June 18, 2013 Airport Celebration! (by Debbie Mabery)

The Liberty Gazette

June 18, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike & Linda: Special thanks to our guest columnist, Debbie Mabery. Enjoy!

Debbie: In February of 2012, my husband Jose and I peered through the chain link fence on the south side of the Liberty Municipal Airport. We could see two faded orange hangars of another decade to the west dotted with trash, one modern beige hangar to the north surrounded by weeds, acres and acres of waist high grass and not a person or plane in sight. After a few moments, I glanced over to see Jose smiling.

"The airport is beautiful! It just needs some work….mowing, painting, and a lot of cleaning. Debbie, what do you think?" he asked as he started to take pictures.

"I agree; there is something very special about this airport. I can’t stop grinning as I look at it! It just needs some attention. If you are hired as the manager, wouldn’t it be great to help revitalize it?" I responded enthusiastically.

Now just over a year later, thanks to the support of the City of Liberty and many long hours put in by my husband the airport manager, city employees and volunteers, Liberty Municipal Airport has gone through a major transformation. It is no longer that sleepy airfield we first saw. So, two Saturdays ago it was time to let everyone know Liberty Municipal Airport is alive and well by holding a public airport celebration.

At the open house, laughter could be heard yards away and smiles could be seen wherever you looked. Every time a pilot was heard on the radio announcing his approach, excitement spread through the crowd. And when planes exited the taxiway to the ramp, people paused in awe of their stylish paint jobs and powerful engines.

Over one hundred people and two dozen airplanes were part of the day’s events. Everything from a 1957 Piper PA-22-150 visiting from Oklahoma to a Citation jet lined the ramp at one time or another. Brian Bertrand president of the Beaumont Radio Control Club and five club members brought their amazing collection of radio controlled planes and helicopters to entertain the crowd with high flying and daring stunts. Captain Brad Taylor and his crew from the Liberty Fire Department grilled tasty hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch in the unforgiving Texas sun while visitors dined in the shade provided by the newly constructed t-hangars.

And to the delight of all, two precision flight formation shows were performed by Dennis Irvine and three other Freedom Flight pilots from Conroe, Texas. The Freedom Flight pilots are former military and professional airline pilots who fly at community events to foster patriotism and remember those who have served our country. The four RV aircraft decorated in red, white, and blue made several passes over the airport to impress the crowd with well executed formation flights and smoke trails.

In the end, the airport celebration provided the last element needed to complete the airport’s renovations….people and planes! Yes, it is official, Liberty Municipal Airport is once again a place for aviation to come alive and be shared by all.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 11, 2013 Tyranny

The Liberty Gazette

June 11, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We enjoy sharing stories here about our favorite mode of transportation and the world about it. The aviation community is like none other, mostly made up of people with a sense of responsibility, community, honesty and integrity. Sure there are some loose cannons, as one may find in any industry, but we have found the vast majority of aviators to be a fine, upstanding lot. Imagine our collective surprise then, as news stories have begun to emerge over the past year or so, and growing in number, that regular citizens with no criminal history doing perfectly lawful things are suddenly being held at gunpoint, intimidated and threatened upon landing because – are you ready for this? Because they allegedly fit some unexplained "profile" of which about all that has been deduced is that the victim pilots were flying from west to east – inside the United States of America. That’s it.

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

This activity equates to a traffic stop where you would be detained and searched by local, state, and federal law enforcement – S.W.A.T. teams even - with no probable cause and no explanation. Let’s say you’re just driving a few states away to see family, and because you are going a certain direction, you are pulled over and faced with dozens of law enforcement officers who aren’t really enforcing any law, they’re following orders from someone to do something illegal. That’s what’s happening in the pilot world right now, unlawful restraint of citizens from moving about freely in their own country.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news – and this certainly qualifies – but if we leave it unspoken, if we just cower and hide and stay quiet, fewer people will know of the abuse, and then it will spread, as disease does when it is not treated.

Mike: A few years ago I stood at "Checkpoint Charlie" along the Berlin Wall. Most of the wall had been torn down but enough was left to serve as a reminder of what can happen if we give tyranny a pass while we watch for pretty butterflies. The sad history of that location comes to my mind when I think of these illegal actions escalating unchecked.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is supposed to protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures, requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. Flying in one particular direction doesn’t give probable cause to seize and search an individual. But word from the battle field where the not-so-secret-but-denied war gluttonously swells: one pilot wasn’t going to even be allowed to call to his mother to tell her that he had made it to his destination safely. Federal agents stood around and listened in on the conversation making sure he obeyed their orders not to mention them.

