March 3, 2020 Raffles and Scholarships

The Liberty Gazette

March 3, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

On the Alaska Airmen website (alaskaairmen.org), one may find a multitude of happy faces. Not just because the photos were taken in the Last Frontier, but because this group is one that raffles airplanes and gives scholarships. Navigate to the Raffle tab and you’ll see winners over the last twenty years whose $60 ticket won them an airplane worth tens of thousands of dollars. Then punch in to the Scholarships tab to see smiling young adults looking forward to bright futures. While you’re there, be sure to click on About to see a snapshot of their very cool headquarters, located on a tiny island in Anchorage. Then it will all make sense that their address is Floatplane Drive.

Back to the Lower 48, the Puget Sound Flyers, a nonprofit flying club, makes it their mission “to render aid to young people who were fortunate enough to have survived cancer, and, through their hard work, recovered and persevered, despite financial hardships imposed on them and their families by the cost of care and family commitment,” (pugetsoundflyers.org). The Puget Sound Flyers offer scholarships for post-secondary education to assist as many young cancer survivors as possible pursue their passion—whatever it may be. They, too, raffle off airplanes to support their mission.

Going east from Puget Sound to Topeka, Kansas, a city with significant aviation history, the American Flight Museum will raffle a 1976 Citabria, an aerobatic airplane similar to the one Charlie Grabein used to fly here in Liberty. Tickets are $50 and you have until 1:00 p.m. June 1 to buy one of the 4,000 chances for sale. All proceeds go to support the museum, aeronautical education, and aviation programs. You are hereby forewarned, however, that if you visit their website to see the Citabria (americanflightmuseum.com), you’ll practically slobber over their photos of vintage aircraft. Next thing you know, you’ll be heading north to visit in person. We don’t blame you!

Closer to home is Ranger Airfield, in Ranger, Texas, “Accepting aviators since 1911.” The folks there host a weekend-long camp-out fly-in every October (it’s one of our favorite fly-ins, by the way). They also raffle one airplane a year. This year, one holder of a $50 ticket will win a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub. But hurry, they’ve almost sold out! And talk about pictures. Hoo-boy! One could linger long on that site—rangerairfield.org. Jared Calvert was only about 20 or so when he founded the Ranger Airfield Foundation to preserve the airfield and it’s rich Texas history.

The East Central Ohio Pilots Association combines raffle and scholarship for some sweet deals. If your $50 ticket doesn’t win the sparkling clean 1967 Cessna 150 this year, you could win a $2,500 scholarship for flight training. All proceeds from raffle ticket sales support their Safety and Education Foundation which has awarded over $40,000 in flight scholarships. Find out more on ecopapilot.com.

With a little luck, anyone can turn a few bills into a world of adventure.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 25, 2020 Operation Haylift

The Liberty Gazette

February 25, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

The small town of Ely, Nevada has a newspaper called The Ely Times. Occasionally, we read it, just for fun. Last week, writer Dennis Cassinelli retold a story. significant to his audience, of a situation that occurred over seven decades ago: a snowstorm of unrelenting and historical proportions. A snowstorm to end all snowstorms—except that obviously it didn’t. But it is still on record as one of the worst they’ve had.

Here, we deal with floods and droughts, gale–force winds, and extreme heat and humidity. The little bit of snow we get the winters after hurricanes doesn’t qualify as blizzard experience. Not to someone from Ely, Nevada. But it brings thoughts of the time of Harvey, when citizens pulled together to save Liberty from becoming part of an enlarged Trinity River Bottom. This story from back in January and February of 1949 is kind of like that.

Livestock were stranded, scattered throughout remote areas of Ely and Elko. And they were getting hungry. Ranchers and government officials made a plan. The U.S. Air Force had C-82 “Packet” cargo planes they could fly from their base in Tacoma, Washington, down to Sacramento to pick up hay bales and deliver hay by air.

The first day’s work succeeded, with several C-82s making multiple trips, dropping a total of 75 tons of hay to hungry cattle and sheep.

