January 18, 2022 Little Women, Fighter Pilots

The Liberty Gazette

January 18, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By guest columnist L.M. Alcott 

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without a midnight flight to see everyone’s lights from above,” grumbled Jo.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to live where the weather isn’t foggy, and other girls are stuck on the ground,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff. “No matter. We haven’t enough money for avgas anyway.”

If those lines sound vaguely familiar, you might recognize them as a slight deviation from the opening lines in my classic novel, “Little Women.” I’ve been watching the world from “the other side,” and have been eager for my famous girls to keep up with the times. Allow me, therefore, to introduce you to “Little Women, Fighter Pilots,” my updated version. 

“Mother thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when so many people are losing their jobs. I’m afraid I don’t care much for sacrifices.” Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty airplanes she wanted.

“We’ve each got a dollar, and the unemployed wouldn’t be much helped by our giving that. I want to buy Meteorology for Naval Aviators for myself. I’ve wanted it so long, and I work hard for my money,” said Jo, who was a bookworm. 

Meg protested. “I work hard for my money, too. I want Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. I want to be an airline pilot!”

“You should study and enlist,” said Jo. “If you go to the airlines, you’ll just be shut up for hours with nervous, fussy passengers, who are never satisfied. Fly for the military if you want a real life!”

The girls woke up Christmas morning to find aviation books, both novels and flight training manuals, under their pillows. Each girl read and studied voraciously on the required topics such as aerodynamics, regulations, and weight and balance computations. They supplemented their reading with Flying Magazine and various pilot memoirs. 

As the years went by, each girl entered the military and learned to fly. Beth also became an airplane mechanic, and when she retired, she opened a shop. Business was great, as pilots trusted her and knew her to have a superior work ethic. Meg married Mr. Brooke, and after leaving the Air Force, she opened a charter business, selling shares for on-demand flights on luxury aircraft. Amy flew for the Navy for eight years then used her artistic talent to run a specialized aircraft paint shop. She won prestigious contracts with companies such as Alaska Airlines and others that love wild paint schemes. And that leaves Jo. Having accumulated five kills flying her F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, she retired and inherited her aunt’s Plumfield Airport, where she set up a flight school and penned the best-selling novel, “Flight of the Marches.”

But some things never change. My novel still ends the same because truth doesn’t change. The sisters are grateful for their blessings and affirm that we shouldn’t work for materialism but as part of life’s journey and a way to express our inner goodness. Contact me to pre-order.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 11, 2022 Great Expectations - A Slight Adaptation

The Liberty Gazette

January 11, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By guest columnist and novelist, Charlie J. Dickens

My father’s family name being Piperiouscubaneck, and he having designed the Piper Cub, when I learned to talk, I thought my name was Piper. So, I came to be called Piper. 

Ours was the marsh country, down by the George Ruby bend of the Trinity River, within, not as the river wound, but by air, twenty miles of Trinity Bay, which receives waves that sneak past the Bolivar Peninsula to swap drops with the Gulf of Mexico.

I was given the opportunity to take an apprenticeship with Archibald, an airplane mechanic at the Liberty Municipal Airport. As I grew, I came to love the airplanes that landed and took off from that little airstrip every day. 

But life wasn’t all tailwinds and blue skies. My parents had died when, one foggy day at the edge of the bay, I could faintly make out the only thing that seemed to be standing upright; the beacon by which the pilots navigated to the runway. I knew I needed to find my way, too.

So, I learned to fly and often took my girlfriend, Astralla up for flights around the area. We would land at all the farmers’ grass strips and visit with the residents, farmhands, and dogs. The dogs were always my favorite, and so it should be no surprise that when the big city lawyer came bumbling boisterously down from Dallas to reveal to me a great expectation from a mysterious benefactor, I had no need to think twice that when I pass, I should leave it all to my favorite dogs. 

Astralla was a cute girl I had known since childhood. When I came over to play, I would help her guardian, Miss Havashot. Poor Miss Havashot. She had more of a problem with the juice of potatoes, corn, and barley than she actually had with men. Alas, men were here for her to blame, and she projected her sad life of mistrust onto sweet Astralla with such fortitude that I would never be able to call her my wife.

The expectation I was to receive sent me on a life journey of more twists and turns than the Trinity River, highlighted in a most sad way by my own snobbery, I admit.

