December 4, 2018 Roy Clark

The Liberty Gazette

December 4, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

“I have never been to a memorial service where there’s a full band playing ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ but this was one to get up and boogie to,” said our friend Lisa Jewett of the memorial service of music legend, Roy Clark.

Lisa manages the airport in Grove, Oklahoma where Roy and Barbara Clark had a home and spent half the year. “He’d come to the airport just to talk. I knew him not as Roy the superstar, but as Roy the person. Every time he and Barbara stopped in, I knew we’d be a while because he just wanted to chat. He talked about the set of Hee! Haw! and traveling tales and flying, and he had friends all over the world.”

As a kid, Roy longed to fly. Growing up poor in Meherin, Virginia, he collected cereal box tops to send away for a cardboard cockpit. But his magic on banjo and guitar earned him the name, “Superpicker,” and the money that followed allowed him to reach his dreams. He bought a Piper Tri-Pacer, learned to fly, and took his father, who had always wanted to be a pilot, for his first airplane ride in it. Later, Roy flew a sleek Beechcraft Debonair to gigs far away and returned home when the last autograph was signed.

But he worried about fatigue after long evenings on stage. Smartly, he invested in a high-performance Mitsubishi MU-2J turboprop and a professional pilot to be his sidekick. In the cockpit, this picking pilot took flying seriously. Life was precious—everyone’s.

At his concerts, Roy would say, “Do something nice for somebody. And don’t expect a thank-you in return.” He lived his advice. Lisa’s father had been a big fan. When her mom died, she took her dad’s guitar and asked Roy to sign it. “He signed really big all over the front of that guitar, and now it’s just priceless. Dad was grieving and here was something that would make him smile, from a man who lived his life wanting to make people happy.”

Lisa found opportunities to give back to Roy. Ever since he was young he wanted to be in a helicopter. When money was no longer an obstacle, time was. One day when he was visiting Lisa, the DEA landed in a Blackhawk. He wasn’t getting around too easily by then, so she drove him in her car to the helicopter. DEA agents helped him climb inside and spent time showing him the aircraft. “He said that was the best time of his life. He did something he’d always wanted to do. He even had tears.” That’s one of Lisa’s favorite stories.

When the Saints Go Marching In!

“Roy was a simple, loving, giving man, a family man. He cared more about his family than anything else in the world. He was down-to-earth and humble, the kind of guy who would always say, ‘I love you,’ whenever he left. I like to think he spent his last days telling everyone how much he loved them.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 27, 2018 Jessica Cox

The Liberty Gazette

November 27, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Anyone who achieves a black belt in a martial art gets my attention. A person who earns certified scuba diver credentials is pretty impressive. People who master surfing I find quite admirable. A person who has done all three is in another league. And if that same person had accomplished all that and then earned a pilot certificate, I’d be blown away. When I met that person, I was not just blown away like catching my breath from a gust of wind. More like being blown away by a typhoon. Because this person, Jessica Cox, was born with no arms. And she has done all that.

Jessica blessed a large crowd the first weekend in November, celebrating the 25th year of Challenge Air. She came to demonstrate how she has adapted to life and is fully self-sufficient, and to encourage and inspire.

From the stage built inside the hangar of a flight school in Conroe, Jessica told the story of learning how to tie her shoes at age six. Her toes work like fingers and she has remarkable dexterity.

Figuring out how to tie the laces and get the shoes on required some thinking. She realized she would have to tie the shoes before slipping them on her feet, but it took hundreds of attempts to get it right. They had to be loose enough to wiggle her feet in, but tight enough to stay on. As she told the story she demonstrated tying over and over.

Linda: For those of us with all four limbs who tend to box ourselves in with ruts and routines, and expectations that life should be easy, Jessica has this message: Think outside the shoe!

One day after speaking to a group, a fighter pilot approached her and asked if she’d ever considered flying. At that time, leaving the ground was her greatest fear. A person with no arms has a different center of gravity and balances differently than those with four full limbs. Leaving the security of balancing on the ground was unnerving. And that’s exactly why Jessica decided she should learn to fly.

