June 28, 2016 Feeling at home in Jerome

The Liberty Gazette

June 28, 2016

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Retiring from the Las Vegas police force, Garth made his home in beautiful Twin Falls, Idaho. We’ve flown over it and we’ve stopped there for fuel, crossing the Snake River, made famous in my childhood by Evil Knievel. One advantage of making the aerial crossing of this river in our Cheetah versus an airliner is that we can fly much lower, affording a significantly better view from above of the gorgeous design from the flowing river flanked by mountains not too distant. We can meander, like the river, choosing to circle overhead, follow it one way and then another, sightseeing from the best seats. No wonder Garth would want to retire here.

We didn’t meet him, however, in Twin Falls; we met when we stopped where the fuel was less expensive, in nearby Jerome, Idaho, where ag planes go to refuel and the winds can be howling down the runway, which is certainly better than cursing crosswinds.

Jerome is a small but healthy town just a few miles from Twin Falls. What makes it healthy is that when the newly retired police officer, who also happens to be a pilot, visited the place they asked him if he could manage their airport, the previous manager having recently passed away. Not one to shy away from opportunity, and seeing how he could help the community, Garth first lowered prices, attracting airplanes crossing the country in need of a fuel stop. Next, he began to personally welcome every visitor to his airport. This is what savvy airport managers do – it’s what Jose and Debbie did here in Liberty – walk out to greet folks and offer to help. The fuel here is self-serve, but there’s something about climbing out of an airplane and seeing a big smile, fuel hose in hands that are stuffed into work gloves, and a hearty, “Hi there! Welcome to Jerome! Can I help you with some fuel?” And in our case, through an understanding grin, “I know that look – it’s time to get out and stretch your legs!”

Mike: Airborne for just over three hours, our fannies were ready for a break. We’d risen with the sun to depart Cheyenne early and cross the Northern Rockies in cooler temps that are better for engine performance. I’d been searching the peaks of high boney-back ridges for meandering hiking trails while Linda flew, until finally the land opened into the broad Snake River Valley of Southern Idaho, a land that alternates between irrigation fed circle farms and lava fields.

The heat of the day had not yet exploded as we approached Jerome; the breeze not as much as we would find it the next evening returning to spend the night. Air flows across those mountains, forming swirls and eddies like water flowing over rocks in a river, the faster the flow, the rougher the air. Our arrival was bumpy, but manageable.

For such a small airport it seemed busy. Within the twenty minutes we were there six planes taxied in to take advantage the low fuel price.

Linda: Garth understands that low prices bring customers in, and service keeps them coming back. On our return trip the next evening he loaned us the airport courtesy car and made hotel recommendations for much needed rest before ten more hours flying home.

Don’t let anybody tell you an airport manager can’t make a difference for a town. An airport is a city’s front door, and its manager the face from whom visitors derive their impression of the town. Jerome, Idaho is a must-stop place now, thanks to Garth.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 21, 2016 Eat at Podunk Junction

The Liberty Gazette

June 21, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Chirp! Chirp! Squeal! As the Cessna’s tires kiss the runway local airport characters gather about a coffee pot telling big-fish stories. Picture some Bob Jamison types among them.

The Cessna taxies up to the fuel pump and the prop comes to a stop. Two young pilots step from the plane and look around, then mosey over to the old office building that serves as a terminal. A sign above the door reads “Welcome to Podunk Junction Municipal Airport”. As they step inside a man echo’s the sign’s greetings from behind a glass counter display case full of maps and books and a bunch of aviation trinkets, “Howdy! Welcome to Podunk Junction. Where you come from? You want fuel?”

“Yes sir, we only need a little bit though. We’re from Maynard Farmer International. We heard there’s a place to eat here.”

“The place to eat is about a hundred yards down the road. You can’t miss it. It might look a little rundown on the outside but it’s a nice place and there are always lots of cars there. It’s good food, too.”

Airport cafés have been around for a long time. Though I don’t know first-hand, I can tell by observation that the café business in general isn’t easy to maintain. The failure rate of eateries is pretty high. When I was a new pilot one of the most popular activities was flying to a neighboring airport for a burger and fries.

An airport café isn’t always on the airport itself but within an easy walk, and some are quite unique. Some have names like Southern Flyer Diner, Flying Lady, Nut Tree, Apple Valley Inn, 94th Aero Squadron, Anzio’s Landing, The Red Baron. Others are simply known as the airport café. Pilots look for places to spread their wings and fill their tummies, even taking on less fuel so their planes can get off the ground after they eat.

