April 26, 2022 Airport Doings

The Liberty Gazette

April 26, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Some of my most interesting landing stories come from flying in Africa. Often, the best accommodations are dirt strips. Vocal music from a welcoming crowd is a beautiful sound, but we don’t get to hear that until we clear the runway. And I don’t mean when we taxi off the runway. I mean pre-landing clearing. A low fly-by is sometimes necessary for a couple of reasons. In some places, we look toward the trees along the sides of the runway for guerillas. The kind with machine guns. In other places, where nut jobs might not be a present danger, we may need to “scootch” the cows over. “Scootch” is a word I learned from Dr. Brother Jimmie Clemmons (who also happened to be my first passenger when I got my private pilot certificate). To be safe and effective, the pilot brings the plane down just low enough to encourage cows or other animals to move off the runway. It’s like asking nicely, please “moove.” 

All this to say that the Liberty Municipal Airport has been in operation a long time without a wildlife fence fully enclosing the airport, and it appears we will finally have that. That’s good for pilots, passengers, and wildlife. The engineering firm of Mead and Hunt completed their wildlife hazard site visit here earlier this month to assess the situation prior to completing installation of the fence. The Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division holds the purse strings for all federal and state funding for Texas airports, and they require this survey before the work is completed. Now that item can be checked off the list, thanks to the LCDC.

Meanwhile, trees that obstructed a safe approach to landing to the south (runway 16), have been cut down. The prevailing wind around here is from the south, so that’s the most-used runway. When the FAA creates instrument approaches, it’s for aircraft to be able to land in low visibility conditions. It’s critical that there be nothing encroaching on or obstructing an approach path. Take-offs are optional. Landings are not. So not only is this a safety factor, but also preservation of the airport as an operational facility, meeting the standards expected to stay in good standing with grant assurances. When an airport operator receives federal or state grants, they contractually agree to continue to operate the airport as an airport, safely and in the manner generally accepted for airport operations. 

TXDoT’s top two priorities for funding are safety and preservation. That is, projects needed to make the airport safe for aircraft operations, and projects to preserve the functional or structural integrity of the airport. 

It was nice to hear Kelly Stretcher explain to the LCDC (and City Council) the sad state of affairs in this city, the potential, and ideas on how to fix it. Kelly has a gentle demeanor, so people with sensitive feelings have an easier time hearing truth from him. Whatever it takes, kids. At least the airport is getting some love.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 19, 2022 Learning with Katalin

The Liberty Gazette

April 19, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Last week, we brought you Katalin Watkins’s journey to soloing a glider. The 14-year-old speaks of things she’s discovered about flying in a way that makes any listener envious. 

Katalin Watkins after first glider solo

EAL: How did you get started? 

KW: My first glider flight was in a Grob on my thirteenth birthday. We went up in thermals, which is when you find a column of air lifting, and you circle up in it. We were up about forty-five minutes, which is a quite a long time for a glider flight. So far, I’ve made forty-five flights. 

EAL: What’s your favorite maneuver? 

KW: Stalls are pretty fun because you just kind of come up, and everything’s quiet, and the wind noise goes down so much. The nose comes up, and then it starts to shudder, and you push the nose down. It’s like, whoshooo! It’s really fun. Like a small hill on a roller coaster. A little bit of exhilaration. The steep turns are also pretty cool. You’re steeply banked all the way around. Kinda freaky. 

EAL: What do you think about boxing the wake?

Katalin filling out her logbook after her first solo

KW: I’ve only boxed the wake a few times. It’s interesting how far the glider can go and it’s still fine. I don’t know how familiar you are with it, but when you’re boxing the wake, there’s a slot, which is when you’re looking ahead at the tow plane, its wheels are just below the horizon, but the wings are still above it. Once you’re in the slot, you don’t want to go above it. But it’s crazy how low you can go, and it’s fine. And you can go so far to the sides. Boxing the wake has helped me learn. I realized I didn’t need to be so pent up and nervous about this stuff because if you go really low, it’s almost always redeemable, and it’s nearly never an issue. You just say, hey, we’re too low, and it may take me a little bit to get up, or whatever, so don’t be concerned, we’re good. 

One thing I had a little bit of trouble with leading up to the solo was being stiff on the controls. On the tow, I needed to be a little easier and anticipate. Boxing the wake showed me that there isn’t an urgency to it. We have some time. 

EAL: Are you left-handed or right-handed? 

