January 26, 2021 Bridges, Fortresses, and Flat Tires

The Liberty Gazette

January 26, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Another beautiful weekend, another lazy flight, just to get out. The day offered an unlimited ceiling, and it seemed a perfect time to stroll above the beach and take in the view of the waves
splashing up to the sand, the people as little as play figures and their toy cars and trucks. We’d head west past the Intercoastal Waterway, past Seafood Warehouse, the fly-in restaurant on Crystal Beach. Past the bridge under construction near Matagorda. The corkscrew replacement for the old Sargent swing bridge is a real eye-catcher from the air. You can see a cool video on this unique piece of engineering on YouTube. 

To our left, oil derricks working in the Gulf, probably their last few pumps, as they will soon be more victims of censorship, silenced by the corrupt, anti-American devils, and all the energy jobs will soon be gone as well. 2024 is too far away. 

Mike: Meanwhile, we have our wings, and God’s air gives them lift. I had rush-packed a picnic lunch. We tossed the bikes with new cushy seats back into the airplane and entered the Aransas Pass airport into the GPS as the destination. If you know where to look, it’s not hard to find. The runway is on the west side of the town. With prevailing winds from the south, take-offs and landings are usually toward the water, providing a scenic climb-out over the beach. 

The little building that serves as a pilot’s lounge is well-appointed with a dining table and cushiony chairs and sparkling clean restrooms. It’s easy to rent a golf cart at Mustang Beach, too. If you’re not feeling pedestrian, and you don’t have a set of wheels, you can pick from plenty of carts available from local vendors. 

However, since we brought our bikes, the plan was to coast down the beach, through town. Sometimes, though, a little snag can get into the barest of plans one has. Like cycling. My rear tire wouldn’t hold air, and after exhausting all the spare compressed air capsules I had, we put the bikes back in the airplane and set out on foot. With the beach such a short walk, it was no big deal. 

Linda: We picked our spot, opened our thermal lunch pack, and feasted. Over yonder, a big dad held his tiny daughter’s hand as she toddled to the water’s edge. It about covered her feet, but barely touched his big toe. A sweet, young family sat together facing the water, the two little boys working hard on a
spectacular sandcastle. “But we’re not finished yet!” they protested when I asked if I could take a picture. I bet it turned out to be an impressive fortress. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 19, 2021 What's in a Name?

The Liberty Gazette

January 19, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

What’s in a name? That depends. Your birth certificate may reflect a family name or a compromise of your parents’ preferences. And there are nicknames, some of them affectionate. Those are usually the ones you get from your parents, too. Some are not so affectionate. Those you probably get in school. And there’s a different kind of nickname. In military aviation, it’s a callsign, and for some, there’s a story behind the naming—not always printable, but we did collect a couple we could share. 

Our friend Tom Gallagher was a Naval Aviator. Tom is a tall, strapping young man. Neat, clean, professional, no slouch. He piloted Navy P-3s. He and some friends also had an open mic band on the side and gave themselves ‘80’s rock star stage names. His was “Tommy Günz”. When his squadron found out about it, everyone started calling him Günz. He’s not unhappy about it at all. It could have been worse. He says, “The best callsigns are the ones that happen organically, but often they give you one right when you get to the squadron, and it’s kind of forced.” In Tom’s case, they tried to name him “Sledge” at first, in reference to the smashing watermelon act of the comedian mononymously known as Gallagher. Fortunately, that moniker didn’t stick. It wouldn’t fit a lean, muscular pilot who plays ukulele on the side.

Tom says callsigns are not as common in the Navy as they are with Air Force jet pilots. Fortunately, we were able to draw out a story from one of them. And a U2 spy plane pilot at that!

Zach Johnson, a close family friend, is #887 of 1,060 U2 pilots to date, since 1955. Rarer than callsigns in the Navy. While on his first deployment, Zach went to set up his Skype account so he could talk with family back home. Not one to use the proverbial first-name-dot-last-name approach, it became a bit frustrating as every username he picked was taken. After many failed attempts, he had an epiphany: “JetJok”. He’s short like a horse jockey, confident like a football jock, and flies jets. It was perfect, and it was available on Skype. Finally, he could communicate with friends and family. 

“Then one day all the guys had these patches on their flight suits that said JetJok,” Zach explains. “Young and naïve, I thought it was cool and asked if I could get one. Little did I know they were all silently snickering at me the whole time. But no one let on it was a joke—yet.”

