May 23, 2023 Best Seat in the House

The Liberty Gazette

May 23, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Arizona’s Monument Valley is a movie maker’s paradise. This iconic western backdrop has been used in many films, like the closing scene of the blockbuster How the West Was Won (1962), where George Peppard and family ride off in their wagon singing “I’ll Build You a Home in the Meadow,” and The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne, who plays an uncle searching for his niece who was abducted by Comanches after they massacred her family.

I love watching westerns on a big screen where I’m engulfed by the landscape. But I had long wanted to see Monument Valley in person. I’ve skirted it many times and have flown over it late at night. It seemed every time I was flying in the Four Corners region something prevented me from making a side trip to this land of bulky stone masses and spires dressed in reds and tans and casting long shadows. 

Flying back from Washington was at our leisure; we were not on anyone else’s schedule, and this allowed us to deviate southward from our planned route for a little flightseeing. 

After clearing high mountains southeast of Salt Lake, we crossed some pinion pine-covered mountains and table-top mesas broken by deep slot-canyons. The Colorado river snaked its way between washed-out walls as it headed toward Glenn Canyon Dam. The aeronautical chart depicted Lake Powell below us, but the only indication we could see was lighter ground where water had once covered it. 

A little further south, we flew over the San Juan River and into the airspace over Navajoland. The Navajo Indian Reservation takes up more than 27,000 square miles—the largest Indian reservation in the United States. Monument Valley is right in the middle of it. Compare that to Grand Canyon National Park, barely seven percent that size at 1,900 square miles. 

The towering sediment and sandstone formations were visible from fifty miles away through dusty, hazy air. Within twenty minutes after first spotting the main formations, we were flying lazy circles over the valley and snapping pictures. 

From my seat, I envisioned tell-tale dust trails kicked up by stagecoaches, cavalry, and attacking warriors. As dust-devils danced across the flat lands between the rock monuments, I imagined natives sending up smoke signals. That in turn made me think of the heroic Navajo Code Talkers of WWII—their Navajo language code never being deciphered by the Japanese. Ours was a unique view, every photo and video shot from a different angle, catching the late morning light in this land of western movie legends. 

When I first moved to Texas, I heard people ask (sarcastically) about another part of the country, “What part of Texas is that?” Ironically, while enjoying a bird’s-eye view of Monument Valley, I thought of The Searchers and director John Ford’s use of this canvas to depict Texas, where that story takes place. I also considered how fortunate we were to get this view from a small airplane. It’s the best seat in the house.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 16, 2023 Family, Mountains, and Dog Parties

The Liberty Gazette

May 16, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Following a relaxing visit with Mike’s siblings in Madras, Oregon, near Redmond, we hopped over the Cascade Mountains to McMinnville to see his cousin Doug and Aunt Delores. A nonagenarian, Aunt Delores is a bright lady, enthusiastic about life. She didn’t know we were coming – it was a surprise – so we didn’t figure she’d know we had fought a strong headwind coming up from south Texas. Yet she was well aware. “There are two weather masses colliding, forming an occluded front,” she told us. “Were you affected by that flying up here?” 

Aunt Delores isn’t a pilot, she spent her life farming and raising kids. I think she and my mom would make great friends. Mom says, “remain curious and interested,” and Aunt Delores certainly embodies that. During our brief visit, she held lively discussions about politics, economics, education, philosophy, religion, local news, and of course, farming. There’s no idle mind there, and she’s one of the most upbeat, pleasant people I’ve ever met. I always feel full of happiness when I’m with her. Time spent with Aunt Delores goes by too fast. 

Mt St Helens

Cousin Doug took us back to the McMinnville airport so we could get on to Bellingham, Washington by the time my sister Diane got off work. The day was clear enough to see Mount St. Helen’s butchered profile, the result of a major eruption May 18, 1980. We took pictures from the air of snow-capped Mount Hood and Mount Rainier, too. The Olympic Mountains were not far, off to our left, likewise dusted in white powder.

Approaching the Navy’s runways on Whidbey Island, the scene was what I remembered from years ago, right after I got my private pilot certificate and came up here to go island-hopping: touch-and-go’s on all the island runways. The shimmering water of Puget Sound comes from the snow melting on those grand peaks, flows around the many humps of terra firma and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The wind had calmed down by the time we landed at Bellingham, and Willie, Diane’s beau, was there to greet us.

This lovely couple enjoys hiking in the many parks in their bucolic hometown. They had planned to take us to the best restaurants, so, foodies that we are, we rejoiced in this glorious break from work – eating, hiking, eating, hiking, eating, hiking. Plus, an incredible brewery-dog park. We planted ourselves at a picnic table there to get our dog-fix. Like P.D. Eastman’s Go Dog. Go! it was a dog party, with big dogs and little dogs, and even one with a party hat.

