June 5, 2012 Rocket Man part 1

The Liberty Gazette

June 5, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We spent some time recently at the world headquarters of Team Rocket, the company that developed the F-1 Rocket, a very fast two-seat experimental airplane. The F in F-1 stands for Frederick, as in Mark and Cheryl Frederick, who live on their air strip they’ve named Macho Grande.

Mark was born with airplane-shaped genes, his earliest memories are of sitting on his dad’s lap in a Champ in their hometown in Ohio. Two uncles flew in the service, one flying "the Hump" and the other in a C47, and by age six he knew nearly every airplane that existed. So while it might have been only natural Mark would grow up to be such a highly sought-after airplane builder, he says it was really never planned that way. As a young adult Mark moved to Texas taking a job in sales, but he’d always wanted to build things, so when the sales job didn’t work out he went to a cabinet shop to see if they needed any help. The boss said if he had a tape measure he could start in the morning. Unfortunately, his 10’ tape measure wasn’t quite what the boss had in mind, so with a 25’ tape came, "It’s coming out of your paycheck." Fortunately, though, Mark did well. Within six months he was running a crew and had a company truck.

Mike: The back injury that ended a budding cabinet-making career freed him up to go in to aviation full time. His father, a dentist, suggested he start a flight school – that’s when the Kitty Hill Flight School, in Leander opened. The school did well, but with tough economic times the flight training business slowed. He’d long admired a great-uncle, whom he’d only met once at an airshow in Marion, Ohio, who had built a biplane; and found inspiration in the stories he’d heard of women building airplanes during World War II. Surely if these people could do it, so could he. Working with Formica is a lot like working with aluminum, and he’d worked with miles of Formica in the cabinet business. So he began with a kit, to build a small experimental airplane called a Van’s RV-4. One day Rob Vajdos, one of the foremost experts on Stearmans, stopped in at Kitty Hill for fuel. Impressed with Mark’s work, that one chance meeting led to Rob asking Mark to help a friend build his RV-4, which led to another, and another. Somewhere in that chain Mark’s dedication to perfection and great rapport with customers got him noticed by world record holder Bruce Bohannon, who asked him to build an airplane that would break all records in the "time-to-climb" category. The deal was sponsored by Exxon from 1999-2006, and the "Flyin’ Tiger" built by Mark Frederick, is still a world record holder.

Mark was also building the Harmon Rocket for people who had bought kits from John Harmon. After building somewhere between 11-15 airplanes, making notes about the process and how to improve it, he realized customers needed an assembly manual. That idea sparked the formation of Team Rocket, now with 175 quick-build kits sold. In fact, when the manufacturing firm asked how many he wanted to build, Mark says he thought he was sticking his neck on the line to say 50. But 48 sold the first year as word continued to spread about Mark Frederick, a/k/a "Rocket Man," bringing air racing into his future. We’ll pick up there next week.
www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 29, 2012 Fly-in Camp outs

The Liberty Gazettte

May 29, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: One of my favorite photos of those I’ve taken myself is of a yellow Piper Cub snuggled up to a tent along a grass runway in the misty morning sunrise. I took that photo at the first annual Ranger Fly-In, one of several very popular Fly-in/Camp-outs.

Mike: Being a backpacker and climber accustomed to carrying a load on my back, I find that this kind of camping fits well with the camping-by-airplane mentality. Weight is always a consideration – though I did dream about converting the DeHavilland Twin Otter I used to fly into what I called a "Winged Winnebago" complete with car in tow. The Twin Otter has such great short take-off and landing capabilities that it could be shoehorned into the shortest of strips, with a huge cabin and payload to boot. I find it an interesting concept that still begs for development.

