never forget how critical her job is. “There may be hundreds of people on an airliner, and what I say to their pilots matters.”
For some, her voice has been the one that comforted them when they lost their way and became disoriented late at night. “You know, doctors make a difference. Researchers who fight cancer make a difference. I wanted to make a difference, too. When I get off work and head home from Houston Intercontinental, and I look up and see the lines of airliners funneling in from the east, I think to myself, I did that! It’s so satisfying to see it in action, knowing people are coming home safely.”
And happy. Thank you, Anna.
ElyAirLines.blogspot.com
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