August 6, 2019 Shaken, But Not Stirred

The Liberty Gazette

August 6, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: My first earthquake experience happened July 4 this year, as we prepared to depart our camp-by-your-airplane spot at Kern Valley Airport. What a feeling, the earth moving as we stuffed our gear into the baggage compartment! We didn’t know yet where the epicenter was, or the magnitude. The runway looked fine, so we took off, back over Lake Isabella and headed up the Owens Valley at 8,500’, part of a route Mike used to fly regularly. There’s so much history and geology there.

Mt. Whitney

With Lone Pine Airport off our right wing, and Mt. Whitney off our left, we were between the highest and lowest points in the Continental U.S.: Mt. Whitney is 14,491’, and just 88 miles away is Bad Water in Death Valley, elevation minus 282’!

Lone Pine Airport

We flew north, over the Alabama Hills. From the sky, it was just a little clump of hills, but this has been the most popular location for filming Westerns since the silent movie days of Tom Mix. Many scenes in John Wayne movies were shot there.

The perspective from the Elyminator above this grand valley is stunning, but not void of some sad history. We had a good view of Manzanar, the U.S. internment camp where Japanese people were held during World War II. The airstrip is still visible, as are the outlines of former campsites, now lined with dark clumps of trees across the road from the airstrip. There’s a museum there that tells the history. It was a time of panic in the U.S., and we did the best we knew in a time of fear. If you saw the movie or read the book, “Unbroken,” you know what we feared.

Manzanar

Flying over Manzanar on Independence Day had a sobering effect—oh, the wars we’ve fought. But the next town up the valley was, appropriately, Independence. We circled over Independence and flew back down the Owens Valley, past Mt. Whitney again, and headed to Inyokern to fuel up. That’s where we would learn more about the earthquake.

Approaching Inyokern, we tuned in their common traffic advisory frequency and heard the pilot of a TV news helicopter asking if she could get to the self-serve fuel pump or if there was a fuel truck. Aha! The news must be covering the quake! Mike figured we must be near the epicenter.

CHiP at Inyokern

The California Highway Patrol had landed for fuel in their Cessna 206, as did about four more TV news helicopters. We talked with the airport manager and his fiancé, and learned the epicenter was in the next town, Ridgecrest, only about 30 miles from where we had camped. Magnitude 6.4, with several aftershocks forecast.

Helicopters were transporting patients from the damaged Ridgecrest hospital to hospitals in Lancaster and Palmdale. Other buildings were damaged, too, but the CHP pilots said so far, the roads looked okay.

With fuel in the wing tanks, we took off for more destinations, a couple of which are on my “favorites” list. I’ll tell more next week.

TV News Helicopter at Inyokern

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 30, 2019 Earth Shattering

The Liberty Gazette

July 30, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Ever camp out near a rushing river? Parts of California’s Kern River have Class VI rapids, the highest rating on the International Scale of River Difficulty. Those are death traps for rafters or swimmers, but where the water flows slower, Class I through III are easily enjoyed by the average person.

Lake Isabella

I don’t know the class of the rapids closest to the airport’s campground—maybe Class VI—but about 500 yards from our tent, it sang us to sleep. It was delightful!

Everything about coming to Kern Valley Airport was delightful. I loved the approach to the airport from the south. Just around a mountain, Lake Isabella came into view. Surrounding mountains reflected in her mirrored surface. With the lake off our right wing, we descended into the valley. On the left, and all around the runway, the mountains kept us from flying a wide pattern to land. The visual cues while descending with high terrain all around is fascinating and seems somewhat movie-like. It’s certainly 3D at its best!

We secured the Elyminator with tie-down ropes, set up camp and cooked primitive-style with the latest equipment from REI. The airport’s grassy area caters to fly-in campers in a way every non-airline airport should do. Since there are about 600 airline airports in this country, and about 17,000 non-airline airports, we need the other 16,950 airports to look to Kern Valley as an exquisite example.

Camping at Kern Valley Airport

The entrepreneurial veteran who shuttled us to town for a sunset dinner brought us back later to settle in under billions of stars. Coyotes and jack rabbits ran by in the cool evening, probably wondering who invited us.

