March 1, 2022 What It Was

The Liberty Gazette

March 1, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: We write about different aspects of aviation and how they relate to and benefit every person, be ye earthbound or be ye airborne. Sometimes we want to step back and cogitate on the wonder and romance that attracted us to flying in the first place. What it was that drew us here. It’s good for all of us to reflect on the past and ponder why it is we love what we do, or to go back to some of those dreams we had that might have yet to be realized and set a new goal for them.

We have recounted our first flights, our first solos, and the significance of looking over at the other seat, the one that usually had our instructor in it, and realizing that we were doing this thing, this activity, living this adventure under our own power. At that milestone, there is still a lot of learning ahead, but student pilots find that the huge accomplishment soaks into the soul, and something about life changes with a brand-new perspective that, “I can do that!” 

The student then goes on to learn to navigate over long distances where, like hiking in the wilderness, the scenery constantly changes. My initial cross-country training was from El Monte Airport to Palm Springs and back. Going out eastbound was easy because all one has to do is point the airplane at a wide gap between a couple of mountains. The return trip was a bit more complex. The area around El Monte is often choked with haze and smog, requiring more flight planning and precise navigation when there are fewer visual cues to render assistance.

One of my most memorable trips was a long solo flight from Southern California to Oregon, then Idaho and back home. I rented a Cessna 172 for five days and logged 25 hours. During that excursion, I broke through my first 100 hours of total flight time. On the leg from McMinnville, Oregon to Boise, Idaho, I flew through the marvelous Columbia River Gorge east of Portland. Despite the 3,000-foot overcast, the visibility underneath was good. It was kind of like flying through a tunnel. Gray clouds enveloped dark rock outcroppings where white frothing waterfalls sprouted. Wind surfers’ white trails streaked the river below as they zigzagged from bank to bank. Poking along my journey, I bisected the Cascade Mountain range. Beyond it, sunshine above and circle farms below dominated the view. As flyers, these are the kinds of experiences we hope for. They are not just the stuff of great memories, but enhance the imagination, enrich storytelling, and encourage us to seek more of these adventures. 

Linda: Flying feeds our wanderlust while challenging our minds, exercising a perfect mix of the ethereal and intellect. Three dimensional views are among the rewards for mastering control of a vehicle on all three axes at once. Achievement proven with every take-off followed by every landing, with all the good stuff in between. It’s why aviators say, “I’m livin’ the dream!”

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 22, 2022 Mine Craft

The Liberty Gazette

February 22, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The weather-beaten and twisted tail of the old air force plane stands out of the water-rutted hillside. Its mangled and broken wings are mashed into the ground next to it. There are no engines to be found. It rests in a lonely rock-strewn canyon south of Las Vegas, Nevada. So, what’s the story?

“It was a movie prop,” says Kevin Smith of Henderson, Nevada. “Kevin Costner blew it up in a scene for the movie, ‘3,000 miles from Graceland.’” 

The producer of the movie gave the plane to Tony Whirly, owner of the Techatticup mine near Nelson, Nevada, after they finished filming the scene there. Tony stuck a pole in the hillside, slid the fuselage down on it, laid out the wings, and voila, another piece of intrigue was added to the history of Eldorado Canyon. 

Tony used to run canoe trips from the base of Boulder (Hoover) Dam down the Colorado River to Nelson’s Landing. The landing is at the end of long, curving Eldorado Canyon. He always wanted to buy a place in Nelson. After a flashflood careened down the canyon and wiped out a lot of properties, one elderly woman decided she’d had enough of remote living and offered hers for sale. She turned down Tony’s offer to buy one acre because she had 46 acres to sell but sweetened the deal when she told him there was a gold mine on the property. He just had to find the entrance which was covered in mud. 

Tony found the entrance just three days short of escrow closing. It took a while to muck it out, but finally he and his family gained access to miles of mining tunnels. They have partially restored parts of the mine and offer adventure tours. The have built buildings reflecting the old mine spirit, have a zipline, old cars, ore carts, and more. It’s one of the more popular stops with tour companies in Las Vegas. 

