March 22, 2016 Experience Alaska

The Liberty Gazette

March 22, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Imagine what it was like nearly a hundred years ago in places we think of today as picturesque vacation destinations. Towns so remotely located in vast wilderness it took weeks, or more, to reach by boat - places where no roads existed. Residents, be they fishermen or lumber jacks, would have limited contact with the outside world or even the nearest town. But they were used to that.

Now picture a fisherman in his boat repairing nets after a long day on icy waters when suddenly he hears a clattering commotion from above. What thoughts fly through his head as he watches a gangly-looking beast descend from nowhere to the choppy waters of the bay? The year is 1922 and Roy Jones just landed his plane named “Nightbird” in Ketchikan, Alaska, the first to use an airplane to really connect the community with the outside world. For hearty souls willing to take on the challenges posed by “The Last Frontier”, great potential existed here.

The Ketchikan Visitors Bureau teamed up with the aviation community of Southeast Alaska and a few others partners to produce six films that promote tourism. One of these, “Ketchikan: The Bush Pilots”, chronicles the important contributions aviation has made and continues to make in Southeastern Alaska. While I would love to say that airplanes are the focus of the 30-minute production, Alaska’s majestic scenery is the real star of this documentary which won three Emmy awards in 2014.

Opening scenes of the breathtaking wilderness as viewed from above leave viewers awestruck. Then a lone seaplane comes into view to lend an even more graphic picture of the vastness of this incredibly beautiful and rugged place.

In Southeast Alaska, seaplanes provide the most basic of necessities to many remotely located villages, lodges and logging camps, transporting groceries, mail, medical aid, even newspapers. For Alaskans, the airplane is an integral part of life today, and a special aviation culture exists where pilots comprise a greater percentage of the population than in the lower forty-eight states. For some destinations, air travel offers the only way to get there. Around Ketchikan, runways are few and far between. If you want to land, you’ve got to land on the water.

Not long after Roy Jones made that first flight to Ketchikan other aviation companies began setting up shop in Alaska. Bob Ellis started out working for one of these and eventually branched out on his own. Ellis Air Transport bought surplus Grumman Gooses (twin engine amphibious airplanes), and formed a strong regional airline in Ketchikan which connected the communities of Southeast Alaska in a way that they’d never been before.

Over the years the driving force behind the economy of Alaska has been its natural resources, the major industries being mining, forestry and fishing. As those industries have shrunk or been undercut by foreign interests, Southeast Alaskans began seeking an alternative economic base. Today that industry is tourism. Once again, Alaska natural resources are on display, and it’s the seaplane that makes the aerial view available to anyone who wants to see it first-hand.

Kudos to the Ketchikan Visitor’s Bureau for creating films that come as close as possible to capturing the magnificent grandeur they call home. Enjoy them for yourself at http://www.ketchikanstories.com/.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 15, 2016 "Two"

The Liberty Gazette 
March 15, 2016

Ely Air Lines 
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 
Guest Contributor: Ryszard Zadow

A good wingman never says anything but "two” and “you’re on fire”.

Yesterday I flew an old warbird, hanging onto the wingtip of a T-28. For me, it was a place that was…perfect.

My second airplane ride was in a T-6 named Thunder Chicken. I was 15 years old. The T-6 was parked in the grass at Weiser airport in Cypress, Texas. We didn’t know it was Cypress, Texas back then; it was just an airport in the middle of nowhere. I took my first flying lesson there in a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 150. I was in awe of the T-6. It’s owners, Al Snyder and Pete Howard, were ten feet tall to me. One day Al Snyder was tinkering with Thunder Chicken. I sheepishly walked up and asked him if I could climb up and look inside. He said, “Ok…just don’t touch nuthin.”

It felt like climbing onto a skyscraper. I must’ve stood outside the front cockpit for 10 minutes, trying to absorb every detail. Wonder is the only emotion I felt. I finally climbed down and thanked Al. I got about 15 steps away when I heard him say “Hey kid!” I spun around and he said “You want to go for a ride?” I blurted out “Yes sir!”

