July 28, 2020 Great Americans

The Liberty Gazette

July 28, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

This Saturday marks three years since the passing of a great American. A “trailblazer,” a “patriot,” and “a gift to the National Guard” were just a few of the sentiments shared by those who knew Lt. Gen. Daniel James III best. His legacy lives on, yet all who knew him would say that he would never hang his hat on the legacy he inherited. And it was a substantial one. No one could have faulted him if he had. But he didn’t. Daniel James III was his own man, they say—a command pilot and combat veteran, and later the adjutant general (TAG) for the Texas National Guard. He retired as the director of the Air National Guard, the top position there.

James was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1945 to Daniel “Chappie” James Jr., a fighter pilot who was the first black 4-star Air Force General. The elder General James flew 101 combat missions in Korea in P-51 Mustangs and F-80s, the first fighter jet. He also racked up 78 combat missions into North Vietnam from Thailand in F-4 Phantoms. Tuskegee certainly has its own stellar history in American aviation, where black military pilots trained.

Young James III knew early in life that the sky was calling him. After graduating from the University of Arizona, young James III logged 500 combat hours as a forward air controller and F-4 Phantom aircraft commander. He is further rightfully admired and honored for completing two active-duty tours in Southeast Asia and earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Gen. Daniel James Jr. pinning a
Distinguished Flying Cross on son, Daniel James III.
Photo courtesy the National Guard, public domain.

While participating in air combat exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in the mid-70s, Daniel James III met Air National Guard pilots. This opened a new world to him, seeing that airline pilots and fighter pilots flew together for the Guard. Having worn the Air Force flight suit for so many years, this seemed like a great idea. He could stay affiliated with the Air Force and don the flight suit another 38 years.

In 1995, he was selected to lead the Texas National Guard, becoming our state’s top officer. One of the many important things he is known for is his inclusiveness among the ranks in the Guard. He encouraged the various units to include more civilian and state employees in the Guard.

James III had made a name for himself and was recognized by President George W. Bush in 2002 when he nominated him as the 11th director of the Air National Guard. This was an interesting time to take over as the leader because this was when the Guard was transitioning from a strategic reserve to an operational force, post-9/11, including combat air support in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it was Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath that the ANG proved its value to homeland security. Amid the mess and chaos, communications down, runways flooded and damaged, and air traffic control understaffed, the Air National Guard led the way in what Lt. Gen. Daniel James III called one of their proudest moments, helping fellow Americans.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 21, 2020 Flight 19

The Liberty Gazette

July 21, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: In the shadow of the air traffic control tower, in a park-like setting at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, stands a monument to the fourteen US Navy fliers of Flight 19. The concrete obelisk looks like a one-piece Stonehenge topped with a three-bladed propeller. Behind it, a ship’s mast where Old Glory is raised, the stars and stripes often flapping in the breeze.

The weather-worn plaque lists the servicemen of Flight 19 lost during a normal training mission four months after WWII ended. They had taken off from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, now a public airport, on a December morning in 1945 in five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers. Their mission was supposed to be about ninety minutes long. They became disorientated, and their last radio transmissions were confusing and conveyed a sense of urgency. When they did not return, the Navy launched a search with thirteen men aboard a Martin PBM Mariner twin-engine seaplane. That too, disappeared.

These events, with unusual radio calls and no floating debris or any other sign of the lost, led to wild speculation. The mystery of Flight 19 created the myth of the Bermuda Triangle, a story that has been perpetuated by authors who embellish it more with each retelling. One thing is certain: unsolved mysteries sell a lot of books.

The three corners of the triangle are generally accepted as Bermuda, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico (but it depends on who is doing the speculating). However, not all the ships and airplanes reported lost in the “Bermuda Triangle” were between these points. Some disappeared off the coasts of California, Texas, and Ireland—but why let a little fact mess up a good story?

I’ve flown through the zone of obscurity hundreds of times, from Bermuda to Fort Lauderdale, and from Miami to San Juan. I’ve landed at dozens of Caribbean islands. Out there among the vast expanse of water merging with multiple-hued skies, colorful islands and froth-covered waves, I’ve only found unbelievable beauty and a strengthened belief in God’s incredible power.