Local ranchers familiar with the area rode along to help find stranded animals. In the back of the airplanes, harnessed crew members stood near the open bay door and tossed out bales. And boy did those cows and bulls and sheep devour the food before the airplanes came back around for a second swoop.

Just as the Liberty Municipal Airport has been a critical part of saving lives and property during Harvey and other natural disasters, the Ely Airport became the base of rescue operations locally. It was their own local airport where ranchers climbed in with Air Force crew members and directed them to cold and starving animals. It was their own local airport where the airplanes fueled up to make dozens of flights over rough terrain in sub-zero temperatures, when there was no other way to feed livestock.

And in an emergency, who pays for these things to happen? During that arctic freeze, the Ely National Bank funded the operation without even asking if ranchers could pay them back for it. One of the bank executives, Gordon Lathrop, is quoted as having said, “The ranchers will pay us back when they can, if not this year, perhaps next year. I know them all.”

In the end, pilots of “Operation Haylift” flew 28 aircraft 270,000 miles, dropping 2,000 tons of hay to over 300,000 head of livestock in Ely and surrounding areas.

And that’s the goodness you find in small towns. Like James Poitevent at the dam, looking like Mel Gibson in the middle of the firefight in “We Were Soldiers,” raising up a mighty army to face down Harvey’s attack.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 18, 2020 Willa and Bessie

The Liberty Gazette

February 18, 2020

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: I was interviewed last week by Texas Monthly for an article about Bessie Coleman. We had written about Bessie in this column during Black History month in 2008. The first black woman in the world to earn a pilot certificate, Bessie had to first learn French, and then move to Paris (France, not Texas), to find someone who would teach her to fly. To this day, Bessie is an incredibly huge inspiration to many people. She was smart and she was unstoppable.

She had become an air show pilot and used her fame to speak out against segregation and the many injustices prevalent that held back women and anyone of color from opportunity. She spoke at churches and schools and everywhere she was welcome. Her grand plan was to open a flight school for blacks because there was nowhere in the U.S. they could go to learn to fly.

But Bessie died tragically in an aircraft accident before she could live out her dream. It would be another 12 years before this country would award a pilot certificate to the first black woman who learned to fly in the United States.

Willa Brown had a few more things in common with Bessie Coleman. She felt strongly about those same injustices, and she and her husband, Cornelius Coffey, wanted to make sure there would be a place people of color could learn to fly. Cornelius was also a pilot – in fact, he was her flight instructor – and a mechanic. Together, they founded the Cornelius Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first private flight training academy in the country which was owned and operated by black Americans. Willa herself trained hundreds of pilots, many of whom became Tuskegee Airmen.

She also lobbied the government for integration of black pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corp (predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) and in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (which provided a pool of civilian pilots during national emergencies). Like Bessie, she fought to see these opportunities open to all Americans.

These are the kind of people who inspire me. They probably had doors slammed in their faces more times than we could count. But they didn’t give up or give in to the ignorance. Instead, they set an example of what it means to be American. To work hard, to earn your way, and to innovate.

From picking cotton to being the star of the air shows, “Queen Bess” demonstrated how it’s done. A stellar life ended too soon, I think of how much more she would have accomplished. Her impact isn’t limited to opportunities for women and those with darker skin tones. She raised the mentality of an entire industry. And when the torch was passed to Willa Brown to continue Bessie’s dream, not just an entire industry has benefited, but the whole world.

Here’s to those who have faced adversity and didn’t back down. May your extraordinary lives always shine a light for us all.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 11, 2020 SkyBilly

The Liberty Gazette

February 11, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Some may claim to be a hillbilly. But only one can be SkyBilly. He was the proverbial “kid at the airport fence.” He loved aerobatics and formed his own airshow company, “Great American Flying Circus.” If you saw the movies, Fandango, or Bodyguard, you saw Bill Warren’s work.

One day skydiver Kirby Mills was in Bill’s DeHavilland Chipmunk with him for an airshow routine. Kirby was to jump out with the American flag unfurling while the national anthem played, and Bill would fly circles around him with “smoke on”—a fairly common and lovely act to watch.