Having moved to Dallas, I hung out with useless rich guys and pretended with them and other highbrows. I bought shiny new jets and whisked my new false friends around the country to ski resorts and other parties. That life, however, was nothing but a vapor trail which I obliterated like a 5G cell signal breaking a critical instrument approach when I learnt that my fortune had come not from a grateful Miss Havashot, but from an FAA inspector whom I had once helped as a boy. I wanted nothing from that scoundrel, so I quit my circumstances and returned to Liberty County to live the rest of my time an honest pilot, flying life-saving blood and organ donations to the sick and injured, now understanding that fortune does not equal happiness.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

January 4, 2022 A Christmas Rescue

The Liberty Gazette

January 4, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Long time air racing friends, twin brothers Mike and Mark Patey, have served their local community for years by working with their county sheriff when search and rescue is needed by air. Over Christmas, they flew a rescue of a different kind. 

When airlines cancelled many Christmas flights, Mike Patey posted this message on Facebook: “Over 2,000 flights cancelled today. Mark and I would love to help. If you know someone stuck at an airport and not able to get home for Christmas, maybe we can help. No charge. We can bring a family together for this special holiday.” 

The brothers live in Utah. They’d fly Mike’s Pilatus, an airplane with ten seats and a range that would allow them to fully cover seven states, from Wyoming to Southern California, and another three partially, like southeast Oregon and northwest New Mexico. That included major cities such as Denver and Los Angeles. 

“Christmas is for family,” said Mike, “born into or ‘chosen’ family, is all the same.”

Both men are high energy and neither needs to sleep much. In fact, they are known for their full-throttle lives. By 10:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, they were heading to Los Angeles to pick up a family who had thought they would be sleeping in the airport when, after several delays, their flight was finally cancelled. They had hoped to find a flight the next day. But Providence shone upon them, and they were whisked away in “Santa Patey’s flying sleigh” and brought home in just two hours. 

Many people follow the Pateys on social media, and word got out fast what they were doing. The FBO in Provo, Utah was so moved by their actions that they would not let them pay for fuel. The night continued like that for Mike and Mark, as they blasted through the starry sky uniting loved ones and making new friends in the process, like Brecca and Sergio Ponce. The young couple was celebrating their anniversary, excited to come home for Christmas for the first time in three years when their flight was canceled. They had given up on making it home when a friend shared the Pateys’ social media post. 

Brecca called it a “Christmas miracle,” but Mike Patey sees it differently. “If you’ve been blessed with a talent, or a gift, or resources, you better give it back, or you don’t you don’t deserve to have it anymore,” he said. It’s just the way they were raised.

After spending the night delivering happiness, the brothers tucked the airplane back in the hangar and went home to their wives and children to celebrate Christmas.

The Patey brothers are highly successful businessmen, serial entrepreneurs. But we all have been given gifts, and those gifts weren’t meant to be hoarded or kept secret. The One who gave us our gifts is best honored when we give them away. Maybe there’s a New Year’s resolution in that. Here’s to your 2022. May it be your best year yet for giving and receiving.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 28, 2021 The Giving Season, Part IV - MAF

The Liberty Gazette

December 28, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

We hope you enjoyed a blessed Christmas and are looking forward to 2022. We round out our series for the Giving Season, aiming to create awareness and present opportunities for all of us to help change lives. We’ll finish the series with the Christian mission organization, Mission Aviation Fellowship, MAF.

Based in Nampa, Idaho, MAF was founded in 1945 by WWII pilots who had a vision for using aviation to spread the gospel. Since that time, MAF has grown to a global family of organizations serving countries in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Indonesia, and Latin America, supporting the work of missionaries, Bible translators, and relief and humanitarian agencies. 

They fly to more destinations than the six largest airlines in the world combined. And they land on dirt and grass airstrips in jungles and on mountains. Often, the only safe way for missionaries to travel is by MAF airplane. They can reduce an all-day walk to a 12-minute flight.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had been born in another country? An underdeveloped country? In poverty? In times of war? Life in those circumstances is far different from our experience here. For many people living in these remote areas, it is because of MAF airplanes that they hear about the love of Christ. Through swift air travel, missionaries bring help, hope, and healing to isolated people.

MAF serves people in 13 countries, using aviation to overcome geographic, political and religious barriers. They bring medical care, educational opportunities, technology for clean water, community development, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. MAF also serves in six restricted access nations which they cannot name. They collaborate with their Latin American affiliates to boost the total to 34 countries.