If you’ve been to the Brenham airport you’ve probably enjoyed an ice cream soda at the Southern Flyer Diner served by girls in poodle skirts.

The Flying Lady was on a golf course and had an overhead track that snaked its way around the eating area. Hanging from this track were over 200 model aircraft with numbers corresponding to numbers on place mats where we read the history of the aircraft.

Nut Tree Airport offered rides in their little amusement park style train, to the restaurant just off the airport.

Apple Valley Inn was once Roy Rogers’ and Dale Evan’s home and also served as Sky King’s Flying Crown Ranch in the 1950’s TV series.

The chain of 94th Aero Squadrons sport a WWI motif inside and out, complete with camouflage netting on the outer walls and turrets.

Some, like Flo’s in Chino, California, are just greasy spoon places that have been there forever.

The best airport cafes are part of the community the airport serves, where car clubs and motorcycle groups and families and citizens who don’t fly feel welcome to join in aviation camaraderie. 

Meanwhile, back at Podunk Junction, as the two young Cessna crew head for the cafe the coffee crowd offers menu suggestions to fill their hungry bellies.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 14, 2016 Brits in Texas

The Liberty Gazette

June 14, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Welcome to Terrell, Texas, where the city’s new Major William F. Long Terminal Building at the Terrell Municipal Airport was designed to look much like the original air traffic control tower and operations building built here decades ago. Inside, the shape of the Great State of Texas spreads out across the floor, and depicted within its boundaries, drawn to scale, are all the British Isles.

75 years ago the skies above Terrell and north Texas came alive with war machines. Their engines droned, burped, coughed, wheezed and roared as they were flung and plunged through the air with ever increasing levels of skill. New military aviators were being born - and not all of them were Americans.

Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor the United States maintained the appearance of neutrality, but behind the scenes, not so much. U.S. citizens traveled to Canada, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and continued on to Europe to join the fight against the evil of the day. Some joined Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) which placed them into the Eagle Squadrons - made up entirely of our boys - while others joined the ranks of the French Air Force. In China, they joined the famed Flying Tigers to fight against Japan, and later this volunteer war pilot contingent morphed into the American Volunteer Group (AVG). Altogether, these volunteer pilots shot down many enemy aircraft even before we officially declared war.

Conversely, British soldiers were discretely sent to Canada, decommissioned and stripped of all insignia. Handed new Canadian passports, they boarded trains for destinations within the United States to learn to fly. Six training facilities were established, the first and largest of course being in Texas - specifically, Terrell. And so we welcome you to Terrell, the airport built for training British pilots.

The 1st British Flying Training School (1st BFTS) wasn’t widely known, at least not prior to the United States’ entry into the war, but in 1939 plans were already set in motion to create training bases in Britain’s overseas commonwealth nations and in the United States. The Chambers of Commerce of Terrell and Kaufman helped the efforts to select the site for the school. Then two auxiliary airstrips were constructed nearby to relieve air traffic congestion.

The citizens of Terrell welcomed the cadets, whose motto was, “The seas divide but the skies unite.” The community and the young soldiers benefited from each other’s cultural influences so that even 71 years after the war ended, ties remain.

Through the mill, civilian instructors gave classes of cadets 20 weeks of ground and flight training in basic airmanship, navigation, meteorology and flying on instruments. In all, the 1st BFTS minted about 2,200 British pilots, and another 130 U.S. pilots as well.

This unique history of the people and the school is preserved and open to the public at the 1st British Flying Training School Museum at Terrell Municipal Airport. Major Long of Dallas ran the school and so the new terminal building bears his name. The design on the floor quotes one of the British flyers when he began flight training at Terrell: “This place is bigger than all of England.” He was partly right - it’s a lot bigger.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

June 7, 2016 To the Point, its for the Points

The Liberty Gazette

June 7, 2016

Ely Air Lines 
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When we first joined the Sport Air Racing League, after much coercing by Patricia Purcell, Air Race Queen, it was because I had competed in the all-women’s Air Race Classic a few times and while I loved the competition, the opportunity to live the racing life with Mike made the League so much more appealing. Sure, I loved that he was always at the finish line of every Air Race Classic race, open arms, tied with my mom as my biggest fan. But then there was Pat, calling and emailing every so often, dangling the preverbal carrot: “Your plane will be the fastest in its class - you’ll have a good shot at winning every race - and you won’t have to leave Mike behind.”

I love winning. I love Mike, too.