Now, we must mention that the magneto switches on this Chipmunk were located on a panel between the two tandem seats. These must be on for the engine to run.

Bill flew from the rear seat. Kirby sat up front with an old parachute on his back and a reserve chute on his belly.

The Chipmunk has a lever you must squeeze pretty hard to release a detent, allowing the canopy to open all the way. Otherwise it stops only midway, in case you just want fresh air. Bill explained this to Kirby, and that he must wait for the sliding canopy to be opened all the way before jumping.

Off they go. Bill’s concentrating on cues from air show controllers, and Kirby’s eager to make his jump. He asks, “Is it time yet?” Bill answers, “Just wait a second.”

They drone around a bit longer, Bill listening to the air boss through his headset, Kirby double-triple checking everything attached to him. “Is it time yet?”

“Almost. I’ll let you know,” Bill replies.

Bill turns to the direction called “jump run” to set up for the location, speed, and altitude where Kirby will exit the airplane. He says, “Kirby, I’m on jump run. It’ll take about two minutes.” Anxious Kirby is ready. He unbuckles his seat belt. He’s spring-loaded to the ready position. Half a mile from the exit point, Bill reaches, squeezes the lever, and starts pulling the canopy back. Kirby sees it and figures, That’s my cue! I’m outta here! and leaps out of his seat. This so shocks Bill that he lets go of the release, which causes the pin to drop, holding the canopy in place. Now Kirby is wedged halfway in, halfway out and can’t move either way. Practically over their point, Bill’s adrenaline kicks in as he squeezes hard and opens the canopy the rest of the way, which causes Kirby to fall back in Bill’s lap. In the fall, Kirby’s butt bumps those magneto switches, turning the engine off.

Bill has Kirby in his lap, he’s “dead stick” (no engine power), and he’s on jump run. Very coolly, he rolls the Chipmunk inverted, and there goes Kirby. He then rolls the airplane right side up, turns on the mags, starts the engine, and encircles Kirby in smoke. Just like it was planned. And no one on the ground was any the wiser.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 4, 2010 Aerial Search and Rescue

The Liberty Gazette

February 4, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The Civil Air Patrol and Texas EquuSearch are well known for their participation in aerial search of missing persons. Often, they use grid patterns to comb an area where it may be especially hard to find a person. Mountainous terrain, forests, and large bodies of water are examples of tough areas to conduct a hunt. The CAP calls their pattern “The Swiss-Army Knife of Search grids.” Their fleet of 560 single-engine airplanes carries pilots and observers trained in aerial search. Their conventional grid system was developed in the early 1960s by CAP members in Washington state, and it was soon adopted nationwide.

A grid is a coordinated system of boxes based on latitude and longitude. The basic premise is to divide the U.S. into 15-minute by 15-minute quadrangle grids. These grids are then numerically labeled sequentially on an aeronautical sectional chart. The order of numbering is from the top left to the top right, down one row, and so on. Each 15-minute grid is approximately 225 square statute miles. When especially difficult terrain is involved, the grid sections can be subdivided into four smaller sections.

These methods hadn’t been thought up yet when, on December 3, 1926, a couple had an argument about the husband’s desire to spend the weekend without his wife. Four months earlier, the man had broken the news to her that he wanted a divorce. And that there was another woman. In December, the distraught wife left their home and wasn’t seen again for eleven days. Her disappearance caused quite a stir. More than 1,000 police officers and 15,000 volunteers are reported to have joined in the search for her. One of them was Dorothy Sayers, author of the Peter Wimsey mystery series. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the character Sherlock Holmes, jumped in to help. He was a believer in spiritualists, such as psychic mediums, and gave the missing lady’s glove to a psychic in the hopes it would lead them to her.

Linda: This was also the event that brought out airplanes to be used, reportedly for the first time in the world, for search operations. Several airplanes, in fact. They flew over the British landscape, without a sophisticated search pattern, but earnestly looking for clues.