Payson, Arizona, right below the Mogollon Rim (otherwise known as the Tonto Rim if you read Zane Grey novels), has a fly-in campground at the local airport. Its 12 campsites take advantage of some of the prettiest country I’ve ever seen. California’s Kern Valley Airport and Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains are a couple of other scenic areas catering to the flying camper. The historic town of Columbia, in California’s famous Gold Country has a camping area on its airport within walking distance of the old, picturesque downtown district. Or, for "roughing it" the Idaho back country offers some great spots to fly into and camp.

Linda: They say it was a starlit evening about a decade ago when a small group of Montana pilots sitting around a campfire on a backcountry airstrip shared their concerns about the future of these little airfield gems. One of them, John McKenna, wrote that this group had experienced "the rare opportunity to enjoy the combination of flying and stopping off in places that have little in the way of conventional aviation facilities." No FBO, no nearby motel, "not even the old Buick courtesy car," says McKenna. "But there was the smell of pine trees, cowboy coffee, wood smoke, the distant howl of a coyote and the flicker of fire light." They knew these places were special and that someone needed to protect them. They formed the Recreational Aviation Foundation – hard workers committed to the cause, without room in their vocabulary for the words "You can’t do it." I appreciate that.

Mike: Back country airstrips are recognized as an appropriate use of National Forest System lands. Other recreational facilities require hundreds of miles of roadways, but airstrips are low impact requiring minimal disturbance of the natural landscape, while serving as internal trailheads for remote areas. In 2009 the U. S. Forest Service signed a directive acknowledging the history of aviation use and airstrips on forest service lands, began inventorying landing facilities and dedicating efforts to maintain them in support of aviation. Earlier this month, the governors of Minnesota and Vermont signed bills adding aviation to their respective state recreational use statutes, becoming the 15th and 16th states to do so, thanks to the efforts of the Recreational Aviation Foundation.

As summer approaches, the largest airplane camping event is on the horizon. AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin will host thousands of fly-in visitors and campers as it does every year, showing how campgrounds at publicly owned airports offer another way for communities to draw business to them using their airport.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 22, 2012 Aviation Education

The Liberty Gazette

May 22, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: It’s been nearly five years since the FAA extended the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 60 to 65. Now the thousands of airline pilots who were close to retirement then will be leaving the cockpits of major and regional airlines, both passenger and cargo, creating a surge in the need for new pilots. Regional airlines are already seeing a diminished pool of qualified applicants, and the competition has some companies offering significant signing bonuses.

Many newly retired pilots will go on to fly for corporations, charter services, or on-demand cargo companies. Some will teach flying, some will retire to their own hangar and maybe a low-and-slow Piper Cub, or build an airplane of their own – maybe an RV. I can’t imagine any pilot walking out of the cockpit and the industry altogether, but that’s just me. Occasionally, I suppose it happens.

If you or someone you know is interested in flying for an airline there are some great schools I’d highly recommend: Purdue University (Indiana), Embry-Riddle (Arizona and Florida), and the University of North Dakota are some of the top schools offering professional pilot degrees, Bachelors and Masters. Embry-Riddle also offers doctoral Degrees in Aviation and in Engineering Physics. In the Great State of Texas we have a couple of Embry-Riddle campuses without the flight training part, so anyone interested in one of many other areas of the aviation industry are well served. Often called the "Harvard of Aviation Schools" Embry-Riddle has plans to open a third flight training campus and Houston’s Ellington Field is one of two locations being considered.

Linda: There’s also Texas State Technical College (TSTC) in Waco, and they just cut the ribbon May 3 on a new 82,000-square-foot, multi-million dollar facility, the Col. James T. Connelly Aerospace Center.

TSTC has long had a strong aviation program, offering five different tracks: aviation maintenance (airframe and powerplant mechanics), aircraft pilot training, avionics, aircraft dispatch, and air traffic control. They now have state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and flight simulators. The building also includes a public airport terminal adjacent to the TSTC Waco Airport.