The area is ripe with history. Indians approached prospectors in the mid-1800s with a soft, grayish metal saying, “techatticup.” The old sourdoughs asked where they found it. “Techatticup” means “give me food,” but the miners didn’t understand. When the Indians showed them where it was, they named their claim “Techatticup.”

The mine operated on and off from 1861 to 1942. It closed during WWI, and the water tables rose, so it became difficult to drain it and make it a profitable endeavor after that. Claim-jumping, murder, and robberies all add to the flavor of the area. The gold ingots were shipped down river on steamboats but often were robbed. Thieves would escape across the desert with saddlebags full of ingots. One mine owner, tired of the thefts, cast a large gold ball weighing 200 pounds, too big to be stolen, and rolled it aboard the boat. 

Filmmakers have made movies and music videos at Techatticup mine where snakes, scorpions, and coyote roam, and myths and old stories of gold miners, thieves, and a plane crash are told. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 15, 2022 Freeze Frame

The Liberty Gazette

February 15, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: A co-worker and I were in Pontiac, Michigan, just north of Detroit, to take photographs of a new airplane. Lucky for us, that plane was in a heated hangar. The cargo version of Aerospatiale ATR-72-600 had recently arrived from the factory in Toulouse, France with only 28 hours total time. We’ve already been teaching pilots to fly this airplane, but the company wanted to update our courseware. So, when a customer offered a new airplane for a photo shoot unfettered by maintenance personnel and not out flying, the company dispatched us to the great white north to do the job. 

The cargo-only version of this airplane is new, and FedEx is replacing its older aircraft with them for smaller capacity and feeder routes. On the airport ramp outside, amidst a bleak white-grey scene, airplanes covered in varying amounts of snow were scattered and tucked into out-of-the-way corners. Whatever the depth of the snow on them was a result of the direction they were pointed and the lake effect from Lakes Michigan, Huron, and St. Clair. A cold front blew through here only a couple of days ago. Plowed ice mounds were piled between rows of operational airplanes and carcasses permanently parked, corroded from exposure to weather and the salt they used to clear the ramp. We were happy to be inside the hangar because it was eighteen degrees outside with a stiff wind, making the wind chill factor was about six degrees. Fifty degrees in the hangar felt balmy.

The photo shoot was needed to create a virtual walk-around inspection of the aircraft. This inspection is what pilots perform each time before the aircraft is flown, looking in wheel wells, opening inspection covers on the wings, tail, and fuselage, checking for anything out of place or irregularities. 

We wanted consistent lighting for the shoot. Natural light is anything but consistent due to moving clouds and changing angle of the sun, shrouded by the gray overcast. Besides that, we had to get into those recessed areas of the aircraft and scoot under the plane, which would not be fun on a sheet of ice. Capturing images outside carried risks of slipping, dropping and breaking expensive equipment, and snow and ice fogging and contaminating the lenses. 

My co-worker was using a special 360-degree camera that, once set up, took 75 photos in eight minutes automatically. She’d stitch them together later with a computer program. I was there as a subject matter expert on the airplane to provide focus areas for her to shoot. We walked away to avoid being caught in the photos. I used some of those eight-minute sessions to wander out in the cold among the old airplanes stripped of their engines. If they could talk, what kind of story would they tell? I wonder what they would say to the new plane on the block. 

It took two full days to complete the job, covering the aircraft from nose to tail, inside and out. This is the thoroughness needed when teaching pilots about an airplane.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 8, 2022 A Different Kind of Air Bee & Bee

The Liberty Gazette

February 8, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

One of the unanticipated results of reduced commercial air travel is that with less activity from the man-made world, insects are finding an environment more to their liking. A consequence of less noise, less pollution, and less movement is more bees and wasps making nests in aircraft pitot (pronounced pee-toe) tubes. Last summer’s reports were buzzing particularly at London’s Heathrow Airport and Australia’s Brisbane Airport, where the invasions caused dozens of flights to return to the airport or abort takeoffs entirely. 

Pitot tubes are attractive to bees and especially to wasps because the tube offers a nice dark place to build a nest. All aircraft have pitot tubes, some have more than others, and it’s good practice to put the cover on any time an aircraft is not flying. 