Al strapped me in and for the next 45 minutes or so the only emotion I felt was awe. I was totally captivated by the sights, sounds, smells and feel of that grumbly old airplane. Once airborne he told me to try it. I flew around in a gentle 360 degree turn, then he said “Here, let’s try this…” Then the airplane started a nose dive; a pull up and there were forces pushing me into my seat I’d never felt before. In no time the world was upside down and it was much quieter. Then I’m looking over his head at nothing but the earth and those forces pushed me into my seat again. The old airplane groaned and rattled. Awed shifted to ecstacy! I’d confirmed this was my calling and could hardly contain myself.

I had to get home before my parents returned. I’d taken the car - I didn’t have a driver’s license. I kept thanking Mr. Snyder as I hurried away explaining to him why I was in a rush and he just laughed. It was a defining moment.

So yesterday I’m hanging on the wingtip of a T-28. It’s a sacred place for me. We all have our way of dealing with the world when it comes crashing in. For me, I drift back to the days when I was just a Lieutenant in a fighter squadron. When life was simple. When you earned your keep by how well you flew, how good a wingman you were, how well you could lead your buddies into combat, how well you landed on the boat. Life was measured in success and failures that simply let you live another day and you didn’t know any better to stress over it. Many days have passed since then but that doesn’t mean I can’t go back there in my mind. When you’re hangin onto the wingtip of a T-28 there are no problems in your life.

To the uninitiated it would appear all of your thoughts must be concentrated, focused on the fact you’re some mere feet from another airplane in flight, but truth be known, for those who once did that as a matter of course, it’s a relaxing place, a place to ponder. It’s a place to let your mind and heart bask in the wonderment of what God created. The sky, the land, the smoothness of the air. The noise, the smell, the vibration of the machine God gave man the skills to create. The Awe. The same I felt standing on the wing of Thunder Chicken. The humility of being human.

My manipulation of the flight controls are subconscious as I hold my position, mimicking the move of the lead plane. I think of my brother-in-law who just passed away. The day also marks one year ago that I lost another person close to me. It’s not always death that takes people from our lives, but often decisions. When someone you love passes on it’s so final. When you lose a relationship to life’s different paths it’s loss just the same.

So for that short time yesterday that I flew an old T-6, a peer to Thunder Chicken, I got to meditate in that sacred place, a few mere feet from the wingtip of a T-28. It was for me, perfect. And in my backseat, his first flight in a grumbly old T-6, was a 15 year old kid.

Ryszard Zadow is a Captain with Southwest Airlines
and former LCDR, US Navy

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 8, 2016 Birthday Flight

The Liberty Gazette

March 8, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Guest writers, Virginia Ford and Barbara Lyons

Virginia: Has a squirrel ever appeared at your door for a handout? Or a butterfly landed on your hat? How about a daughter and her husband landing their plane at your local airport after flying hundreds of miles, just to surprise you on your 83rd birthday? Do you laugh with joy? Or cry with joy? I did both.

Promising not to fly upside down, my favorite pilot-daughter offered a birthday flight over a couple of Indiana counties. So, two daughters and I boarded the plane to soar into the wild blue yonder.

What a beautiful day! Linda was piloting and Barbara and I were the excited passengers. Linda proposed that we follow I-465, the loop around Indianapolis. Afterward, we did a few passes over Barbara's house in the country. It was a wonderful view and fun to tell friends afterward that I went around I-465 at 130 mph ...when they gasped, I added, "at thirty-eight hundred feet!"

The day was perfect for our high adventure and when we returned, the landing was also absolutely perfect (of course). I had to wonder if Linda's late father was looking down and enjoying her prowess. His passions were flying and racing. Hmmmm...history repeats itself, doesn't it?

Barbara: Over the four days of birthday celebration we ate at some great restaurants. Then in the evenings we gathered around the table at our country house with a warm cup of coffee on cold Indiana nights and had fun conversation, laughed a lot, remembered a lot, and enjoyed ice-cream cake.