Dr. Elton Stuckley, President of TSTC envisions the new Aerospace Center as "a hub of the TSTC Airport, not only for our students, but also for the general aviation and business aviation communities of Texas." These new digs give them enough space to offer proficiency and recurrency training for general aviation pilots and also for aviation professionals. They offer continuing education and the FAA-sanctioned aviation safety training courses. For the population at large their outreach in educational and community conferences impact far beyond the airport property lines, making the airport a very active community member with a significant presence. Historical displays in the new building honor the rich history of the airport and its importance to the local community, the nation, and the world.

The school’s industry partners – those who will employ graduates – will benefit from all this great stuff, meaning eventually we all benefit, because as you know if you read this column fairly regularly, airports are a vital community asset which benefit people who don’t fly.

With innovations in flight training and one of the most modern training facilities in the country TSTC is preparing to meet the pilot shortage head-on.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 15, 2012 Chet Peek's Jenny

The Liberty Gazette

May 15, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: On February 17, 2009 we brought you the story of a JN4-D "Jenny" at Kickapoo Downtown Airport in Wichita Falls, and the only two people permitted to fly it for its new owners, the City of Wichita Falls, David Martin and Tom Danaher. At a recent gathering of antique airplanes in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma we discovered another piece of this fascinating historical puzzle, a man named Chester Peek.

Born November 11, 1920, Chester served with the Army Air Corps in Europe during World War II. Upon his return to the states he and his wife Marian raised two sons while he worked as an engineer for a Frigidaire distributor designing commercial refrigeration plants throughout the Midwest. Chester later returned to college where he completed his Doctorate of Engineering and later became the head of Oklahoma State University’s MBA program, retiring in 1989. Mr. Peek has owned more than 31 different airplanes over the years, many of them he restored, including a JN4-D "Jenny". We met him when Linda struck up a conversation with him and his lovely bride at a table full of books he has written over the years.

Linda: Chester told us about Ray McWhorter, returning WWI Army barnstormer who bought a "new" surplus Curtiss JN4-D "Jenny" on July 29, 1919 for $4,650 from the Herring Motor Company in Des Moines. McWorter told them, "don't wrap it up boys, I'll fly it home the way it is," and he did. He flew that Jenny around the Midwest from his family farm in Iowa for more than two years as a barnstormer giving rides and aerial demonstrations like wing walking stunts at county fairs. In 1921 a mid-air collision during a wing walker exchange in rough air over Mason City nearly killed McWhorter. The plane was hauled to his farm where it remained in a barn for 50 years. In 1970, Ray McWhorter gave the parts to a man named Dean Gilmore, saying, "You know this old airplane is valuable and there isn’t enough money in the world to buy it from me. But I’ll give it to you because I really believe you’ll restore it." Thus began the 12 year restoration journey.

Dean Gilmore worked meticulously on the Jenny and had completed about 60 percent of the restoration when he unexpectedly died in 1982, a shock to his family and community. To settle his estate they had to sell the Jenny. The family placed an advertisement in Trade-a-Plane where Chester saw it, called and eventually when to see it.

He told us that all his life he had wanted a Jenny, and when he saw this airplane his heart just ached because he knew they could not afford it. He came home and told Marian about the airplane. She simply said, "If you really want a Jenny, this is probably going to be your only chance to get one." So they made the plunge and completed the work that Dean Gilmore started. The airplane took flight for the first time on October 6, 1987 with Chester Peek at the controls. His first passenger would be Marian.

The plane was eventually sold to the City of Wichita Falls, but Chester’s family’s name will forever be linked to the airplane. The entire story can be found in "Resurrection of a Jenny" by Chester Peek.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 8, 2012 A special jump

The Liberty Gazette

May 8, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We heard some great stories over the weekend and they’re the kind too good not to share. The first is but another example of the generous nature we find often within the aviation community. You’ve probably heard of wounded warrior organizations and the good work done through them as so many veterans return home with serious injuries.