We watched as she went through the motions, talking us through how she gets her seat belt and headset on in the airplane. The first time it took some thoughtful analysis, but she thought back to when she was six because she was motivated to conquer her fear.

We won’t ruin the story by telling any more than that, because if you ever have the chance to hear her speak, don’t miss it. And, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel.

Jessica Cox is an inspiration not only because of all she has done, without arms, but also because of her genuine compassion. She is the most gracious inspirational speaker I have ever met. Be sure to see her website and buy her books. Her gift of encouragement awaits you there.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 20, 2018 Challenge Air - The Pilot's Perspective

The Liberty Gazette

November 20, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: I am sometimes confronted by unwelcome situations. But there are those who challenge life daily. To be given an opportunity to share flight with children like “Isabel” is a gift. With an autism spectrum disorder, she has a tendency to grab things. But, she’s sixty pounds soaking wet. She wasn’t going to overpower me. Since she responded well to instructions, we had her sit on her hands for take-off and landing. But while in flight, she grasped the Elyminator’s right-side control wheel to help me fly the plane.

Most of the time Isabel looked down into her lap, her hair blocking the view of her face. So I ducked down to peek. This imp’s grin nearly stretched from ear to ear. She didn’t talk much and getting her to look out the window as we flew over Lake Conroe took some coaxing, but that smile stayed the entire flight.

After we landed, I thanked her for her help and to show how much it meant to me, I took off my pilot wings and pinned them on her. Still looking down, she bobbed up and down and ricocheted about like a pinball stuck in a high-scoring bumper. I signed her Challenge Air co-pilot certificate and she ran through the throng of cheering supporters as she waved her certificate above her head. This was enough to make my day, yet it was only starting.

When we put the headphones on another young girl, she chattered into the microphone repeating phrases and sounds she learned from Star Wars. Her little hands held onto the yoke as she beeped and zapped into the intercom and pointed to boats on the lake she claimed were radioing for support. I did not let her touch the push-to-talk button as the Conroe tower controllers might have thought they were under attack.

Being the pilot was a wonderful experience and while it is the most visible role, I had one of the easiest jobs. For every pilot there are dozens of others who have contributed time, energy, and sweat to make it happen. The dedication of each of those who did not sit in the pilot seat is not lost on us who did.

I was fortunate to do eight flights at Challenge Air, the last one ending as the sun set. The beauty of its reflection off the lake could not outshine the excitement and wonder of the two brothers who were my last little co-pilots.

One of them had begged his mother for a year to go flying, but when he got in the plane he said he didn’t want to be a pilot anymore. Over Lake Conroe he gazed down at the boats. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. But when we were preparing to land, he looked up at me and asked, “Can we go again?” I told him he would have to come back next year. He turned to the back seat. “Can we, Mom? Pleeease?”

My thoughts exactly.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 13, 2018 Challenge Air

The Liberty Gazette

November 13, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: He walked through the gate looking handsome in full astronaut uniform. I wanted to take his picture, but I knew I should ask permission. It was a good thing I saw him first, because when the media realized he was in the crowded hangar they swarmed for photos.

Max is six, or maybe seven. He was quick to tell me the suit was “fake,” but that didn’t matter to me because the young man in it was as real as sunshine. And oh what sunshine he added to the day!

Challenge Air held its annual flying event at the airport in Conroe the first weekend in November. Challenge Air is where pilots and other volunteers get to make dreams come true for special needs kids, sharing the gift of flight.

Staff and volunteers work hard all year to perfect logistics. Then it all comes down to the moment the first family arrives. Each child is welcomed with enthusiasm as they wander the hangar to see clowns and balloons, play games, and join in face painting. The adults who bring them fill out the paper work which includes weight of all passengers who will be taking the flight and whether this child follows instructions or has uncontrollable outbursts. Total passenger weight figures in to what airplane they’ll be assigned, while the other information helps volunteer pilots know whether the child will be best served riding in the back with their parent or having a seat up front. Either way, a Challenge Air kid becomes a co-pilot, and that’s a big deal.