The next morning, July 4, we began packing our gear and loading the airplane in preparation for some sight-seeing. I’ve always wanted to fly the Owens Valley, Mike has talked about it so much, as it was part of a route he used to fly regularly. As we were at the baggage compartment, Mike on his knees, stuffing the sleeping bag in, me standing next to him, handing him stuff, suddenly, I felt funny. Surely, I wasn’t getting dehydrated, was I? Maybe I was, I thought my head felt kind of funny, and I wasn’t used to the dry heat.

But no, it wasn’t that at all. A few seconds later, Mike yelled, “Earthquake!”

So, I wasn’t getting sick after all! That was my first earthquake, and now I know how disorienting they are! It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Not like the drama Hollywood has produced, although I’m sure they can be that devastating. One of my sisters was living near the epicenter of the Northridge quake in 1994. There were 57 fatalities reported from that one.

But we were not near any buildings, just mountains and lake. We didn’t know where the quake’s epicenter was, or the magnitude. The runway looked fine, so we took off over Lake Isabella. Come back next week and we’ll fly the Owens Valley together.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 23, 2019 Mike's Re-flights

The Liberty Gazette

July 23, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When I accompanied Mike on his venture back to recreate the earliest pages of his first logbook, something special happened. Landing at the airport in El Monte, California was the first of many places that helped put together so many stories I’ve heard him tell over the years. I didn’t know him 44 years ago when it all began, when he soloed in an airplane for the first time. I was only 10 when he took his first flight. That’s why going back with him had so much to offer. The trip brought me right to the places he’s talked about. The high desert and mountains he loves made their way to my own eyes, and straight to my heart. And now I have my own memories and can picture the area that birthed my favorite pilot.

Long Beach

While his purpose was to document the many changes that have occurred in flying over the past four decades, I soaked in the exciting combination of newness, yet virtual familiarity. Finally, I was flying the flights of his storytelling!

Three of my favorites were Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and Kern Valley.

The Long Beach airport is super cool in a way that’s hard to explain to non-pilots. It’s a busy but spacious airport, with a friendly, small airport feel. Big jets and small prop planes are treated the same here. Kind of like Ellington in south Houston. I also have friends in Long Beach. Nina, who owns a helicopter flight school, and Tanille, who’s working for SpinLaunch. It’s always good to run into friends when you’re far from home. We felt welcome, and the Elyminator was well cared for, parked safely on Ross Aviation’s ramp.

Santa Barbara

Over Santa Barbara, I was awed. The blue-green sea snuggles up to the sandy shore; the mountains just beyond, standing guard. The view from the air is stunning. We parked on the ramp of Signature Flight Support. Usually, the facilities of this world-wide company are upscale. I figured their Santa Barbara location would be a real high-falutin’ place. Was I ever surprised to roll up to a mid-twentieth century hangar and find a humble lobby—the irony of such a simple, old building at an airport where billions of dollars are based! I loved it! It was like going to Chez Nous in Humble and ordering a burger and fries; like your husband’s comfy, old recliner in your new mansion.

Speaking of comfy, the nearby rushing Kern River made for sound sleeping in our tent on the grass next to our plane at the Kern Valley Airport next to Lake Isabella. The mom-and-pop airport cafe even had a separate vegan menu. This was the Fourth of July. On the fence post along the walkway to the diner, a raven perched next to a flowerpot with an American flag stuck in it and looked hopefully through the window at us.

Raven at Kern Valley

There’s so much more to say, so I’ll pick up next week where I’m leaving off here with some earth-shattering news.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 16, 2019 Re-flights

The Liberty Gazette

July 16, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: El Monte, California was where it all began forty-four years ago, when I soloed in an airplane for the first time. There are many public airports in southern California and many flight schools. I picked El Monte Skyways because it was closest to my home. I didn’t have a car because all my money from after school jobs went to flying. I took the bus to school, work, and the airport.

I’ve wanted to go back, reconnect with old friends and re-fly several of my student flights, to see if things are different now. I’ve changed—I’m seasoned. The shape and volume of controlled and restricted airspace have also changed, as have means of navigation and FAA regulations. This was what I wanted to see, the changes flying in the complex and congested area around Los Angeles today.

