October 5, 2010 Liberty Airport's Humble Beginnings: A visit with Benny Rusk Part 1

The Liberty Gazette

October 5, 2010

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Time spent in the home of Benny and Linda Rusk netted more than a few interesting stories about life in these parts, and about aviation. For more on the history of what is now the Liberty Municipal Airport, we go to the source: its original owner.

Benny Rusk disproves that idea that you have to be at least a third generation family in Liberty. His father worked for Humble Oil Company in Baytown, but missing his home in Nacogdoches and longing for the farming life again, when the price of cotton climbed to 30 cents, Benny’s dad left Humble Oil to farm cotton. “The next year,” Benny says, “the price of cotton dropped to 5 cents. We never went hungry, but we ate a lot of cornbread.”

One of six children, Benny started milking cows at age five and farmed till he was 18. The two years he worked at a shipyard before being drafted probably caused hearing loss that disqualified him from flying for the Navy, his first choice. From the Army’s Camp Walters he was shipped off to Europe during WW II and fought in four major battles including the Battle of the Bulge, finishing his time in Berlin with the 82nd Airborne. Of being at the Bulge, Benny says, “We saw three holes in a Sherman Tank from where the Germans had shot it. It was sitting in a few feet of snow. The men welcomed us, saying, ‘We’re glad you’re here. We just lost 45,000 men.’” After 1 year, 11 months, and 23 days, Benny collected only three paychecks from the Army. “I guess they couldn’t find me, they moved me so much.”

Then came his boxing days. He fought Roy Harris of Cut-N-Shoot and was a heavy weight contender from 1946-1948. A newcomer to Liberty in 1953, he learned quickly that “you have to be careful what you say because everyone here is related.”

Mike: Banker, farmer, boxer, war veteran, and soon-to-be pilot, Benny Rusk’s arrival in Liberty turned out to be a pivotal time for aviation here. His flying lessons started in 1956 with Earl Atkins in a Luscombe rented from Houston TV man Ben Erskine for $3.50 an hour. They flew out of Roy House’s airstrip on Highway 90 behind where Terrell’s Auto Parts is now. After four hours of flight training Benny invested $2,900 in a 1949 Cessna 170 he purchased at Ellington Field’s aero club. A year later he sold it for what he paid for it, never having to put money into it except to buy a new tire. An economics major, he was no slouch on making good deals; over time he owned a Cessna 180, Comanche 250, and a Comanche 400, a 215-mph airplane that carries six hours of fuel. With that kind of speed, Benny learned what other business people know: “an airplane puts one more day on the week.” His last airplanes were a twin-engine Cessna 310 and a single-engine Cessna 210.

He remembers when National Pipe & Tube came to Liberty, the big reception and the politicians taking the executives up and down the river to show them the town. “We had one police officer and no crime,” Benny recalls fondly, “we had a town where rice and cows put more bricks here than oil ever did.” He also knew that aviation was vital to a community’s health and the area needed an airport. Benny owned 42 acres where the Liberty Airport now sits. We’ll pick up next week with how he grew it into what we have today.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 28, 2010 Garratt and Foy Around the World

The Liberty Gazette

September 28, 2010

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: World record holder CarolAnn Garratt was back in Houston recently sharing her adventures in around-the-world flying and a subject near and dear to her heart, raising awareness and funds for research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS – Lou Gehrig’s Disease. CarolAnn and her record-breaking partner, 2006 Air Race Classic champion, Carol Foy, departed Orlando International westbound on December 2, 2008 and flew around the earth in CarolAnn’s Mooney to shatter the 20-year record set in a Bonanza.

Preparations began 18 months prior with research and flight planning. For the most benign weather they would fly in December and stay close to the Equator. Garnering an impressive international support crew was an essential ingredient for these two accomplished pilots. CarolAnn, a retired mechanical engineer, had circumnavigated the globe in 2003, but that was a leisurely jaunt. There would be little time for sleep in this “Dash for a Cure.”