HALO for Freedom Warrior Foundation provides support for wounded warriors as they face challenges encountered during their rehabilitation, reintegration and healing process. They motivate, encourage, and afford opportunities these heroes might not otherwise have, lifting their spirits while reminding them that their sacrifices will never be forgotten. HALO (which stands for High Altitude – Low Open, a military parachuting term) hosted the Wounded Warrior Hog Hunt in Mineral Wells, Texas on April 12–14 this year. For this event a tandem parachute jump was arranged for a special warrior. They would be led in the jump by HALO president and double-amputee, Dana Bowman. At the last minute a change in plans threatened this very special program. Organizers asked Southwest Airlines Captain Alan Crawford to help so the event could go on as scheduled. Here’s what the good captain (and USAF veteran) told us:

Captain Crawford: I was invited to fly my Lancair Legacy, “Spirit of America”, painted in stars and stripes, in the opening ceremony. Two O1 Birddogs and five T-34s would fly formation flights. The parachute jump would start the event, then we’d fly various passes over the landing zone, then I’d fly the last pass at high speed to close the aerial program.

Dana is amazing. He opens the program skydiving into the landing zone with a large American flag attached to him and flowing. This particular day he was to open the show leading the jump, then immediately following him out the door a tandem jump had been arranged for Medal of Honor Recipient, Sgt. Leroy Petry, an Army Ranger. www.army.mil/medalofhonor/petry

Thursday night I learned the jump plane scheduled to take the three up Friday morning had cancelled. They asked if I knew anyone who could fill in. I thought of Bobby and AnnElise Bennett. I called Mighty Mouse (a/k/a Bobby Bennett – he has earned quite a reputation among pilots as one who can be called upon to “come to save the day”) and after explaining the situation I asked if they could make it to Mineral Wells with AnnElise’s Cessna 182, “X-Ray,” for a jump Friday morning. They said yes, and AnnElise flew in to Mineral Wells early Friday morning for the briefing and had the honor of taking these men up to 10,000 feet for the jump.

As usual, AnnElise and Mighty Mouse came through on short notice. Thursday night Bobby put the jump platform on X-Ray and had the plane configured for the jump. Friday morning AnnElise showed up and was able to pull off what I think was the jump of a lifetime for Sgt. Petry. I guess the most important thing is that whenever any of us have a chance to participate in a wounded warrior program, either donating our time or money, we should try and do it. What these young warriors have sacrificed for the freedom we have should not be forgotten. It was an honor to have met them.

Mike: Dana Bowman’s website is www.danabowman.com.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 1, 2012 UAVs

The Liberty Gazette

May 1, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: What does “drone” mean to you? What it means to a beekeeper differs from its meaning to a pilot. To a pilot it is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and the present administration has mandated the FAA release more of these aircraft into the National Airspace System for law enforcement, military and commercial purposes over the next few years; as many as 30,000. These little boogers (actually varying in size, but as little as four pounds) can be programmed to fly a specific route, pattern, or they can be flown from a remote console.

When asked to comment on sharing the airspace with UAVs pilots have expressed concerns first on the grounds of safety and second on right-of-way and legal restrictions imposed on real pilots as a so-called way to deal with the safety issue. Pilots will tell you that theoretically we don’t mind sharing the airspace, but only as long as the UAVs have some means of “seeing” and avoiding human-piloted airplanes better than pilots can, with no additional restrictions. But that scenario doesn’t exist. Imagine remotely controlled vehicles, too small for you to see before a collision, entering your airspace without equal or even adequate ability to see you. Scary, isn’t it?

Smaller UAVs do not carry sophisticated equipment to see and avoid automatically and independently of their remotely based “pilots.” They are extremely hard to see and avoid (after all, they’re built to be stealth). And, scary as it is, some of the drone operators (seated firmly on the ground)are not even licensed pilots. What’s more, they’re more focused on buildings, borders, fences, and activities on the ground, displayed on a small screen.