As Linda flew the Elyminator, I listened to radio chatter and the stream of instructions issued by controllers. When the El Monte tower controller said to fly over the Santa Fe dam and follow the water toward the runway, memories clicked. I was taken back to a place long forgotten.

It was beyond that dam where, as a student, I practiced aerial maneuvers and flew patterns low over the ground. Sometimes, I did this in smoggy conditions. I’d get a special clearance to fly in low visibility. Then I’d follow the flood control channel from the dam’s spillway to a straight-in approach to the runway. The sky is still hazy some days, but it isn’t nearly as bad as I remember it.

Duplicating several cross-country flights from my first logbook, we landed as far south as San Diego Brown Field, only a mile from Mexico and as far north as Kern Valley in the Sierra Nevada, where we camped next to our airplane. We scooted through a special corridor over Los Angeles International to have lunch in Santa Barbara. We could do this more efficiently now, because we have GPS to navigate more directly. This equipment didn’t exist when I was a student.

As we flew between mountains, over deserts and along the sea, Linda took notes as I explained the differences from my new pilot days, such as several of the old airports that no longer exist. Due to politics and greed, houses and industrial parks have replaced them. In one instance, a replacement airport was built only to be threatened by further urban sprawl.

Further, redesigned airspace has added rules in convoluted layers in altitude, designating where one must have a clearance to fly. As a result, activity has increased on already overcrowded radio frequencies. We rarely had a break from the constant staccato of pilot-controller verbiage flowing through our headphones.

In this “going back” adventure, we put 41.7 hours of flight time on the Elyminator over 10 days, flew 4,075 nautical miles, made 34 landings, wrote 21 pages of notes, experienced 2 earthquakes, saw many friends, and made loads of memories. And I noted, so much has changed.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 9, 2019 KSHN FM Memories

The Liberty Gazette

July 9, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: The morning of June 28, Bill Buchanan rocked this part of the world when he announced the sale of KSHN FM.

When he said, “I hope we’ve been of some positive service to this community,” we imagine everyone in Shine All 9’s listening area reflected on stories that confirm Bill’s hope. In fact, it was Hope we thought of.

Besides regular broadcasts of high school football games, the Partyline, and local news, for weeks leading up to Saturday, May 31, 2008, Bill, news director Tiffany York, and others joined forces to pull off an outstanding benefit fly-in. It’s is one of many memories we hold dear, which KSHN helped make a success.

Emotional and financial hardships had descended on a local man and his wife when their second pregnancy ended early with the premature birth of twins. The one baby who survived was hospitalized quite a while, and the bills and upheaval brought trying times with daily trips to the medical center. Their uninsured portion was just shy of $13,000.

Bill promoted the fly-in and as usual, his radio station became the hub for donors and sponsors to join in support. Tiffany put long hours and hard work into planning and logistics, and on the day of the event, it all paid off.

Mike: I took Bill up in our Grumman Cheetah so he could see the sights from above – all the airplanes, the lines of cars, and all the kind-hearted people who had heard Bill talk about the fly-in, whose heartstrings were pulled at the enormity of the burden one local family was asked to bear. From the air, we watched in awe of what people can do for each other.

We flew circles above their remote transmitter. Bill had the birds-eye view and gave a report like none other, which brought more people flocking in.

I’ll never forget that flight with Bill. He spoke into his microphone in one hand and with a radio in the other, checked that his voice was making it down to their audio equipment. Tiffany took care of the rest.

The donor list took up several poster boards hung along the fence. And in the end, Prosperity Bank employees reported over $13,000 raised.

I had a blast flying him, and I’ve enjoyed running into him many other times since then. I can’t help but feel impacted by the sale of the station to KSBJ.

Linda: At 11:30 p.m. on Monday, July 1, the last Community Bulletin Board came on. Then we heard Tiffany’s voice. “It’s twenty-four minutes before the hour and yes, you are still listening to KSHN.” Three songs followed, as we watched the clock: Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” Toto’s “Africa,” and The Beatles’ “Fool on the Hill.”

In the final twelve minutes, she again explained how to listen to KSHN.com online via TuneIn Radio. They played the theme from “A Summer Place,” and then she and Bill said good-bye from the terrestrial station.