For publicity, the pilots appeared at AirVenture in Oshkosh and sat in a Mooney for 24 hours. They set hard-and-fast rules about the flight, including weather minimums and what circumstances would dictate deviation to an alternate airport for landing. The westbound route would take advantage of the Easterly Trade Winds, which occur in most of the world. They would sleep in two-hour shifts and plan the route to maximize the stops in U.S. territory. The flying pilot was always on oxygen at night, and a full instrument approach was flown for every night landing. Flight leg-times ranged from 16-23 hours.

Lack of sleep, altered eating habits, a weather detour and somehow getting 30 gallons less fuel than they paid for in Djibouhti (imagine hearing a fuel tank go dry over Central Africa) couldn’t overshadow the adrenaline or the satisfaction when the pair spoke with school children from the cockpit, and called ALS sufferers to say, “This flight’s for you.”

With an FAA waiver allowing 15% over gross weight the Mooney was equipped with extra fuel tanks for a total capacity of 195 gallons (1,170 lbs) of avgas. Tools and fuel tanks crammed in the cockpit left precious little room for much else; CarolAnn toted her toothbrush in her flightsuit pocket.

Mike: 70 years after Lou Gehrig’s diagnosis, CarolAnn and Carol blew away the old record:

Old record in a Bonanza: 19 days, 54.6 mph
Garratt/Foy: 8 days, 12 hours, 18 minutes, and 53 seconds, 115.35 mph

The pilots spent 158 hours flying 20,400 nautical miles (time on the ground counts on the clock), and paid all expenses themselves so that funds raised would go directly to ALS research and support. Perhaps the best news CarolAnn has to report, what makes the record and its publicity valuable, is seeing progress in research for treatment and a cure for ALS. A new medicine which began testing last year is showing hope. While it’s too late to help her mother, or any of the good friends she’s made along the journey, CarolAnn isn’t giving the disease a break. One day the new world record she longs to see will be a reality – a cure for ALS. There’s more for you to know at www.ALSWorldFlight.com; and check out her books, “Upon Silver Wings” and “Upon Silver Wings II World-Record Adventure.”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 21, 2010 NASA's B57

The Liberty Gazette

September 21, 2010

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: One of the reasons we like flying our Cheetah out of Ellington Field is the variety of aircraft we see on a regular basis. Recently there has been a lot of clamoring about the contrails left by a NASA high altitude test plane. Numbers 926 and 928, the 49-year-old WB-57F Canberras, are operated by NASA for experiments and high altitude astronaut training. They are the only two B-57s still flying today, and both are based at Johnson Space Center facilities at Ellington. We often see them in NASA’s hangar, on the ramp, or doing takeoff and landing practice at the field. I don’t know what experiments they were performing last week, however, I do know they are up there all the time. The vast amount of moisture left in the air by Tropical Storm Hermine could account for the more noticeable contrails.

NASA also operates the ER-2, another high altitude aircraft. The ER-2 has been deployed from Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, California to Ellington Field when requested by NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, to monitor, map and photograph the oil spill in the Gulf.

The ER-2 is a variant of the famous U-2 spy plane, one of which was piloted by Francis Gary Powers who was shot down over Russia in 1960. Powers was later returned to the U.S. in exchange for a Russian spy we arrested.

Another of the flying tubes we see on a regular basis is a Boeing 727 used for zero-gravity training. When this airplane is pitched nose up at a 45-degree angle above the horizon followed by a steady push over to a nose down position in a parabolic arc with just the right measure of force, temporary weightlessness ensues and its occupants “float” for up to 25 seconds at a time. Nausea often being the result, these planes are sometimes called the “Vomit Comet.” A previous aircraft used in this role, a Boeing KC-135, NASA number 930 now sits silently on a pedestal like a sentry at the entrance to Ellington after it performed more than 58,000 of these arcs.

Linda: The astronauts have T-38s, training jets, and I’d guess there are about 20 or so kept at Ellington. The fast jets fly 1,500 feet above the ground in a standard traffic pattern altitude when flying in to Ellington. At most airports light airplanes (the ones with propellers) would be flying a traffic pattern of 1,000 feet, but unique to Ellington, they enter the pattern at 600 feet. That has made for some fun departures when I’ve taken off with Texas Air National Guard’s F-16s or the NASA T-38s crossing overhead. There is never a dull moment at Ellington, a well-managed airport inhabited by real aviation enthusiasts who promote it well.

