July 26, 2011 Final Space Shuttle Mission

The Liberty Gazette

July 26, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Linda: Seagulls and pelicans crisscross and dive for fish in the Intercoastal Waterway until, suddenly, tranquility is ripped apart as a flash of light, eardrum-shattering blast, and earth shaking vibrations reverberate from 8.8 million pounds of thrust rocketing the Space Shuttle Atlantis into orbit at 17,500 mph. The thunder continues until the shuttle disappears from sight and all that is left is the dissipating plume of smoke, and wonderment and tears in the eyes that witnessed this final ascent.

Mike: Thursday, July 21, 2011 was an historical day. Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida ending a 13 day resupply mission to the International Space Station. Sadly this ended more than an era. There will be no more space flights for the orbiter. Once all the dangerous fluids are removed and it is somewhat cleaned up, Atlantis will remain at Kennedy on public display.

Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on display in the California Science Center in Los Angeles, not far from where she was created. The Space Shuttles were built by Rockwell International in Downey, California with final assembly in Palmdale, near Edwards Air Force Base.

Space Shuttle Discovery, the only surviving original shuttle to go into space will replace the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the orbiter prototype which never actually went into space, at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Space Shuttle Enterprise will be moved from Washington D.C. to New York City’s floating aircraft carrier museum, the USS Intrepid, the recovery ship for Aurora-7 and Gemini-3 space flight missions back in 1963 and 1965 respectively. New York claims the Enterprise once flew over the city in 1983 while conducting upper atmospheric tests.

At Johnson Space Center in Houston, no Orbiters will be placed on display and the shuttle simulators and associated equipment are to be divvied out to other museums across the country. In what seems a direct slap, two seats from one of the earlier Space Shuttle missions are the only items to remain for display in Houston – Space City.

Linda: This makes 135 Space Shuttle missions over the past 30 years, Atlantis having flown 32 of them. While the 12 year project to assemble the components of the International Space Station is currently the most visible achievement of the shuttle program, there have been a multitude of others, less visible. We’ve benefitted from the technology developed out of the program with over 100 different technical advances. From the development of light weight fuel pumps came a light weight (less than 4 ounces) heart pump in use today. From the leak detection system developed for the shuttle, a commercially viable vehicle was developed with natural gas as its fuel. Fly-By-Wire and Drive-By-Wire technology used in today’s vehicles decreasing weight and increasing fuel efficiency came directly from the shuttle program. And don’t forget the Hubble Telescope and the 180 other satellites launched into orbit from the shuttles.

Mike: Only 37 of the 135 missions were dedicated to the International Space Station’s construction; but it would never have been built without it. Commercial space travel is being encouraged and resupply missions are being taken over by the Russians. Until the U.S. becomes a leader again the future of space travel will remain in question, but shuttle Commander Christopher Ferguson offered these uplifting words: “America’s not going to stop exploring.”
www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 19, 2011 Mel Hemann, Flying Priest

The Liberty Gazette 

July 19, 2011 

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: There’s so much going on in the aviation industry that sometimes choosing a topic to share here can be difficult, but I read a story recently about a priest who has earned a big award.

Mel Hemann and two of his three brothers are priests. All four of the Hemann men are pilots: Mel, John, Everett, and Matt. Last week Melvin received the prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot award for over 50 years of safe piloting. Mel is 82 and from a little Iowa town called Stacyville, where he and his brothers grew up on a farm – with a landing strip. Flying is second to his faith, but it’s a passionate second. This award also earns him recognition in the FAA’s Roll of Honor in Washington, D.C.

The story that appeared in Iowa’s Globe Gazette stated Melvin has logged nearly 17,000 hours of flight time, and an astounding 11,000 hours of flight instruction given. His family, friends, former students, and even the FAA pulled off quite a surprise to honor him for his 50-plus years of “professionalism, skill and aviation expertise.”

And here’s something I learned: there is an association just for flying priests! The association of flying farmers we wrote about a few weeks ago is no surprise, after all, crop dusters have been around since the early days of flight. One of the Hemann brothers, Matt, is a flying farmer. And there are associations of flying physicians and flying musicians. But flying priests? Yep, sure enough, it’s called the National Association of Priest Pilots (NAPP), and their 48th annual meeting was held last week in Mason City, Iowa. And that’s how and where they surprised Melvin with the award.