“So long everybody.” Bill squeezed out the words, as the Partyline theme began one more time. “So long, we love you, thank you very much for your support.”

As do we, Bill. As do we.

KSHN FM August 8, 1991-July 1, 2019.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 2, 2019 Toddie's Rocket

The Liberty Gazette

July 2, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Clint and Toddie were buds. Both hailed from the Big D, both invested in real estate development, oil, and restaurants. When Clint founded the Dallas Cowboys, Toddie bought a piece of that, too.

Clint was a hands-off owner, trusting the experts he hired to do their jobs. He also loved practical jokes. Before the Cowboys’ first Superbowl, he wrote to Coach Tom Landry: “Dear Tom: I have taught you all I can. From now on, you're on your own.”*

While Clint Murchison lived large, he didn’t live all that long. The last few years of his life, he was bankrupt and battling a rare nerve disease, wheelchair-bound until his death at age 63.

Toddie Lee Wynne’s life went a little differently. He and his brother built Six Flags in Arlington in 1961, the name honoring the six countries that have held power in Texas: Spain, France, The Confederacy, Texas, United States, and Mexico.

Many years before, not far away, the Cuellar family had worked as cotton pickers and cow hands on a ranch in Kaufman. The matriarch was a mother of 12, and accustomed to cooking big meals. One weekend, to help make ends meet, she made extra food and sold it at the county fair. Her dishes were such a hit, she made more money that weekend than the whole family had the entire year. From that success came the El Chico chain of restaurants.

The Wynne family loved Mama Cuellar’s cooking so much, that when they opened Six Flags, one of the first restaurants in the theme park was El Chico. This, friends, is how we got introduced to Tex-Mex. Tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, guacamole, thanks to the Cuellars, and Toddie Wynne.

And here comes the aviation part. It is bitter-sweet.

Toddie partnered with the U.S. government and the state of Texas to purchase Matagorda Island. His one-third of the enclave was the southwestern end, with plenty of room for an airport. Toddie kept his DC-3, and later his Convair there. Oh, the luxury! Astronaut Deke Slayton would fly in and give impromptu airshows. Imagine the parties!

In 1981, his real estate business partner David Hannah II convinced him it was also a great place to relocate their Space Services, Inc. Unfortunately, their Percheron rocket exploded on the launch pad during an engine test. That’s okay, these things happen. Just ask Elon Musk. You regroup, try again.

In 1982, they launched the Conestoga I rocket. It shot 30 miles straight up, as planned. But Toddie would never see the success of his most interesting investment, the first privately-owned rocket to go into space. While waiting for the launch, he had a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital.

Both launch pads are still visible. On the website Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields, you can see aerial photos and old aviation charts that keep the history of Wynne Airport alive.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

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 * Dick Hitt (1992). Classic Clint; the laughs and times of Clint Murchison, Jr. Plano, TX

June 25, 2019 Airplanes and Eateries

The Liberty Gazette

June 25, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The familiar sound of taxiing aircraft lured me out of the cool shade in our hangar. Reverberation from twin propellers rattled all the heavy metal doors. Two Cessna Skyhawks soon appeared rounding the far end of the row of T-hangars. They waltzed their way along, stopping a few units away.

As their engines clattered to a stop, I sauntered over to my hangar neighbors Selby and O.J. to say hi and find out where they’d been. They don’t usually go far, maybe just a quick flight across the bay to Anahuac. They’ll throw bikes in the back of their planes to ride the six or seven minutes from the airport to the Dairy Queen on Ross Sterling Avenue. The destination isn’t as important as the flight. They don’t need much of a reason, they do it just to fly.

Then the process starts. It’s nearly a ritual: move their cars out of the hangars, carefully push their planes back in, start wiping bugs off the wings. They don’t use anything exotic, just Pledge. They clean their windows, check the oil, maybe adjust something on the engine or airframe. When they’ve finished, it’s just as important to check out what the other has done and talk about it at length. Maybe give advice. Inevitably, someone will show up to offer unsolicited ideas. This is a regular pilot ritual at friendly little airports across the country; first you fly, then you clean and fix, which often takes longer than the flight, then you talk about it.