Again this year Bill Roach, the top dog at Wings Over Houston, donated four tickets to the Liberty-Dayton Chamber for the annual auction. The Thunderbirds are back this year, along with Sean D. Tucker, Debby Rihn-Harvey, and a host of other great airshow performers. If you’ve never been to the show, this is your year. You can get up close to some incredible machines, many of historical significance. If you have been before, you know what a great show it is – and you don’t want to miss it: October 23-24. www.WingsOverHouston.com.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 14, 2010 The Moth

The Liberty Gazette

September 14, 2010

Linda: A world traveling pilot friend came upon a copy of Sheila Scott’s autobiography, “I Must Fly” while somewhere in Europe and sent it to me. I found I had many things in common with the late British aviatrix, like her competitive spirit, love of all things aviation, and appreciating friendly people. Shelia Scott broke over 100 aviation records from 1965-1971, including three around-the-world flights in a Piper Comanche. Building up to that skill and stamina, Sheila began flying in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth, a fabric covered bi-wing airplane used as military trainers in the 1930’s. She also flew a similar model, the Tiger Moth.

Being the cool chick pilot she was, she nicknamed her first airplane “Myth” because it means a female moth. Over the years Sheila dubbed her planes “Myth,” “Myth Too,” “Sun Myth Pip,” or “Mythre.” The word, “Myth” was always written somewhere on any plane she flew, even if only in lipstick, and even if it wasn’t a Moth. She had some close calls, and sometimes was surprised her airplane was still flying. Her good fortune she attributed to the name, “Myth.” Okay, so that part isn’t much like me, but I love her competitive spirit. Funny thing about the Moth though is that last year another good friend, Katie, gave me the autobiography of Bette Bach Fineman. Bette is a long-time friend of Katie and her family and Katie had her sign the book to me at last year’s annual Antique Aircraft Association fly-in in Blakesburg, Iowa. Bette’s name “Bach” comes from her long time marriage to writer Richard Bach. She’s no stranger to aviation. Bette wrote about flying a Gipsy Moth. She loved that airplane, and the way she wrote made me wish I had one, or at least the chance to fly one. That desire grew after reading Sheila Scott’s book.
(Tiger Moth photo courtesy Brian Lockett, Air-and-Space.com)
When Katie’s step-mom, Sharon, told me last year that if I’d come to Blakesburg in 2010 I might have a good chance of seeing, and maybe even getting a ride in a Gipsy Moth or Tiger Moth, we reserved that date on our calendar right away.

The months rolled by and soon it was September again, time for the Antique Aircraft fly-in. I had “Myth” on my mind.

About a week before the fly-in the timing on another commitment changed, making Mike unable to go to Blakesburg. Disappointed, I headed to the office on the Friday morning that we would have been flying to Blakesburg, stopping for gas at John Hebert’s gas station there in front of Thrif-Tee Foods. On the middle pump I saw a huge orange-ish butterfly with some interesting markings. It didn’t seem to be bothered by my pumping gas, and didn’t move even when I took its picture. I called Mike, suggesting if he needed gas that he go to the middle pump and check out the butterfly with a 10-inch wingspan.

Shortly thereafter, Mike called, saying, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s not a butterfly.” It sure looked like a butterfly to me, I thought.

“It’s not?”
“No,” he replied. “That’s a Tiger Moth.”

I made all sorts of noise at that point. God really has a sense of humor. How often does one see a Tiger Moth around here? I had never seen one before that.

A friend suggested, “Blakesburg came to you!”

I pleaded, “But that’s not the kind of Tiger Moth I meant!”

That act wins “Irony of the Year.”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 7, 2010 Gene Kranz

The Liberty Gazette

September 7, 2010

Mike: Old acquaintances greeted one another, catching up on the latest flying and airplane building adventures as airplanes filled the ramp and cars packed the parking lot at West Houston Airport where a large audience gathered to hear first-hand from one of the heroes of an incredible event that captured the world’s attention for several days in April, 1970.