When I flew far out at sea, well beyond sight of land, communications with air traffic control often required a high frequency (HF) radio. The very high frequency (VHF) radio we normally use to talk to controllers is limited to line-of-site, and the earth’s arc interferes with that line. By contrast, the HF radio beam bounces off the ionosphere and back down to get over the curve of the horizon. Today, satellites provide a more reliable link.

I cannot say what happened to the aircraft and men who disappeared on Flight 19, but prevailing logical theories say they ran out of fuel. Some say they ended up in south Georgia swamps, others, the Atlantic Ocean. I don’t think they fell off the face of the earth, as flat-earthers might say, or into a space void. I believe the Bermuda Triangle only exists is in the imagination. If anyone wants to claim otherwise, see if you can find me up there dispersing chemtrails.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 14, 2020 Girl Around The World

The Liberty Gazette

July 14, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: I happened upon a link to an early (1950’s) episode of What’s My Line? which led to all manner of fascination. Bennett Cerf, for instance. When I was a kid, we had a children’s joke book he authored. I didn’t realize he was the iconic co-founder, and the very public face of Random House publishing company. I’ve since read his autobiography. What a giant he was. But he didn’t know much about airplanes, or anything mechanical. We all have our shortcomings.

Another regular panelist on the mega-popular TV game show was Arlene Francis. Talk about charm. The lady was the very essence of charm (with a sparkle of mischievousness in those big dark eyes). I wish I’d known both Ms. Francis and Bennett Cerf.

The third regular panelist was Dorothy Kilgallen. Hers is not a household name today, but it should still be. She was a syndicated columnist, the best journalist of her time. She was about to crack the JFK assassination case when she was murdered. I believe it was the mob in cooperation with the American government, the FBI and CIA, because she had the story. She was the only person to privately interview Jack Ruby. Twice. There’s plenty of evidence to bring me to my belief, and there’s a new appeal this year for her murder case to be re-opened with new evidence. Let the truth to be known.

Unlike her co-panelists on the show, Dorothy did have a little something to do with airplanes. She wasn’t a pilot, but a passenger with some claims to firsts: the first woman to travel around the world on commercial airlines, and the first female to fly across the Pacific Ocean.

She did these things in September 1936, when she took part in a race around the world against fellow newsmen Bud Ekins of the New York World-Telegram and Leo Kieran of the New York Times. The trip took Dorothy 24 days, and she came second to Ekins (21 days). However, Ekins may not have played by the rules.

After the race, Dorothy published her book, "Girl Around The World." The following year she wrote the film script, Fly Away Baby, which was loosely based on the race. Characters Torchy and Steve (Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane) investigate a murder/jewel theft with roots in Germany. Torchy lobbies her publisher to underwrite her participation in an around-the-world airplane race because arrogant businessman Sonny Croy will be a participant. He’s a prime suspect in the case, and she intends to chase him and prove his guilt. The trail leads to Nazi Germany. With the help of the German police, the mystery is solved—aboard the Hindenburg.

The film was released six weeks after the Hindenburg disaster, and the stock footage at the end is likely the Hindenburg. The two Pan Am Clippers, “Philippine Clipper” and “Hawaii Clipper,” met tragic ends a few years later. The DC-3 (my favorite airplane) is thought by many to be a possible Bermuda Triangle mystery. It disappeared. Like Dorothy’s file on Kennedy’s assassins.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 7, 2020 Safer Today

The Liberty Gazette

July 7, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: On June 29, 1956, my dad was working for TWA at their downtown Los Angeles ticket office trying to get someone on the next morning’s flight to New York City. Whether they made a deal with another passenger to take a later flight or just found an open seat, I don’t remember, but he accomplished it, and I know he thought of it often the rest of his life.

Just after 9:00 the following morning, TWA Flight #2 left the ground at Los Angeles International as the Lockheed Super Constellation named Star of the Seine, headed first for Kansas City, and then New York. Aboard were 6 crew members and 64 passengers, eleven of which were TWA employees. A few minutes later, just behind TWA, United Flight #718, a Douglas DC-7 named Mainliner Vancouver, took off for Chicago with 53 passengers and 5 crew.