KW: I’m left-handed, but I’ll hold the stick with either hand. Sometimes, I put my arm on the side rest and lean to the side, and I’m like, ope! Sit up straight! Don’t lean! My instructor said right-handed people tend to lean to the right, and left-handed people tend to lean to the left, regardless which hand they’re using. I found that interesting. But during the tow, I was like, don’t lean! Straight up, c’mon! It was kind of funny. 

EAL: You sure grab the moment by the horns, Katalin. Thanks for sharing your learning experiences!

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 12, 2022 Flying with Katalin

The Liberty Gazette

April 12, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Katalin Watkins will never forget what she did to celebrate turning 14. The student pilot took to the skies alone in a Schweitzer 2-33 glider the moment she was legal to fly solo. Since her 13th birthday, Katalin put considerable effort into studying and practicing, flying with an instructor she trusts and admires. Finally, a year later, her hard work paid off. 

“In the days leading up to my first solo flight, I didn’t have any nerves, so I thought I’d be fine. The week before, three days before, I felt confident. But the night before I planned to rise early, to do this all
by myself, I started to wonder. What could go wrong? What am I not thinking of? My nerves got a little workout that night, but in the morning, when I climbed into the glider behind my tow pilot, Bob, I knew I was ready. I could do this. I had prepped constantly and flew often. I was excited, and I was confident.”

What’s it like to command a flying machine at 14? Katalin says, “The glider is so light without my instructor that it handles differently than when he is with me. I have to be lighter on the controls and remember that a little movement goes a long way. On the tow, the glider wants to go upward. That can be dangerous if I let it get higher than the tow plane, because while we are attached by the rope (just to get me to altitude), if I let my glider rise above the tow plane, I could pull its tail up, causing my tow pilot to lose control. You have to remember that while being towed, you’re not completely independent. Bob and I work well together. He is supportive and encouraging.”

One of the things Katalin loves most about flying gliders is the peace and quiet – “solitary and exhilarating.” She has flown in her mom’s Piper Cub and other powered aircraft many times, but for her, nothing beats a peaceful flight in a motorless aircraft. “Sometimes you see the birds flying around too. And it’s so interesting that you’re being held on air, with nothing below you, nothing holding you up. It’s incredible, the engineering, that you don’t just drop like a stone.”

Katalin has soared in the thermals of South Florida, been ridge soaring in Colorado, and a combination of ridges and thermals over Hawaii where “the color of the sea is amazing and viewing wave crests from above is incredible.” This summer, she’ll go to ballooning camp, where she hopes to experience hot air ballooning. Someday, she wants to have at least a private pilot certificate in airplanes and gliders.

Katalin’s advice to youths: “If you have interest, don’t get worried about what you have to learn, like air pressure differentials and stuff. Just try it and see if you like it. Get an instructor you can have a good rapport with and try it out. The experience is truly incredible.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

Katalin with instructor, Tommy Augustsson, 
and tow pilot, Bob Youngblood

Katalin's solo shirt tail being cut off

Katalin with solo shirt tail

April 5, 2022 The Aviator of Tsingtao

The Liberty Gazette

April 5, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Tucked away in China’s port city Qingdao, the capital of Kiaochow, you’ll find German-style villas built in the aftermath of the “Juye incident.” This “incident” was the murder of two Catholic missionaries in 1897 believed to be carried out by a Chinese gang called “The Big Sword.” Germany saw an opportunity to convince the waning Qing Dynasty to give them Qingdao (then called Tsingtao), oust their own Chinese government officials, build the Germans three churches and seven fortified homes, and hand over a bunch of silver. 

Fast-forward 17 years to the little German village and a young Bavarian named Gunther Plüschow who arrived on orders of the Imperial German Navy. Gunther loved the area and described it in his memoir: 

…the loveliest weather, most radiant sunshine, and the bluest of skies. The bathing season was at its height. There were many charming ladies, mostly from the European and American settlements in China and Japan, visiting the “Ostend of the Far East” and enjoying the beauty of Kiaochow.

Amusement was the order of the day. Motor drives, riding-parties, polo, and tennis filled the free hours, and in the evenings, dancing held undisputed sway. There were many Englishwomen amongst the women, and our relations were most pleasant and cordial. We had challenged the English Polo Club at Shanghai to a match when, on the 30th of July — like a bolt from the blue — came the order warning us of “Danger of war!”