Gene Kranz was the NASA Flight Director of Apollo 13, and our Guest of Honor and speaker at EAA Chapter 12’s 55th birthday celebration. The hamburger lunch, cooked and served by fellow chapter members, was generously provided by folks from the Austin Planetarium, who had on display a large portable planetarium – probably a good topic for another week in this space. Dessert, a couple of sheet cakes, was polished off in no time.

Gene opened with a pitch to see if anyone wanted a couple cans of Poly Brush and some aircraft wheel pants he’d been trying to find a home for and he felt that someone in the crowd just might need them. The Poly Brush, used in the coating process of fabric covered wings, wound up in the hands of Lance Borden and will be used as he recovers his 1929 Inland Sport biplane, a plane flown in races years ago by several pilots, including Marty Bowman when she won third place in the 1931women’s National Air Derby, the same cross-country race Linda races, now called Air Race Classic. Lance and Linda have an idea cooking that involves a future air race and that Inland Sport.

Gene’s book, “Failure is Not an Option,” was the subject of his talk: of getting the crew of the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft home alive. He had great praises for all those young 20- and 30-somethings he worked with at NASA to make all this happen, singling out several in the process to give the crowd a little background. At 38, Gene was the oldest person in the Flight Control room.

Linda: Gene is such a personable guy and his presentation, complete with historic slides, photos in a Power Point that were taken during the time of crisis, was smooth but not canned. I’m not sure how he did it, but he kept us all on the edges of our respective seats with suspense and emotion, even though we already know the story. Somehow, it’s just different hearing it firsthand. Gene spoke of leadership and teamwork, and never said, “I,” but focused on the team and other team members. He took us step by agonizing step through the intense days of the Apollo 13 mission, the problems, the solutions, the hopes and fears, and the total commitment of the entire team: that failure was not an option. I only noticed his cadence slowed once by extraneous distraction; being the father and grandfather of an all female crew, when the two-year old daughter of our friends, Bob Watkins and his wife, Aileen, a 747 pilot, strutted proudly back to her seat after a potty break, pigtails bobbing with every step, Gene was taken by the cuteness and stopped his speech for a grandfatherly chuckle and smile. In a break from history there was the Gene Kranz of today, with all that is behind him, a reminder that his story has purpose for future generations. A photo snapped afterward of Katalin on “Grandpa Gene’s” lap caught the essence of their instant bond.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 31, 2010 Rosamond Dry Lake Bed

The Liberty Gazette
August 31, 2010

Mike: It was October 14, 1947 at a stark barren dry lake in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The sun’s brilliant light beat down as Chuck Yeager in his orange rocket-powered Bell X-1 streaked skyward leaving a long white contrail, its B-50 mothership and the P-80 Shooting Star chase plane following. The air ripped apart with a sudden boom as man broke the sound barrier for the first time. Toward the north end of Antelope Valley in the high desert 75 miles north of Los Angeles in this land of sagebrush, yucca plants and Joshua trees, where gusty wind kicks up dust like that seen in spaghetti westerns, Edwards Air Force Base sits in the middle of what regular folk might call nowhere. Most of the base is surrounded by dry lakebeds, Rogers Dry Lake to the east and south, Rosamond Dry Lake to the southwest. Here several times a day the aforementioned act of aviation acclaim is repeated, and when you hear that boom you say, “there’s someone out there in thin air going really fast.”

Linda: If it were May 18, 1953, you might be hearing former Women’s Air Service Pilot (WASP) and race pilot Jackie Cochran streak across the sky becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier in the Canadair F-86 Sabre jet she borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force, with good friend Chuck Yeager flying right beside her. Or for a more serene thought, surveying the surrounding landscape, you can imagine horseback riders on the trails leading to and from legendary aviatrix Poncho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Riding Club.

Mike: From the cracked mud-and-borax lakebed I’ve witnessed rapidly descending aircraft round out, touch down, then seemingly bounce back into the air in practice landings for another legendary aircraft, the Space Shuttle, which made its first landings on these lakebeds.

As a student pilot these were my landmarks on solo cross-country flights, handy for cross-checking with the boundaries of the U.S. Air Force’s restricted flight areas. The runways painted on the lakebeds look like a photo negative with their black lines on white landing strips, some of the longest in the world: Rosamond, four miles; Rogers, over six miles long.

