May 24, 2022 Airpark Life

The Liberty Gazette

May 24, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

When Kimberly Ewing left home in Connecticut to start college in South Carolina, she didn’t have a plan. “I had a boyfriend,” she laughs, “but no plan.”

Fortunately, Aunt Jayne (Ewing) also lived in South Carolina and invited her to spend the summer with her at her glider operation. “She said I could learn the operation. She’d get me to solo in a glider and see if that might give me some direction.” 

Kimberly earned her private pilot certificate in gliders, then added powered aircraft. “Aunt Jayne asked me what I was going to do with it. I wasn’t sure.”

That’s when Aunt Jayne explained the vast horizon. She could be an airline pilot. “I had no idea I could do that,” Kimberly admits. 

Aunt Jayne suggested they visit Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University together, and it was there, in Daytona Beach, when Kimberly understood what her aunt had been saying. Finally, she had a plan. “Flying for fun had been great, but I didn’t realize I could get paid for it. I transferred to Riddle and hit the ground running.” Not only that, but she met the dashing Nick Gill, a fellow student, and together, they would build their plan.

Kimberly began flight instructing, then she was hired by a regional air carrier. Nick went the route of corporate aviation. The couple settled in the Atlanta area, and Kimberly commuted to work. 

One day, Nick heard about a fly-in not far from their home. Kimberly wouldn’t be back from her trip in time to join in the fun, so Nick borrowed her 1965 Aeronca Champ, which they kept in a hangar about an hour from their apartment, and hopped over to the private grass strip to check it out. There, at Mallard’s Landing, Nick made many new friends. He couldn’t wait to show Kimberly. 

“We didn’t know there was such a thing, flying communities. We fell in love with the place and the people. When our realtor told us about a house at Mallard’s Landing coming on the market, we jumped on it.”

Kimberly and Nick with their de Havilland Beaver

Within a few years, Kimberly joined Delta, Nick was hired by NetJets, and their fleet was growing, adding a de Havilland Beaver and two project planes – an Extra 300S and a Schweizer 1-26 glider – because Nick is also an aircraft mechanic. 

Kimberly says airpark life suits them well. “I get home from work and think, what a nice day, I think I’ll take the Champ out. I taxi out, and there’s my neighbor Jeanel, also a Delta pilot. She’s on her deck with her dogs, and I wave as I taxi by. Then I see our friend Mike in his Stinson, and there’s Leigh in his Cessna 195. This community is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Sitting on the deck watching airplanes with a coffee is like, is this real? It’s been ten years, and it’s still like that. We are incredibly fortunate. I will never take flying or living here for granted. Airplanes are cool.”

So is Aunt Jayne.

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