The missing lady, Agatha Christie, was finally found but claimed to have no memory of those eleven days. Some believe she entered a “fugue state” of mind, a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for one’s personal identity. It tends to happen from severe stress.

On the upside, she later met a fine gentleman who treated her much better. That leaves about the only nice thing I can say about Archibald Christie being that his cold, cold heart ended up opening the doors for aircraft to be used in search and rescue. I’m sure that wasn’t his intended result, but thankfully, from that time on, airplanes have been used when the need arises for the special vantage point which only they can bring.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 28, 2020 Elys go to the Theater

The Liberty Gazette

January 28, 2020

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A notorious medieval Scottish ancestor of mine left tremendous material for a dramatic tale to be told. In fact, about halfway back in time between him and me, another ancestor wrote a couple of lengthy novels about the trouble the old baron had gotten into. The stories are full of intrigue, no matter whose side you believe.

When I first heard of the baron’s reputation and activities, I planned on writing a novel. But life happens, and I put my notes away for a couple of decades. When I took them out again, I thought, hey, this is so dramatic, it should be a play!

After returning from my research trip to Scotland last year, I enrolled in a playwright course in Houston. I’m now taking my second course and learning lots. We had been frequenting Main Street Theater in Houston. They do a lot of Shakespeare, as well as smart, new plays. That’s how I discovered Guy Roberts.

Guy is originally from Houston, but he now lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He is the founder and CEO of the Prague Shakespeare Company and one of the foremost living experts on Shakespeare. He’s given TedTalks on Shakespeare and can recite any of the bard’s plays backward and forward, in his sleep. We’ve seen a few of his productions when he’s brought them back to Main Street Theater. So as I began converting my partially-written novel into a play, I thought of Guy. That’s when I started dreaming what I thought was the impossible dream.  If there was one person in the world who I would want to read my play and give me feedback, it would be Guy Roberts.

During my first playwright course, I asked the instructor, Elizabeth Keel, an accomplished playwright and director in her own right, if she knew Mr. Roberts. I was elated to find out that of course she does! About the time the playwright masterclass began, a promotional post card arrived in our mailbox from Main Street Theater. “See Guy Roberts as Hamlet, in January!”

Elizabeth introduced us by email, we bought tickets to Hamlet, and after the show, we joined Guy and his assistant director at an English pub down the street.

“Yes!” he said. “Send it, I’ll read it.” Then he asked all kinds of questions about the play, and when he seemed satisfied with my answers, and provided a few tips, he leaned forward and said, “But you two are pilots, right?” Yep.

“Why don’t you write a play about what it’s like flying up there, in the front of the airplane? We don’t know anything about what it’s like. I’d really like to see a play like that. In fact, I might produce it. That’s your next project, after this one is finished!” He looked and Mike and me, and he was serious. So, it looks like there may be a stage in the future of Ely Air Lines.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 21, 2010 Curtis and Jim

The Liberty Gazette

January 21, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Our friend Curtis Laird thought of another story from his days in Vietnam. Actually, he’s thought of more than one, but we can only fit in one at a time.

Curtis: Back in November of 1966, I had a small detachment of UH-1D helos with crews at a place called Phan Rang. Our mission was to provide support to a Korean regiment, which was in turn providing outer security for the construction of the Phan Rang air base.

One morning, as we were preparing to launch for our missions, a young Air Force dog handler walked up and asked if he could fly as my gunner on some of the missions. He stated that he was current on the M-60 machine gun, which was our primary armament.

When time permitted, my crew and I took the Airman out over the South China Sea and checked his gunnery skills. Everything went well, so we started working him in on some of our missions. This gave me the opportunity to give my crew members a day off. I kept my fingers crossed that Army headquarters would not find out about this.

A few days later, an Air Force captain stopped by and asked if he could fly as my co-pilot someday. I said, “Sure, why not?” I already had an Airman flying with me, one more wouldn’t hurt.

So, on this particular day, half of my four-man crew were Air Force personnel. This was about the time that Army headquarters found out about it. Needless to say, I was reminded of my careless and negligent manner in which I was flying and operating my aircraft.