Parents attend ground school to know what to expect, then the pilot’s loading team leads them out to the airplane. This year, as a lead loader I walked eight families down the red carpet where a cheering crowd lined both sides, blew kazoos, slapped plastic clappy-hands, and whooped and hollered in encouragement. Of course, for noise-sensitive kids we waved our hands in silent applause.

The airport ramp was busy with planes arriving and departing all day and families being escorted to and from their rides.

Once I had a family buckled in to our plane, Mike took over. You’ll get to read his perspective next week.

Flight after flight, ninety-five in all, they took off with their volunteer pilots for a scenic trip over Lake Conroe for about twenty minutes. When they returned, each Challenge Air kid received special recognition from their pilot and we, the loaders, got to escort them back across the red carpet lined with cheering fans. Shouts of “Hooray!” “You did it!” “Great job, co-pilot!” welcomed them back.

Many of our co-pilots were kids with an autism spectrum disorder. Whatever their challenges are, Challenge Air comes every year to provide a unique experience. The rewards for us are priceless. Like when Astronaut Max leapt with every step down the red carpet, high-fiving everyone he could reach. And like one astonished dad overcome with emotion who said, “She never smiles, but look at her now! She’s smiling!”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 6, 2018 The Boy from Latvia

The Liberty Gazette

November 6, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: In 1944 the Soviets bore down on Riga, Latvia and people fled their homes. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Mikelsons and their seven-year old son George. For fifteen years they moved in search of a better life. First to Poland, then northern Germany in the British-controlled part, on to Australia, and finally to the U.S. Young George had spent his childhood peering out of bomb shelters to get a glimpse of those planes while he dreamed of flying.

The family survived the war and in 1959, George’s dad earned a position playing violin with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Not far from their new home was an airport with a sign that read $10 for an airplane ride.

George learned to fly and went on to become a commercial pilot and flight instructor. By 1973 he was flying jets. He had another personal asset, too: a keen business mind.

After flying for an air travel club for a brief time he had an idea. Mortgaging his house and taking a loan for $25,000, he acquired a used Boeing 720, like the one that sits on a pedestal at the main entrance to Ellington Airport in Houston. His grand plan was to create his own air travel club, Ambassadair, and eventually an airline.

Linda: Somewhere in the Indy business scene, my dad met George. Before the air travel club spawned the airline American Trans Air, George asked Dad to handle Ambassadair’s publicity.
Members of Ambassadair Air Travel Club took privileged flights to exotic destinations, and hopped on board for Friday night mystery flights for dinner somewhere untold.

I’ve heard that first generation immigrants to our country are often the most successful in business. George Mikelsons is a good example. He took that one airplane and made a business. He hired a co-pilot, and his wife worked as flight attendant. They schlepped baggage, took tickets, and did pretty much everything. They were not strangers to hard work, and in less than twenty years George had built an empire worth over $350 million.

I met Mr. Mikelsons when I joined Dad on trips and tagged along at promotional events, but I wasn’t old enough to understand what my father’s friend had been through. My mom remembers three things. “George’s family moved to the U.S. with their belongings in one cardboard box, and a violin case; his father played first chair violin in the symphony; and George was the first to land a jet in Belize, which had a very short runway. He told us he was amused at a Belize newspaper’s front page headlines: ‘Jet Age Arrives at Belize.’”

The charter and airline businesses are not for the weak. But neither is fleeing the Soviets or surviving in bomb shelters. The financial success is one thing, but somewhere inside there was still a seven-year old boy who one day secured charter service to Eastern Europe with flights into Riga, Latvia to fly people home where there were no more bombs.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 30, 2018 Fun Tech Stuff

The Liberty Gazette

October 30, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Last Wednesday I saw Bruce Campbell at the Liberty-Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. That’s no surprise since he helps the Chamber with tech stuff. He was chatting with Cynthia Smith, the owner of this newspaper, so I thought I’d be a smart-aleck and ask Bruce if he had an idea for our column this week. He pulled out his phone and showed me an app he uses to spot planes overhead when he’s at home. We thought Gazette readers might enjoy knowing about it, just for fun.