I’ve crossed this airspace hundreds of times, sharing the skies with most types of aircraft in the U.S. Military’s arsenal, always centered about those dry lakebeds visible for a hundred miles from any direction. I wish I could have landed on one.

Linda: Edwards AFB with its 13 runways is home to NASA's Dryden Research Center and the USAF’s Test Pilot School. Restricted flight areas stretch from Rosamond Lake, up into Nevada's Tonopah test range, including Yucca Flats, the area used for underground testing of nuclear bombs and home of Area 51. Edwards has seen lots of aviation history in the making, and on October 1 another first will take place there: a fly-in for general aviation aircraft, complete with pancake breakfast. Pilots may enter a drawing to land on the 21-square-mile Rosamond Dry Lake. On September 10th, 100 lucky names will be drawn. Entries can be made online at www.FlightTestNation.com, but pilots must meet strict criteria, be willing to land on dry, packed mud, and be prepared for high gusty winds. Perhaps Mike will be one of the lucky one hundred, and fulfill that longtime wish.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 24, 2010 Young Eagles Flight to Brenham

The Liberty Gazette

August 24, 2010

Mike: The EAA’s (Experimental Aircraft Association) very successful Young Eagles program has opened the door for that first flight for over 1.5 million youngsters. We count it a privilege when our EAA chapter puts out a call for Young Eagles pilots because that means there’s another opportunity to introduce another young person to the wonderful world of flight. Our most recent trip to Brenham with several other chapter members and Young Eagles first took shape with a special family. The parents whose second son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease which will take his eyesight within a year are on a quest to provide him with as many experiences as they can while he still has sight. Once the request was circulated among the chapter members, everyone with an airplane and availability jumped at the chance. Grant, an air traffic controller who flies a Piper Cub, Jim, a flight instructor who has a Luscombe, our chapter president, Phil, flying a Cessna 172, and us, in a Piper Arrow, met with the young boy and his family at the West Houston Airport on a Saturday. The boy, his older brother, and a teen-aged girl would lift off West Houston’s runway into a light breeze on a hot day, banking northwest toward Brenham for a taste of the goodies found at the award winning Southern Flyer Diner.

Linda: Since the teen-ager would fly with us, we rented the Arrow for a little more room than our sporty Cheetah would afford three adult-sized people. With Mike riding in the back, it was chick pilots all the way. At 16 my co-pilot already knows she wants to fly. She’s been bitten hard by the aviation bug and is urging her dad to hurry up and finish his project. He’s building a Cozy, an airplane in the Experimental category. Seems his daughter just can’t get enough of flying and when we landed at Brenham she was eager to go back up right away.

The two boys were thrilled with the adventure, excitedly telling their mom all about flying as they joined Grant in a booth at the diner. The round trip gave the brothers a chance for each to ride once with Grant and once with Jim. Grant’s open-door Cub provides an awesome view with the added benefit of feeling the wind wisp past the little Cub.

Mike: Our EAA Chapter 12 is based at Ellington but our next big shindig is this Saturday, from 11-3 at the West Houston airport. Chapters from Waco, Dallas, and San Antonio will be joining us as we celebrate 55 years of Chapter 12. That makes us one of the longest-running chapters in the country and from what I understand the oldest in Texas. Chapter 12 boasts many astronauts as members, probably more than any other chapter since Houston and Ellington are home to NASA and the Johnson Space Center.

Our Guest of Honor on Saturday is none other than a most distinguished former EAA Chapter 12 member, Gene Kranz. Retired from NASA, Gene’s accomplishments include Assistant Flight Director during two Mercury missions, and three Gemini missions, Director of another Gemini flight and Apollo 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17, and eventually the Director of NASA. You likely know from his book, “Failure is Not an Option,” that Gene is one of the heroes who made the successful recovery of our Apollo 13 astronauts. Come join us for cake and ice cream.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 17, 2010 The Maverick Sport, a flying car with purpose

The Liberty Gazette
August 17, 2010

Linda: The concept of the flying car has been a dream of entrepreneurs for ages. Several varieties have been created, some amusing, such as the Mizar Flying Pinto with Cessna Skymaster-like wings and tail (1970's), and others showing commercial potential, such as Terrafugia’s Transition.