Linda: Reality is, they see life through a soda straw with limited situational awareness, poor visibility, and lacking maneuverability; shortfalls that make significant upgrades necessary for operating in the National Airspace System. How many UAV operators would be able to place an airplane in the Hudson River with no loss of life? They are not like real pilots, constantly in heads-up mode, scanning their surrounding for other real airplanes, controls within reach for immediate correction. What if the “kid at the console” has zipped out for a Coke or some other human moment? The kid's screen just goes blank, while the human pilot must get himself and his aircraft back to the ground in one piece. The drone doesn't care if things go wrong.

This is a big issue because public safety will be affected. The greatest danger may be if the UAV “goes stupid”, meaning the communications between the ground and the UAV are severed or interrupted. There may be nothing the operator can do to restore the signal once it is lost and eventually crashes. When communication is lost with the UAV it goes into a pre-programmed escape, not controlled by a human.

Privacy rights bring lots of questions too. If the drone sees your kid running a stop sign, will you hear about it? Will USDA use drones to see if you’re buying raw milk? What if someone uses a drone to spook your cattle or passes over your chicken shed and frightens all the birds that then stampede and smother each other? Can you shoot down a drone that flies over your deer blind? Can you use one to lure deer to your blind? Lots of questions, and for now, inadequate, dangerous answers.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 24, 2012 Remembering the Doolittle Raiders

The Liberty Gazette

April 24, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Arriving Friday afternoon for Saturday’s Bluebonnet Air Race we pulled The Elyminator up to the fuel pump before tying down for the night. Reno air racer and airplane builder Mark Frederick complimented the new paint job – a racy red and white with black and white checkerboard wingtips and tail. Mark especially likes the words which grace the underside across the wingspan: Stuck in traffic? Admittedly, I now get a kick out of flying low over I-10 and other congested freeways. For Mike, it reminisces his early days flying over crowded Los Angeles freeways. Mark began inspecting our other modifications to The Elyminator, noticing we haven’t yet replaced the original blue and white interior, which happens to match the borrowed wheel pants. Soon others gathered around the airplane; each new arrival gets the same sort of review and its ample reason to stand around and shoot the breeze.

We tied down next to Mike Smith’s red Swearingen SX300, capable of over 300 mph. He’s in a different class of competition but there’s a running joke about us passing him. Since last year’s official Indy race t-shirt featured our Cheetah reaching the checkered flag ahead of Smith’s SX300, he suggested parking downwind of his airplane might blow some of his speed onto us. We’d love that – just four more mph to break the speed record for our class.

Saturday morning dawned with low ceilings and turbulence, making for some pretty bone-jarring jolts as we knocked around the 130-mile course at low altitudes. Usually this race includes Mark and Cheryl Frederick’s grass strip as the start-finish line, but they would be out of town this time on an important historical mission.

Mike: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor 16 B-25s carrying 80 men crammed the open flight deck of the USS Hornet and blasted off on a top-secret mission, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. They became known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. It was the only time U.S. Army Air Force bombers had launched from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on a combat mission.

Flying at wave-top to avoid detection, the bombers encountered only light fighter and anti-aircraft resistance. None were shot down. However, too large to return and land on the carrier, the bombers flew west to China’s coast where there were several suitable air fields. Weather and impending darkness made those good runways hard to find and most of the crews crash landed or bailed out. While the raid on Tokyo was not a widely technical victory, it was a morale booster during bleak times.

Remaining Doolittle Raiders are Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, co-pilot of B-25 No. 1, Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, navigator on B-25 No. 9, Lt. Col. Edward J. Saylor, engineer-gunner of B-25, No. 15, Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, engineer-gunner, No. 7 and Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, co-pilot of B-25 No. 16. All but Lt. Col Hite attended the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Reunion on the 70^th anniversary of the raid, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio on April 18. B-25s gathered for a massive formation flight over Wright-Patterson. One of them was flown by our friend Mark Fredrick who just before our race buzzed us in “Devil Dog” (the U.S. Marine Corps B-25 variant) on his way to Ohio for the reunion.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 17, 2012 Tim's pants

