August 1, 2023 Tips to Avoid Getting Your Goose Cooked (by blue ice)

The Liberty Gazette

August 1, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

This week we have a few airline travel tips for you. If you’re over the age of 25, you probably remember the fate of US Airways Flight 1549, the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Hard to believe it’s been fourteen and a half years. And because the dramatic incident was ripe for a movie, most people know the cause of the water landing was Canada geese ingested into both engines of the Airbus A320. 

Birds and airplanes pose a serious risk to each other. This fact has motivated decision-makers at some airports to find creative ways to shoo the fowl away from arriving and departing flight paths. At Reagan National Airport, there’s a cannon set up to automatically fire blanks at various intervals. But we’ve heard tell that the birds can become accustomed to the sound, so it may be less effective than, say, the solution used at Salt Lake City’s major airport, where they let nature take its course. Pigs who live at the airport are well fed and happy rooting around to fill their bellies with more gull eggs. 

At the Lourdes-Pyrenees airport, at the base of the Great Pyrenees Mountains in the southwestern part of France, you might see bright LED screens with pairs of animated cartoonish-looking eyes. The pattern, concentric black circles moving around on a white background, makes raptors avoid the area because it looks to them like an imminent collision. In Bologna, Italy, two hawks keep guard over the airport. Pigeons and other common birds pretty much stay away. But if they do try to venture into airport property, the hawks will take care of them before an airplane does. A drone bird in Debrecen (Hungary), a Border Collie in Bentonville (Arkansas), bird effigies, and lasers are among other inventive tools that have proven successful at keeping our feathered friends and us safe in the air. 

And what do we do about lightning? Wicks. Wicks installed on airplanes draw the lightning bolts to the trailing edges of the wings and tail. When a charge strikes, it slips across the outer skin of the plane and surges to those wicks, being whisked away instantly. Most commercial airliners are hit by lightning at least once a year. It’s basically a non-event.

You remember Ma told you never to eat yellow ice? Well don’t eat blue ice either. You know that liquid will freeze at high altitude because of the temperatures. And you know that the toilets on airliners flush with blue disinfectant. In the event of a leak in the airplane’s sewer system, watch out below – it’s gotta go somewhere – and don’t mistake it for blue popsicles. 

One more. On your boarding pass is a record locator. It’s all about you. Your passenger record includes your flight itineraries, date of birth, contact information, hotel credit card information, passport details, and IP address if you book online. For this reason, a boarding pass is something you should keep in your control and shred when you’re finished with it.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 25, 2023 That's One Fast Bird

The Liberty Gazette

July 25, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

A couple of weeks ago we alluded to an interesting exchange of ownership of a certain P51C “Thunderbird.” 

Jimmy Stewart, who acted in nearly a hundred movies and TV shows between 1935 and 1991, interrupted playtime when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was a bomber pilot during WWII, eventually reaching the rank of Brigadier General, the highest rank of any celeb. He was a rare bird, decorated with several military medals.

A couple of years after his fabulous performance in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Stewart went in halfsies with another pilot, Joe De Bona, to buy this P51C. They gussied it up, allegedly with 48 coats of primer and cobalt blue paint, which allegedly made it fly faster, and entered it in the Bendix Trophy Race (1949), which went from Burbank, California to Cleveland, Ohio. De Bona won the race in just over four hours and sixteen minutes, an average speed of 470 mph and a new record. He beat second-place Stan Reaver by eleven minutes.

Two months later, they sold the plane to Jackie Cochran for “$1 and other considerations.” It was her third P51. She wanted it for setting two international records and a U.S. National record. Soon as she checked that off the list, she sold it right back to the Stewart-De Bona team for “$1 and other considerations” just in time for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. No, the queen didn’t go air racing, but her image sure did.

The coronation was the biggest news of June 2, 1953. The ceremony and celebrations were broadcast live in the UK, but the technology at the time made it expensive to televise live in the U.S. They’d need a copy of the film, and you know how competitive the networks are. CBS hired Joe De Bona in the record-breaking P51C. NBC hired second-place-Stan in another P51. Rivals for rivals!

Each plane was loaded with a copy of the film at the Royal Air Force Canberra in Goose Bay, Canada.

The race was on from there to Boston. They left Goose Bay around 2:00 p.m. When it became apparent that ice was slowing Stan’s flight, before 4:00 p.m., an executive with NBC called someone at ABC and made some kind of deal that resulted in access to the coverage provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which would mean they wouldn’t have to wait for Stan to land. But after all the trouble they went to, the Canadian broadcaster was showing Canadian celebrations, not the ones in London. De Bona landed at 4:13 p.m., and CBS rushed to broadcast. But just then, the Canadian broadcaster switched over to London coverage at 4:19, giving NBC a four-minute lead over CBS, even while their own film was still in the air. Second-Place-Stan landed at 4:37 p.m.

The next year, De Bona flew the Thunderbird from Los Angeles to New York in four hours, 24 minutes, and 17 seconds. The record, just over 561 mph, still stands for west-to-east prop-driven aircraft.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com