Now, we fast-forward 45 years to 2011. I received an email from an individual asking if I was the officer who let him fly as gunner on occasion. I immediately replied that I was the guilty party. We have been in touch ever since.

One more fast-forward. In October 2019, the gunner notified me that he and his wife would be flying down from New York to visit with me and my family. They arrived on November 7. It had been 53 years to the month since I had seen Jim, and we both agreed that we had gotten a little older.

Jim has done well since our Vietnam days. He got his college degree, started a business in the aviation industry, and wrote a book, titled, “The Sky is Not the Limit.” And, he has a wonderful family.

Linda: What winding paths our lives take. Who would have thought how the lives of a young Air Force dog handler and an Army helicopter pilot would end up 45 years later?

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 14, 2020 Lost Planet Airmen

The Liberty Gazette

January 14, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: In 1949, a 12-episode movie serial called “King of the Rocket Men” featured Dr. Vulcan, an evil genius who only appeared as a shadow, and who planned to conquer the world. Of course, he had to eliminate the good guys—the scientists who were making America great.

A couple of those good guys who narrowly escaped Vulcan’s dark plot developed an atomic-powered rocket backpack which they attached to a leather jacket, and a bullet-shaped helmet and a ray gun. With these inventions, they would fight the sinister Vulcan in a tug-of-war throughout the dozen shows, eventually stopping him from taking over the world.

The flight sequences were inspired by the Buck Rogers comic strip; accomplishing the scenes with special effects is amusing to read in the 21st century. To make the main character, Jeff King, alias Rocket Man, appear to fly across the landscape with his jetpack, specialists ran a life-size dummy on pulleys along a wire tilted at a downward angle to the horizon. This was the same way they had achieved the flying look for “Captain Marvel” in 1941. For the shots where they had to show a real person, such as for take-off, they placed a springboard just below camera view. The work was shared among three different stuntmen. For landing shots, the actors just jumped down into the view of the camera. Edit it all together, and it sort of looked like a guy leaping into the air, flying, then landing on his feet like a cat.

A few years later, the production company (Republic) put all those episodes together to create a 65-minute feature film version and changed the title to “Lost Planet Airmen”.

Linda: Remember the song, “Hot Rod Lincoln” a top hit in the early ‘70s? Charlie Ryan wrote it, but the popular version, the one I remember, was recorded by a group called Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. Listening to the song recently, I wondered where they got the name for their band. George Frayne IV, the lead singer, took the stage name Commander Cody, similar to Commando Cody, the character in another 1950’s film series, and the rest of the band stayed in tune with the 1950’s movie theme as the Lost Planet Airmen.

Interestingly, Charlie Ryan’s song was a response to Arkie Shibley’s “Hot Rod Race” about a Ford and a Mercury neck-and-neck when suddenly a kid whizzes by in a souped-up Model A. Ryan wanted to give the kid’s perspective. He beefed up the story like the kid did the Model A.

Several different singers recorded the song, including Johnny Bond, who then wrote a sequel called “X-15”, which elevated the stakes to an air race in a North American X-15, a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft flown by NASA and the U.S. Air Force. To the beat of “Hot Rod Lincoln” it begins, “Gather ‘round you cats, and you will hear ‘bout a race I had in the stratosphere…”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 7, 2010 Living Room

The Liberty Gazette

January 7, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The wind bit my face and snow blurred my vision as flakes melted on my glasses. It was a bit chilly as I scanned the city from the Living Room and felt an incredible sense of accomplishment.

This isn’t a room but a lookout point in the nosebleed section of the Wasatch Range above Salt Lake City. I made it here via a two-mile packed snow path that weaved through snow-choked canyons, climbing up the mountains more than a thousand feet above the city’s upper tier. It’s not the top, which is thousands of feet above, cloaked in heavy drifts of snow and clouds. But I’m not exactly Jeremiah Johnson either. However, there is a feeling of exhilaration having made the journey here. Pictures cannot convey what is only available to those who make the effort.