While the FAA reports* aviation’s contributions of 10.2 million jobs, $14.2 trillion in value-added economic activity and $1.3 trillion in total economic activity – about 5.2% of the total U.S. GDP – as being "a vital link to economic opportunities home and abroad" evidence grows daily that the U.S. economy is under attack, and now includes targeting innocent pilots.

*The Economic Impact of Civil Aviation on the U.S. Economy, August 2011, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 4, 2013 Pixar Planes!

The Liberty Gazette

June 4, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We bumped up our departure time by a few hours the Friday before the annual Memorial Air Race in Terrell, Texas, southeast of Dallas. The pre-race party would be at the home of our good friends, Bobby and AnnElise, but the call went out for racers to try to arrive by mid-day: Disney was sending a sound crew to the Terrell Airport to record airplane noise for their upcoming Pixar movie, Planes, premiering August 9.

When we arrived there were already five or six of our race buddies flying high-speed passes down the runway, providing a nice mix of different types of airplane noise for the microphones.
Check out the storyline and description of the cartoon airplane characters at www.pixar.wikia.com/planes. There’s a canard named Ishani (voiced by Priyanka Chopra), so James Redmon made several low passes in his award-winning Berkut (a canard type of airplane), which he built himself.

Dick Keyt, who lives in Granbury, brought the unique and super-fast Polen Special to provide the powerful sound emitted by the amazing experimental airplane capable of 325 mph speeds with only a 180 horsepower engine – and it is the world’s fastest four cylinder vehicle. It’s a handful according to Dick, who is an airline captain and former U.S. Air Force pilot. Maybe the Disney folks can use the sounds of the Polen Special if they don’t find a real F4U Corsair to record for the sounds of "Skipper Riley", the Corsair voiced by Stacey Keach.

Mike: World speed record holding brothers Mike and Mark Patey offered their smooth singing Lancair muscle machines for Pixar/Disney’s pleasure. Those two might make a good fit for the sounds of Ned and Zed of the Ripslinger Team (voice by Gabriel Iglasias), although it sounds like Team Ripslinger is made up of bad guys - the Patey brothers are really nice guys. The main Ripslinger character, voiced by Roger Craig Smith, looks a lot like "Relentless", which races at the Reno Air Races, piloted by Kevin Eldredge.

The Pixar site shows other characters including a stealth bomber, F-15 fighter jets, a blimp, and a classic biplane (Stearman) named Leadbottom. Bulldog is a twin-engine British plane, voiced by John Clease. El Chupacabra is the name given to the Gee Bee looking airplane – the kind that used to be symbolic in the air race fanatical days of the 1930’s when the National Air Races were in Cleveland, Ohio.

Julia Louise Dreyfus lends her voice to the airplane named Rochelle, which looks like a V-tail Bonanza, except that it’s a twin-engine. Bobby Bennett flies a Bonanza and he provided several opportunities for the sound crew to capture the true voice of a V-tail.

And then there’s the star of the show – Dusty the crop duster. We all kind of snickered when we saw the movie trailer that showed the Air Tractor, a fixed-gear airplane, with its gear up in one scene, but hey, what does Hollywood know? For that matter, most of the audience who watches Planes won’t know whether the sound they hear fits the airplane they see on the screen. So while we don’t see a Grumman Cheetah in the all-star line-up, we just may hear our own engine whiz by in a high-speed low pass, an engine start, or taxi, all of which were recorded on May 24^th.

Pass the popcorn!

^{www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com} 

May 28, 2013 CFI'ing

The Liberty Gazette

May 28, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Believe it or not, I’ve actually thought many times over the years about flight instructing.

After all the intensive study and the gut-check, after passing a written exam, a new flight instructor candidate will spend two agonizing days with an employee of the Federal Aviation Administration; eight hours in a royally grilling oral exam of aeronautical knowledge and teaching theory, and the next day recreating all sorts of possible new student scenarios while flying an airplane. It’s not the study, nor the exam that has given me cause to pause, but the tremendous responsibility held by a person certified to give flight instruction. And that’s just for a primary flight instructor certification. At the end of every work day I am just floored to hear about Mike’s day – highly advanced flight instructing for pilots who are already flying commercial jets.