The sky owed us a screaming tailwind for the trip home and paid its debt quite nicely. We made a few turns around Monument Valley, a plateau with clusters of sandstone buttes where several movie scenes have been filmed, and over Four Corners, where each wing and the tail of our airplane were simultaneously over Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, before scooting home to our pups, Iggy and Carmine.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

May 9, 2023 Highs and Lows

The Liberty Gazette

May 9, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Mike’s piece last week offered a beautiful reflection on family in a little slice of our trip to the Pacific Northwest. His ancestors migrated to Oregon in a covered wagon. He described his siblings and himself as “part of this western landscape of deserts, mountains, and oceans, drawn to wide-open spaces, both dependent on and independent of each other. Seasons come and go, and we weather the highs and lows and appreciate the beauty in our relationships.” I think that also describes Rex Barber, a fighter pilot whose hometown of Culver, Oregon, we visited. 

Barber came from a farming family–honest American blood–and majored in agricultural engineering before heading off to war in 1940. He was on a ship halfway to Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As our military regrouped, Lt. Barber joined a select team of pilots hand-picked by Major John Mitchell for special training. 490 days after Pearl Harbor, this elite squadron undertook the top secret "Operation Vengeance," the mission to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamanoto, Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Imperial Navy, the planner and leader of the attack. Yamamoto's “Betty” bomber was part of a flight of eight planes, two bombers and six escort fighters. Barber snuck up behind Yamamoto’s aircraft in his P-38 and riddled it with bullets, killing all onboard. His heroic efforts earned him the Navy Flying Cross. 

And that wasn’t all. He flew 138 combat missions and became a Flying Ace with five confirmed kills and three probables. He was also shot down over enemy territory. That’s when the Japanese were our enemies, and the Chinese were our friends. How times have changed. He hid out for two months and was finally rescued with the help of Chinese guerillas, although he had suffered serious injuries. 

He stayed in the Air Force after the war and was testing the new Lockheed P-80 “Shooting Star” jet fighter when he and a fellow pilot were invited to fly them over an area between Culver and Redmond. Well, more like over and under.

We stood at the southern precipice of Crooked River and imagined it was 1945, and here came Colonel Rex Barber flashing past us, the P-80’s wingspan within mere feet of the rocky canyon walls as he flew under the railway bridge first and then the road bridge (now a walking bridge). The other pilot had enough after the railway bridge and pulled his airplane up to go over the second one, narrowly missing it. 

After 21 years of service, two Silver Stars, the Purple Heart, and several other decorations in addition to the Navy Flying Cross, Barber came home to Culver to help his parents on the farm and raise his own family there. After a time, he opened an insurance agency, served as Justice of the Peace, and then became the mayor. All he had to say about his important secret mission was, “I was just doing my job.” 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

May 2, 2023 Traversing Spring

The Liberty Gazette

May 2, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Flying through the Great Basin, a desert that covers Nevada from the Sierras eastward into Utah and up to the Rocky Mountains, I am in awe of the beauty of these vast, lonely places. High-peaked and lower mountain ranges spread in a north-south pattern, the rocky masses thicker in some places than in others. Wide, flat valleys lie in-between. It’s an area full of mines – gold, silver, and copper. And other minerals, like lithium, barium, uranium. 

I’m escaping what’s been of late a heavy, stress-filled work schedule. We’ve been planning this for half a year now, and it feels good to be free, but we know that this time of year, foul weather can interfere. We left the Houston area just before strong storms rolled in, and we’re enroute to see family in Oregon and Washington.

Spring is kind of in the air, but there is still heavy snow at the highest elevations; some of the summits are not completely visible because they disappear into the cloud layers. Below, as we fly along a valley, we observe more mountains. They are over fifty miles distant and bathed in sunshine. High winds whip the crests, slowly chiseling the palisades. Snow showers obscure some of the smaller passes; the wider passes and the valleys remain clear except for a few light flurries we can easily skirt. That wind also hinders our progress because we are flying against it and are bounced in its turbulence across the ranges. 

This is my first opportunity to land at Yelland Field just west of Great Basin National Park in Ely, Nevada. I’ve wanted to land here for years. Our last stop was Winslow, Arizona, and in between there and here, we traversed Marble Canyon at the northeast end of the Grand Canyon and flew over Zion National Park. We span a final pass, and the Elyminator’s wheels emit the familiar chirp as rubber settles gently onto asphalt. 

A quick refueling and a moment for selfies in front of Ely Jet Center (the business is no relation that we know of, but the town was settled by a gold-miner ancestor). We power up again to be propelled further northwest. Elko, Nevada is the cowboy poetry capital of the world. There’s been an annual gathering here since 1985 for a “week-long coming-together of people rooted in the poetry, music, and arts of cowboy country.” Maybe we’ll check it out next January, but we are eager to continue to our first destination: Madras, Oregon, where we will reunite with my sister and one brother. The last time we were all together was seven years ago. Since then, our older brother has passed. 

Together, my siblings and I are part of this western landscape of deserts, mountains, and oceans. We are drawn to the wide-open spaces, both dependent on and independent of each other. Seasons come and go, and we weather the highs and lows and appreciate the beauty in our relationships.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com