The Liberty Gazette

April 17, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: He saunters into the lobby and waits patiently for the girl behind the desk to finish serving another customer. Wandering over by the old leather sofa in the corner of the room next to one of the glass display cases with all sorts of electronic wares inside, he spots an aeronautical chart someone left half folded amongst the scattered aviation magazines on a small coffee table. He picks it up, unfolds it, and holding it out at arms-length his eyes sweep from one corner to the other like a king or big rancher surveying his territory. In his mid-forties, a little pudgy in spots and his hair thinning a bit, the one thing that stands out as he waits patiently is the big smile on his face. Finally, the girl working behind the counter has finished with the previous customer and the man, still smiling, steps forward and says, “Hi, I’m Tim and I’m here for my first lesson.”

“Oh yes Tim, your instructor is in the hangar and he’ll be right back."

“Great! I’ve wanted to do this my whole life.”

Tim was starting out on an adventure. A long yearning has finally brought him to a point where he is ready to begin. The average private pilot today is in his or her mid-forties and having raised a family finds themselves in a place financially stable enough that they can justify the investment into something they’ve wanted to do for a long time. Tim fits the description.

When I walked in that day in 2006 and we were introduced, immediately we discovered a real kinship even though our worlds had taken very different paths. I had pursued my dream of flight early from the age of 15 and unlike an airline pilot, flying the same route for years, my career flying freight and as a chief pilot for an international corporation has taken me many different places.

This was the start of something big for Tim, and something of a journey of rediscovery for me; to see anew the stuff I forcefully remembered long ago which at some point sunk into the far recesses of my mind. Having taught flying for much of my aviation career, although mostly in jets, I was stepping back into the realm of the beginner working with unmolded but willing and passionate clay that presented with the expectation of becoming an aviator. The challenge was one well worth the effort.

Linda: Mike gave Tim a good solid start, working with him long enough to be a strong influence on the way Tim approaches flying today, with good skills and common sense. Tim successfully achieved his dream and we see him somewhat regularly at the hangar. His two grown sons are also pilots and aircraft owners and the relationship the three men share has grown into something special from this mutual interest. Besides that, we’re rather fortunate Tim decided on a Cheetah when he purchased his first plane, because then if we need to borrow parts, he’s just around the corner. Good thing his Cheetah isn’t too bashful about letting our Cheetah borrow its pants from time to time.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 10, 2012 Texoma 100 Air Race

The Liberty Gazette

April 10, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Busy schedules kept us from early preparation for the Texoma 100 Air Race. Examination of the race course and even hotel reservations would wait until we arrived in Sherman the night before the race. After over a year of installing upgrades to our Grumman Cheetah, now dubbed The Elyminator, chomping at the bit to turn it out and really see what it can do, the good-humored banter for the race season opener fueled my competitive streak. Wayne Lemkelde flies a Grumman Cheetah with similar modifications and is our closest competitor. Apparently those who arrived at Race Central earlier in the evening joined Wayne in the hotel lounge, and as we were winging our way there they were posting in the group web page something about Wayne naming his airplane the “e-linda-nator.” It was on. Wayne was in for it. This was just what I was hungry for – someone to beat.

Mike: Earlier in the week Linda texted to me: “Another Cheetah has entered the race. We need Tim’s wheel pants!” Wheel pants are fairings that cover the wheels making fixed landing gear more aerodynamically clean, which means speed, and to Linda it was a need. We’ve been looking for wheel pants since our worn and cracked ones could no longer be repaired and wanted “speed” pants but have had difficulty locating approved parts. Our friend Tim keeps his Cheetah in a hangar near ours, but how to ask that question - may I borrow your pants? It’s like asking to borrow underwear. But when I managed the awkward question Tim laughed, assuring me that “Cheetahs aren’t bashful,” and yes, we could borrow them.