The siege of Tsingtao was the only battle fought in East Asia during World War I. The Japanese had four seaplanes they flew off a carrier, part of their superior Navy. And there was Gunther, alone, flying an obsolete monoplane, the Taube. It had no ailerons, only a system of pulleys and cables to pull the trailing edges of the wings, a movement called wing warping. A one-man air force, he staved off Japanese and British with only a pistol.

When their situation looked grim, the local German governor told Gunther to fly the Taube deeper into China (neutral at the time) and get back to Germany. He tried, but he ran out of fuel and crash-landed into a manure pile on a farm. Witnesses thought a dragon had landed. 

He continued on foot, then by boat bound for San Francisco. He crossed the U.S. to New York, and with his fake Swiss passport, boarded a ship for Italy. The British caught him at an unscheduled stop in Gibraltar and took him to a POW camp in Leicestershire. Two months later, he escaped, found a boat headed for Holland, then took a train home. The Kaiser awarded him the Iron Cross. He went back into service until the end of the war, but as Germany’s Fascism movement grew, Gunther wanted no part of it and moved to South America, where he would fly aerial surveys for Argentina and Chile until his untimely death from a crash. 

His memoir, “The Aviator of Tsingtao,” has been republished in English by Camphor Press.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 30, 2022 The Future of Fuel

The Liberty Gazette

March 30, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

It’s complicated. While we abhor the thought of the World Economic Forum and a one-world government, optional energy should be just that–optional. The aviation world is unfortunately infiltrated with WEF proponents, but to try to keep an eye on the positive, at least it’s interesting to see the developments in engine manufacturing. Hydrogen, hybrid-electric, and purely electric are new competitors for research dollars, as well as refining ideas about piston and jet engines.

Despite the fact that aviation accounts for a very small (single-digit) percentage of carbon dioxide emissions, the aircraft and engine manufacturing industries intend to become “climate-neutral” by 2050. This affects a lot of people. 

In what we call general aviation, which is everything other than the airline and military segments, innovation cycles are long. This is because development and government certification require hefty investments of both time and money and can take many years to recoup. The price the customer pays for new developments means that customer also should expect years before seeing a return on their investment. For instance, consider any large oil company or retailer, all of which have corporate flight departments, and the costs that factor into decisions whether to upgrade to aircraft flying on other than gas or kerosene.

But there’s another important factor, more critical–that of safety. The industry has achieved a high standard of safety. This is due in part to air traffic control, pilot training and other regulations, better access to meteorology, and new technology in aircraft and engines.

When it comes to new technology, we need to be able to rely on safety standards, that they don’t fall below current high standards no matter how happy it may make the control-glutton WEF. At least, that’s our hope. But after witnessing beatings in the name of public health in places like New York and Australia, who knows? 

We don’t think severe, mandated changes to aircraft power sources will happen overnight. The tried-and-true internal combustion engines will be around hopefully for the rest of our lives. But we are already seeing new ideas being introduced into the market. Will one come out on top? Maybe. It will be interesting to see. 

Another positive about this is cost. Lots of people are priced out of learning to fly. We expect to see the price tags of aircraft with new tech drop over time, and the operating costs even more so. 

Among the challenges, lots of work is still to be done to address the problem of range. The engines in use since the dawn of aviation have been so well developed that you can hop a flight to Europe, Southeast Asia, or even Australia with few to no stops for fuel. That’s not yet the case for these alternative fuels, such as electricity. You’d be lucky to get an hour’s flight time in a battery-operated airplane. 

Lots to think about for the future. Just get rid of that cancer, the WEF, and we’ll all get along fine. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 22, 2022 The Schneider Cup

The Liberty Gazette

March 22, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Among my favorite activities are flying seaplanes and air racing. There was a time, had I been in my prime a hundred years ago (and had I been male), I could have combined these two loves. Alas, not these days. The prestigious Schneider Cup Race of seaplanes shall remain an incredibly fascinating story in aviation history. 

To encourage development of seaplanes for commercial purposes, Frenchman Jacques P. Schneider thought it would be a great idea to dangle the race carrot for manufacturers in any country to compete for the title of best seaplane. Surely it would lead to inventions that would fuel his vision of the perfect type of commercial aircraft – one that could land on coasts, lakes, and rivers, with no need to spend money on airports. Incentives of money and national pride would fast-forward advancement.

Schneider Cup Trophy

They’d race against the clock (not against each other). The fastest average time would win. Schneider
promised cash and a trophy, and the country to win three consecutive races within five years would get to keep the trophy forever. 