Pitot tube with cover

These tubes are critical to flight because they take in air and measure the pressure, providing a read-out
inside the airplane for the airspeed indicator. Precise airspeed is necessary especially when taking off and landing. In those phases of flight, the pilot needs to know exactly when to “rotate” (pull the yoke back to lift off the ground) and how much power to pull back to ease the plane onto the runway. There’s a minimum airspeed needed to create lift, which keeps an aircraft flying, so as you can see, the ability to read the measurements derived from the pitot tube makes that device one of the star players of your vacation. 

Among the insects found to be totally tubular at Heathrow were the Wall Mason wasp, which seemed to favor British Airways’ Airbus A319, and the leafcutter bee, which showed far better taste in taking a liking to Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A330. 

On the pre-prison island of Australia, consulting firm Eco Logical Australia was hired to run a three-year experiment with the goal of figuring out which airplanes the pests liked best. They created 3D-printed mock pitot tubes of various sizes and opened the wasp B-and-Bs for business. The keyhole wasp, of the species Pachodynerus nasidens, gave the Boeing 737’s large-diameter pitot tube five stars for luxury accommodations, and gave researchers greater insight into their behavior. 

Since an unblocked pitot tube is so important to the safety of flight, learning these insects’ behaviors and preferences helps pilots be more vigilant when doing pre-flight inspections. Experts say it takes the keyhole wasp less than 20 minutes to set up house in an uncovered pitot tube. This species wasn’t discovered in Brisbane until 2010. They came to the Outback from the Caribbean and Central and South America.

But just as vital as it is to cover the pitot tubes after shutting down the engines, you can bet your bottom dollar that remembering to remove those covers before the next flight is of equal importance. It turns out that, along with the increased reports of bee and wasp nests stopping up the airflow, forgetting to remove the covers has also resulted in a few rejected take-offs, although fewer than those caused by squatter insects thinking it's their new "Air Bee and Bee."

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 1, 2022 Printed Planely

The Liberty Gazette

February 1, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: When you go to a Maker Faire, you’ll find fascinating things to help you get in touch with your inner builder. It’s like a virtual time machine with vendors that take you back a couple of generations and others that hurl you into next year. 

Our friend Lance Borden (www.xtalman.com) has cornered the global market for radio kits right from his living room in Houston. Lance sells kits for kids (or adults) to make crystal radios, one-tube radios, World War II foxhole radios, and more. He’s also an expert in antique radio restoration. You can usually find him at Maker Faires and radio enthusiast gatherings. He’s a ham radio operator, a pilot, and a former NASA space engineer.

On the other end of the spectrum are 3D printers. They’ve become quite sophisticated, and there’s not much that can’t be made with them. Like food, clothing, and shelter. Austin, Texas-based ICON builds 3D printed houses. In fact, they’ve teamed up with Lennar home builders to create a new community of 3D printed homes. Savings on material, labor, and time are significant over traditional building.

I bet you’re wondering, “What about airplanes? Can we 3D print airplanes?” Great question. However, once we get into industrial usage, it’s called additive manufacturing. 

Engineers recently flight-tested a Chinook equipped with an additive manufactured transmission housing. The possibilities are endless. Parts can be manufactured more accurately and with fewer people involved. The main materials used are plastic and metal because they can be heated and melted, which is how 3D printing works. 

Nowadays, however, material can be reinforced with glass or carbon fibers. For things that fly, the total weight reduction realized with lighter parts means savings on fuel and other operational costs. That, in turn, cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions. 3D printed parts tend to be more durable, too. 

Airbus and Boeing are a couple of major aviation manufacturers that have been developing additive manufacturing. Airbus started testing with titanium components back in 2014. If you’ve flown on a Finnair A320, you’ve probably touched some 3D printed parts when you stowed baggage in the overhead compartments. The part that fills in the space between compartments is 3D printed. 

You can expect to see significant growth in the use of 3D printing in the aviation and aerospace industries, so if you’re an investor, look for companies like ULTEM, which makes a resin that is one of the only 3D printing plastics authorized for use on certified aircraft components. ULTEM resin passes important tests of flammability, smoke, and toxicity with excellent ratings, and has high mechanical and thermal resistance. So as a substance for creating aircraft components, it’s a great candidate for replacement parts in electrical and lighting systems. That means headlamps, ignition and engine elements, electric switches, frames, and bulb sockets can be replaced through additive manufacturing when the old parts wear out. 