Linda: I pulled the airplane out of the hangar, fueled, loaded and cleaned while waiting for Mike to get off work. Race organizer Pat Purcell awaited our late arrival at the North Texas Regional Airport to give us a ride to the hotel. The night ended early with thunderstorms, hail and wind passing across the race course just north of the airport where race planes were lined up outside, but not a drop on the ramp.

After the pre-race briefing I caught fellow racer Greg Bordelon giving Wayne some tips on racing, and you can imagine Greg got a good scolding from me. Finally, at race time props began spinning, aircraft began taxiing out, and as Wayne taxied ahead of us I joyfully looked forward to passing him on the course.

Mike and I work well as a team and this race was my turn to fly and his to navigate. We had our race strategy, altitude for each leg, the degree of bank for each turn, and our preferred race communication style, all of which paid off when we caught Wayne before the first turn, passing him on the inside, leaving him in our wake as we turned in our fastest time ever at nearly 155 mph.

Mike: The friendly banter with Wayne continued after the race, and he congratulated us on the win while waiting in line for fuel. That’s what Sport Air Racing League is all about. We are competitive spirits but enjoy the people in our family of racers as much as we enjoy the competition.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 3, 2012 A new life for the old Inland

The Liberty Gazette
April 3, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Back in February and March last year we shared the story in a five-part series of the Inland Sport airplane, it’s creator, Dewey Bonbrake and his grandson, Lance Borden, who is the proud owner of one of only seven remaining Inland Sports – a 1929 model, disassembled. The excitement grew a few weeks ago when Lance announced he had taken on a partner in the long desired restoration project. So one recent Sunday afternoon a group of us met at a hangar at Ellington Field and loaded the rare antique airplane, piece by piece onto a U-haul truck. Lance and some other guys took the airplane up to an expert restorer in Kansas who has already brought a couple of other Inlands back to glory. We’re anxious to see it fly again some day. This particular airplane, the one Lance has, flew in the all-women’s air race, the Powder Puff Derby. Lance has offered in the past that if Linda wanted to race it in a future Powder Puff Derby he would let her, but I think the rules for minimum horsepower have changed and that airplane would not likely be eligible to compete these days. Still, it has a rich history, having been raced by both Mae Haslip and Marty Bowman, in 1931 and later. Even if she doesn’t race it, it would be great to fly it to the start or finish of the big annual air race next year to show it off. We’re excited for Lance seeing this piece of history and family legacy being brought back to life. It seemed a bit extra special, too, that his son and grandson were there to help load the airplane. A couple of pro photographers were around to document this important step in the Inland’s resuscitation and we all agreed that the photos taken of Lance with his son and grandson next to the airplane must be edited to include their Grandfather Dewey. It’s only proper

Linda: Speaking of racing, the Sport Air Racing League season has begun. I opened the League’s website just as the final grand notes in Arensky’s Overture ~ Dream on the Volga, Opus 16 streamed from my speakers. It was a perfect match for the photo of the day – Bob Mills in his bright red Vans Super Six in about a 30-degree nose up climb-out with his air show smoke on. The 2012 season opener was in Sherman, Texas this past weekend. We’ll have more on that in a later edition. Meanwhile, the second largest fly-in in the world, Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida just celebrated another great year with many new product announcements by several aviation companies. Garmin has a new app for pilots, and ForeFlight unveiled its newest offering, a superior mobile weather data gadget for use in the cockpit.

Also at Sun ‘n Fun began the campaign to build 50 "Fire Hubs" at aviation campsites across the country. The Recreational Aviation Foundation wants to broaden the horizons of pilots and their passengers who fly from one destination to another never exploring what's outside the pilot’s lounge. Campfires and camaraderie make popular aviation gatherings so the nonprofit organization launched this campaign and AOPA sponsored the first Fire Hub, at the Sun 'n Fun campground area. We’ve often said Liberty is a perfect location to fly in and camp out, so maybe one day our airport will join in the fun.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com