The way air traffic control worked back then pilots would radio their airline’s dispatch office on a private company frequency to request route and altitude changes. The dispatchers would contact air traffic controllers via telephone. Controllers moved markers with the airplane’s number along a map to keep track of airliners’ location and progress. When a route change was requested, the controller using the map would determine if it was safe, then issue instructions to the airline’s dispatcher who would radio the clearance to the pilots. This caused a delay because pilots were not talking directly to the air traffic controllers except on takeoff and landing.

The flights started out on diverging eastward routes. As they approached the Colorado River, they would converge over the Grand Canyon, but at different altitudes. Because of thunderstorms the TWA pilot requested higher. The request was denied because it would cause a conflict with the United airplane in the same air space. They were later cleared to a higher altitude but had to remain in visual conditions and out of the clouds. This clearance placed responsibility on the TWA crew to avoid other aircraft. It is believed both airplanes were maneuvering around clouds in the same area and probably never saw each other when they collided near the eastern end of the canyon. Everyone on both planes perished.

The investigation that followed what was one of the most significant air disasters in history marked the beginning of the safest air traffic control system in the world.

Cooperation between pilots, airlines, the FAA, and the NTSB improves safety every day. But investigations take time. They follow a process, finding a cause in a chain of events, taking a systematic approach. There is never instant gratification, and those who do the work mourn the losses that create a purpose for their lives, hoping one day to put themselves out of business. With pain, comes hope.

On July 1, 1956, my dad flipped the page of TWA’s promotional calendar to the new month. There in all its amazing color and glory was an awe-inspiring picture of the Grand Canyon.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 30, 2020 Exploring Like a Mad Dog

The Liberty Gazette

June 30, 2020

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Christine Dennison is the president and co-founder of Mad Dog Expeditions, an internationally recognized scuba diving and exploration company. She’s the first woman to dive the dangerous piranha-saturated waters of the Amazon’s Rio Negro and its tributaries. She’s also the first woman to dive and explore beneath the Arctic Sea ice and the ice caves of the Canadian High Arctic. She has logged over 80 dives in the harsh polar environs.

We attended her online lecture where she highlighted her expertise in arctic exploration. We learned that they look for holes in the ice made by seals, enlarge the holes, then brave the 28-degree waters to check out the view of the ice shelf from below. While I have no desire to do what she does, I admire her pioneering adventurousness and cheer her on all the way. I must admit, however, that the thing that got my attention was part of her mode of transportation.

No commercial airline flights will take her and her crew out to the remote areas to dive. For one location, they get as close as they can, then hop aboard a Twin Otter on skis. Many years ago, Mike was flying Twin Otters to deliver freight. He wasn’t flying with skis, but the airplane is otherwise the same great workhorse, made in Canada by the de Havilland company. The highly experienced pilots who fly these airplanes also fly them in Antarctica during the South Pole summer.

Mike: When their chartered Twin Otter lands, the team tosses their belongings onto a Ski-Doo and hums across the ice, single file, looking for a suitable place to stop (yes, they will be camping out there in the frozen tundra) before they move out to explore.

On another trip, they board an Antonov AN-74, a Russian-built airplane that will take them way up to Kaffeklubben Island at the northern-most point in Greenland. At about 84 degrees north latitude, it is the farthest point a heavy plane can land. After spending a couple days in a camp designed to acclimate the team, they set out on cross-country skis towing a sled with no more than 100 pounds of gear and food, all the while listening to the thawing ice pop and crack beneath them, and always on the lookout for polar bears.

Once they’ve completed their dive, they rendezvous with an MI-8, a Russian-made helicopter. The helicopter can get close, but the explorers must ski to where the helicopter lands. If it settled in the wrong spot, the helicopter’s weight could cause it to break through the thinning ice flow. The helicopter lands, the skiers and gear are tossed aboard, and it’s off the ice in just a couple minutes.

While Mad Dog Expeditions won’t promise 5-star luxury, they do promise 5-star adventure.