Here are some interesting statistics: Every 19 minutes, an MAF aircraft is taking off or landing. Every flight hour saves five days of travel by foot or other ground travel. MAF’s fleet flies over one million miles each year.

You may recall the movie or book, “End of the Spear,” about Nate Saint, the MAF pilot who was martyred by Waorani Indians in Ecuador in 1956, alongside missionaries Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully. Much of the tribe later came to Christ. But you might not have known that it was Betty Greene, a WASP (Woman Air Force Service Pilot), who flew MAF’s inaugural flight in 1946, taking two Wycliffe Bible translators into a jungle in Mexico.

A new inspirational documentary, “Ends of the Earth,” was released in 700 theaters nationwide in October. The film shares true stories about the commitment of MAF pilots and others who serve around the world. The documentary explores faith, the passion to help others, and how hope emerges from tragedy. It was created to inspire viewers to consider serving others, whether we do it on the other side of the globe or right next door.

Here’s to a better “us” – all of us – in 2022.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 21, 2021 The Giving Season, Part III - AIM Air

The Liberty Gazette

December 21, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: There are signs in yards around town proclaiming that Jesus is the reason. Indeed, Christmas isn’t about trees, Santa Claus, and reindeer. If we are going to celebrate the birth of Christ, supporting people and organizations who are committed to doing his work deserve our attention. We can make a difference. 

As we journey further along in the Giving Season, we aim to create awareness and present opportunities for your heart to change lives around the world. This week, we highlight the Christian mission organization, AIM Air. AIM stands for Africa Inland Missions.

AIM Air has two bases in Africa. The main base is at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The other is a remote base in Arua, a large town in northwest Uganda bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This base serves the missionaries who work “beyond the end of the road.” 

Donations to AIM Air become a lifeline for missionaries serving people in remote places. They provide critical support by air, and that keeps missionaries safer and serving longer in Africa in the most isolated and vulnerable places. Sometimes missionaries or the people they serve need immediate care. There have been scares with poisonous snakes, and there have been civil wars. Through these, and all kinds of emergencies in between, it has just taken one phone call to AIM Air to begin evacuation. 

Because of the kinds of aircraft they fly, often generically referred to as “bush planes,” AIM Air pilots can land just about anywhere, load up, and take off, getting people to safety. 

They also bring supplies to those on the front lines. Items such as mail, food, audio bibles and literacy materials, car parts and building supplies have made their way to the most remote places on AIM Air’s planes. 

I flew with AIM Air a couple of times years ago. A Cessna 206 and a Caravan. We flew out of Nairobi and landed in South Sudan and Congo, ever mindful of guerrillas hiding in the trees. The kind that carry guns.

Mike: In 1982, the flight instructor who worked with me for my commercial pilot certificate was an AIM Air pilot. In 1985, this pilot who trained me to do canyon turns flew four hostages out of hostile territory after being released by Sudanese rebels that had held them captive for over a year. They sometimes are called upon to do these things. 

AIM Air invites us all to join their “Half Ton Team”. By sending $50 a month, they can fly an extra 1,100 pounds of goods or people. There’s a special joy this brings to givers. For me, it’s one of anticipation for the future, because while I may not see the impact of what one flight with one little box on board may mean this side of eternity, on the other side… I can just imagine. If you’ve ever dreamed of launching a flight without being a pilot, supporting AIM Air will allow you to do that. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 14, 2021 The Giving Season, Part II - Samaritan's Purse

The Liberty Gazette

December 14, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Here we are, in the Giving Season. This month, we aim to create awareness and present opportunities for you to change lives around the world. This week, we highlight the Christian humanitarian organization, Samaritan’s Purse.

Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37? After sharing this story, Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” The story gives a clear picture of God’s desire for us to help those in desperate need, wherever we find them. That is the mission of Samaritan's Purse.

For over 50 years, Samaritan’s Purse has done their utmost to follow Christ’s command by going to the aid of the world’s poor, sick, and suffering. The organization has reached hurting people in countries around the world with food, medicine, and other assistance, and much of the work is accomplished by airplane.

The Samaritan’s Purse DC-8 allows them to respond to global disasters at a moment’s notice. Since it first deployed in April of 2016, the DC-8 has carried more than 5.6 million pounds of cargo on 147 missions around the world.

You may already be familiar with Samaritan’s Purse because of their incredibly generous Shoebox program through Operation Christmas Child, or because you know of Franklin Graham, son of the late Rev. Billy Graham. But Samaritan’s Purse was actually started by someone else.