Mike: So for 48 years priest-pilots have been gathering to share their common loves of priesthood and flying. That means their organization began even before The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field. Of course, I had to check the Internet to see if there was a Flying Nun association, but nope, none. But I did find this quote from the Vatican, dated September 29, 1964: “It is with paternal satisfaction that the Holy Father views the efforts of the members of the National Association of Priest Pilots to encourage the use of air transportation to obtain ever more abundant spiritual fruits from their sacerdotal ministry and missionary apostolate.”

Their mission: “To promote the use of private aircraft as a practical, safe, and efficient tool of the apostolic work of a priest; To cooperate with other aviation and ecclesiastical groups wherever possible in order to promote aviation in the cause of the Church; To insist on the safe and proficient use of the airplane by its members; To encourage the use of private aircraft as worthy of the talents and dignity of priests; To further the use of aircraft in the missions.”

It totally makes sense. They’re mission pilots, they’re businessmen using business aircraft – for the business of Church.

Mel Hemann told the reporter from KIMT television in Mason City, Iowa that, "if Jesus was living today he'd use TV, he'd use radio, and the internet, and if he wanted to go somewhere he'd use a car or a plane, so it's trying to incorporate a thing that's not only a hobby but also it's something that can be very practical in doing what we're called to do."

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 12, 2011 ATC's 75th Anniversary

The Liberty Gazette

July 12, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Linda: The press release from Washington hit my inbox a few days ago heralding the 75th anniversary of federal air traffic control. Our nation's Air Traffic Control system has grown from just three air traffic control centers, housing a total of 15 workers in 1936 to 313 federally operated air traffic control facilities housing more than 15,000 workers. There are also control towers staffed by contract employees. Conroe is one example.

Those 15 original employees worked in Newark, Chicago, and Cleveland. Looking back at how air traffic control first operated underscores the tremendous advancements made in safety, speed, and economy. Controllers back then took radio position reports from pilots to plot the progress of each flight. They were not yet providing separation services (separation between airplanes). In fact, they didn’t even speak directly to the pilots flying the airplanes. At the time, the fastest plane in the commercial fleet was the Douglas DC-3, which could fly coast-to-coast in about 17 hours carrying 21 passengers. Today’s air traffic controllers not only provide separation services but do so for an average of 50,000 flights per day.

The DC-3 can comfortably claim its place in history. One of my all-time favorites, it is a real work horse and deserves respect as a great airplane. But speed up we have, and today’s jet airliners can carry hundreds of passengers and fly from Los Angeles to New York in about five hours, improving efficiency (as long as you don’t count the time it takes to get to the airport, park, stand in line and be accosted by the TSA).

Mike: But back to the early days. As with all good ideas, the necessity of some sort of organization to air traffic led to the development of local air traffic control before the federal government jumped on board. By 1926 legislation authorized the Department of Commerce to “establish air traffic rules…for the prevention of collisions between vessels and aircraft.” The first rules were brief and basic: pilots were not to begin their takeoff until “there is no risk of collision with landing aircraft and until preceding aircraft are clear of the field.”
Apparently a little more direction was needed. Procedures to control local air traffic began in 1929 at an airport in St. Louis, Missouri. A person would stand at the end of the runway using colored flags to communicate advisories to pilots. Flags were replaced by light guns, which are still required to be available for use in control towers today in the event of radio failure.

As aircraft were fitted for radio communication, airport traffic control towers began replacing the flagmen with radio operators. In 1930, the first radio-equipped control tower in the United States began operating at the Cleveland, Ohio Municipal Airport. Within the next five years about 20 radio control towers were in use and almost all airline aircraft had radio-telephone communication, although direct communication between pilots and controllers was still to come. En route airline crews communicated via radio with their company dispatchers who would in turn call the air traffic controllers, who tracked the position of planes using maps and blackboards and little boat-shaped weights.

From flagmen on the ground to GPS satellites in the sky, we’ve come a long way making air travel safer, faster, and more affordable.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

July 5, 2011 Inyokern

The Liberty Gazette

July 5, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Mike and Linda Ely would like to thank Bob Jamison for venturing across the page to fill in this space while Linda was out racing and Mike was cheering her at the finish line.