Linda: No offense, but I’m more into the ice landings. Flying in extreme conditions, cold, white-outs, wind—freezing temperatures have unique effects on aircraft. Now there’s an adventure I can warm up to!

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 23, 2020 Happy Trails

The Liberty Gazette

June 23, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: When the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson, Missouri ceased to make a profit, the family closed it in 2009, auctioning the contents the following year. Branson was the third location for the museum. Its debut was made in the high desert of California called Apple Valley, where I have some great memories.

Pilots love any reason at all to fly some place. One of my favorite places to fly when I lived in California was the Apple Valley Inn, across the street from the Roy Rogers Museum. We would land at the Apple Valley Airport, call the inn’s hotline, and for a dollar, they would drive the five miles out to the airport, pick us up, and when we finished our meal, take us back to the airport.

But originally, Apple Valley Airport was located right at the inn. Having an airport on the property was a good way to attract prospects interested in purchasing lots at the Apple Valley Ranchos, of which the inn was a part. From that original airport, a pilot could practically taxi to the inn’s parking lot. They even had airline service from Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In its heyday, 200 airplanes landed at the airport each week. When Roy Rogers and Dale Evans built their museum in 1964, the couple leased the entire 25 acres of Apple Valley Ranch, and the inn became the Roy Rogers Apple Valley Inn.

Years before, when the airport was a gravel road, the TV character “Sky King” landed his T-50 Bobcat there and parked at a home next door, which was the iconic but fictitious Flying Crown Ranch. Nearby was where the Songbird buzzed over the cameras, and the mountains and desert-scapes were backdrops for the “Sky King” series. Later, Sky’s Bobcat was replaced with a Cessna 310B that looked fast even while parked. I grew up watching “Sky King” on Saturday mornings and loved knowing that “this was the place” where it was filmed. I was thrilled to learn that this was where Roy kept his airplane, also a Cessna T-50, and that Roy was a pilot. Like Sky, he parked his plane in front of his home.

A “new” Apple Valley Airport was built farther out from the growing population center and opened for operations in 1970. Throughout its history, Apple Valley, with its working and recreational ranches, offered a taste of the old west. The average Joe could mix and mingle with the “Who’s Who” while enjoying sunshine, airplanes, horses, and swimming pools. Because Roy and Dale were welcoming, it became a popular destination, and many flew their own airplanes into Apple Valley.

Roy had stopped flying and sold his airplane before I began making flights to the inn. He and Dale moved their museum to nearby Victorville, and eventually to Branson. You might remember watching Roy Rogers, that reel western movie hero in his sequined shirt, in the saddle atop Trigger, as he rode off slowly into the sunset.

Happy Trails…

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 16, 2020 Fake News

The Liberty Gazette

June 16, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A friend tagged us in a Facebook post, asking, “What could have caused this? Didn't think the comments were too funny with the seriousness of this landing.” Linked to the post was a video of a wild ride that began with a steep angle of descent to landing, forcing the nose wheel of a 747 to slam down first, causing the airliner to bounce dramatically down the runway, dipping wings to scrape the ground at high speed, until the aircraft was back under control and stopped.

The video was one she saw on Twitter, posted by someone in Germany. The translation was, “After the LOCKDOWN I wait a little bit until the pilots are back in practice.”

The first clue that this person tweeting doesn’t know beans about aviation is that he called it “practice.” But the video itself caught many off-guard.

Mike: Microsoft Flight Simulator has an animation program, and this video was produced on that, or something similar. Sometimes, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will use such a program to take the data from the black boxes (flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder) to reproduce a mishap so they can visualize an accident sequence. In this way, major or contributing factors are identified, and the aviation world learns how to prevent similar situations by incorporating this knowledge into pilot training. This is one reason airline travel is statistically the safest mode of transportation.

This video, however, appeared to have been produced by a hobbyist. One of the big clues in the video is when you see the two left engines, which hang down from the wing, disappear into the runway and then come out undamaged.

The 747 has four main gear trucks. Each truck has four tires. Add the two tires on the nose gear, and you have an 18-wheeler. The landing weight of the airplane is somewhere in the range of 200 tons, all of which is put squarely on the four main trucks. There is no way those two small nose tires could take the impact at that amount of energy without being crushed, let alone cause a bounce.