On Saturday mornings several pilot friends meet for breakfast with the intention of deciding where to fly next. From Baytown, where most of them roost, there are half a dozen places within a half hour flight.

Lufkin has a diner on the airport as does the Texas Gulf Coast Regional airport in Brazoria. Brenham’s Southern Flyer Diner recently reopened for business. Local pilots cheered as did the residents of Brenham who dine while watching airplanes come and go. Liberty’s Jax Hamburgers was recently descended upon by the Baytown group. They used the airport’s crew vehicle to shuttle more than a dozen visiting aviators to the eatery. With copious amounts of burgers and fries consumed, would that added weight prevent their takeoff?

Pilots don’t need a reason to fly, but if there is a nice place to go just for an excuse, that’s enough. Last weekend the place to go was Weiser Air Park on the west side of Houston. This time, it wasn’t pilots’ love of food that provided the impetus. It was to say good-bye. After 56 years, “the country’s friendliest airport” is shutting down. The land that holds its privately owned thirty-four-hundred-foot runway will become an industrial park. The owners hosted a huge going-away party with barbeque and ice cream for the pilot community and anyone else who happened by. While pilots use anything for a reason to fly, the journey home from this affair did so with a heavy heart.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 18, 2019 Waterjets and Water Crossings

The Liberty Gazette

June 18, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: I had a dental check-up last week. My hygienist, Lynn, is a dear friend, but bless her heart, she is so fearful of flying. She asks lots of questions, but I suspect she might not remember my answers after I leave because, after all, that’s not something in her daily life.

Cleaning teeth, however, is quite important to her. She’s made a career out of dental hygiene and she’s quite good at it. I trust her with my… teeth.

There is just one thing though that makes me very nervous. I thought it was a water-blasting device she uses for cleaning. The first time I told her it scares me, she laughed and asked why. Well, there was this time we toured Ace Machine in Baytown. It’s owned by our friend and fellow pilot Jim Kubik. He hosted a whole group of us at his business on a Saturday and took us from one huge machine to another, explaining what all they can do with these monsters. The men (which was most of the group) were practically frothing at the mouth. But I thought it was fascinating, too.

One of those machines uses water to cut steel. Ironically, it’s called a waterjet. Jim fired it up, told everyone to keep their hands down, and demonstrated the astounding precision and power, cutting an eight-inch piece of steel. I stood there mesmerized by the needle-like water, knowing it could slice a hand off. My trips to the dentist have never been the same since.

Actually, Lynn uses is an ultrasonic tool called a cavitron. It sprays a mist, but the effect is often described as giving teeth a power wash. It feels like a waterjet. I tense up when she grabs that tool, probably just like she does at the thought of flying.

Mike: The customer service representatives who work with me are not pilots. Their job is to schedule clients for training in jets. Pilots who fly high performance aircraft are required to pass evaluation every six to twelve months. But those who set the calendar that commits instructor time for customers from around the world don’t have a background in aviation. Theirs is administration. A co-worker has found he can take advantage of the knowledge gap.

Every time Linda and I travel to another continent, David finds it amusing to see the reaction when he tells the customer service staff that we are flying our little single-engine airplane “across the pond.” The unsuspecting employees have bought into David’s joke that we fly the Elyminator the same distance as airliners.

Truth is, the shortest distance from Gander, Newfoundland to Shannon, Ireland is almost 2,000 miles over cold water. The Elyminator’s maximum range is less than half that. Airliners also travel more than three times our plane’s speed. But all is fair in work and play, even when co-workers don’t realize that if we flew the Elyminator to Europe, we would arrive there a week after our vacation ended.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 11, 2019 What's An Airplane Nut?

The Liberty Gazette

June 11, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

For four months out of the year, Coda Riley works from sunrise to sunset every day. It’s a grueling schedule for a grueling job, and he loves it.

He’s recently certified as a firefighting Level 2 S.E.A.T. pilot (single engine air tanker) and has worked as an ag pilot for years. When crop dusting, he estimates he makes about 70 take-offs and landings a day and turns around over the fields he’s spraying about 2000 times. That takes a lot of arm muscle, and a pilot must be vigilant always.