The app is appropriately named PlaneFinder, and you can download it from the App Store. Of course, there are similar apps, but we’ll talk about this one. If you go to their website and click on “About,” you’ll be presented with a ton of technical information about how their app works. It’s not something you have to know in order to enjoy the benefits of satisfying your curiosity about planes flying overhead. Bush Intercontinental Airport has runways oriented east-west, and we are right under approach paths for traffic landing to the west.

Bruce stood there in the city hall room and held up his phone. Through the app, we watched a signal transmitted by an airliner flying somewhere within range and saw what kind of airplane, where it had departed, and the destination. I’m sure there was more information available as well, but that’s all I saw in that brief moment.

We are well acquainted of course with the way that system works. We have the equipment on our plane too. The government (actually, we the taxpayers) put up towers all over the U.S. and planes have these broadcast units installed that send out encoded signals to those towers. The codes are picked up by compatible receiver units and then translated. Tap on a plane icon on the PlaneFinder map and see aircraft type, altitude, heading, speed, and lots more. I don’t think PlaneFinder does as much as well-known FlightAware (a Houston-based company), but I believe FlightAware has been in business longer.

Mike: Another fun snooping activity is listening to LiveATC.net. Go to their website and listen in on all the air traffic conversations between controllers and pilots. You can select frequencies for arrivals, departures, ground, and en route for airports and airspace all over this great country.

Busy airports such as New York’s JFK or Los Angeles International offer plenty of entertainment but you have to keep up with the rapid-fire transmissions. LiveATC.net is a good resource for students in flight training to have playing in the background, just to get used to hearing the exchanges. You’ll probably either love or hate the thick accents of controllers in the northeast, such as Newark, New Jersey, where ground controllers can be especially interesting during peak traffic times. They spout instructions so fast I wonder when they take a breath.

Whether app-tracking or eavesdropping, there are ways to indulge in aviation without leaving home.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 23, 2018 Flying Solo

The Liberty Gazette

October 23, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: There are such things as wine flights and wine tasting flying tours. Wine flights have nothing to do with aviation. It’s just what they call a few samples one can order instead of a regular glass, if one wants to taste a small amount of different wines.

Wine tasting flying tours on the other hand do indeed involve aviation. One could either hire a company to take them on a tour or, if one is a pilot, one may soar above the vineyards, the boss of one’s own schedule. Helicopter companies offer charter flights around popular vineyards in Napa Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

In the summer of 2015 several friends took off from their home airports and met on the west coast to fly their own airplanes on a wine flying tour. Of course, flying and alcohol don’t mix, so when they sampled a vineyard, they stayed the night.

While we didn’t stop for a tour, I remember flying over Napa Valley, finding the landscape to be a lovely wave of green carpet.

Reminds me of the island of Vis in the Adriatic, off the coast of Croatia. We toured a beautiful vineyard and winery there after trudging through underground bunkers used during World War II. There are grape fields everywhere, but there is no longer an airport on Vis. The land was vineyard first, and to the vine it has returned. Yet their young generation seems uninterested in inheriting family farms. Many of those once-fruitful fields are now overgrown terraced weeds.

Back at home, as I rounded the corner to the last aisle in the grocery store I entered the wine and cheese area. This was the kind of store that has a bar inside. Among the shelves filled with drink, and right at reading level, was a bottle that caught my eye.

“Flying Solo” had a beautiful label in the style of a vintage postage stamp with a drawing that looks like a Ryan, except that it doesn’t have that big round engine. Charles Lindbergh flew his Ryan, “Spirit of St. Louis,” across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. If you can picture that, you have an idea of what was drawn on this label. I have no idea how the wine tastes, but I was interested in the story behind the name.