Then all too quickly it was time to get as many good-bye hugs and "I love you's" in as we could while at the little local airport, packing bags into the plane, checking weather conditions, taking family pictures, talking about future visits.

Virginia: This was my birthday blessing, and the time with two daughters, two sons-in-law, and a granddaughter, which ensued was more than memorable. Oh, I know you've heard folks moan and groan about growing old. But this provided an opportunity for me to experience the benefits of a long life.

A life in which there is more time to appreciate the overwhelming beauty of the earth with its seasons and surprises; time to respect a world which seems to be capable of continuing its trips around the sun no matter what we do; more chances to make choices and to learn from them; more laughter; more opportunities to say, "I love you".

The Creator gives the gift of life for a reason, so it is up to me to continue to learn more, give more, grow in understanding, forgive more, laugh more, and love more. This is how I thank a generous God, at any age.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 1, 2016 The Little Trophy

The Liberty Gazette

March 1, 2016

Ely Air Lines

by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Enter the Danville Public Library from the parking lot in the back, pass the check-out counter and take the stairs to the left, past the table topped with tomato and strawberry boxes neatly filled with paperback books for sale, past racks of videos and books on tape and the usual library shelves to discover the Indiana Room, full of hidden gems of Indiana history, not the least of which is Steven Smith, historian, and man of many accomplishments. In a recent trip back to the Hoosier state, my niece’s homework brought us to meet Steve.

Growing up around auto racing, a smidgen south of Danville, in Mooresville, Indiana, young Steve wanted to enter the famous Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio. Before making the big time in Akron (the Indy of soap box derbies), Steve would first test his skills at Wilbur Shaw Hill in Indianapolis - named for the winner of the first Indy 500.

He bought wood from the lumber company a mile away and carried it home, on his back, then built his racer without power tools, in the living room, because they had no garage or shed. While most dads were building their kids’ cars for them, totally “hands-off” for the kids, when Steven’s dad came to check on his progress, the Do-Not-Touch rule was aimed at Dad, while Steven worked diligently on his first downhill racer.

“The brakes didn’t work, the steering wheel was too low, and about lunch time the tech inspectors asked if I wanted to go through inspection,” Steven recollects. “Because I had worked so hard for it, the two men stood patiently by until I finally finished at 11:30 pm, doing the best I could to rebuild and fix the car I had tried to design like the fast Indy cars of the day - low to the ground. Turns out, it wasn't very aerodynamic for a soap box racer.”

He didn’t win the derby, but the lessons learned building his racer made that little participation trophy mean so much more than the ones he has won for speech contests and acting, and more than all the accolades for his radio announcing and ad agency work. You betya, in that little trophy is a story of epic, life-impacting proportions.

While serving as a preacher at the Salem Church of Christ, and part time auto race photographer and announcer, Steve crossed the super high banks of Salem Speedway to the infield where he aimed to get the best action shots. Track officials open the gate between races and let folks walk to and from the infield and grandstands. When there are no mishaps there are no yellow flags, and no breaks in the action, meaning no crossing the track to get back out, which can make a preacher late for an evening service. 

Fortunately, Steve’s good friend Martin Kennedy started church for him, knowing he must be stuck in that infield. 

Martin may not have ever built a race car or competed in the Soap Box Derby, but his career as a dentist has afforded him the opportunity to build an airplane called a LongEZ, and with access to dental material create a lovely necklace with a gold medallion of the airplane as a gift for his wife. 

My mom tied it up neatly with a quip, “Building an airplane, like building a Soapbox Derby racer, can be a Long process and often isn’t EZ, but like winning souls for the Lord, it’s worth it.”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 23, 2016 Lecture 473

The Liberty Gazette

February 23, 2016

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The buzz and clattering sound outside were unmistakable. Distant at first, moving ever closer. Billy knew that sound and rushed outside his Friendswood home. Overhead, a yellow Piper J-3 Cub circled, the head of its pilot visible as he looked down on his pal, hollering, “Let’s go!”