 After visiting suffering children on the Korean island of Koje-do, Bob Pierce wrote in his Bible, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” This impassioned prayer is what guided him as he founded Samaritan’s Purse in 1970.

Then Pierce came across some courageous women who were living among lepers and orphans in China, sacrificing everything to share Christ’s love. That’s when he received a vision for ministry and dedicated himself to finding and supporting Christians who were caring for the poor and suffering in the distant corners of the world.

In the summer of 1973, Pierce met Franklin Graham, who was then an adventurous young student with a growing heart for world missions. They spent a lot of time together, and in 1975, Graham accompanied Pierce to some of the world's neediest mission fields. He saw the poverty of pagan religions and the utter despair of the people they enslave.

After Bob Pierce died of leukemia in 1978, Franklin Graham took the reins of Samaritan's Purse. Through over 40 years of earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, and famine, Samaritan’s Purse has continued the Biblical example, flying medicine, supplies, food, and personnel all across the globe.

Their DC-8 is also used to send Shoebox gifts to children in some of the hardest-to-reach places—whether deep jungles, city slums, steep mountainsides, or one of 1,000 remote Pacific islands. When you build a Shoebox online, it provides a creative way to share the Good News in remote areas in a culturally sensitive manner. 

“Go and do likewise.” No matter where they go or what they do, they offer more than help. They offer hope to suffering people in a broken world.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

December 7, 2021 The Giving Season, Part I - JAARS

The Liberty Gazette

December 7, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

With another Thanksgiving celebrated, giving thanks for all we’ve been given, we enter again into the Giving Season. This time of year, people who celebrate Christmas and people who don’t find common ground in giving. During this time, we aim to create awareness and present opportunities for your heart to change lives around the world. We’ll start with the Christian mission organization, JAARS, sharing information from their website.

Seventy years ago, Cameron Townsend acted on his belief that all people should have God’s Word in their own language. His action was to create JAARS – Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, SIL International (a literacy organization), and Wycliff Bible Translators as Christian change agencies with a goal to permeate cultures without destroying them.

Through JAARS, Townsend set out to accomplish the Great Commission goal of providing Scripture to every people group on earth in a language and form they clearly understand. In his words, “Airplanes and radios don’t just make translation easier; they make it possible.”

He devoted his life to that vision, trusting that God would make the impossible possible. Reaching and working in minority language communities—sometimes in the most remote, dangerous corners of the world—had to be overcome with logistical support. 

Today, JAARS is a multidisciplinary team of problem-solvers committed to the belief that people’s lives and communities are transformed as they experience God’s Word in their own language. Their commitment is to support their translation partners with locally appropriate and sustainable solutions until the Gospel has reached the whole world. These solutions come in transportation, technology, media, and training. And being there requires a strong ministry so that the translation projects underway or yet to begin in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas are not hindered by lack of support in the areas where God has blessed JAARS to serve.

Major transportation tools, like aircraft and boats, are critical for JAARS to overcome logistical barriers around the world. But these tools are becoming increasingly expensive and take longer to fund, even as translation plans begin to focus on the last, most remote language communities.

With the expansion of transportation systems and infrastructure globally, along with the pace of technology and communications innovation, it’s tempting to wonder whether any place, any longer, is truly “off the grid.” The reality is yes. Missionaries intently focused on translation efforts are increasingly challenged by the responsibility to manage mission-critical transportation operations. JAARS continues to help fill these gaps, but not without support from private donors. 

At the JAARS Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina, missionaries and other volunteers depend on the research and development, training, manufacturing, repairs, medical services, housing, food service, childcare, and spiritual encouragement to help make Scripture translation possible. They depend on this support to have a sustainable impact when they are working in the field. Ultimately, the work is for the millions of people still eagerly waiting to hear and grasp the Gospel in the language they understand best.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 30, 2021 What Hits the Airwaves Doesn't Always Fly

The Liberty Gazette

November 30, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Here’s hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and called to mind many things for which you’re thankful, whether they fly or not. 

Remember the 1970’s sitcom about a radio station, WKRP in Cincinnati? The cast and crew had a lot to be thankful for with the episode, “Turkeys Away.” The show had been on the air only four months and was about to be canned, but this one saved it as audiences gobbled it up, and TV Guide marked it as the fortieth greatest episode of any series in television history.