Mike: Before the first rays of light started to change the black sky to a lighter tone, I had already spent about 45 minutes doing a preflight inspection on the Piper Lance and loaded it with about 750 lbs. of bank mail. I taxied out from the ramp and advanced the throttle to call all 300 horses in the rumbling engine to life as the airplane began its takeoff roll.

The years have gone by but not the memories. After spending a couple years as a flight instructor I was hired by a freight operator based in Burbank, California. Working my way up through the pilot ranks with this company I first flew Piper Arrows and Lances, then twin-engine Piper Chieftains, then turboprops like DeHavilland Twin Otters and Beech 99s. My final years there were spent crisscrossing the country in the middle of the night in Learjets.

Departing Burbank to the north, I’d cross the ridge as the horizon became bright in the morning light. Soon after I’d descend to an airport just south of the restricted area surrounding Edwards Air Force Base, home of the US Air Force’s Flight Test Center and NASA’s Dryden Research Center, touching down at Lancaster Fox Field about 6:30 every morning. I’d meet two other airplanes and a number of drivers where we would exchange some bags and then continue on our way.

Leaving Lancaster and accompanied by a co-worker in another Lance, the route I flew took me through the Military Operations Area (MOA) adjacent to the restricted airspace. Even though it isn’t restricted itself, the MOA was busy with military airplanes, even at that time of the morning. I’ve seen SR-71 Blackbirds, U-2 Spy Planes, F-4 Phantoms, F-14, F-15 and F-16 fighters, F-111, B-52 and B-1 Bombers and a few things that I can’t even tell you what they were.

After crossing through the MOA I would cross Mojave Airport and proceed into Inyokern Airport just a few miles south of China Lake Naval Weapons Center. On approach to the airport I liked crossing low over the rising terrain near a particular mountain. This mountain has holes in it on several sides and the angle of the sunrays at this time of the morning allowed me to look down inside the huge rock, hollowed out by gold miners some fifty years before.

As I landed at Inyokern, the pilot of the other Lance continued up the Owens Valley which sits between two tall mountains ranges with peaks in excess of 14,000 feet. He eventually landed at Mammoth Lakes Airport at 7,500 feet above sea level where he spent the day. Leaving Inyokern I crossed mountains and headed for Tonopah in the Nevada desert and then would fly to Mammoth too. We were the first flights up the Owens Valley in the morning and the last flights down at night.

There were times when the weather was absolutely gorgeous and there were those times when it was absolutely vicious. It has been one of the most interesting places to fly and a place where I learned so much about flying, weather, and myself. As Bob Jamison wrote in this space last week, if I had to do it all over again, I’d say, “Sign Me Up!”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 28, 2011 "Sign me up!"

The Liberty Gazette

June 28, 2011

Ely Air Lines
by Guest Columnist Bob Jamison

Linda and Mike Ely asked I step in their parachute harness and jot down a few lines along their very popular theme of flying. Linda will be out of town to compete again in the Women’s Air Race Classic that finishes in Mobile, Alabama. I’m honored by this and only hope it can in some small way do justice to their time honored articles.

~ Bob Jamison

The final semester for me in college presented an unusual opportunity. No, it wasn’t a big paying job because I had a promotion promised from my high school days as a janitor to a full grown teller’s job. That was quite a step up.

Speaking of stepping up, a neighbor down the hall in the school dormitory showed me a real parachute he had. It seems he borrowed it from his pilot dad. The chute was located in the bucket seat of a war weary Stearman bi-plane his dad purchased at a some kind of surplus auction sale. Later that same parachute came in handy.

As luck would have it, head of the athletic department of the college was a former air force pilot instructor. He had collected a few airplanes which he hangered at the Huntsville Airport. One was the famous Piper J-3 Cub; another was a Taylor Craft while a more advanced airplane was a sleek Globe Swift. Furthermore, he would teach any student to fly and earn his private pilot license at a very low cost. I signed up!

The Swift was built like a miniature P-51 I thought and was almost as beautiful to see it fly. But that airplane was off limits to us ‘kids’ as it was far too fast and the bottom wing with retractable landing gear was not for the green horn beginner.

The first flight was just a ride I figured. It was the practical approach from the ground school where you learned the air speed indicator, altimeter, rate of climb (or decent), RPM (revolutions per minute), needle ball & bank (turn coordinator instrument) and a few other rudimentary instruments, all without an electrical system whatsoever. The automatic pilot consists of your hand on the throttle, feet on the rudder pedals and eyes glancing at the instruments and on the horizon. As far as the parachute was concerned, it was the only way to hitch-hike a ride to the dorm because the airport was next to the prison. I carried the chute so folks could see I must be a pilot with no car. That would be right.