We joined the League in 2011 and spent the season learning how it all works, making our way to races that were not too far away, those we could get to, race, and be home the same day.

That season we learned. We learned how to win, we learned how to race cross-country air races. We entered the 2012 season with nothing but Season Championship Gold Trophy on our minds.

There would be a lot of traveling, and for what that cost we could have just bought all those trophies - but it wouldn’t have been the same.

It was a good year, 2012, the first of four consecutive Championships won by our “Elyminator”, which later won the title, “Fastest Cheetah in the Known Universe”.

After the 2012 season, though, we realized that we didn’t have to make every race to win the championship, so we relaxed our schedule a bit and missed some more distant races, like the ones around the breathtakingly scenic Pacific Northwest.

Now we’re in our sixth year in the Sport Air Racing League, and this year there’s a newcomer, and he thinks he can beat us in season points.

He flies Ercoupe so he competes in a different class, but he can win points toward the season championship, and that is where we compete against him.

For the first time since we joined the League, someone is gunning for the championship trophy, and he’s made us his target. I love good, clean, honest competition.

We’ll have to make every race to have any hope of retaining our title. Otherwise, there will be an upset of upsetting proportions. The thought of the Elyminator standing second to an Ercoupe, in official, saved-forever records, with end-of-year photos, and us holding a second-place trophy is motivating me to change a lot of plans this year. Second place is the first loser.

If ever there were a time to Elyminate, it is now. Game on.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 24, 2016 A Picture of Courage

The Liberty Gazette

May 17, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Two weeks ago I met Chris Sullivan as a fellow air racer. It was his first race and he was admittedly nervous.

“I’d always wanted to learn to fly. When I discovered Able Flight I submitted my application for scholarship and was selected to come to Purdue University.”

Chris’ first flight was in May, 2014, as he began Able Flight’s intensive training in an aircraft equipped with adaptive rudder controls, a Sky Arrow, nine years after being hit by sniper fire.

They were doing their job, just as they’d been trained. Nobody else was hit. Sgt. Sullivan lay on the ground bleeding from his neck. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. His vocal cords burned but he felt no pain; the sniper’s bullet had severed his spine. His squad franticly laid down suppression fire and attempted to evacuate him.

May 21, 2005, the 256th Infantry Brigade, LA Army National Guard had been tasked with locating and disarming IEDs just outside Baghdad Airport. As the team worked carefully the enemy watched. Suddenly, bullets flew, one entering the back of Chris' neck and exiting his back.

Carried to safety behind the Humvee, Chris could hear the radio. Apache helicopters were needed to blanket the area with suppression fire for Blackhawk helicopters to swoop in for the rescue, but the Apaches were on other missions. He knew they were too far to reach him before he bled to death - but he wasn't afraid. He prayed, “Lord, if its time to bring me home, I’m okay with that, but I will fight it as long as I can because I have so much more to do.” Unable to speak well, he smiled, hoping it would calm his buddies as his blood spilled out.

Then, over the radio squelched the news: two Apaches were within three miles and on their way, hot and heavy – fully loaded with ammo!

God didn’t bring Chris home that day, and so began the long and painful road to recovery. Knowing his Company would return from deployment in three and a half months, he wanted to greet them so he asked the doctors for an aggressive rehab plan. That reunion State-side was a great motivator, but once back home in Mire, Louisiana, doubt and fear prowled around him as he fought against post-traumatic stress. What was his purpose, now that he was paralyzed?

Chris began helping veterans through the Veteran’s Administration, with empathy that only someone who has been there can have. Four years later he joined Louisiana State Rep. Rodney Alexander’s staff as a case worker for wounded warriors. He shared his story at fund raisers, learned to scuba dive, went skydiving, and became a National Veterans Wheelchair Games silver medalist in snow skiing, and on the second anniversary of being wounded, our hero began dating his future wife, later witnessing another miracle - the birth of their son.

Chris worked hard at Able Flight, in ground school several hours a day, flying twice daily. Then, the night before his Check Ride he fell ill with an infection that spread to his bones. Courageously he fought back for a month, returning to Purdue to earn his wings.

This May, Chris became a fellow air racer. It was his first race and he was admittedly nervous as he climbed out of his wheelchair and into the cockpit. On that hot day, friends helped drape ice-cold cloths on his neck because his body can’t regulate temperature.