Billy Faught raced out to the airport and met the plane piloted by his good friend, Chuck Emmett and the two flew on to Galveston to the Emmett family’s second home, on the bay. Chuck would deftly land the Cub on the sandy road behind the beach house and the boys would hop into a speed boat and spend the day water skiing.

Those were simpler times, Billy says today. “My dad got the flying bug and learned to fly at Genoa Airport. Most times I came with him. For me, there was no Little League; I grew up up at the airport.”

Genoa Airport? Yes, indeed. There was a Genoa Airport in Houston, and it was owned and managed by Charles Emmett, Chuck’s father. He and those who frequented the airport were like Benny Rusk, Earl Atkins, and others here in the beginning days of the Liberty Municipal Airport.

Chuck made the local TV news when he soloed four or five airplanes on one day - his 16th birthday - before getting his driver’s license. He and Billy had the run of Genoa “International” Airport, as they called it.

“But, it was expected that we would help out, too,” Billy recalls. “We were treated not quite like adults, but less like kids. We could do a lot of things, like ride a motorcycle, or the Ford tractor, or drive the boat, as long as we handled them well, the way Charles would himself.”

The Cessna 190 that smelled of leather, oil, and cigar belonged to Charles, the strong fatherly type usually seen in khaki pants and button down shirts with the top two buttons undone, hair combed and a Roi Tan cigar clamped between his teeth. He’d lecture the boys when he wanted something done. Lecture 473 meant cut the grass. One day, Charles wanted the boys to lift a low, sunken rail separating the parking lot from the rest of the airport. Billy and Chuck worked hard with a floor jack to lift it and then shore it up with bricks.

“After that,” Billy remembers, “when Charles started in on another lecture we just sighed, ‘Here we go, raising the rail again’.”

At night along the banks of the pond out back the boys went frog hunting with an old lantern. “We’d see a possum sitting on a log, and then we’d spot Charlie the alligator. Charlie would sneak up to the bank and with a flick of his tail, knock the possum into the pond - and then he’d have him.”

Stearmans, Beech Staggerwings, and Cessnas frequented Genoa “International”, and all of it made for a good growing up. But to Billy, the most magical time was Christmas Eve, when people flew in to visit family members, filling the atmosphere with happiness.

Chuck and his dad, and the airport are now gone. Mrs. Emmett tried to keep it alive but when a hurricane caused a lot of damage she finally sold it, and the fabulous growing up place became a sand pit, and later a landfill.

Billy would rather have seen it become a housing addition than a dump, and can’t drive by without shedding a tear when he sees those old rusting hangars, but his memories as the airport kid help keep Genoa International alive.

http://www.elyairlines.blogspot.com/

February 16, 2016 The Flying Queens

The Liberty Gazette

February 16, 2016

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: I heard about another gal named Linda who grew up in Oklahoma in a one-room house without electricity or plumbing. The house had a pot-bellied wood stove and the family had only one bed. Girls weren’t generally encouraged in sports back then. One woman recalls being told that if she ran too fast her uterus would fall out.

Determined to rise above the conditions into which she was born, Linda held fast to something she heard about when she was only six or seven: that there was a way to go to college and play basketball. There was this team in Texas, and they didn’t ever lose. Maybe someday she could play for them – the greatest basketball team ever.

Mike: At first they were called the Lassies, and when the local Harvest Queen Mill became their sponsor the team became the Harvest Queens. But when the mill’s sponsorship term ended Wayland Baptist College in Plainview needed support so they turned to a community leader and graduate of Wayland, Claude Hutcherson, owner of Hutcherson Air Service.

Claude had helped the team by providing transportation to far-away games, but his support would increase dramatically and for the next few decades the Hutcherson Flying Queens would earn a 712-106 record, including an astounding collegiate record of 131 consecutive victories, 10 AAU national championships and 10 second-place finishes.