There were no head phones so the instructor shouted in your ear and tells you how stupid you were for trying to push the throttle past the ‘red line’ or pulling back the power to approach the stalling speed. The weather was hot and sweat was pouring down my shirt and my hands were wringing wet but I was having a ball even if my pals on the ground could hear the instructor yelling in my ear.

Finally, it was solo time meaning I had the thing all by myself for the first time. Boy, was it quiet and no hollering. Only the musical sound of the sixty five horse power engine. Afterwards, it was repetitive maneuvers, stalls, coordinated s-turns and touch-and-go’s (landing and take offs). What was best was the anticipation of solo cross country trips with airport stops at prescribed check points.

My instructor Mr. Joe Kirk, gave me some sound advice before I flew over to Lufkin, Texas for my flight test. He said, “You are going to mess up but I think you can pass. Remember this one thing and do not forget it. You keep that ball in the socket!!!” That means watching the turn and bank indicator ball that slides to one side or the other if your turn is not perfectly coordinated with stick and rudder. I passed.

Back at the hangar the check pilot, Mr. A. O. McQueen, was signing my private license. A roar was heard and an airplane barely made it over the roof and did a bouncing landing. We all wondered who that could be. The man flying the plane stopped, made a few circles in the runway and stopped again. ‘

Get in my pickup boy; let’s go see what is the matter with that guy. The pilot was so drunk he couldn’t taxi the plane. How he landed it was a point of amazement. We put him in the pickup and I taxied the plane to the hanger and tied it down.

After the fourth cup of coffee, he said he was an airplane mechanic that did an engine job for the owner but he couldn’t pay for it. So, he signed over the title to the mechanic. I bought it for the price of the bill which was a bargain, and flew it home the next day after graduation. That is, I owned an airplane before I ever owned a car.

After several glorious flights a freak storm wrecked the plane while it was tied down. But I already had my eye on a Stearman bi-plane a farmer bought from one of those surplus auctions but never learned to fly. One of the crop duster pilots was a former navy fighter pilot in WWII. He told me to buy it and he would teach me to fly the Stearman. But he also gave me a severe warning of its narrow landing gear, its weight and tricky stall characteristics. He was right. It took me almost as long to solo in that airplane with his help as it did for me to solo in the Cub.

One trip I made in that old Stearman was to Kingsville, Texas. The late Don Shilling was my passenger in the back open cockpit. The airport in Kingsville was huge. It couldn’t be the town airport, I thought, so it must be the navy training base (which it had been). I saw another airport farther west so I landed there. Here came a jeep with two guys carrying Winchester rifles. “What are you doing landing here? This is a private airport of the King Ranch!” I yelled back over the sound of the plane’s engine and said, “If you move that jeep over a little I’ll be out of here in one minute; and I was”. Flying back home was uneventful until I got to the west edge of Matagorda Bay.

Again, the plane was a military trainer with no electrical system, no radio, no nav-aids, only a compass. Fog and rain was coming in from the gulf and visibility was limited. I could see the ground now from only 500 ft to remain below the fog and rain. Then the land turned to water. The water turned to blue waves! I’m over the gulf now I knew. That perfect maneuver all pilots remember is the 180 degree turn (straight back from where you last saw land). Then I just followed the coast line for a happy landing back home.

What a blast! Looking back over five decades, flying has been a spectacular experience. It is sometimes challenging, often relaxing and always enjoyable. If I had to do it all over again I would tell Mr. Kirk, “Sign me up”.

June 21, 2011 Flying Farmers

The Liberty Gazette

June 21, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Linda: Friends of ours are selling their beautiful 1948 Luscombe 11A. Their recent post on an aviation Internet group spurred some chat about Luscombes in general. One member reminisced about the more utilitarian interior of the first Luscombe Sedans (Model 11) with their removable rear seat for hauling cargo, such as milk cans. He claimed that when the Flying Farmers market went bust, Luscombe sharpened up the interior to the same level as higher priced cars and called it the 11A. His comment spurred me to do a little digging on the Flying Farmers. To my pleasant surprise I learned they are not “bust.” True, the group has a much reduced membership from its peak in 1977, thanks to increased fuel and operating costs, more restrictive federal regulations, and product liability litigation (lawyers, that is). But there are still farm families who rely on their airplanes, and still enough of them to have annual conventions, scholarships, a magazine, and a website with great historical information, from which we get the following interesting stuff.