Turns out the company, Domaine Gayda, is in France and their Flying Solo “celebrates the intrepid ‘Aéropostale’ pilots who risked life and limb to ensure postal deliveries in the 1920s.”

Flying the mail in the 1920s was daring. Lindbergh had been a mail pilot and on his trans-Atlantic flight he fought against fatigue and nasty weather. He landed safely in Paris after flying over 3,600 miles in thirty-three and a half hours, the first to go solo over the ocean.

Becoming an aviator had changed him. “In flying,” he said, “I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing.” Now there’s a “wine” we give five stars.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 16, 2018 Lt. Logan

The Liberty Gazette

October 16, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: I stood in quiet survey of the scene, cold water crashed on the shore before me. A faint murmur accented the air, emerging quickly into a crackling roar. In seconds, a French Mirage fighter jet screamed past, a hundred feet above the churning English Channel. The pilot banked hard north and disappeared in the distance. Silence returned.

From the overlook, a lush green carpet of grass spotted by immaculately maintained trees unfolded behind me. There, in perfect symmetry, ten thousand white marble crosses declared the war was over. Nothing competed with my contemplation except for that jet paying respects to the soldiers buried here.

To be present in the American Military Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, the realization sinks much deeper. Touching the sand of Omaha Beach, one cannot fathom the terror and dedication of those who took part in this colossal undertaking. I stepped with humble reverence around the headstones, reading names; three hundred and seven are Known But to God. Over fifteen hundred names of sons who were never recovered or identified are etched in a circular stone wall. If they could, they’d speak of family, of going home.

Linda: It began on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when these brave souls spilled their blood for freedom. A relative of mine was one who joined those ranks less than a month later, on July 2, 1944 when the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two squadrons of B-24s to bomb the German V-weapon site. Cousin James A. Logan and his crew were among them. Returning from their mission they were shot down near Bethune-St. Pol, France. He was 23.

March 14, 1949 Logan was awarded posthumously the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart. The dedication states that he:

“Distinguished himself by extraordinary achievement as pilot of a B-24 type aircraft on an operational mission to Belloy-Sur-Somme, France. Near the target his aircraft was severely damaged and set on fire by anti-aircraft fire, causing it to veer sharply toward other aircraft in the formation, in a moment of great peril to himself and his crew, Lieutenant Logan remained at the controls and skillfully maneuvered the burning aircraft out of formation in order to prevent damage to other aircraft and injury to his fellow airmen. He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live and grow and increase its blessings. Freedom lives and through it, lives in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.”

Cousin Logan and his co-pilot, Second Lt. Bruno Matika rode the aircraft to the ground, along with the radio operator, and three gunners. The navigator, engineer, and the tail turret gunner parachuted out but were captured, prisoners of war. Logan’s remains were brought home to Massachusetts but most of the others were buried at Normandy.

Mike: At sunset, life in the cemetery paused as two American flags were lowered from half-mast, and all who were breathing saluted or placed their hand over their heart for Taps. I whispered, “Thank you.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 9, 2018 Art Lacey's Bomber Gas Station

The Liberty Gazette

October 9, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: At the end of the Second World War there were many surplus military aircraft, and Art Lacey determined one of those B17G’s that had served our country would make a good awning over his gas station near Portland, Oregon. At his birthday party in 1947 he wagered a friend five dollars he could make it happen. After the hand shake, Art turned to another friend and asked to borrow money to win the bet. The man handed him $15,000 and Art ventured out to Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, where he would pick out his bomber.

He could choose any one he wanted from the lot. He just had to get it to Oregon. Only problem was, Art didn’t know how to fly a four-engine airplane. So he read the manual and taxied it around until he felt comfortable enough to take it up. But the folks handing it over to him weren’t so comfortable. They told him he had to have a co-pilot. I’m guessing they may not have explained why.

He put a mannequin in the right seat and took off to fly around the airport to get used to the B17. That’s likely when he figured out why they told him he needed a co-pilot…to help with stuck landing gear.