Linda: I got wind shear once coming in to Front Range, Colorado. The wind changed directions about 10 feet above the runway, just past the threshold. I didn’t plant a nose wheel on the landing, but the sudden removal of lift dropped us pretty hard. Fortunately, there was no damage. But wind shear can ruin your day. So can poor decisions. Fortunately, no one was harmed during the making of that video, but an unstabilized approach, as portrayed by the simulation, could be disastrous.

Even with the long periods of inactivity, pilot training has continued. No airline pilot will set foot onto a flight deck and no U.S. airline would assign a pilot unless they were clearly ready to fly, meeting all the regulatory requirements for currency and competency.

This video is making its rounds, so don’t be fooled by fake news.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 9, 2020 The Ultimate in Social Distancing

The Liberty Gazette

June 9, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Everybody’s talking about the SpaceX launch. After scrubbing the Demo-2 launch May 27, success came three days later. As we say, when there’s a problem, it’s better to be on the ground, wishing you were up there, than being in the air wishing you were on the ground.

But May 30 was the date when Falcon 9 sent Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS). This test flight with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley put the United States back in the business of human spaceflight. It was the final major test for SpaceX’s system to be certified by NASA to send humans up there again.

Mike: I had the honor of the NASA astronauts attending my International Procedures course. They periodically took it to keep current for flying within the earth’s atmosphere for travels to Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan to ride aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS.

SpaceX builds the rockets and NASA builds the astronauts. Their commercial crew program is expected to turn America’s future toward the moon, Mars, and beyond. Whoever said the sky’s the limit obviously wasn’t an astronaut.

It took about 19 hours to blast to their destination 262 miles up. How long Bob and Doug will be at the ISS is undetermined, but anywhere from 30-90 days, maybe longer. They have work to do, joining the ISS Expedition 63, maintaining the station and carrying out scientific experiments and tests.

Whenever they’re finished and it’s time to come home, they’ll depart in their spacecraft, jettison the trunk, conduct the de-orbit burn, which only lasts about 12 minutes, and will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

At 18,000 feet altitude, two drogue parachutes will deploy, and then at 6,500 feet the four main parachutes will deploy. They’ll splash down just off Florida’s Atlantic Coast at a velocity of 25 feet per second, and then be scooped up by SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery vessel.

All of this, from launch to splashdown, happens autonomously. Bob and Doug even got a good seven hours of sleep on the way up.

Linda: SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, was so emotional that he could barely talk with reporters after the launch. He’s spent many long years building a great team and great products, working toward this day. Engineers of all ages, from all walks of life, jumped and cheered as they watched their personal contributions roar into space. These were the kids who chose STEM courses and studied, who stayed off the streets because the rewards are greater than thug life. Not all of them came from privileged homes, but all of them had dignity, made goals, and worked hard.

On May 30, in the midst of chaos, violence, virus, and fear, a tweet by a kid named Andy Milonakis went far and wide, with four million ‘Likes’ and a million retweets: “Congratulations to the Astronauts that left Earth today. Good choice.”

One thing’s for sure, space travel offers the ultimate in social distancing.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 2, 2020 The Sky Isn't Falling Anymore

The Liberty Gazette

June 2, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The airline industry needs to get back to business, and we’re seeing the beginning of that, flying the airplanes they had parked as people are increasingly free to travel. Getting fleets back in the air will take time, with limited routes. Before this crisis, U.S. air carriers served around 600 destinations across the country. But some routes may not return, so corporate aviation, charter operations, and personal flying are filling in the gap.

Last week, I got a call to fly for one of my clients, a company in Cincinnati. First, I had to get there. Here’s my experience from my first post-Covid19 airline trip.

Options were not yet great, but I managed to get flights with only one stop. I checked for travel restrictions at the stopovers on each leg.