The racecourse was a 31-mile triangle, which they had to fly around seven times. At first, Schneider made contestants fly 547 yards in contact with the sea before getting airborne. In later years, he made them park their planes in the water for six hours before the race, as a test of product integrity, and if a plane’s floats had any leaks, the unlucky pilot would have to fly with the water in it.

The first event was held April 16, 1913, in Monaco. While seven countries wanted to participate, only France had aircraft ready in time, and only one completed the full course. However, the pilot had water-taxied across the finish line rather than flying over it, disqualifying him. Schneider said either the second place (an American pilot) would be declared the winner, or the winning French pilot could re-fly that last lap, significantly slowing his average speed, but giving him the win. He took the offer, and the first Schneider trophy landed in France.

The following year, World War I started. Efforts that had gone into racing went instead into fighting. Britain’s Sopwith Camel was one of the Schneider racers converted to a wartime machine. After the war, the Brits and Italians were strong contenders until 1923, when the U.S. Army and Navy joined forces for the win in a Curtiss CR-3, average speed 177.279 mph. The Brits didn’t appreciate being beaten by state-sponsored racing.

The famous pilot and war hero Jimmy Doolittle won the race in a Curtiss R2C-2 (232.573 mph) in 1925. The following year, Mussolini declared Italy would win, at all costs. Mario de Bernardi was all too happy to deliver the news of his win. But Britain’s Supermarines settled it all with the fastest airplane in the world after three consecutive wins, 1927, 1929, and 1931. You can see the coveted trophy – clinched by an average speed of 340.08 mph – in person at the Science Museum in South Kensington, London. 

British Supermarine S.3B

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 15, 2022 Mriya, the Dream

The Liberty Gazette

March 15, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Among the many important tangible pieces of Ukrainian culture that have been blown up is one of their most iconic symbols and a source of national pride, the Antonov An-225 “Mriya.” It was targeted and hit three weeks ago outside the Antonov Airlines hangar at its home airport, Hostomel, in northwestern Kyiv. 

Built during the Soviet reign to air-launch the spaceplane MAKS decades ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union and their space program, Mriya became a vehicle for heavy cargo and many humanitarian missions around the world. For some assignments, it was the only aircraft capable.

Ukrainian Petr Balabuev was the chief designer of this, the largest plane ever built (yes, Howard Hughes’ H-4 “Hercules” had a longer wingspan, but it was no match for the An-225), and gave it the nickname Mriya, which means “dream” in Ukrainian. 

They dreamed big and saw their dream come true. Mriya could carry more weight than any aircraft in history. It routinely carried trains, for instance. Now that’s some heavy lift! 

In September 2001, the Antonov company wanted to show off the magnificent engineering and loaded Mriya with 254 tons in the form of three military tanks into the cargo hold. Mriya didn’t disappoint. She took off, breaking the world record and proving the dream was real. 

No wonder Ukraine was so proud of all of this muscle and might. Mriya could do jobs no one else could do, the most important being the staggering amount of humanitarian supplies she transported across the globe over the last two decades. 

Mriya had six engines and was flown by a crew of six people, including Chief Pilot, Dmitry Antonov. The design was based on the company’s earlier An-124. Engineers extended the fuselage and wings and strengthened the floor for greater carrying capacity. This in turn required stronger landing gear, so they gave the giant airplane 32 main wheels, some of them steerable. Like the An-124 that birthed it, the An-225’s nose gear could “kneel” to make for easier cargo loading and unloading.

Mriya’s last flight was February 5, 2022, but those at Antonov Airlines say they will rebuild. They could either use parts from the sister ship that was built not for flying, but for ground testing, which remains in the hangar, or, they could complete that sister ship and make it flyable. Like anything else, aircraft can be used for war or peace. The recent viral video of the little girl inside a Kyiv bomb shelter singing “Let It Go,” from the movie, “Frozen,” is the same evidence of the spirit and courage of the Ukrainians as is Mriya.

The people of Ukraine are in our prayers. While we know that we don’t know all the details about this war, we have read that families are being killed and a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital have been bombed. What’s the real story? Only those directly involved, and God know. We pray it ends swiftly, with justice. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 8, 2022 Spying a Great Pumpkin

The Liberty Gazette

March 8, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: We’d departed from Big Spring flying over eastern New Mexico just north of Roswell when I noticed a traffic target on the iPad at 57,000 feet above us. I thought, what flies at that altitude that would show up on our equipment? The object was barely moving, maybe one mile an hour. I craned my neck to see if I was imagining things, but no, the sun was reflecting off the target like a bright star in the deep blue cloudless sky.  