Mike: To teach in the airline or corporate aviation environment instructors must be well established in their career. Each of the highly accomplished former corporate, airline and military pilots I work alongside brings unique experiences which they use to help mold the thought patterns and skills of other pilots learning to fly a particular aircraft. Our purpose is to make the pilots we train the safest in the industry.

Because each airplane has uniquely designed systems and procedures that need to be followed pilots must learn how those systems work and practice those procedures. Therefore, each large aircraft or jet requires a rating specific to that type – a 747 pilot cannot just jump into a Learjet. The price tag ranges from about $15,000 to $60,000 just for initial training, and again for each recurrent training. Since some of the scenarios we must face would be too dangerous to recreate in an airplane on a regular basis, we practice in state-of-the art simulators which cost more than the airplane itself.

In ground school pilots learn the nuts and bolts of the airplane’s systems. Each system is broken down into its individual pieces and the student learns how the pieces of the system work together and how that system works with other systems. Some of these aircraft are so complex their ground school can last for weeks. Then it is time for the simulator.

In the simulator we not only instruct, but simultaneously run the computers that run the simulator all while acting as an air traffic controller, making everything as realistic as possible. Weaving scenarios into the training sessions, we set up system failures or weather conditions that present particular challenges to the crew – it can make for a tense and taxing session. Because of the realism some pilots may even start to sweat, forgetting we’re in a simulator. But these sessions also tax instructors. We’re continuously evaluating progress, measuring it against a set of standards that must be met in order for the pilot to be recommended to take the final exam for that type rating – the "check ride". Every now and then someone fails to make the grade and that’s the part I least enjoy – breaking the news to them – but fortunately those times are few and I consider myself privileged to have met many fine pilots who have taken on the challenge and achieved what they set out to do.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 21, 2013 Mother's Day Weekend

The Liberty Gazette

May 21, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Fly-in season is off to a great start! Thanks to SocialFlight, an app I downloaded recently, I can check my phone for all manner of aviation activity anywhere in the country, and view it in list or map view. I love the map view, because it provides a good visual perspective on relative distance. Each event is displayed with an airplane icon, and all I have to do is tap on the icon and – bam! – there it is, all the vital information we’ll need to join the fun.

Mother’s Day weekend began with a Friday night concert in Houston. The weather was unruly and vengeful toward airplanes so we opted to listen to Mercury perform Beethoven’s fourth and fifth symphonies while the storms blew across Texas. Saturday morning brought beautiful flying weather so we hopped in the Elyminator and headed west to Smithville where their Chamber of Commerce pitched in to put on the annual fly-in and airport open house. Food, door prizes, airplane beauty contests, and Young Eagles (airplane rides for kids ages 8-17) put smiles on many faces. I was especially happy to see several special needs kids included in the fun.

I roamed the ramp amongst the airplanes and two EMS helicopters on display in search of people with clipboards. These judges would have the power to declare that Pitts S1 (small, single-seat aerobatic biplane) with the awesome paint job, to be the winner of at least one category in the beauty contest, so I had my work cut out for me. Then Amy landed in her very rare Stinson Gullwing, and I began to see our chances for the "most unique" category fade away unless I could sweeten up the sweet talk. We did get some snickers when we showed them the words "Stuck In Traffic?" painted across the bottom of our airplane.

Mike: The Smithville fly-in was great fun, but we also had Critters Lodge on our minds. The three-day long fly-in ranks as one of our all-time favorites but we’d only have Saturday afternoon to come up to play. So off we flew to the Dillard Ranch near Centerville where Wendell and Beverly host an amazing aviator party each Spring and Fall on their 300-acre ranch with a 3,100’ beautifully maintained grass runway. There are cabins and camp sites, and a hangar about three times the size of our house, where guests gather for every meal. It had been over a year since we’d seen Wendell and Bev, who once loaned us a tent and sleeping bags on our anniversary so we could stay to enjoy the fun. As always, Wendell greeted us with the most humble and gracious, "I’m proud you’re here," and Bev’s face lit up when we walked in the hangar – she was eager to talk about getting involved in air racing.

After an afternoon of food, fellowship, and fly-bys, we returned to the Elyminator for a single low pass to say "thanks" and "see ya next time" and headed back toward Houston with the setting sun.

