October 31, 2023 We'll Take the Treats

The Liberty Gazette

October 31, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

The wind played trick-or-treat on our last trip to Amarillo. We slugged our way head-first into it. Twenty knots, on the nose, at 3,000 feet, the altitude with the least amount of headwind. A few thousand feet higher, winds were racing across the sky at over 70 knots. We were attending a couple of social events, but not spending the night. You can bet we collected what was due us on the way back. Coming home, altitude was our friend, where screaming tail winds chopped off an hour and a half flight time – no need for a fuel stop. 

Sometimes, it can be difficult to find the sweet spot, where winds are favorable but turbulence minimal. That sweet spot can change over the miles. It might be 2,900 feet for a while, then 3,200 feet later. Sure, it was a tricky wind heading northwest, but a real zippy treat and smooth sailing at 9,500 feet in the evening. 

Speaking of treating ourselves to good things, we’ve been binging on a few video channels lately, and one of them is Dave Hadfield’s YouTube channel. We happened upon Part One of his half-hour documentary of a test flight in a 1928 Moth with a Gipsy II engine, at a grass airfield in Southern Ontario, Canada. 

Dave is from a family of pilots. His wife, Robin, is an air racer and president of the Ninety-Nines. His brother, Chris, is an astronaut. Numerous other relatives are pilots as well. 

Recently, Dave was asked to fly the DH60, DeHavilland Gipsy Moth, across Southern Ontario to its new owner in Quebec. This was the oldest plane Dave had ever flown and the oldest aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force that’s still flying. It’s a rare biplane with folding wings. 

In Dave’s video, he shows viewers what he does when he test-flies an aircraft. This one had been flown from New York for considerable maintenance and repair, so his first job was to check all the maintenance paperwork. After he reviewed the documents, he carried the camera while explaining his detailed examination. They removed a bit of water and rust in the fuel tanks, and once it passed his critical eye, we got to ride along atop his helmet.

He talks through every maneuver, commenting on how the airplane feels. Climbs, descents, turns. Then a little more aggressive, with wing-overs and stalls. Dave is licensed by the Canadian authority to perform low-level aerobatics (he performs in air shows), and as a former Canadian Air Force pilot, he is well-acquainted with proper testing procedures. He discovered an issue on landing when the Gipsy Moth swerved right. He put in full left rudder, but it wasn’t enough. He went around the patch to try once more, ready for the right swerve. Something was wrong. But then the rain came, so he left it with the experts. He’ll be back. We can’t wait for Part Two, the delivery flight to Quebec! It’s a must-watch on www.hadfield.ca.

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