The Liberty Gazette
November 9, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Linda: The 2022 Old Farmer’s Almanac is out. I picked up my copy at Tractor Supply. Thumbing through it, near the end, I found a list of weather phobias. I hadn’t considered such a category of things would actually have names, but now that I think about it, sure, why not? For instance, our dog Abby, and many other dogs as well, have astraphobia, a fear of lightning and thunder. It’s also known as tonitrophobia, brontophobia, and keraunophobia. Keraunos is ancient Greek for lightning or thunderbolt. Bronte is another Greek word for thunder. While I don’t harbor this fear, I certainly respect it when flying and stay far from thunderstorms in the Elyminator. Lately, we’ve had some gorgeous flying weather, with a few dud-days sprinkled in between.
Oh, those beautiful days, when the crisp blue sky looks like it needs a little red and white airplane with black and white checkered wingtips! We cannot resist. Plus, we peek in at the progress of various construction projects, such as the railroad, completion of 99, and River Ranch, the neighborhood under construction in Dayton.
Mike: A few years back, we had some conversations with one of the developers, Eddie Gray, about building a runway as part of River Ranch. He approached us one morning after church looking for suggestions on ways to improve the planned development. He had an idea that an airport would be a worthwhile addition. That conversation led to a meeting at his offices in Baytown where he unveiled what is now under construction.
Near the development, there’s a grass strip called Gum Island. It’s still officially charted by the FAA, meaning it isn’t closed. M&M Air Service from Beaumont and other crop duster companies used it when they worked fields in the area, but much of the time the grass was overgrown. Eddie thought the runway could be extended and paved, and we thought so too. Our conversations mostly centered around what that it would look like and how it would benefit the community.
Taking into consideration how underserved the east side of Houston is by airports, I must admit my creative juices flowed with the idea of building a new airport, something rare in today’s world. I drew up several concept pictures for Mr. Gray, and we discussed what would work and what wouldn’t. We talked about safety, noise-filtering landscaping, the optimum runway length which would not be intrusive yet adequately serve the area, and necessary infrastructure and construction investments.
Unfortunately, the other partners nixed the deal on a new runway for River Ranch. I was disappointed but not really surprised. A new airport is a hard idea to sell even if it does make economic sense.
Surveying the progress from above, one has to wonder, with such a major project, where plans can be hindered by nature, do the workers and investors have any weather phobias? I couldn’t blame them if they were lilapsophobes (fearing hurricanes and tornadoes), or antlophobes (afraid of floods). So here’s wishing them good weather and great success.
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