Linda: Sunday morning we’d meet at a different church for the baby dedication of our sixth grandchild, Gabriella. It was a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 14, 2013 Sporty's Pilot Shop

The Liberty Gazette

May 14, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Hal was an engineering student at Purdue University when he began his flight training. The year was 1958, and the young entrepreneur and aviator faced his future with a passion for life. By 1961 Hal had become a flight instructor, and a few years later he had earned the highest general certificate, the airline transport pilot certificate. Supplementing his flight instructor income, he began selling a special radio by mail order. This multi-transistor VHF/AM portable radio called "Channel Master" would receive the frequencies used by airport control towers. Hal, being an active part of the aviation community, knew his customers well – what pilot wouldn’t want a radio that would allow him or her to listen to air traffic? Still today, student pilots often log on to LiveATC.net to listen in to pilots and controllers, finding it helpful in learning the lingo. Hal must have understood the value in that. His Studebaker doubled as a warehouse for the radios as he took orders and shipped his first product to his customers.

His great enthusiasm for aviation led him to develop a three-day ground school course which so impressed industry leaders that the largest aviation organization – the Aircraft Owners and Pilots’ Association, with over 400,000 members – quickly picked up Hal’s course and began offering it around the country.

The Studebaker had become Sporty’s Pilot Shop, which today, 52 years later, is recognized around the world as the place to go for aviation products. The business has grown and sprouted other several aviation businesses at the airport in Batavia, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati. Operating 14 aircraft, managing the airport, running the FBO (meaning they sell fuel, provide maintenance, etc.), an avionics shop, two flight schools, and aircraft sales keep Hal and Sandy Shevers busy. As if all that weren’t enough, Hal and Sandy also have educational videos produced right there in their large two-story headquarters.

Was it the radio that started it all? Maybe. Sort of. But it’s more than that. I think Hal’s success has come largely because of his ability to relate to people. It takes so much more than being a salesman. I’ve met some salesman types I wouldn’t even trust enough to sell me a candy bar. But for Hal Shevers, recipient of the Boy Scouts’ Distinguished Eagle, and inductee into the National Association of Flight Instructors Hall of Fame, customer service takes top priority. If a customer has a problem with a product they purchased from Sporty’s, Hal will get on the phone and work out the problem himself. It’s not that he doesn’t have excellent staff – he does – but he’s that committed to setting the standard for true service, something that seems to be a dying art these days.

Hal and Sandy and their dedicated team can be found cooking hot dogs every Saturday from noon until two for pilots who want to fly in and shoot the breeze, and the annual Sporty’s Fly-In – coming up this Saturday to coincide with International Learn to Fly Day – draws a huge crowd of airplane lovers, each one hoping to be the winner of the Sporty’s Sweepstakes airplane, a brand new Legend Cub.

Not bad for a kid selling radios by mail order from his car.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 7, 2013 Soaring

The Liberty Gazette

May 7, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: There I sat leaning to one side, the long wing’s tip resting on the ground. The airplane in front of me moved slowly forward tightening the rope that connected us. Once taught, the pilot of the plane wagged his tail-feathers and then I did the same, signaling "ready." Slowly we began moving forward making all sorts of noise as the small wingtip wheel scraped along the ground. As we gained speed my flight controls became effective allowing me to balance on the single wheel just below the fuselage. With drag reduced we accelerated quickly and the sailplane I was in desperately wanted to jump airborne but I couldn’t let it fly just yet because it could pull the tail of the tow-plane up too much where it might catch its propeller and flip over. Instead, I let it gently hover inches from the ground and as the tow-plane reached flying speed it towed me skyward.

I remember watching as a youngster Disney’s "The Boy Who Flew with Condors." The movie opens with a boy climbing high on a rocky ledge to watch huge Condors in flight. In the midst of this he sees a glider land in a field far below and climbs down to meet the pilot as the chase crew loads the glider on a trailer. The pilot invites the boy to their airport to learn about soaring. The story follows him through many adventures including flying with the Condors who help him find lift when he can’t find it in a rainstorm. Of course, I was enthralled by anything that involved flying, but this film was instrumental in planting that seed of adventure in me at an early age.

After reaching a predetermined altitude, the tow-pilot sought a place to release me from the umbilical. I pulled the release knob and with a bang the towrope furled away. I pulled the nose up to the right as the tow-plane made a diving left turn returning to the glider port. Turning in the rising air of a thermal a red-tailed hawk appeared beneath my wing, hovering a few feet from my canopy. Wishing to avoid a collision with this magnificent creature, I saved the memory and banked gently away leaving the thermal to him and thought about that Disney movie.

