The Liberty Gazette
November 2, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Mike: Prior to moving to Liberty, I was the manager and chief pilot of a corporate flight department based in Miami. The company I worked for had entities on three continents, and I spent more time flying to destinations outside our country than in it. I flew the company’s Learjet, and later a Gulfstream, to some rather exotic locations, many with challenging conditions.
One such destination was Santiago de Compostela in the northwest corner of Spain. We didn’t stay in Santiago, rather, we used it as a technical refueling stop when we flew the Learjet across the Atlantic. A tech stop is an allowable, provisional stop and does not include clearing customs, although customs officials often met the airplane there to save time. Otherwise, Rosalia de Castro airport was where we would land for customs on our way to Madrid, which was our primary base of operations in Europe. By contrast, the Gulfstream, with its longer fuel range, could bypass Santiago and go straight to Madrid or Paris when we crossed the pond from St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Regardless which aircraft we flew, the complexities of flying across the Atlantic required logistical planning. For instance, there are one-way “tracks” to follow depending on which direction you’re flying over the ocean. Eastbound flights start in the afternoon from the U.S. and Canada, fly all night, and land in Europe early to mid-morning. Westbound flights leave Europe in the afternoon and arrive at night in North America. However, because the Learjet lacked the range, our flight times were different from those following the tracks. We’d leave Florida in the morning, and after fueling in Canada, fly across the ocean in between the usual morning and afternoon flights, giving us the benefit of a more direct route. We would make landfall in Spain around 10:00 pm. It seemed it was always raining, with turbulence blowing in from the Atlantic.
Once landed, we’d have less than an hour to refuel and take off for Madrid before they closed the airport for the night. Often, I could be seen standing next to the jet on the dark, wet ramp in Santiago, holding a flashlight for the fueler while trying to keep the umbrella in my other hand from collapsing as I held it over him and the open tank while wind and rain whipped and pummeled us.
Sometimes that job was demanding, but the significant memory of flying into Santiago that remains with me today is their approach lighting system, and how they built it to adapt to the conditions that were common there. Most major airports have very bright approach light systems that can be seen from 25 miles away. But Santiago far exceeds that. Their approach lights are visible a hundred miles out over the sea, even through all that rain. This is a huge help for pilots. Like the new weather reporting system at the Liberty Municipal Airport here, it’s like a kind of welcome mat, helping us find our way.
ElyAirLines.blogspot.com
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