Thunderhead Flight 579
as shown on ForeFlight

Being near Roswell, I thought about flying saucers, but those wouldn’t have transponders that tell us their location and altitude. This blip even had an identification tag and an aircraft registration which showed on the screen. I figured it must be a balloon. 

It was Thunderhead Flight 579, which had departed a field near Santa Fe the day before we saw it. It would remain aloft for four days coming to rest about ten miles south of Tucumcari. Raven Aerstat developed the balloon system to use for military contracts, survey work, marine and environmental monitoring. Raven was big in sport ballooning in the 1960s and 70s but transitioned to private contractor status around 2000. Their last order for a recreational hot-air balloon was in 2007. 

Thunderhead balloons float in the stratosphere, high above the weather. Some can soar up to 95,000 feet. Not many aircraft can get that high, and though their gas envelopes are visible in the daytime, they are nearly invisible at night, and their transponders can be turned off. This makes them a difficult target to hit and good for spying. And, deflated, they are quickly transportable and deployable.

Reconnaissance balloons have been around since the civil war. Spy satellites on the other hand, can’t change their orbit that easily or quickly, so there is a need for this buoyant type of observation platform. The US Air Force and CIA continue to fly U-2 Dragon Lady spy planes for similar purposes – on demand reconnaissance. However, it’s been proven that even the U-2 at high altitude is detectable and can be shot down. I wish the Air Force still had a few SR-71s in operation. Nothing flew high or fast enough to get them, but their flights were expensive.

These balloons can stay aloft for months, drifting with wind currents in different directions at different altitudes, so as to keep them over the same spot for an indefinite amount of time. For research that requires constant monitoring, this makes them a good tool. Solar power keeps their instruments and cameras running and charges their batteries, which they use at night. 

When the balloons are launched, they look like a jellyfish drifting in the air. But climbing into the stratosphere, the gas inside them expands, and they take on the appearance of a translucent flying pumpkin. But even Snoopy would have a to admit that this Great Pumpkin is something of an alien and doesn’t require a new battle plan to keep from being shot down.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 1, 2022 What It Was

The Liberty Gazette

March 1, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: We write about different aspects of aviation and how they relate to and benefit every person, be ye earthbound or be ye airborne. Sometimes we want to step back and cogitate on the wonder and romance that attracted us to flying in the first place. What it was that drew us here. It’s good for all of us to reflect on the past and ponder why it is we love what we do, or to go back to some of those dreams we had that might have yet to be realized and set a new goal for them.

We have recounted our first flights, our first solos, and the significance of looking over at the other seat, the one that usually had our instructor in it, and realizing that we were doing this thing, this activity, living this adventure under our own power. At that milestone, there is still a lot of learning ahead, but student pilots find that the huge accomplishment soaks into the soul, and something about life changes with a brand-new perspective that, “I can do that!” 

The student then goes on to learn to navigate over long distances where, like hiking in the wilderness, the scenery constantly changes. My initial cross-country training was from El Monte Airport to Palm Springs and back. Going out eastbound was easy because all one has to do is point the airplane at a wide gap between a couple of mountains. The return trip was a bit more complex. The area around El Monte is often choked with haze and smog, requiring more flight planning and precise navigation when there are fewer visual cues to render assistance.

One of my most memorable trips was a long solo flight from Southern California to Oregon, then Idaho and back home. I rented a Cessna 172 for five days and logged 25 hours. During that excursion, I broke through my first 100 hours of total flight time. On the leg from McMinnville, Oregon to Boise, Idaho, I flew through the marvelous Columbia River Gorge east of Portland. Despite the 3,000-foot overcast, the visibility underneath was good. It was kind of like flying through a tunnel. Gray clouds enveloped dark rock outcroppings where white frothing waterfalls sprouted. Wind surfers’ white trails streaked the river below as they zigzagged from bank to bank. Poking along my journey, I bisected the Cascade Mountain range. Beyond it, sunshine above and circle farms below dominated the view. As flyers, these are the kinds of experiences we hope for. They are not just the stuff of great memories, but enhance the imagination, enrich storytelling, and encourage us to seek more of these adventures. 