Hutcherson got his start selling and servicing airplanes in Plainview, founding Hutcherson Air Service in 1948. This successful local businessman made a lasting and unique impression in women’s basketball history, but more importantly, he helped many young ladies reach goals.

Not only did he purchase uniforms and spiffy travel outfits, but he furnished four Beechcraft Bonanza airplanes to transport the team and coaches to games, piloting one of the planes himself.

Truly caring about the team he was adamant about safety. By one report, when he refused to fly in bad weather it caused him to miss his daughter's wedding when the team became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri.

Today, Hutcherson Center is the physical education center on the Wayland campus, home of both men’s and women’s basketball teams, and athletic department offices.

Many women have said they could not have gone to college had it not been for Claude. He not only helped provide for college, and basketball, uniforms and transportation, but even a winter coat if needed. He spent millions to help them, and in an interview said he’d do it all over again.

Linda: Claude’s widow published a book about the interesting life of her late husband so that their grandchildren and great grandchildren would know who he was. It may be hard to get your hands on a copy of "Reaching Goals: The life of Claude Hutcherson" because copies were printed mainly for the family, but there is also a documentary in the works. It’s called "The Flying Queens: A Basketball Dynasty" (www.flyingqueens.com).

After graduation from Wayland, Linda the basketball star gave her time to special needs children and advocated for improvements in mental health. She became the Administrator of the Harris County Psychiatric Center, and eventually held executive positions within MHMRA and the University of Health Science Center-Houston. The girl who grew up in a one room house without plumbing or electricity became one of Houston City Magazine’s "Most Powerful Women in Houston". While some of the credit goes to determination and great coaching, in this story aviation played an important part.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 9, 2016 The place that wasn't there

The Liberty Gazette

February 9, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Scanning the dimly lit instrument panel as we cruise along in the wee hours of the morning, the radio is mostly silent and all that can be heard is the hissing and rumbling of air moving past our airplane traveling at eighty percent of the speed of sound. The lights of Las Vegas have recently drifted by the starboard side of the aircraft and we’ve been at 35,000’ for over half an hour on our regular Phoenix-Reno route. In the goopy black cloaked landscape below, small clusters of lights are sparsely scattered about. There’s one set of lights here, off to our right side, which I happen to know fascinates a peculiar group of people.

My co-pilot is busy filling out the aircraft maintenance log so I turn behind him and address our jump-seater.

"You see the lights out there?"

"Yep!"

"No you don’t. They doesn’t exist."

On the aeronautical charts (maps) for this area is depicted a dry lake, about 76 miles north of Las Vegas in the middle of restricted airspace; it’s Groom Lake, also known as Area 51 - "where they store dead aliens," according to some.

These days when I’m conducting a training scenario that requires a long runway I ask pilots the trivia question: where is the longest paved runway in North America? They usually answer with Cape Kennedy or Edwards Air Force Base. True, Edwards has a very long dry lakebed runway covering almost six and a half miles, but it’s not paved. Denver International’s 16,000’ Runway 34L is the longest at a commercial airport.

The concrete at Groom Lake, however, stretches continuously over 29,000 feet. It isn’t really a single runway, but four of them laid end-to-end. Supposedly, when one portion was opened others were closed. Satellite imagery shows the long runway is marked with X’s its entire length, meaning it is no longer in use. They’ve built yet another 11,000’ runway next to it.

I don’t know what spooky things happen there, but they say that while one test program is being conducted the people involved in others must remain underground or indoors with the shades drawn.

Legend has it that one day a Cessna pilot got lost while flying over the desert and wandered over the top-secret base, not depicted on his chart. Low on fuel and seeing this long runway, he took a chance and landed. Upon landing his plane was surrounded by high security types. With M-16s pointed at him, they hauled him away for interrogation that lasted three days. Finally deciding he was telling the truth about being lost, they fueled his plane, pointed him in the direction of Las Vegas and said, "Don’t come back."

A week later the same Cessna landed there again. As the enforcers surrounded the plane the pilot shouted, "Do whatever you want with me, but please tell my wife where I was for those three days!"