Inventors have mostly focused on developing a multipurpose vehicle for more advanced societies. I'm a bit skeptical on their practicality, though. While in car-mode a parking lot dent might render the vehicle non-airworthy, its value declining instantly. And, in these grossly litigious times, who would insure it? They say necessity is the mother of invention, and evidently there are people who deem a roadable aircraft a necessity. Is it? Let's be realistic. Everything here is temporary. You, me, our cars, our airplanes. What if we went beyond temporary? Enter I-TEC Founder and CEO, Steve Saint, inventor and builder of the Maverick Sport. http://www.mavericklsa.com/. This is not your grandfather's roadable aircraft. This incredible vehicle was created to carry the message that has eternal consequences - the Gospel of Christ.

Mike: I-TEC (Indigenous Peoples Technology and Education Center) was established to help indigenous churches overcome technical and educational hurdles that stand in the way of their independence. Check out http://www.itecusa.org/.

Born to a missionary family serving in Ecuador, Steve earned a degree in Economics from Wheaton College in Illinois and became a successful businessman, enabling him to continue supporting missionaries and make occasional mission trips back to Ecuador’s indigenous people. But something always called him back to aviation, something, you might say, he inherited from his dad, who was also a pilot.

Steve learned it was vital that the tribes choose their way of life and how they would shape their culture. Teaching and providing means for less dependence on outside aid would bolster their sense of dignity and allow them to set their own course.

Linda: So this year Steve Saint brought his Maverick Sport from Florida to AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the event where major aviation announcements are made and new products introduced, and showed thousands a whole new take on the flying car.

The Maverick Sport drives like a dune buggy, has an airboat propeller on the back, and deploys a parachute-like wing supported by a mast. It flies like a plane, carries up to 550 pounds, and will be certified by the FAA in the experimental category.

As exciting as this invention is, the rest of the story will move you. It is one of high personal cost, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

In 1956 five-year old Steve learned of the murder of his father, Nate, and four fellow missionaries by the Woadani tribe in Ecuador. Because the surviving missionaries continued to evangelize to the tribe, by the time Steve was 10, he was living amongst and was baptized by the very people who took his father’s life. Saint is especially close to Mincaye, one of the tribesmen who killed his father. Today, Steve and Mincaye speak together about God’s love. Steve’s Aunt Rachel continued the mission for many years and when she moved to Heaven the Woadani asked Steve to return to them. He did so until he felt his presence was interfering with their spiritual and economic growth, realizing the kind of help they needed, which is when he started I-TEC.

Perhaps you’ve read the book or seen the movie, End of the Spear (http://www.endofthespear.com/). I-TEC, and the Maverick Sport, are some of the good God has brought out of evil.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com.

August 10, 2010 M & M Air Service, part 2

The Liberty Gazette

August 10, 2010

Mike: I began last week telling you of my visit with the Mitchell family of M & M Air Service in Beaumont, a very important part of Southeast Texas history, including Liberty County. Crop dusting has changed over the 65 years M & M has been in business.

“When I was a kid, we were happy if all we had to flag was 1,000 acres in a day,” says David Mitchell, vice president and third generation at M & M Air Service. “We got up early, climbed across ditches and fences, flagging our way across muddy rice fields, working late into the evenings. With today’s technology, GPS and electronics, there are no flaggers. It’s safer.”

Better education improves safety, too. Ag pilots receive considerable training and continuing education; a minimum of 20 units in the areas of pesticides and chemical applications every three years. Annual safety meetings and daily briefings are additional requirements, and special courses offered at conventions earn them insurance discounts.

These days pilots load “shape files” of fields directly into the airplane’s onboard computer system. With the ability to exclude an area from spraying, the pilot creates a flight plan. They may fly a race track pattern or parallel rows as they did when flaggers were employed. A data logger tracks the plane’s actual flight, heading and altitude. That information once downloaded, becomes a permanent record of what was actually sprayed.

New technology, says M & M’s Mark Mitchell, brought major changes to crop dusting that many older pilots didn’t exactly embrace. Charles Trickey, according to Mark, flew almost exclusively in Liberty County for 43 years, “but when we started using GPS and data-loggers in 1993, that was it for him. After 30,000-plus hours of aerial application, the system retired him.”