The next day, as Zach was returning to base in his U2, he radioed back to Dragon Ops. “One hour out, Code One.” He received the weather update as usual, and after a slight pause, he heard a raspy, drawn-out, ‘Jet…Jok’. In that instant, it was all clear, and the greeting at the bottom of the aircraft’s stairs was all smiles and laughs as they welcomed “JetJok” back to earth. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 12, 2021 Come from Away

The Liberty Gazette

January 12, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Lest anyone think the 21st century has vanquished ridiculous machismo thoughts that some people have about women flying, let me just say, I see the comments daily. Multiple times a day. I’ve heard many personally. But the professionalism of Colonel Nicole Malachowski (also the first female to fly for the U.S. Airforce Thunderbirds demonstration team); U.S. Navy Lt. Commander and Southwest Airlines Captain Tammie Jo Shults (who landed a crippled 737 safely on one engine, after a fan blade failed, causing severe damage to the plane); 19-year old Ashli Blain, flying Blackhawks and Chinooks to fight fires in Montana and other hotspots last summer; American Airlines Captain, Beverley Bass, and others show just how ignorant those comments are. 

I could focus on any one of these ladies, each one a hero, but today, it’s Captain Bass. 

Captain Bass was born a Floridian, but she learned to fly in Texas skies. When looking for her first flying job, she was told women must not fly, because, “what would the wives of the executive passengers think?” But American Airlines knew her value and hired her in 1976, at age 24. 

Mike: We all know what we were doing the morning of September 11, 2001. The first plane, the news, the second plane, the shock, the horror, the anger, the resolve. But all pilots flying in or into the United States at that time couldn’t stand around a television and watch the news. They were being directed to cities not in their flight plan, some in foreign countries. Grounded. And no one knew for how long. 

En route from Paris to Dallas, Captain Bass was one of many pilots grounded in an instant that morning. But a few things set her apart. She was the first female captain American Airlines had ever had. She was responsible for the flight; in charge of the safety of her passengers, crew, and a Boeing 777 on that historic day. She had also been the captain of the first all-female flight crew in history.

Our northern neighbors took in many flights. Captain Bass’s aircraft was one of several ordered to land at Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. With a plane load of passengers, and no plans, she and her crew did what they had to do. They got them on the ground safely and waited for news as the local communities stepped up, reached out, and helped with open hearts, open arms. 

Linda: Thanks to the Canadians, the 2016 musical “Come from Away” that features Captain Bass’s flight that day, is still running on Broadway, Toronto, Melbourne, London, Sydney, and on tour. While the character is largely influenced by Captain Bass’s own story, the part is a composite of many pilots who were suddenly grounded after the attacks. But the number, “Me and the Sky” is all her. This woman, one of many who have endured the battles in the war on ignorance, would let nothing come between her and her sky. 

For information on the musical, check out https://comefromaway.com/.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 5, 2021 That's Just Beachy

The Liberty Gazette

January 5, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: On the remote islands of far Northwestern Scotland, there aren’t a great number of airports. But there are a lot of rocks and water. And beaches. Which is where you’ll find the Barra Airport. You can’t miss it – it’s at the beach. (C’mon, it’s the Outer Hebrides. They do everything a bit different there.)

This is the only beach in the world that is used regularly for scheduled flights. They get two flights a day from Glasgow, cutting that journey down from eight hours by ferry and car to one hour by air. 

“Built” in 1936, this beach airport is a vital link for the communities on the isolated Hebridean Islands. It’s a lovely beach, which can be a problem sometimes because some people don’t realize it’s an airport. It is not uncommon for the airport manager or his staff to have to explain to “beach-goers” that they can’t hunt there for pretty seashells. 

In fact, there are three runways. For landing, they are oriented on the compass to 330, 290, and 250 degrees, generally, landing to the west. They are all one way in and one way out, which means you land one way but takeoff in the opposite direction. However, take note that London’s Heathrow Airport only has two runways. Reasons for this include the need for more options with higher island winds at the Isle of Barra (it’s important to land as much into the wind as possible), and that much smaller aircraft land there, as opposed to the “heavies” that frequent Heathrow. Still, it brings a smile to say that London has some catching up to do with the islanders. 

People come from all over the world just to experience landing on a beach (as a passenger). Barra is also one of the most photographed airports in the world, and, it can claim another “most” that isn’t likely to be eclipsed by any other—they say it is the cleanest airport in the world because, after all, it gets washed by the tide twice a day. 

Oh, and the name of the beach? It’s “Big Beach.” I guess originality has its limits.

Scotland’s national airline is Logan Air. When we stopped by their headquarters in Glasgow, unannounced, they were wonderfully welcoming and asked us to come back so we could fly some of
their routes with them. Flying into Barra will be at the top of my list when we go back there.

Mike: The Twin Otter is a perfect airplane to take into the Barra Airport. It has a long fat wing and big fat tires, great for floating along the sand on takeoffs and landings. That Logan Air operates such a unique airplane to such a unique place makes us want to be just like those other passengers that fly in there. However, having logged 800 hours in Twin Otters, I’d like to take a hand at the controls and make one of those big Scottish beach landings myself. 

Happy New Year to all who do not support censorship or Communism.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com