Engines started, props turned, and airplanes taxied to the runway. There in the Sky Arrow, eleven years after facing death in war, Chris Sullivan taxied in line and looked down the row of race planes. A tear came as he took the starting line, throttled up and became: a race pilot. He won First Place.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 17, 2016 Spotlight on Careers: Air Traffic Control

The Liberty Gazette
May 17, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Faces glow with the reflection from large computer screens as they watch pulsating blips moving in different directions and speeds across the screen. One of the watchers calmly speaks through a microphone as she issues instructions to one of the blips. She is organizing them. The guy sitting beside her is pushing buttons and speaking to others controllers via special phone lines. The scene is repeated around the dimly lit room. This is an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). 

Following a pivotal accident in 1956 where a United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA Super Constellation collided in the clouds over the Grand Canyon, the modern air traffic control system  came out of the ashes. The United States operates the largest and busiest air traffic control system in the world, handling tens of thousands of flights each day. 

There are 22 of these Centers in the United States. Houston Center near Bush Intercontinental is not the largest but it controls a 28,000 square mile area, extending into much of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Besides AARTCs, there are smaller facilities controlling local approaches and departures like the Houston Terminal Radar Control (TRACON) and the many Air Traffic Control Towers at airports around the country. 

In Virginia is the highly sophisticated FAA Command Center which looks like NASA’s control center, or the war room inside Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs that monitors missiles - ours and “theirs”. The FAA Command Center integrates and synchronizes air traffic across the country and into many other parts of the world. When weather causes delays, Command Center controllers work to keep traffic flowing. 

Many controllers are pilots but there are many who are not. It takes a special type of person to work this highly stressful job. Prospective controllers take aptitude tests. Going to a school that specializes in training controllers is one option. In Texas there are two schools that offer this training, Texas State Technical College in Waco and Le Tourneau University in Longview. After graduation accepted applicants enter into training at the FAA’s Academy in Oklahoma City - and must begin before their 31st birthday (yes, the federal government, who makes it illegal and will fine private companies for the doing so, does practice age discrimination). Mandatory retirement is age 57. 

After completion at the academy, on-the-job training begins. Controllers must be certified for every position they may occupy but they usually start out at an air traffic control tower. Having enjoyed the lofty view from Houston’s Intercontinental tower, I find it both a surreal and enlightening experience from a pilot’s perspective to watch controllers at work. 

With the upcoming introduction of the much touted NexGen air traffic control system these jobs will present many new challenges to the next generation of controllers.

Interested in air traffic control as a career, or know someone who is? The jobs are always posted on www.usajobs.gov. Openings come and go quickly, so check regularly. Or, you might discover something else that tickles your fancy in this fascinating world of aviation.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 10, 2016 Something for Everyone - and the donuts are good

The Liberty Gazette

May 10, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda:  Shane had just been promoted to Captain at a regional airline when his first child was born. He was commuting from their home in Houston to Newark, New Jersey to fly passengers in the Bombardier Q400, riding the jump seat to work because there were no cabin seats available.

With the birth of his daughter the timing felt right to go back to school and add an art degree to his aeronautical sciences degree. Opportunities in Houston were plentiful with in-house graphic arts jobs.

Once while waiting for weather to clear before departing JFK airport he opened ForeFlight, the aviation weather app on his iPhone, and helped passengers understand the reason for delays. They appreciated the pilot who took time to show and explain. He didn't know it then, but eventually he would come to work for that company.

In Kenya, where he grew up, there weren’t a lot of things for kids to do - no soccer, swim team, or club activities. Cultural expectations for teens were to begin a mentoring relationship in a field of interest.

Understandably, his mom didn’t want him sitting around with nothing to do. There was an airport on her way to work, so by age 15 Shane was dropped off at the airport where his mechanical intuition developed into skill in his first job with East African Air Charters “in the big hangar”. Most business was flying tourists and journalists, with Shane and the other mechanics keeping the planes airworthy.

“I looked forward to the donuts,” he recollects of his teen years in the hangar. “This lady would come in and for 20 shillings you got a ‘mandazi’ and a cup of tea.”

He started out cleaning engine blocks with Scotch-Brite and kerosene (sans gloves, and hopefully after the donuts). It took two hours to clean one block and there was a whole pile of them, but more importantly he was learning how things got done.

“There was this guy who looked like St. Nicholas, or maybe Yoda, and he knew how to machine all the parts.” Once, a plane got stuck in Sudan, its nose gear collapsed in a pothole. They wanted to send a team to fix the plane but most of the guys didn’t have passports so they sent those who did - one had a little bit of knowledge and the other two had none - and through a landline phone instruction was provided to fix the plane. Repairs went on into the night so they built a berm for one to sit and guard the plane while the others worked on it.