Their Cessnas, Beechcrafts, and Pipers are no different from their combines, tractors, and pickup trucks. After all, flying farmers’ airplanes are workhorses too, for hauling supplies, checking irrigation systems, and compressing the time between the farm and parts store. Even some real estate agents take customers up to show them land from the air.

Now called the International Flying Farmers (IFF) the Wichita, Kansas based group began in 1944 in Stillwater, Oklahoma when H.A. "Herb" Graham, director of Agricultural Extension at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, and Ferdie Deering, farm editor of the Farmer-Stockman magazine, traveled across the state meeting with farmer-flyers. They came across wheat farmer Henry G. "Heinie" Bomhoff, a “colorful character,” whom Graham and Deering thought would be an ideal subject for a magazine feature.

Mike: Out of that interview Graham and Deering learned there were many other farmers who owned and used airplanes in their farming and ranching operations. So they began meeting and by the next year, Dec. 12, 1945, the National Flying Farmers Association was incorporated in Oklahoma. They helped develop tax rules on equipment deductions, renter's insurance for pilots, and the specific design of aircraft for aerial applications (crop dusters), as opposed to modifying existing war-surplus or passenger aircraft.

The FAA had not yet complicated airplane ownership. Farmers fixed their own airplanes and their own tractors. If they couldn't find a part, they made one. During harvest time, they would land in the fields to talk with the harvesters, or in pastures during calving time to check on their livestock. One husband-wife team used its Piper to locate 200 prized Herefords scattered throughout a thousand-acre pasture. That colorful character, Heinie Bomhoff, became the group’s first leader. He had 4,000 hours logged, most of it flown less than 100 feet off the ground while hunting coyotes. A self-taught flier, Bomhoff shared his passion, teaching some 200 of his neighbors to fly.

They used their airplanes to deliver groceries, mail, livestock feed, and at least once, a subpoena via air drop. The airplane continues to serve as a farm workhorse, and we’re happy to report that the International Flying Farmers continues as well. You don’t have to be a farmer or a pilot to join. Check them out at www.flyingfarmers.org. 

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 14, 2011 Big Muddy Inspiration

The Liberty Gazette

June 14, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Linda: One week to go to the start of the 2011 Air Race Classic. A recent email sent by ARC officials included the reminder of our responsibility as ambassadors.

This year the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama has created an impressive program to broaden horizons of children served by the Clubs. Adopt-a-Pilot will match youngsters with pilots; the goal being to encourage them to think large, and never think anything is unreachable because of economic or family circumstances.  Most of these children haven’t been exposed to aviation. Inger Anderson, Director of Operations of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama, is the coordinator of this program. She and other Club leaders began last year planning monthly outings for their youth members. Pilots met the children at the airport and beyond the activities was encouragement to follow their dreams. The Adopt-a-Pilot program culminates at the end of this year’s Air Race Classic, which will terminate in Mobile. Fifty teams are competing this year, and each is assigned two children from the Boys & Girls Clubs. We’ve been given their names, ages and Club email addresses and have begun conversations with them. We were told this is the first time that a majority of them have even heard of e-mail. When the race ends, they will be at the finish line, and we will all get to celebrate together.

Mike: The other racing group we’re in, the Sport Air Racing League, recently completed the fifth race in this 20-race season, in Carbondale, Illinois. Race Director Sam Hoskins named his race “The Big Muddy Air Race.” Sam posted a comment on our group page that he received from his friend Mark Pearson, a staff psychologist at a state juvenile facility. The facility is located right off the end of Carbondale’s Runway 24, the departure runway they used for the race. Mark wrote, “I was running a group when your planes flew over my institution. I used it as an opportunity to talk about goal setting, path planning and opportunity in this country. Congrats!” Mark’s big congratulations wasn’t just for Sam’s second-place finish, it was also a recognition of people who as a group are generally willing to share their passion to encourage others.