But flying, he says, is like a cat. “A cat just picks you. You don’t own a cat; a cat owns you. Flying is like that. It owns you.”

It picked him when he was two years old. His parents were driving to their new house in the country when he saw a crop duster. “I saw it, heard the noise, and they were flying on the deck. In that moment, I knew what I wanted.”

Nobody in Coda’s family was a pilot and no one wanted him to fly, so he had to figure out on his own how one becomes a pilot. About ten years after his first glimpse of a crop duster, his family was driving through Port Neches for a church event when they passed a house where a man was working on a small airplane (an ultra-light) in the yard. Glued to the truck window, Coda would remember that house.

A few years later, his father bought a new home just two blocks from where he’d seen the ultra-light. Coda walked over to the house and waited, eager to meet the man with the airplane. Finally, a truck pulled up, and Coda caught the man between the truck and front door.

“Hi, my name is Coda and I’m an airplane nut!”

When the man asked him, “What?” he thought he’d blown his opportunity, but he repeated himself. The man chuckled. “Oh, well my name’s Charlie. Come on in.”

“Doc” Charlie Smith showed Coda his full-size airplane and the ultra-light and invited him to a fly-in at Pleasure Island the next weekend. At the fly-in, Doc asked Coda if he would like to try the balloon-popping contest. Coda nailed the first balloon, then the second, third and fourth. He won second place in the contest, despite never having flown. The following week, Doc gave him his first real flight lesson.

Coda admired and respected Doc – he was his hero. He had shot down two Japanese Zeroes during World War II, was an instructor and had flown over 200 missions over Burma and China. After the first lesson, he said Coda was most natural pilot he’d ever met.

When Doc received a package from the Chinese containing the Distinguished Flying Cross, Coda was there when he opened it. A moment he will always treasure; one that he carries with him on those hot, grueling days from sun-up to sundown, in some of the highest risk non-combat flying that exists.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 4, 2019 Azellia White

The Liberty Gazette

June 4, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

You may know of the American Cowboy Museum in South Houston. It’s on Almeda Road near Airport Boulevard, on the Taylor-Stevenson Ranch. You may know of a drill bit that can drill through rock, invented by Hughes Tool Company. That invention came out of the drilling at what was known as Pierce Junction field, on the ranch near where that museum is. You may know of the owners of that ranch, of the daring love story of Edward Taylor and Ann George, that she was purchased by Edward’s parents as a slave to take care of him, but the two fell in love, lived openly as husband and wife, bought 640 acres and raised six children on it. There is so much more to their story, which hopefully you know. But if you don’t, please learn it. Their ranch is a place rich in pioneering history.

There’s another part to the story of the Taylor-Stevenson Ranch that fits well within this space. That is, of course, an airport, Sky Ranch, built by some of the best pilots ever.

The Tuskegee Airmen were military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Force. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.

At the end of World War II, three Tuskegee Airmen relocated to Houston to start a flight training program and offer charter flights and cargo services. They set out to make it possible for young black G.I.’s and civilians to learn about aviation. Ben Stevenson, Elton “Ray” Thomas, and Hulon “Pappy” White were those Airmen.

Pappy White had worked as a mechanic while in Tuskegee, and when he and his bride moved to Houston, they continued to make history.

Born in 1913 in Gonzales, Texas, Azellia White is now 105. But there she was in Tuskegee, Alabama, 32 years old, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit the famous pilots during
World War II. When Mrs. Roosevelt insisted on taking a ride with one of them, Mrs. White was inspired to learn to fly.

She began training in a Taylorcraft with a set of flight instructors anybody would want to have, yet not just anyone would have access to. Thanks to excellent training by the Tuskegee Airmen, she became the first black female from Texas to earn a pilot certificate. That was March 26, 1946, when it was safer for blacks to fly from town to town than to drive.

She continued her flying here in Texas, but Sky Ranch was only in business for two years, closing its doors when the G.I. bill was modified with restrictions that affected the business of flight training.

But Mrs. Azellia White continues to inspire young aviators. The Aviation Science Lab at Houston’s
Sterling High School is named in her honor, and last April, she was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

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