How ironic and timeless would it be if Lance created parts for his historic radio kits through 3D printing? 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 25, 2022 Some Explanations

The Liberty Gazette

January 25, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: Many thanks to our two guest columnists who reincarnated long enough to cover for us here while our airplane was in the shop for its annual inspection. After sharing around 750 different stories over the years, we decided to get a little creative, take you back to high school English class, but with a modern twist. Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott certainly went above and beyond modifying their classic novels in flash fiction form. 

We’re happy to report that the inspection went well, and there were no major repairs needed for the Elyminator. The only unfortunate thing was that the first weekend we had the plane back, the weather threw a temper tantrum. While weather can have more significant effects on small aircraft, you bet your bootie that 5G has the aviation world up in arms. 

Mike: 5G affects aircraft radar altimeters and ultimately passengers. Let’s clarify things first. An altimeter is standard equipment in an aircraft. The altimeter installed in our airplane, like most, is a barometric altimeter. It measures atmospheric pressure and is set so that we can tell how high we are above sea level. Most instrument approaches are designed for this type of altimeter. 

Some special instrument approaches also require the use of a radio (a/k/a radar) altimeter. This equipment provides real-time measurement of an aircraft’s clearance over terrain and obstacles. This is important when landing in inclement weather. Since it also integrates with other systems, such as pressurization, anti-skid braking, and auto-land to name a few, it's a critical little piece of equipment. The 5G network only interferes with aircraft radar altimeters.

In the FAA–FCC wars, Verizon and AT&T (follow the money) have given in a little, but not for long. There are 88 airports in the U.S. with special low-visibility approaches that require radar altimeters. Verizon and AT&T are reducing power to 1585 watts for towers that are close to 50 of these airports, only for six months, allegedly to give the aviation industry more time to figure out how to avoid cancelations and delays. The FAA should have received some of the incumbent user funding to study how to prepare aircraft.

Sprint and the European 5G systems are different, operating on frequency bands that are not close to the C-bands used by aircraft radio altimeters here. The European system also uses a much less powerful transmitter. The 5G towers in France, for example, are limited to 641 watts. 

Even newer aircraft are affected, as avionics are so integrated with airplanes systems throughout, that replacement of components isn’t an easy fix. New components may not be compatible with the rest of the systems. The cost of upgrading aircraft with shielding is high, time-consuming, and requires FAA inspection and certification. Scheduling of a fleet becomes a nightmare too, because if an airplane breaks down, it can’t just be replaced by another aircraft if the destination weather requires an aircraft capable of landing without 5G interference.

Which do we want? Increased bandwidth or safe flights? Pick one. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 18, 2022 Little Women, Fighter Pilots

The Liberty Gazette

January 18, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By guest columnist L.M. Alcott 

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without a midnight flight to see everyone’s lights from above,” grumbled Jo.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to live where the weather isn’t foggy, and other girls are stuck on the ground,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff. “No matter. We haven’t enough money for avgas anyway.”

If those lines sound vaguely familiar, you might recognize them as a slight deviation from the opening lines in my classic novel, “Little Women.” I’ve been watching the world from “the other side,” and have been eager for my famous girls to keep up with the times. Allow me, therefore, to introduce you to “Little Women, Fighter Pilots,” my updated version. 

“Mother thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when so many people are losing their jobs. I’m afraid I don’t care much for sacrifices.” Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty airplanes she wanted.

“We’ve each got a dollar, and the unemployed wouldn’t be much helped by our giving that. I want to buy Meteorology for Naval Aviators for myself. I’ve wanted it so long, and I work hard for my money,” said Jo, who was a bookworm. 

Meg protested. “I work hard for my money, too. I want Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. I want to be an airline pilot!”

“You should study and enlist,” said Jo. “If you go to the airlines, you’ll just be shut up for hours with nervous, fussy passengers, who are never satisfied. Fly for the military if you want a real life!”

The girls woke up Christmas morning to find aviation books, both novels and flight training manuals, under their pillows. Each girl read and studied voraciously on the required topics such as aerodynamics, regulations, and weight and balance computations. They supplemented their reading with Flying Magazine and various pilot memoirs. 