Mark later told us that his discussion with the teens essentially led to Sam being such a "get it done" kind of guy. Mark noted when he was at an age often tempted into delinquency he had already planned on being a dozen or so different things. He said, “I only became a psychologist because I failed the vision tests to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.” So he was stunned that the typical delinquent either had one totally unrealistic "plan" for his future ("I'm gonna play in the NBA" or "I'm a rapper") or swore they had never given a thought to goal setting, let alone path planning. Using Sam and our racing group as examples, Mark encouraged the youth to do things; set a goal, create a plan and execute the plan, whether that is learn to fly, build a plane, organize a race, or something else.

Linda: Whether in southern Alabama, or flying over a delinquent youth camp in Illinois, or in our own neighborhood, we have opportunities to do good, sometimes without knowing who we may be influencing. As Sam said, “You just never know who's watching.”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 7, 2011 Dr. Suz Braddock

The Liberty Gazette

June 7, 2011

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Here it is, our deadline to send in some mix of the alphabet that we hope will tell an interesting story from the world of aviation. It just so happens I’m filling out a questionnaire right now too which I just received from a pilot friend who’s writing a book on “why we fly.” And somehow, it’s all related to breast cancer and poison ivy. I’ll explain.

I first met Dr. Suzanne Braddock as a competitor in last year’s Air Race Classic. Dr. Braddock, or Suz as she prefers, entered her Bonanza in the air race. It was her first air race. My race partner of last year is also a physician, Dr. Liza Kummer, an internist from Dallas. It seems this is the time of year that poison ivy begins its most potent attacks on me. Last year was the second of three Air Race Classics that I started the race covered in poison ivy blisters. Liza and I had just met Suz at the arrival hangar party in Fort Myers, Florida, and the two doctors consulted about the itchy rash that was driving me crazy and creeping towards my eyes. The oral medications were not on the FAA’s list of acceptable meds for flying, so I would have to rely on topical creams, and stay out of the Florida sun.

Not only did Liza and Suz have flying and doctoring in common, but each had battled breast cancer, so the two had much to talk about. When Suz received her diagnosis 19 years ago she discovered there was little to no help on what to expect. She’s a dermatologist, not a cancer doctor, so like other patients she did not know what lay ahead. What would happen to her? What would she look like after surgery? What would treatment be like? Unable to find any quick reference books to answer her pressing questions, disappointment growing as she searched for help, she determined to write a book of her own. Out of her fight has come, “Straight Talk About Breast Cancer: From Diagnosis to Recovery: A Guide for the Entire Family.” Her book is a guide for the whole family affected by breast cancer. It’s easy reading and includes inspirational messages from breast cancer survivors, and probably one of the most important features, eight pages of breast reconstruction photos to answer those pressing questions about what it’s really going to be like; straight talk.

Using her own experiences to help others, Suz says this book has been the most satisfying effort of her life. She updates the content every year or so as new information comes out, and all money received that’s not spent printing more copies goes to help breast cancer survivors. With over 100,000 copies sold, Suz hears from many women whom it has helped cope with the diagnosis.

Ironically, as I write my responses to Suz’s questionnaire for her next book, my experiences learning to fly, thoughts and opinions on aviation, and adventures since earning a pilot license, I am once again finding little poison ivy blisters popping up, and it’s just two weeks to the start of the 2011 Air Race Classic. But this time, thanks to Suz and Liza, my two air racing chick doctor friends, I have the cream that will stop the itch dead in its tracks. I’m ready to go racing.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 31, 2011 The 4G Network

The Liberty Gazette

May 31, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Mike: Often people ask us how a pilot knows things like how to land at an airport without a tower, and conditions in the air or on the ground that might affect our flight. Pilots are charged with the full responsibility of knowing “all available information” that affects their flight – all of it. So we have various ways of checking weather, temporary flight restrictions, closed runways, and much more. The Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system provides a substantial amount of information necessary for pilots, but a current NOTAM that has been heavily in the aviation news of late concerns everyone, not just pilots.

That NOTAM regards some testing being done and states, “Airspace Global Positioning System is unreliable and may be unavailable within a radius of 175nm (of the GPS location, this one Las Vegas) from the surface to 40,000 feet and above. Pilots within a 175 nautical mile radius of the Las Vegas area are highly encouraged to report anomalies to the GPS signal during this test, 0700-1300 daily.”