Mike: The story goes that he survived a “crash-landing,” although his B17 and another plane he hit did not. They told him to go find another one, writing up the accident as “wind damage.”

Some of Art’s more experienced pilot friends came to the rescue to help him ferry the airplane home. When they stopped in Palm Springs for fuel, Art wrote a check. He didn’t bother to mention there were no funds in the account to cover it.

Off they went and flew right into a snow storm, and had to descend below a thousand feet to see where they were. Things like street signs and water towers help in such a situation. At least there were no cell towers, but it’s hard to imagine living through a careless flight like that.

Photo of Art Lacey's Bomber Gas Station from the B17Alliance.com

When he got home, Art made good on the hot check, then turned his attention to the permits he needed to move that bomber down the highway.

Unfortunately, the highway department didn’t want him to truck a plane on the roads and repeatedly denied his requests. He got tired of arguing and late one Saturday night he had the aircraft loaded onto a truck and told the driver not to stop. The ten dollar ticket he got the next day for a wide load was much less than the permit would have cost.

In 1991 the gas station became a restaurant. By 2014 the bomber was so valuable it was removed for restoration to flying condition.

What remains as a memory of the Texaco station in Milwaukie, Oregon is a postcard boasting, “Art Lacey’s Bomber Station. The only one in the world---6 mi. so. of Portland, Ore., on 99E.”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

October 2, 2018 Hi-Ho Stipa!

The Liberty Gazette

October 2, 2018

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Luigi Stipa isn’t exactly a household name. Not even in Italy. But airplane manufacturer Caproni di Milano-Taliedo knew him and thought he had a great idea. In fact, the Caproni company liked Luigi’s airplane design so well, they committed to build it (with government funding, of course).

This was the 1930’s. Jet-powered aircraft wouldn’t be flying until the next decade. The Stipa-Caproni airplane would be a gateway to the future.

As significant as this airplane’s place in history is, first, it didn’t last long, and second, its importance isn’t really what prompted me to want to tell you about it. I am admittedly more motivated by its humorous appearance than its place in history.

When I first saw a photo of it, I thought it was a joke. Surely there was no flyable aircraft shaped like that! If you’ve ever seen the Super Guppy around Houston skies as it arrives or departs Ellington Airport, start with that image—a blimp morphing into an airplane. Just scale it down a bit. A Smallish Guppy. A cross between the old Gee Bee racer and the Guppy.

But those airplanes have propellers outside the fuselage, either out on the wings, or one in the front. The Stipa’s propeller isn’t on the outside. From the profile view, it looks like the airplane’s nose was sawed off, leaving a gaping hole. But look closer and that’s where you’ll find the engine and propeller—inside that ballooned-out tube.

Mike: With his slide rule, pencil and paper, Luigi studied Bernoulli’s principles of fluid dynamics. He aimed to prove a better aerodynamic ship with the propeller directing its thrust into a tapered venturi tube.

Since the engine and prop were hidden inside the barrel-shaped fuselage, the air that was thrust into it by the prop blades made the propulsion system more aerodynamically efficient.

The pilots reported it flew well, too. Hard to turn, but very stable. Granted, this was an experiment...a brave one.

But the fact is that Luigi’s design was the forerunner to jet aircraft. This was an airplane with a ducted fan, the concept that led to jet engines.

Today’s Boeing 777 and the Airbus A-380 have engines with high bypass fans which follow Stipa’s ideas. Those wide turbine fans you see hanging from the wings are the grandbabies of Luigi’s propeller in the center of the bloated tube.

His design was meant only as a prototype to prove his theories, and then he would go on to work those theories into passenger and cargo planes. But the Italian government dropped its funding.

There was another funny thing about this airplane. It only had two seats and they were up high. Of course they were, because that engine was inside the plane, just below them. The effect was a totally cartoon-looking contraption. Like a couple cowboys riding a whale whose head was cut off. It would make a perfect caricature: Linda and me, the wind in our faces, and our speech bubble, “Hi-ho, Stipa!”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com