Linda: Flying feeds our wanderlust while challenging our minds, exercising a perfect mix of the ethereal and intellect. Three dimensional views are among the rewards for mastering control of a vehicle on all three axes at once. Achievement proven with every take-off followed by every landing, with all the good stuff in between. It’s why aviators say, “I’m livin’ the dream!”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 22, 2022 Mine Craft

The Liberty Gazette

February 22, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The weather-beaten and twisted tail of the old air force plane stands out of the water-rutted hillside. Its mangled and broken wings are mashed into the ground next to it. There are no engines to be found. It rests in a lonely rock-strewn canyon south of Las Vegas, Nevada. So, what’s the story?

“It was a movie prop,” says Kevin Smith of Henderson, Nevada. “Kevin Costner blew it up in a scene for the movie, ‘3,000 miles from Graceland.’” 

The producer of the movie gave the plane to Tony Whirly, owner of the Techatticup mine near Nelson, Nevada, after they finished filming the scene there. Tony stuck a pole in the hillside, slid the fuselage down on it, laid out the wings, and voila, another piece of intrigue was added to the history of Eldorado Canyon. 

Tony used to run canoe trips from the base of Boulder (Hoover) Dam down the Colorado River to Nelson’s Landing. The landing is at the end of long, curving Eldorado Canyon. He always wanted to buy a place in Nelson. After a flashflood careened down the canyon and wiped out a lot of properties, one elderly woman decided she’d had enough of remote living and offered hers for sale. She turned down Tony’s offer to buy one acre because she had 46 acres to sell but sweetened the deal when she told him there was a gold mine on the property. He just had to find the entrance which was covered in mud. 

Tony found the entrance just three days short of escrow closing. It took a while to muck it out, but finally he and his family gained access to miles of mining tunnels. They have partially restored parts of the mine and offer adventure tours. The have built buildings reflecting the old mine spirit, have a zipline, old cars, ore carts, and more. It’s one of the more popular stops with tour companies in Las Vegas. 

The area is ripe with history. Indians approached prospectors in the mid-1800s with a soft, grayish metal saying, “techatticup.” The old sourdoughs asked where they found it. “Techatticup” means “give me food,” but the miners didn’t understand. When the Indians showed them where it was, they named their claim “Techatticup.”

The mine operated on and off from 1861 to 1942. It closed during WWI, and the water tables rose, so it became difficult to drain it and make it a profitable endeavor after that. Claim-jumping, murder, and robberies all add to the flavor of the area. The gold ingots were shipped down river on steamboats but often were robbed. Thieves would escape across the desert with saddlebags full of ingots. One mine owner, tired of the thefts, cast a large gold ball weighing 200 pounds, too big to be stolen, and rolled it aboard the boat. 

Filmmakers have made movies and music videos at Techatticup mine where snakes, scorpions, and coyote roam, and myths and old stories of gold miners, thieves, and a plane crash are told. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 15, 2022 Freeze Frame

The Liberty Gazette

February 15, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: A co-worker and I were in Pontiac, Michigan, just north of Detroit, to take photographs of a new airplane. Lucky for us, that plane was in a heated hangar. The cargo version of Aerospatiale ATR-72-600 had recently arrived from the factory in Toulouse, France with only 28 hours total time. We’ve already been teaching pilots to fly this airplane, but the company wanted to update our courseware. So, when a customer offered a new airplane for a photo shoot unfettered by maintenance personnel and not out flying, the company dispatched us to the great white north to do the job. 

The cargo-only version of this airplane is new, and FedEx is replacing its older aircraft with them for smaller capacity and feeder routes. On the airport ramp outside, amidst a bleak white-grey scene, airplanes covered in varying amounts of snow were scattered and tucked into out-of-the-way corners. Whatever the depth of the snow on them was a result of the direction they were pointed and the lake effect from Lakes Michigan, Huron, and St. Clair. A cold front blew through here only a couple of days ago. Plowed ice mounds were piled between rows of operational airplanes and carcasses permanently parked, corroded from exposure to weather and the salt they used to clear the ramp. We were happy to be inside the hangar because it was eighteen degrees outside with a stiff wind, making the wind chill factor was about six degrees. Fifty degrees in the hangar felt balmy.

The photo shoot was needed to create a virtual walk-around inspection of the aircraft. This inspection is what pilots perform each time before the aircraft is flown, looking in wheel wells, opening inspection covers on the wings, tail, and fuselage, checking for anything out of place or irregularities. 