Learning energy management is challenging and fun. After the initial tow release it’s possible for a glider to stay aloft for hours taking advantage of lift generated by thermals, wind over ridges, and in high mountain regions a condition called mountain wave. Gliders are always descending through the air around them and lift is air rising faster than the glider’s descent through it. With experience, the glider pilot becomes skilled at finding lift by watching for signs like dust devils, indicating thermal activity or wind along the sides of ridges.

Linda: Aside from Captains Mike Ely and Chesley Sullenberger, you may recognize the names of a few other well-known glider pilots. Adventurist Steve Fossett and actor Cliff Robertson were avid gliders and hotelman Barron Hilton has hosted the Barron Hilton Cup, a week-long gliding camp at his Flying M Ranch in Nevada annually since 1981.

Mike: In the Houston area there are two glider ports: the Soaring Club of Houston, near Hempstead, and the Greater Houston Soaring Association near Wallis. Both are places to start seeking out soaring adventures.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 30, 2013 Grand Canyon

The Liberty Gazette

April 30, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: I’d only been flying a year or so when I went to Flagstaff, Arizona to visit friends. I was quite surprised with my success convincing Janet to take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, but probably not nearly as surprised as she was with the view and the sensation as we reached the edge of the canyon. Her gasp let me know she was happier in the back seat than the front, while I soaked in the great experience – better than a movie – from the panoramic bubble of the Eurocopter. Focused as I was paying attention to how to fly a whirly-bird, I didn’t realize until later that Janet thought the pilot was handsome. For me, flying over that amazing feat of God’s hand was the attraction.

Mike: Flying to Washington State last June with a comfortable mid-season lead in the Sport Air Racing League point standings, we stopped for a couple hours to visit my brother in Boulder City. Crossing the canyon that encases the Colorado River south of Hoover Dam the weather was severe clear, visibility seemed endless, and the shimmer off the deep blue hues of Lake Mead corked up behind the dam was inviting.

Approaching Boulder City Airport we blended in with the local air traffic and after pulling off the runway a bright rainbow-striped Grand Canyon Airlines DeHavilland Twin Otter landed behind us. Grand Canyon Airlines and sister companies Scenic Airlines and Papillion Helicopters (where Linda’s friend became smitten with the pilot) offer aerial tours over the Grand Canyon. Their airplanes are modified with enlarged windows for exceptional views.

I first experience the canyon years ago when three friends and I loaded backpacks into a Cessna 210 and flew there for a weekend trip. After hiking over a vertical mile down into the canyon I ripped off my boots and gleefully doused my aching feet in the icy waters of the Colorado River. Though long, the trip back to the rim was a satisfying accomplishment.

My first job flying charter flights took me to the Grand Canyon. We euphemistically referred to it as "the ditch" but that’s just the rashness of youth speaking. My trips were traditional charters, flying from southern California to Grand Canyon National Park Airport where I’d hand my passengers over to the ground tour operators and head to the Grand Canyon Village. That was a great spot for lunch while watching people ascend from the canyon carrying backpacks or riding on mules.

These days flight restrictions dictate where aircraft can be flown over the national park, but before those restrictions were in place I flew the entire length of the canyon back to Boulder Dam below the rim and once rode in a helicopter down to the Havasupai Indian Village where a majestic waterfall rushes into a stunning turquoise pool.

Linda: Even with the flight restrictions a trip over the canyon is still amazing, and for the best view I recommend a helicopter. Leaving the airport the flight doesn’t climb high, so the effect of visual cues brings awe when going from low-to-the-ground to a sudden vast, deep opening; it’s as though the bottom just dropped out and there you are, looking way, way out over the edge, in canyon color – something my friend Janet says she will never forget.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 23, 2013 Sun 'n Fun

The Liberty Gazette

April 23, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Just back from Lakeland, Florida, where Sun ‘n Fun, the world’s second-largest fly-in logged another year of fun with airplanes. Last year I joined ForeFlight, maker of the best-selling aviation app ever. This was my first major airshow/fly-in to attend as a team member of this premier aviation company, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, with airplanes and aviation fanatics all around what’s not to enjoy? But representing a winner added another dimension to attending an already exciting event.

The six-day long fly-in is a place where air shows happen day and night and many sellers and manufacturers announce new products and features, and pilots fly in to find a good deal, a "show special" price on something they’re thinking of buying.

Hanging out in Hangar C next to us was the world’s largest pilot supply shop, Sporty’s, of Batavia, Ohio and a simulator company on the other side. David Clark headsets and NFlight Cam/Go Pro sat across from us and Aero Shell just another booth over. Any one of these companies attracts a large crowd, and the ForeFlight team spent an incredibly busy six days showing how our great app works on iPads and iPhones.