As I look at that "Classified" cluster of lights, the legend of the poor Cessna pilot makes me chuckle. How could they oblige, when this place "doesn’t exist"?

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 2, 2016 Sibongile the Lioness

The Liberty Gazette

February 2, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: As a child, Sibongile Sambo gazed longingly skyward at planes that trekked aloft, imagining what it would be like to fly. Over her house they soared, and captured little Sibongile’s heart and mind. But careers for black women in South Africa didn’t typically include aviation, much less being the owner of a company, so she began to carve out a successful career in human resources.

Because she is bright and is gifted with ingenuity, Sibongile began building her reputation in the HR industry, but that all changed in 2003 when the South African government passed legislation designed to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds to step into the world of entrepreneurship. That’s when she saw an opportunity to jump into the world of airplanes, where she had always felt she belonged.

Lacking both collateral and experience didn’t deter this determined woman; there’s one thing this pioneer knew she had that had great value: her passion for airplanes.

In 2004 when she founded her company, SRS Aviation, in Johannesburg, Sibongile Sambo became the first black woman to own, 100%, an aviation start-up. They call her a Lioness of Africa. Helicopter tours and VIP chartered trips were among the first services offered. Her company now also offers aircraft maintenance, sales, and fleet management, and flies parts and components to others in the industry.

Learning aviation language offered her an exciting challenge. Profit margins have, too. But she’s up for the challenges and took that first step armed with nothing more than her passion.

She also credits the investment others made in her life for helping her be where she is today, and has already begun to give back by providing for three of her employees to obtain their private pilot licenses. She’s a trailblazer, leading the way for other black South African women to start aviation businesses, earning respect and admiration of people from all over the world.

Last year the Women in Aviation International conference was held in Dallas, and many women came from South Africa to learn and network. On the first day of the conference we woke to a significant snow fall, and all the African women, dressed in traditional colorful clothes, enjoyed snapping photos of the snow. One small group even came up to me and asked if they could have their picture taken with a white woman. These gals have more support than their mothers ever did, and they’re taking hold of the opportunities and making something for themselves. I have a suspicion that Sibongile had something to do with the group of women who came to Dallas last year. In spite of her busy schedule, somehow she finds the time to mentor others and devote time to motivational speaking engagements.

Her story inspires people of all ages and backgrounds, but she’s not one to rest on her laurels. She has plans to expand her business across Africa, where she sees growth in aviation, and has determined that not even the sky can limit her.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 26, 2016 Small airports give life

The Liberty Gazette

January 26, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: The Red Barn restaurant had something to do with it - the peppermint ice cream, too; both are inviting to a young boy. Add the intrigue of activity at a grass airfield and the comfort of family Sunday afternoons and the result just may turn out to be the proper recipe for a future pilot.

For as long as he can remember Jason Talley wanted to fly. A smart kid, his grades won him scholarships, and within a couple of years of high school graduation he’d built and sold his first tech company. Four years and three more tech companies later, Mathematics degree in hand, it was time to take a hiatus, and learn to fly.

What would be next for Jason? Greater credentials to back up his experience building successful companies made law school a fitting choice. Besides, if he ever needed a fall-back occupation, he could always practice law.

After passing the State Bar in his home state of Missouri, he passed the Kansas and California Bars. Delightful west coast weather convinced Jason to move his family to California as he continued as a serial entrepreneur, all the while adding to his pilot certificate and ratings, finally earning the highest level pilot license and instructor certificates. Then he bought a jet.

When I asked what he’d want most for people to know about aviation he didn’t hesitate: "That a lot of general aviation pilots have a passion for not only flying, but doing things for others also."

Jason puts his passion to work, and makes a great example. With Veteran’s Air Lift he can get Vets to airports that don’t serve airlines and are closer to where they live.

"Our military veterans have given us the best years of their lives, and general aviation provides a mechanism where we can say ‘Thank you’."