We wanted consistent lighting for the shoot. Natural light is anything but consistent due to moving clouds and changing angle of the sun, shrouded by the gray overcast. Besides that, we had to get into those recessed areas of the aircraft and scoot under the plane, which would not be fun on a sheet of ice. Capturing images outside carried risks of slipping, dropping and breaking expensive equipment, and snow and ice fogging and contaminating the lenses. 

My co-worker was using a special 360-degree camera that, once set up, took 75 photos in eight minutes automatically. She’d stitch them together later with a computer program. I was there as a subject matter expert on the airplane to provide focus areas for her to shoot. We walked away to avoid being caught in the photos. I used some of those eight-minute sessions to wander out in the cold among the old airplanes stripped of their engines. If they could talk, what kind of story would they tell? I wonder what they would say to the new plane on the block. 

It took two full days to complete the job, covering the aircraft from nose to tail, inside and out. This is the thoroughness needed when teaching pilots about an airplane.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 8, 2022 A Different Kind of Air Bee & Bee

The Liberty Gazette

February 8, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

One of the unanticipated results of reduced commercial air travel is that with less activity from the man-made world, insects are finding an environment more to their liking. A consequence of less noise, less pollution, and less movement is more bees and wasps making nests in aircraft pitot (pronounced pee-toe) tubes. Last summer’s reports were buzzing particularly at London’s Heathrow Airport and Australia’s Brisbane Airport, where the invasions caused dozens of flights to return to the airport or abort takeoffs entirely. 

Pitot tubes are attractive to bees and especially to wasps because the tube offers a nice dark place to build a nest. All aircraft have pitot tubes, some have more than others, and it’s good practice to put the cover on any time an aircraft is not flying. 

Pitot tube with cover

These tubes are critical to flight because they take in air and measure the pressure, providing a read-out
inside the airplane for the airspeed indicator. Precise airspeed is necessary especially when taking off and landing. In those phases of flight, the pilot needs to know exactly when to “rotate” (pull the yoke back to lift off the ground) and how much power to pull back to ease the plane onto the runway. There’s a minimum airspeed needed to create lift, which keeps an aircraft flying, so as you can see, the ability to read the measurements derived from the pitot tube makes that device one of the star players of your vacation. 

Among the insects found to be totally tubular at Heathrow were the Wall Mason wasp, which seemed to favor British Airways’ Airbus A319, and the leafcutter bee, which showed far better taste in taking a liking to Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A330. 

On the pre-prison island of Australia, consulting firm Eco Logical Australia was hired to run a three-year experiment with the goal of figuring out which airplanes the pests liked best. They created 3D-printed mock pitot tubes of various sizes and opened the wasp B-and-Bs for business. The keyhole wasp, of the species Pachodynerus nasidens, gave the Boeing 737’s large-diameter pitot tube five stars for luxury accommodations, and gave researchers greater insight into their behavior. 

Since an unblocked pitot tube is so important to the safety of flight, learning these insects’ behaviors and preferences helps pilots be more vigilant when doing pre-flight inspections. Experts say it takes the keyhole wasp less than 20 minutes to set up house in an uncovered pitot tube. This species wasn’t discovered in Brisbane until 2010. They came to the Outback from the Caribbean and Central and South America.

But just as vital as it is to cover the pitot tubes after shutting down the engines, you can bet your bottom dollar that remembering to remove those covers before the next flight is of equal importance. It turns out that, along with the increased reports of bee and wasp nests stopping up the airflow, forgetting to remove the covers has also resulted in a few rejected take-offs, although fewer than those caused by squatter insects thinking it's their new "Air Bee and Bee."

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 1, 2022 Printed Planely

The Liberty Gazette

February 1, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: When you go to a Maker Faire, you’ll find fascinating things to help you get in touch with your inner builder. It’s like a virtual time machine with vendors that take you back a couple of generations and others that hurl you into next year. 

Our friend Lance Borden (www.xtalman.com) has cornered the global market for radio kits right from his living room in Houston. Lance sells kits for kids (or adults) to make crystal radios, one-tube radios, World War II foxhole radios, and more. He’s also an expert in antique radio restoration. You can usually find him at Maker Faires and radio enthusiast gatherings. He’s a ham radio operator, a pilot, and a former NASA space engineer.