In the afternoons Shane hung out at the hangar next door and talked with passengers and pilots about where they’d been and what they’d done, and all of this made him want to learn to fly.

He opted for college at LeTourneau University in Longview, earning all the pilot certifications to fly for an airline.

Shane now lends his expertise to the aviation software company he used in his days with the airline, and spends his nights at home with his family.

From the necessary network of over 30,000 airports across the U.S. to creative careers that support aviation as a vital mode of transportation important to our economy, there’s something for everyone, which makes Shane’s family very happy.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 3, 2016 Cities Livable, Cities Die-able

The Liberty Gazette 

May 3, 2016 

Ely Air Lines 
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Linda: One of my all-time favorite pieces of aviation writing is the article written by Rick Durden and published in his column, “The Pilot’s Lounge”, in the super-popular Avweb, July 16, 2007, just a month after we began this column. Rick’s been writing a long time - that piece was #115 in his space in Avweb.

Because of all that, I can nearly forgive him of the lawyer part. While “The Loneliness of a Town Without an Airport” is too long to copy full length here (although Rick did give us permission), we’d like to share the conclusion - but, not before we summarize how he got there.

Rick’s Saturday morning flight in a friend’s Great Lakes Biplane brought lovely views of places he might want to visit with his wife. Quaint towns begging for his company cast their beauty high enough to reach the 1,000’ where Rick was flying, and he wondered if they were friendly and would welcome him in a way that would make him think that would be the perfect place to live.

“‘Hi, I'm here. I'll trade you a ride in the biplane for some ice cream.’ I wonder if it would work?” 

Sadly, he found no runway in this one lovely town, and so began his explanation of the economic advantages of airports and how livable cities have them.

Conclusion: die-able cities do not.

Or, as Rick said: “I could not help but be saddened by the stultifying loneliness a young man or woman must feel to be stuck in a town that does not show any sign of looking outward by having something so simple as an airport runway, that time-honored symbol of a gateway to adventure. Are the kids there easy prey for the beaten-down adults who tell them to quit dreaming, to quit being "foolish" and be content with what they have been given and their lot in life? Are those kids easier prey for the dealer who tells them that this here meth will take them away from this crummy town? 

“How can the people of a town be so insular, so close-minded and content with the mundane, as to not have the most basic of airports? My thoughts returned to my initial desire to visit the town, and I wondered whether I would enjoy the people I might meet who had proclaimed to all who cared to see that they were content and attuned to just beetling across the surface of life rather than living it fully. Would there be anyone there with any sense of creativity, of adventure, of fascination with ideas beyond the horizon? Would they be a town of risk avoiders, insurance salespeople, belt-and-suspenders wearers whose idea of a fabulous time was to go to the local bar and get blotto while watching professional wrestling on the television?

“As I flew into the evening, I concluded that it was a very pretty town. Yet I suspected the people of a town without an airport might well possess other bad habits that are not so immediately observable. Life is short enough that I'm not willing to risk a visit to find out. After all, I'm not going have time to get to see all the places I know for certain I want to see.

“Nevertheless, I will feel sorry for the residents of the town without an airport, especially the kids. They know not what they are missing.”

Read Rick’s entire piece at Avweb.com, The Pilot’s Lounge, #115.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 26, 2016 Welcome, Come on in!

The Liberty Gazette 

April 26, 2016 

Ely Air Lines 

by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely 

Mike: Although the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have different Merit Badge choices and requirements, learning about aviation does qualify for both groups. Boy Scouts can earn an Aviation Merit Badge, and Girl Scouts can earn badges in Science & Technology, and aviation certainly qualifies. 

We are enthusiastic about every invitation and every opportunity to present to these scouting groups, and others such as homeschoolers, American Heritage Girls, Awana, the many interesting aspects of aviation and aerospace. 

Recently a Scout from Midland, Georgia completed something special in pursuit of fulfilling requirements for his final Scout rank: a public service project to become an Eagle Scout. Young Jerad had been interested in aviation even before his troop received Young Eagles flights in 2011, but his first flight pretty much sealed the deal and soon he became a regular at Young Eagles rallies and local chapter meetings and events of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). 

Linda: Since the expensive, violative, and worthless TSA has threatened so many airport managers into thinking they must build fences around airports (no, there is no logic in that), many people now think that airports are off-limits, but the majority of the pilot population absolutely loves sharing their passion for aviation. The useless TSA has polluted our world with a “stay-out” attitude, completely contrary to the enthusiasm pilots have for the adventure of flight. 