As the years went by, each girl entered the military and learned to fly. Beth also became an airplane mechanic, and when she retired, she opened a shop. Business was great, as pilots trusted her and knew her to have a superior work ethic. Meg married Mr. Brooke, and after leaving the Air Force, she opened a charter business, selling shares for on-demand flights on luxury aircraft. Amy flew for the Navy for eight years then used her artistic talent to run a specialized aircraft paint shop. She won prestigious contracts with companies such as Alaska Airlines and others that love wild paint schemes. And that leaves Jo. Having accumulated five kills flying her F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, she retired and inherited her aunt’s Plumfield Airport, where she set up a flight school and penned the best-selling novel, “Flight of the Marches.”

But some things never change. My novel still ends the same because truth doesn’t change. The sisters are grateful for their blessings and affirm that we shouldn’t work for materialism but as part of life’s journey and a way to express our inner goodness. Contact me to pre-order.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 11, 2022 Great Expectations - A Slight Adaptation

The Liberty Gazette

January 11, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By guest columnist and novelist, Charlie J. Dickens

My father’s family name being Piperiouscubaneck, and he having designed the Piper Cub, when I learned to talk, I thought my name was Piper. So, I came to be called Piper. 

Ours was the marsh country, down by the George Ruby bend of the Trinity River, within, not as the river wound, but by air, twenty miles of Trinity Bay, which receives waves that sneak past the Bolivar Peninsula to swap drops with the Gulf of Mexico.

I was given the opportunity to take an apprenticeship with Archibald, an airplane mechanic at the Liberty Municipal Airport. As I grew, I came to love the airplanes that landed and took off from that little airstrip every day. 

But life wasn’t all tailwinds and blue skies. My parents had died when, one foggy day at the edge of the bay, I could faintly make out the only thing that seemed to be standing upright; the beacon by which the pilots navigated to the runway. I knew I needed to find my way, too.

So, I learned to fly and often took my girlfriend, Astralla up for flights around the area. We would land at all the farmers’ grass strips and visit with the residents, farmhands, and dogs. The dogs were always my favorite, and so it should be no surprise that when the big city lawyer came bumbling boisterously down from Dallas to reveal to me a great expectation from a mysterious benefactor, I had no need to think twice that when I pass, I should leave it all to my favorite dogs. 

Astralla was a cute girl I had known since childhood. When I came over to play, I would help her guardian, Miss Havashot. Poor Miss Havashot. She had more of a problem with the juice of potatoes, corn, and barley than she actually had with men. Alas, men were here for her to blame, and she projected her sad life of mistrust onto sweet Astralla with such fortitude that I would never be able to call her my wife.

The expectation I was to receive sent me on a life journey of more twists and turns than the Trinity River, highlighted in a most sad way by my own snobbery, I admit.

Having moved to Dallas, I hung out with useless rich guys and pretended with them and other highbrows. I bought shiny new jets and whisked my new false friends around the country to ski resorts and other parties. That life, however, was nothing but a vapor trail which I obliterated like a 5G cell signal breaking a critical instrument approach when I learnt that my fortune had come not from a grateful Miss Havashot, but from an FAA inspector whom I had once helped as a boy. I wanted nothing from that scoundrel, so I quit my circumstances and returned to Liberty County to live the rest of my time an honest pilot, flying life-saving blood and organ donations to the sick and injured, now understanding that fortune does not equal happiness.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

January 4, 2022 A Christmas Rescue

The Liberty Gazette

January 4, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Long time air racing friends, twin brothers Mike and Mark Patey, have served their local community for years by working with their county sheriff when search and rescue is needed by air. Over Christmas, they flew a rescue of a different kind. 

When airlines cancelled many Christmas flights, Mike Patey posted this message on Facebook: “Over 2,000 flights cancelled today. Mark and I would love to help. If you know someone stuck at an airport and not able to get home for Christmas, maybe we can help. No charge. We can bring a family together for this special holiday.” 