On the other end of the spectrum are 3D printers. They’ve become quite sophisticated, and there’s not much that can’t be made with them. Like food, clothing, and shelter. Austin, Texas-based ICON builds 3D printed houses. In fact, they’ve teamed up with Lennar home builders to create a new community of 3D printed homes. Savings on material, labor, and time are significant over traditional building.

I bet you’re wondering, “What about airplanes? Can we 3D print airplanes?” Great question. However, once we get into industrial usage, it’s called additive manufacturing. 

Engineers recently flight-tested a Chinook equipped with an additive manufactured transmission housing. The possibilities are endless. Parts can be manufactured more accurately and with fewer people involved. The main materials used are plastic and metal because they can be heated and melted, which is how 3D printing works. 

Nowadays, however, material can be reinforced with glass or carbon fibers. For things that fly, the total weight reduction realized with lighter parts means savings on fuel and other operational costs. That, in turn, cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions. 3D printed parts tend to be more durable, too. 

Airbus and Boeing are a couple of major aviation manufacturers that have been developing additive manufacturing. Airbus started testing with titanium components back in 2014. If you’ve flown on a Finnair A320, you’ve probably touched some 3D printed parts when you stowed baggage in the overhead compartments. The part that fills in the space between compartments is 3D printed. 

You can expect to see significant growth in the use of 3D printing in the aviation and aerospace industries, so if you’re an investor, look for companies like ULTEM, which makes a resin that is one of the only 3D printing plastics authorized for use on certified aircraft components. ULTEM resin passes important tests of flammability, smoke, and toxicity with excellent ratings, and has high mechanical and thermal resistance. So as a substance for creating aircraft components, it’s a great candidate for replacement parts in electrical and lighting systems. That means headlamps, ignition and engine elements, electric switches, frames, and bulb sockets can be replaced through additive manufacturing when the old parts wear out. 

How ironic and timeless would it be if Lance created parts for his historic radio kits through 3D printing? 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 25, 2022 Some Explanations

The Liberty Gazette

January 25, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: Many thanks to our two guest columnists who reincarnated long enough to cover for us here while our airplane was in the shop for its annual inspection. After sharing around 750 different stories over the years, we decided to get a little creative, take you back to high school English class, but with a modern twist. Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott certainly went above and beyond modifying their classic novels in flash fiction form. 

We’re happy to report that the inspection went well, and there were no major repairs needed for the Elyminator. The only unfortunate thing was that the first weekend we had the plane back, the weather threw a temper tantrum. While weather can have more significant effects on small aircraft, you bet your bootie that 5G has the aviation world up in arms. 

Mike: 5G affects aircraft radar altimeters and ultimately passengers. Let’s clarify things first. An altimeter is standard equipment in an aircraft. The altimeter installed in our airplane, like most, is a barometric altimeter. It measures atmospheric pressure and is set so that we can tell how high we are above sea level. Most instrument approaches are designed for this type of altimeter. 

Some special instrument approaches also require the use of a radio (a/k/a radar) altimeter. This equipment provides real-time measurement of an aircraft’s clearance over terrain and obstacles. This is important when landing in inclement weather. Since it also integrates with other systems, such as pressurization, anti-skid braking, and auto-land to name a few, it's a critical little piece of equipment. The 5G network only interferes with aircraft radar altimeters.

In the FAA–FCC wars, Verizon and AT&T (follow the money) have given in a little, but not for long. There are 88 airports in the U.S. with special low-visibility approaches that require radar altimeters. Verizon and AT&T are reducing power to 1585 watts for towers that are close to 50 of these airports, only for six months, allegedly to give the aviation industry more time to figure out how to avoid cancelations and delays. The FAA should have received some of the incumbent user funding to study how to prepare aircraft.

Sprint and the European 5G systems are different, operating on frequency bands that are not close to the C-bands used by aircraft radio altimeters here. The European system also uses a much less powerful transmitter. The 5G towers in France, for example, are limited to 641 watts. 

Even newer aircraft are affected, as avionics are so integrated with airplanes systems throughout, that replacement of components isn’t an easy fix. New components may not be compatible with the rest of the systems. The cost of upgrading aircraft with shielding is high, time-consuming, and requires FAA inspection and certification. Scheduling of a fleet becomes a nightmare too, because if an airplane breaks down, it can’t just be replaced by another aircraft if the destination weather requires an aircraft capable of landing without 5G interference.

Which do we want? Increased bandwidth or safe flights? Pick one. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com