Likewise, with Angel Flights, Jason helps bring people of all ages where they need to be for medical treatment. These special passengers don’t necessarily live far from a major airport served by airlines, but for many riding on an airliner poses a threat to their health, so private flying is a critical solution.

Donating time, fuel, money, and aircraft to fly someone who needs help is near to Jason’s heart, and has given him immense appreciation for small airports. "This outreach ceases to be possible when community airports don’t receive public support."

As a member of the Angel Flights Board of Directors, Jason especially appreciates the annual awards dinners.

"Its so neat to see our volunteer pilots at these dinners, where at each table there is also seated someone who has benefitted from an Angel Flight. When they share their story with the group, you know you gave something of immeasurable value to someone, to their family. Maybe it was a little more time, maybe it was another chance."

Giving someone something they may not have otherwise had, a chance for survival, or more time with their family, is as good for the volunteering pilots as it is for the patients and their loved ones.

As a businessman, Jason couldn’t do what he does with any efficiency if he had to rely on airlines. By flying himself he gets home to his wife and their young sons on his own schedule.

"That’s important," says the boy who loved Sunday afternoon family dinners at the Red Barn restaurant beside the grass strip where small planes took off and landed and the peppermint ice cream was the best in the world.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 19, 2016 Amy and Tracey

The Liberty Gazette

January 19, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When you visit the Wings Over Houston airshow you hear the announcer talk about vintage aircraft and military re-enactments helping to keep history alive. In addition to the critical roles that flying machines have held in times of strife and war, they’ve also ignited something deep inside many a pioneer, those with curiosity about the world in which we live. Today, these are the people who aren’t satisfied sitting at home watching television, but obey an inner appeal to discover, and to venture out, to unfamiliar places.

Alan Cobham flew across Africa in his Imperial Airways de Havilland DH 50J biplane in 1925 on just such a mission. Two years later the famed Charles Lindbergh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and five years after that a similar flight was achieved by Amelia Earhart as the first female to navigate the airways across that ocean.

But in between these trans-Atlantic crossings by Lindbergh and Earhart was an admirable feat by Amy Johnson, who in 1930 had none of the modern electronic helps and gadgets we have today. Piloting an open cockpit biplane equipped with nothing more than basic period flight instruments - a compass to tell her direction, an airspeed indicator, and fuel gauges - she flew without autopilot, manually handling the airplane by stick and rudder.

Earlier this month fellow aviatrix Tracey Curtis-Taylor completed an intercontinental flight in a Boeing Stearman, an open cockpit biplane, following closely the path taken by Amy Johnson 85 years ago. Flying this short range airplane on a long range excursion meant frequent stops in some of the most remote parts of the world.

For three months Tracey relived Amy’s story of "dramatic adventure, reckless bravery and one of the greatest solo achievements in history."

The documentary that will come from Tracey’s ambitious tribute to Amy Johnson and many other courageous aviators of the early days will also provide today’s youth - the gaming generations - with living examples of real adventure: 13,000 miles across Europe and the Mediterranean, to Jordan and over the Arabian Desert, across the Gulf of Oman to Pakistan and over India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, crossing the Timor Sea to Australia. This is the spirit that paved the way for the air travel we know today.

To feed your own curiosity, I recommend her website, www.birdinabiplane.com, which is packed full of wonderful stories and photos that have come from this Canadian-born adventurist. From her first flight lesson at age 16 to today at age 53, Tracey has always found something worth flying for to complement the sheer joy of aviating. Actively giving her time and talents to a variety of population segments, she’s created a structured outreach program to lend her voice to aviation history, military families, youth education, help for the disabled, women in aviation, and one of her other passions, environmental conservation.

Tusk Trust, a UK charity that participates in wildlife conservation, communities, and education in Africa, gained her attention as an avid gemology and geography student with the unique ability to appreciate the natural world from the air, at low level.

One of the most treasured things about living in the world of aviation is the amazing people we meet. Most are incredibly humble and just strive to do what they can to make the world a better place - a good thing for all of us, where ever we may be.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com