Another long time employee, James Fanette, began his career with M & M cutting the grass, then worked as a flagger, loader, and eventually a pilot. Following that he became their aircraft mechanic and inspector. James retired two weeks ago after 43 years with the company.

M & M now has nine airplanes, various models of Air Tractors, manufactured in Olney, Texas. Three are aerial firefighters in west Texas, two spray fields in southeast Texas, another is fertilizing timber throughout several southern states while others are spraying corn in the Midwest. Among M & M’s customers are the U.S. Department of Interior, Texas Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Land Management. They also spray local area counties for mosquitoes after hurricanes and reseed burned areas for the U.S. Forest Service.

On a recent trip through Hartsville, South Carolina, David Mitchell met a pilot who said, “Are you from M & M? You gotta see this.” He opened the hangar doors and David says, “There was one of our old Stearmans, nicely restored.” Another of their Stearmans is still working fields in Sumter, South Carolina. You can see their #21 Stearman, the first airplane in Texas to sow rice by air (April 9, 1946), in the Chambers County Agricultural and Historical Museum in Winnie. Their #34 Stearman was donated to the National Agricultural Aviation Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. The last Stearman M & M owned was used for training until it suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Ike. Now completely restored, their sole Stearman will once again be ready to train another generation of M & M pilots.

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August 3, 2010 M&M Air Service, part 1

The Liberty Gazette

August 3, 2010

Mike: “April 9th, 1946! That’s the day aerial seeding of rice fields in southeast Texas began,” as told to me by George Mitchell, second-generation manager and president of family-owned and operated M & M Air Service, “…and it has been here ever since!” Founded in Beaumont, Texas in 1946 by Poley and Fields Mitchell and Gilbert Mapes, the Mitchells purchased Mapes’ share of the business a year later, and now M & M Air Service has been serving the farming communities of southeast Texas continuously for 65 seasons. George, Fields’ son, took over as manager in 1966. George and Gail’s children, Paul, David, Mark, Lisa and Andy are the third generation of M & M. David and Mark both hold positions as vice-presidents with responsibilities for different divisions of the company. Lisa’s responsibilities include accounting and payroll. Andy is an agricultural and single-seat aerial tanker (SEAT1) pilot with experience in all areas of the company’s operation. Paul passed away in 1993.

Back in ’46 the company bid on 200 government surplus Stearmans and were awarded 42, for which they paid a mere $56.56 each. They re-configured most of those airplanes for aerial application of wet and dry materials.

When M & M began, rice production covered 150,000 acres in southeast Texas and the airplanes took to the air before sunrise, operating until well after dark. For 20 years, M & M operated up to 33 Stearmans and never left the Tri-County area of southeast Texas. Those 33 Stearmans flew only six months out of the year, yet flew an estimated 1.5 million hours.

“M & M expanded into Liberty County in the 1950’s,” George continued. “Earl Atkins managed M & M’s Liberty operation for a long time then went into business for himself forming Liberty Air Service. Then he sold it to Hughie Crouch who later sold it to Billy Richardson whom M & M bought out. M & M stayed solo throughout.”

A Stearman can haul about 1,400 lbs. and can fly pretty slowly. To reduce time between trips, each farm had its own air strip. George says there were 172 air strips on farms in the three counties. “We called them Stearman strips,” he says, “because the Stearmans didn’t require that much runway to get airborne.” One day, George Mitchell and Henry Morrison flying two Stearmans broke the record for the number of loads flown in one day: 197 loads.

Today the area’s rice production has dropped to 25,000 acres and like many businesses M & M has had to change with the times. “For 20 years rice was 100% of our revenue. Now it’s only seven to eight percent,” George told me. Diversification has been the key to survival. They began brush control flying in west Texas and far west Texas, then added a ground spraying business with a John Deere rig. Forestry fertilization for private forestry producers came next, followed by aerial firefighting. In addition, George says costs have skyrocketed. “Since 1946, the price of airplanes has multiplied by 10,000. The last airplane we purchased was $565,000.00.” Today the family business continues with nine Air Tractors. We’ll talk more about M & M’s current operations next week.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com.