So what’s going on? Well, it’s Washington. One government agency is at odds with another. Backed by the White House, the FCC recently issued a conditional waiver to a company called LightSquared allowing them to build and test a new wi-fi cell phone network transmitting on a radio band that is likely to interfere with the signals received from the GPS satellite network used for navigation and communications by aircraft, ships, the military, and even the GPS unit in your car. This is the “4G” network being promoted by cell phone companies; and interference with aircraft navigation has already been reported. The 3G network does not interfere with the GPS signals because it uses different technology and radio bands.

The waiver given to LightSquared has industry members and government officials leery of this “highly unusual” FCC action; and the steamrollering is fully supported by the White House.

Linda: GPS was developed by the military to enable aircraft to be guided without the need for ground based navigational aids. They own it but they have made it available to the civilian world. Russia, the European Union and even China have launched their own satellites into space. All these systems have the potential for being affected by one or more of the 40,000 planned antennas of this new 4G network. If the proposed wireless network is proven to cause interference and then allowed to continue development, small airports like Liberty’s would no longer have instrument approaches available for pilots to land during bad weather.

Politics are a devilish thing (that matches my opinion of most politicians) but a guy named Mike Turner who chairs the House Armed Services Committee on Strategic Forces has criticized the FCC for issuing this waiver. He told them that when it comes to GPS, they must consult with the Defense Department on any effects, and he included a requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act soon to be voted on that “Congress be notified of any widespread interference to GPS caused by a commercial communications service.” How would you like to be on an airliner that suddenly loses all navigation, and is in the clouds, zero visibility, on an instrument approach? They’re playing with people’s lives and it is our hope that wisdom will prevail and keep our skies, our national defense, and our way of life safe from those driven to control and destruct.

May 24, 2011 Homer the Airport Bird

The Liberty Gazette

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely


Linda: The town of Courtland referred to in the following story is in Alabama home of the late-October Tennessee Valley Air Race, Speed Dash and Punkin’ Chunkin' Contest (where the pumpkin I tossed totally missed the port-a-potty). This story originated from airline pilot Chris Murphy, who, along with his cousin, Jim, hosted that race. In January this year Chris countered the cold drizzle and darkness with a little off-season humor within the Sport Air Racing League.

“I'm at Courtland for a few days helping out and saw a funny thing today,” Chris posted on our Sport Air message board. “We're all in the office and I hear a pecking noise on the door that goes into the hangar. Jim says to open the door, Homer wants out. So I open the door and into the office walks Homer the pigeon. He walks right past about four of us to the outside door and waits for someone to open the door and let him out. He walks out through the office and then comes back later in the afternoon and pecks on the glass door to get back in. I guess he has taken up residence. I told Jim when Homer tells his buddies about his digs he'll have a whole flock of them.”

League founder and Chairman, Mike Thompson, wanted to know if Homer the Pigeon might be SARL’s future mascot. Was he “a racing Homer? Clipped-wing Homer? Homer in a pylon turn?” Air race veteran Pat Purcell (that’s Patricia), chimed in with suggestions on photo-shopping a good picture of Homer, to which Chris obliged – Homer in goggles and cloth pilot helmet.

A couple days later Chris posted this update: “I am a little worried about Homer. He went flying this morning and didn't get a briefing. It’s Instrument conditions here and favorable for icing.” We held our collective breath awaiting further word on Homer, who eventually arrived safe and sound. Not too long after, Homer brought home a lady friend.

Mike: After recent deadly storms in the southwest, Chris, a self-proclaimed weather geek, said, “I have never seen anything like what was happening in Alabama yesterday! I sat at the computer watching Doppler radar overlaid on a map, feeding info via text message to my friends there who had no electricity and weren't getting any info from local authorities. After the initial squall went through almost every storm cell was tornadic. A very large tornado went just east of the airport at Courtland and unfortunately there was loss of life associated with that storm. The airport sustained some damage; one airplane has major damage, and the FBO hangar was damaged by flying debris. The airport is covered with debris that rained down. Homer made it back into the hangar before the storms hit but his lady friend was a casualty.”

They deployed an Aero Commander photo mapping airplane in support of FEMA to assess the damage. The storm that wiped out Tuscaloosa actually formed over the Russellville airport (which is Turn Two in our race there) and then moved east into Tuscaloosa.

We’re glad Homer made it home okay, but saddened by the loss of life. One of our fellow aviators is collecting and airlifting needed supplies into the area. Now that's a real homer.

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