Linda says I am in my element here. She’s right, I love the mountains. I used to climb them, but it had been more than twenty years since I kicked steps in the snow, climbing to these heights.

I came to Salt Lake City because a corporate pilot friend needed me to cover this year-end five-day trip for him. My regular job’s work schedule was light after an intensive Fall, so I welcomed the opportunity. Most people associate this area with skiing and many of them clogged by in the hotel in their plastic boots. Kids ran around trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues.

While I like skiing, I prefer climbing. Physically taxing, it is straight forward. You just put one foot in front of the other, sometimes kicking a toehold, and then take the next step. At 5,000-plus feet above sea level the air is thin, necessitating more controlled breathing in sync with my pace. Sometimes the gradient increases and the pace slows but doesn’t stop, and I eventually achieve my goal. It’s like anything worthwhile. You stay with it until its done.

Descending from the climb is often more treacherous; following the path of least resistance has its own pitfalls. The trail was narrow with steep drop-offs. The dropping temperatures caused the snow packed by people who trod before me to become icy and slick. I didn’t have crampons—those spikes that mountaineers wear on their boots and the FAA frowns upon in carry-ons—and no ice-ax to help arrest a fall if I took one. I could make my own trail, but there was the danger of post-holing—putting my boot through the unpacked snow and finding a cavity under it with my foot encountering who-knows-what. So, working my way down took just as long as the way up.

Flying and climbing, it’s a great way to finish one year and move into the next. I look forward to the new decade, more challenges and peaks to reach, knowing that while my path may meander a bit, sometimes taking side-tracks, I will keep moving through the blizzardy landscape putting one foot in front of the other and moving ahead.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 31, 2019 Last Flights of 2019

The Liberty Gazette

December 31, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Thanks to good weather, the end of 2019 was filled with flight. On one of those lovely blue-sky days we moseyed west to the historic Stinson Municipal Airport. This airport began life in 1915 when Emma Stinson and her four children leased five hundred acres from the city of San Antonio. They opened Stinson School of Flying, where students were beneficiaries of passionate patriotism and piloting.

Katherine, Eddie, Marjorie, and Jack Stinson made significant contributions to aviation, and the airport named for them is the second oldest continuously operated airport in the country. Only College Park Airport in Maryland, built by the Wright Brothers in 1909 is older.

We love the old stone-faced art-deco style terminal, which was built in 1936. The building got tender loving care for its seventieth birthday when the city renovated and expanded it while retaining most
of the original structure. Inside, photographs and memorabilia decorate the halls chronicling Stinson Field over the past century.

The next day was also severe-clear, so we opted to go north, toward Granbury. The city of Granbury keeps several courtesy cars available for people who fly into their airport and want to go into town.

It’s good for the businesses and the city. They figure you’ll spend money there, at least for lunch. The Granbury airport has a really nice terminal building with a porch that wraps around the west and south sides. In Cracker Barrel style, comfy rocking chairs line the porch, perfect for watching take-offs and landings. Bring your own score card, if you dare.

Inside the roomy terminal, pilots and friends sit a spell to talk about airplanes and the wonderful freedom of flight. It’s always this way when we stop in at Granbury. Always filled with happy, friendly people.

After we fueled up the Elyminator, we messaged our friend AnnElise Bennett, who lives at Pecan Plantation airpark, just nine miles from Granbury. We hopped over and got the grand tour of her new house and the hangar where her Cessna 182, “X-Ray,” lives. We also happened upon several neighbors, most of whom we already knew, making for an impromptu reunion of friends.

Day Three was hanging on with decent weather again, so we ventured southwest to Mustang Island. What a great scenic flight along the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast!

Not far from the island, we noticed circles on the ground—bomb craters. Along that route, there had once been towers where observers watched how close the students came to hitting the targets. Amazing that the rings of the craters still show up, decades later, despite floods and high winds.

At Mustang Island Airport, you can rent golf carts to go into town. Our picnic lunch on the island was superb, and the flight back made us think of a quote by William Langewische: “I ask people who don’t fly, ‘How can you not fly when you live in a time in history when you can fly?”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com