Some customers were young students who had told their parents about ForeFlight and how it would help them with their flying lessons, and so the parents came to see what it was all about. Once I demonstrated how much the app could do, pre-flight planning, getting a weather briefing and filing a flight plan, en-route information for communication, weather, winds aloft, traffic, fuel availability and prices, important phone numbers, and so much more, parents, each and every time, would turn to their child and say, "We are getting this for you!"

Many existing customers – airline pilots, military pilots, corporate and freight pilots, leisure pilots and student pilots – came by just to say hello, and "I love your product!" Often they just wanted to shake a hand and see the people behind the thing that has, as I heard so often last week, "changed the way we fly."

Speaking of winners, Mike and I had just raced the first Sport Air Racing League race of the 2013 season two days before I left for Sun ‘n Fun. Kevin Eldredge, who races the famous NXT race plane, "Relentless" well over 300 mph at the Reno Air Races, raced with us that weekend and was heading to Florida when he had an engine failure and put the airplane down safely in a farmer’s field in Louisiana. I saw the emails asking if anyone could stop and give Kevin a ride to Lakeland. Three days later Kevin walked through the doorway of Hangar C asking, "Did you hear what happened?" I said yes and gave him a big hug, happy to see him.

In the air or on the ground, it’s rewarding to be part of a winning team. Working with the best and brightest in the industry, brilliant people and cutting edge technology, has been a major switch for me in this mid-life career change from the corporate paralegal profession. Now I can say the sky’s the limit.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 16, 2013 Million Dollar View

The Liberty Gazette

April 16, 2013

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Sitting at his desk our friend Jerry interrupts his telephone conversation, his eyes following a German ME-262 as it makes a low pass down the runway. As the WWII jet fighter disappears from sight he apologizes to the person on the other end of the line for his momentary distraction. What Jerry sees out the big picture windows of his office that overlook the ramp and runways of Ellington Field is what I call the "million dollar view" and every day brings something new that would jazz any pilot or airplane enthusiast.

Each airport has its own viewing value for the aviation spectator and depending on location that setting might be worth $20 thousand or $20 million, yet one doesn’t need to spend a fortune for an office on an airport to enjoy such scenery.

At Houston Hobby airport for instance, the city has set up observation areas adjacent to the approach end of the runways on the northwest and southeast sides of the airport. I often see people parked, eating lunch as airplanes come and go. Similar observation areas have been created at airports around the country. Ft. Lauderdale International and Ft. Lauderdale Executive airports in Florida offer picnic tables, and the radio conversations between the tower controllers and the pilots are piped through a public address system. An inexpensive scanner-type radio from RadioShack could provide the same opportunity to listen in.

While Ellington offers almost a constant stream of military and NASA aircraft, Galveston has a patio area near the ramp where people can watch the oil rig helicopters come and go, and planes from the Lone Star Flight Museum take flight. David Wayne Hooks airport in Tomball has a café with windows facing the ramp and runways and a park with a lake where the ducks will happily take your food scraps. Liberty may not have the traffic volume these other airports do but the beauty of this is that each airport is different; imagine sitting at a picnic table, sipping on a soda as a bright yellow J-3 Cub makes its way around the pattern practicing takeoffs and landings.

In Phoenix I used to ride my bike out to the ramp at the Williams Gateway Airport. The view there was breathtaking, not unlike Ellington where a lot of military traffic performed impromptu airshows, but with the Superstition Mountain Wilderness all around, an almost vertical red and brown mastiff topped by a strange wind-blown rock formation called the Hoodoos. In Eagle, Colorado I’d sit by the fireplace in the lobby of the Vail Valley Jet Center watching aircraft landing against the backdrop of Rocky Mountain peaks alighted in Aspens regaled in full fall colors, and patches of snow here and there. In the Caribbean I’ve munched on fries at a small beachfront restaurant next to an airstrip while boats lazily drift along in turquoise waters of a half-moon shaped bay surrounded by white sandy beaches.

All of these are wonderful experiences but the greatest views I have had the privilege to behold are looks on the faces of little kids experiencing the thrill and wonder of flight for the first time as they look out those cockpit windows at the far horizon and imagining what lies just beyond. For a great example, search on the Internet for a video called Lainey’s First Airplane Ride, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s priceless.

　www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com