The Liberty Gazette
May 18, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Linda: It was time for our semi-annual short trek north to Centerville, to our favorite fly-in. Having been weather-delayed by a week, it became a beautiful Mother’s Day event shared with moms, dads, kids, and grandparents from all around these parts, everyone enjoying a perfect family weekend camping with airplanes. Experimental and factory-built aircraft, Cessna, Piper, Grumman, Van’s RV, Beechcraft, and others descended on Beverly and Wendall Dillard’s airplane ranch called Critters Lodge.
Okay, so the weather wasn’t perfect, but it was flyable, if you don’t mind a few potholes in the sky. Ceilings were about 1,500 feet, meaning there was that much room between the ground and the base of the clouds. No nosebleed flying for us that day! But it was also rather gusty. Winds at some airports were reported at 11 knots, gusting to 24 or so. That’s not a problem if you’re landing and taking off straight into it. But if you have a 90-degree crosswind trying to blow you away from the runway, there is that “maximum demonstrated crosswind capability” of the airplane of which one must be mindful. There’s a saying about that. It has to do with becoming a test pilot.
A number is derived from whatever the wind is doing the day the airplane is flown for FAA certification. That number signifies the airplane’s maximum demonstrated capability to handle crosswinds. Pilots who test that edge are venturing into undocumented territory. If you want to land the airplane in more crosswind than demonstrated at certification, you become, in essence, a test pilot.
So, there we stood at the hangar, discussing the plan on the ground, which is the right place to talk, as opposed to after you’ve taken off. We considered that the grass runway at Critters Lodge is enveloped by a forest of tall trees and there are campers and airplanes parked along the sides of the runway. The runway is oriented northeast-southwest. While there is no weather measurement system there, we could estimate it would be similar to what was blowing around our region at that time. The wind was coming from the southeast, which would be about a 70-degree crosswind, possibly gusting to 24 knots. We agreed to go, but we would carry extra speed on final and be ready to go around if we hit a gust at treetop level, which is where the wind’s flow would be disrupted. Our 80-knot final got us there with no problems, and we were guided to our parking spot.
Unfortunately, Beverly and her amazing cooking team had to throw out some of the food from the weekend before. Potatoes and “fluffy” desserts that wouldn’t keep in a freezer couldn’t be saved. But the brisket was ready for hundreds of hungry pilots and friends, and it was just like old times. Speaking of which, we met some new folks, including a retired businessman from Scotland and a former Hollywood stuntman who now teaches people to fly at the Tyler County Airport near Woodville.
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