15-year old Jerad wanted to help make his local airport more inviting despite government overreach and his idea was a perfect match for an Eagle Scout public service project. 

Back in the days when there was no such thing as TSA people could come to their community airport and sit at a picnic table or park bench and watch airplanes take off and land, talk with pilots, and maybe even catch a ride over town, just for the fun of it. At Jerad’s local airport the park benches were gone, replaced by ugly fences that screamed “Keep Out”. 

Thanks to Jerad and all his supporters though a new observation deck welcomes anyone to come and enjoy the spirit of their local airport. Now when younger children come for their first Young Eagles flight they will have a safe place to hang out and watch the planes come and go, as each pilot tries to grease on the perfect landing. 

The observation deck didn’t come easily. It was a lot of work, but it is Jerad’s way of giving back to the Young Eagles program that has helped him discover his interests. He developed building plans and earned permission from all the necessary stakeholders - the airport director, airport commission, the FBO manager, the FAA, and the Boy Scout Eagle Board - then became the project manager and chief promoter, winning volunteers and donations from the community and taking full responsibility for the project. 

In the end they received $4,500 from 37 donors, and 325 hours of labor from 30 volunteers, bringing Jerad’s plans to fruition. These were aviation and community supporters, including pro-aviation company 84 Lumber. 

Airports exist to serve communities and as part of the larger transportation network. We should be shouting “Welcome – come on in,” rather than trying to discourage people from enjoying their public assets. 

Next month the Thunder in the Valley Air Show will be at Jerad’s airport and he’s looking forward to seeing his deck serving the public good. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 19, 2016 Before us, they were

The Liberty Gazette

April 19, 2016

Ely Air Lines
by Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The engine made a soothing humming sound as we sat seemingly motionless in the still and cool night air. As the glow from the distant city was becoming brighter the calm of our cocoon was rustled when the San Antonio Approach controller asked if we could see the airport yet.

No, still looking.

Then in the middle of some sporadically dispersed lights came a soft white flash. A moment later a muted green flash - the airport beacon. Yes, we have the airport in sight.

The controller terminated his radar watch over us so we could switch to the airport control tower.

Approaching San Antonio’s Stinson Municipal Airport, it is difficult to see the runway lights until you are close in. Then even with lights on their brightest setting, it feels like descending into a black hole. The municipal baseball park near the approach end helps illuminate trees near the runway as we coast in for landing. The gentle bump and the squeak of tires on pavement confirm we have settled onto terra firma. Stinson tower controller clears us to taxi to the terminal where we take a break before continuing our night time sojourn.

We love the old stone-faced art-deco style terminal building. Originally built as a Works Progress Administration project completed in 1936, it got some tender loving care for its 70th birthday when the city completely renovated and expanded it while retaining most of its original integrity. Old terminals, like old airplanes need to be spruced up from time to time but we should never change their timeless soul.

Inside the building the halls are decorated with photographs and memorabilia chronicling Stinson’s 100 year past. Here were a lot of aviation firsts.

Stinson Municipal Airport, which began life in 1915, is the second oldest continuously operated airport in the country, the oldest airport west of the Mississippi. Only College Park Airport in Maryland, build by the Wright Brothers in 1909 is older. Named after the three siblings who leased 500 acres from the city to create an airport, Marjorie, Katherine and Eddie Stinson made significant contributions to aviation.

Katherine, often referred to as the Flying Schoolgirl, had an ulterior motive when she joined her brother and sister in the airport project and flight school: music. She’d seen an article about barnstormers and aerial exhibition performers making $1,000 per show - a way for her to earn money to pay for her piano education in Europe. But in 1912, preparing to build Stinson Airport, she became the fourth woman in the United States to earn her pilot license. She eventually went to Europe, Japan and China, but as a pilot, not a pianist, and is credited as the first woman ever to perform the loop-the-loop maneuver as well as setting endurance and distance records. She also raised two million dollars for the American Red Cross.

Marjorie and Eddie taught at their Stinson School of Flying, teaching civilians and Canadian Air Force pilots until World War I began and the facilities were taken over by the U.S. government. By that time, Marjorie, known as the Flying Schoolmarm, had already trained more than 80 pilots for service.

All was quiet that night as we tore ourselves away from this great part of American history. The Elyminator beckoned and as we climbed aboard our sleek steed and headed skyward into the night, we thought about all those pilots who came before us, right there in that same air space.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com