There were not many cars in extended stay parking at George Bush Intercontinental. But a couple weeks ago, there were none. I was the only passenger in the van to the terminal. The ticketing and check-in area were almost vacant. In the security line, I had to wait—for one person ahead of me. There was no separate TSA Pre-check line, but I was told that if I had “TSA Pre ✔” on my boarding pass, I could have gone through faster. My Global Entry card with TSA precheck didn’t count. I went with the flow.

Going with the flow also means wearing a face mask. The value of the mask is to keep the person wearing it from dispersing their microscopic fluids, not to keep them from breathing in bad stuff. But many travelers were not wearing a mask. Some had gloves and no mask, and some were so swaddled that I wondered how long it took to unwrap so the TSA agent could verify them against their photo ID.

Folks tried to space apart, sprawling across three waiting lounges. But attempts at social distancing can only go so far. The crews asked for distancing in the jetway and on the plane. Few people listened. They still jammed right up to the person in front of them, same as before the pandemic. With planes nearly full, keeping an open space between passengers isn’t possible anymore. Clear plastic partitions between the seats would compromise safety in an evacuation.

At the end of the flights, crews asked everyone to remain seated until the row in front of them was vacated, but some felt that didn’t apply to them.

On the upside, there aren’t many delays. The flight from Houston to Dallas scheduled for an hour and twenty-one minutes took an hour. But then we waited to cross a runway to the gate as ten airliners in a row took to the sky. Hundreds of airliners are still parked, but they are trickling into the air as demand increases.

These oddities may be with us for a while, but as the world begins to move and herd immunity takes over, life will eventually return to a more normal normal.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 26, 2020 Skunk Works

The Liberty Gazette

May 26, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: On December 20, 1989, the 25th anniversary of the SR-71 “Blackbird” was celebrated in style. This legendary aircraft impressed crowds with low passes at Beale Air Force Base, just north of Sacramento, then headed south for three low passes over the Skunk Works—official nickname for Lockheed’s Advanced Development Programs.

Soon after the celebration, politics forced the Blackbird to retire from military service. In its time, the SR-71 thumbed its nose at every adversary; no enemy could touch its speed and altitude capabilities.

The ingenuity to conceive of something so amazing was inspired by one man, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the rough-and-tumble leader of the Skunk Works. His team of select and sundry aerospace professionals worked under tight security, often stricter than when building the atomic bomb. Even under that pressure, Lockheed cranked out airplanes like the P-38, the F-104, the U-2 and the venerable SR-71, and they completed those projects under deadline and under budget. The U-2 went from concept to flying prototype in less than 90 days. The stubborn and thrifty Kelly Johnson was proud to give back to the government unspent funds and show them what could be done when not impeded by government bureaucracy.

Building the Blackbird, they threw out the airplane design rule book and started from scratch, creating technology and production processes never before imagined. The plane was developed for the CIA in 1958 as the A-12, designed using slide-rules before calculators existed. It went from drawing board to first flight in four years. The team felt the earth shake as they watched the prototype thunder into the skies above Area 51.

On March 6, 1990, the Blackbird made a final sprint across the U.S. at an average speed of 2,120 mph. Traveling at 3.3 times the speed of sound—faster than a bullet leaving a rifle barrel—it laid a continuous sonic boom from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. flying 2,404 miles in 67 minutes. The boom was heard across the country. And the record still stands.

My logbook entry for December 20, 1989 records my personal brush with history. I had departed from Inyokern Airport in the desert north of Edwards Air Force Base, headed back to Ontario for another load of Christmas cargo. As I lumbered along in a bumblebee-like Twin Otter in the cool wintry morning air, I chatted with the Edwards Approach controller while transitioning their Military Operations Area. He asked, “Hey, do you want to watch an SR-71 take off?”

Who wouldn’t? “Yes!”

He had me loiter over Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. I watched as a U-2 spy plane went first, and then the Blackbird. It accelerated down the 10,000’ runway rocketing westward, afterburners spewing white-blue-diamond shock waves. It reached 400 knots shortly after the wheels left the ground, then rapidly disappeared.

“Did you see it?” asked the controller.

“Wow! Awesome!”

“Did you notice the two hundred thousand people at the end of the runway?”

“Uh, no…with eyes on that black beauty, who would?”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com