The brothers live in Utah. They’d fly Mike’s Pilatus, an airplane with ten seats and a range that would allow them to fully cover seven states, from Wyoming to Southern California, and another three partially, like southeast Oregon and northwest New Mexico. That included major cities such as Denver and Los Angeles. 

“Christmas is for family,” said Mike, “born into or ‘chosen’ family, is all the same.”

Both men are high energy and neither needs to sleep much. In fact, they are known for their full-throttle lives. By 10:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, they were heading to Los Angeles to pick up a family who had thought they would be sleeping in the airport when, after several delays, their flight was finally cancelled. They had hoped to find a flight the next day. But Providence shone upon them, and they were whisked away in “Santa Patey’s flying sleigh” and brought home in just two hours. 

Many people follow the Pateys on social media, and word got out fast what they were doing. The FBO in Provo, Utah was so moved by their actions that they would not let them pay for fuel. The night continued like that for Mike and Mark, as they blasted through the starry sky uniting loved ones and making new friends in the process, like Brecca and Sergio Ponce. The young couple was celebrating their anniversary, excited to come home for Christmas for the first time in three years when their flight was canceled. They had given up on making it home when a friend shared the Pateys’ social media post. 

Brecca called it a “Christmas miracle,” but Mike Patey sees it differently. “If you’ve been blessed with a talent, or a gift, or resources, you better give it back, or you don’t you don’t deserve to have it anymore,” he said. It’s just the way they were raised.

After spending the night delivering happiness, the brothers tucked the airplane back in the hangar and went home to their wives and children to celebrate Christmas.

The Patey brothers are highly successful businessmen, serial entrepreneurs. But we all have been given gifts, and those gifts weren’t meant to be hoarded or kept secret. The One who gave us our gifts is best honored when we give them away. Maybe there’s a New Year’s resolution in that. Here’s to your 2022. May it be your best year yet for giving and receiving.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 28, 2021 The Giving Season, Part IV - MAF

The Liberty Gazette

December 28, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

We hope you enjoyed a blessed Christmas and are looking forward to 2022. We round out our series for the Giving Season, aiming to create awareness and present opportunities for all of us to help change lives. We’ll finish the series with the Christian mission organization, Mission Aviation Fellowship, MAF.

Based in Nampa, Idaho, MAF was founded in 1945 by WWII pilots who had a vision for using aviation to spread the gospel. Since that time, MAF has grown to a global family of organizations serving countries in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Indonesia, and Latin America, supporting the work of missionaries, Bible translators, and relief and humanitarian agencies. 

They fly to more destinations than the six largest airlines in the world combined. And they land on dirt and grass airstrips in jungles and on mountains. Often, the only safe way for missionaries to travel is by MAF airplane. They can reduce an all-day walk to a 12-minute flight.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had been born in another country? An underdeveloped country? In poverty? In times of war? Life in those circumstances is far different from our experience here. For many people living in these remote areas, it is because of MAF airplanes that they hear about the love of Christ. Through swift air travel, missionaries bring help, hope, and healing to isolated people.

MAF serves people in 13 countries, using aviation to overcome geographic, political and religious barriers. They bring medical care, educational opportunities, technology for clean water, community development, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. MAF also serves in six restricted access nations which they cannot name. They collaborate with their Latin American affiliates to boost the total to 34 countries.

Here are some interesting statistics: Every 19 minutes, an MAF aircraft is taking off or landing. Every flight hour saves five days of travel by foot or other ground travel. MAF’s fleet flies over one million miles each year.

You may recall the movie or book, “End of the Spear,” about Nate Saint, the MAF pilot who was martyred by Waorani Indians in Ecuador in 1956, alongside missionaries Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully. Much of the tribe later came to Christ. But you might not have known that it was Betty Greene, a WASP (Woman Air Force Service Pilot), who flew MAF’s inaugural flight in 1946, taking two Wycliffe Bible translators into a jungle in Mexico.

A new inspirational documentary, “Ends of the Earth,” was released in 700 theaters nationwide in October. The film shares true stories about the commitment of MAF pilots and others who serve around the world. The documentary explores faith, the passion to help others, and how hope emerges from tragedy. It was created to inspire viewers to consider serving others, whether we do it on the other side of the globe or right next door.

Here’s to a better “us” – all of us – in 2022.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com