Feeling job insecurity with the hiring of a new program director, station manager, Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump), comes up with a holiday promotion idea to be the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie: twenty turkeys would drop out of the sky – gifts that would bless some lucky people out shopping in the mall.

“Dr. Johnny Fever,” the popular DJ (played by Howard Hessman), closes out the last notes of a song and cuts to Les Nessman (played by Richard Sanders), the station’s news reporter, who positioned himself in the mall parking lot for the big surprise. The beat of rotor blades (which sound like a Bell-47 bubble-type helicopter) accompany Les as he begins his play-by-play, first reporting an object falling from the aircraft, and openly wondering if it’s a parachutist. Realizing it’s a turkey, and more are following, the scene unfolds into chaos, with turkeys hitting the parking lot “like bags of wet cement,” and people running for cover. 

Back at the station, the staff who huddled around Johnny Fever anticipating a live, feel-good report, quickly realize the plan has run afoul. Fever cuts back in with, “For those of you who have just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys.” 

Not to worry, fellow animal lovers, no turkeys were injured in the making of the show. It all fell to the nerdy Nessman to ignite listeners’ imaginations, as one must do in radio. The actors all said it was difficult to keep from laughing while filming that segment. 

WKRP went on to complete a four-year run and was later revived for another three years. It was nominated for eighteen awards, including Emmy, Golden Globe, Humanitas, and TV Land, scoring wins twice.

This much-loved script was written by Bill Dial, who wrote and produced many television shows, including some Star Trek episodes. He even appeared occasionally in WKRP as the radio station’s engineer, Bucky Dornster, and acted small parts in other shows, too. 

But Episode 7 of Season 1 went down in history as his best, the fan favorite, which ends as Les Nessman returns to the office in a daze and explains the rest of the story. “The turkeys mounted a sort of counter-attack. It’s as if they were somehow organized.” 

While Nessman served up the meat of the show, the real gravy came in the closing line by Mr. Carlson. “As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 23, 2021 Keys to the Bank

The Liberty Gazette

November 23, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: We were in the bank the other day and our business kept us there til near closing time. There weren’t many people around, and it brought back memories of flying to Blythe, California, back in the days of cancelled checks. In Blythe, I was not only the pilot delivering bank and courier mail to the airport, I also drove into town to drop it off at individual businesses and banks. 

In 1985, Blythe was a small farming community. It’s in the middle of the desert that rests on the bank of the Colorado River. During the winter months its population grows nearly three times because of “snowbirds.” There were three banks in Blythe, and I delivered and picked up all their cancelled checks and bank mail and transported it to the processing centers and clearing houses in Los Angeles. 

I would fly in from Burbank early in the morning, stopping along the way to hand off bags of bank work to drivers who met me at the Riverside and Twentynine Palms airports. After landing at Blythe, I loaded my remaining cargo into an old Chevy Chevette and made the rounds through town. By then, all the businesses were open and bustling. After my deliveries, I’d wait out the day by the pool at the layover motel, and then trek back through town to pick up anything the banks had going out. 

Most days all the businesses were still open in the afternoon. Except on Fridays when the banks closed before I came back through. Therefore, I had the keys to all the banks in Blythe. Seems shocking nowadays, what with the unpatriotic “Patriot Act” and all. 

No, back in the day, a man’s integrity meant something. I’d turn off the alarm before unlocking the door and enter the quiet, empty bank lobby. Piled in the middle of the floor was my “loot” – bags which I picked up and stacked in my car. Locking the door behind me and re-arming the alarm, I proceeded to the next bank, and the next, committing the same heist, and finally on to the airport to load my winged get-away.

In the year 2004, the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (“Check 21”) changed the way banks processed checks. Now it’s all done electronically, removing the need for airplanes to transport the paper.

I couldn’t help but tell my story as we stood at the teller’s window, the last customers of the day. I bet she wasn’t even born yet when I was turning off bank alarms every Friday night. You should have seen her face when I got to the part about having the keys. That always surprises people. And I thought about what today’s security measures are like. Background checks, fingerprinting, bio-identification, cameras, and who knows what else. 

The days are short this time of year. We left with just a hint of sunlight still on the western horizon, just like it was when I departed Blythe, loaded with bank work, keys, and trust.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

November 16, 2021 FAA vs FCC

The Liberty Gazette

November 16, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

A couple of common questions we hear are: how does a pilot know how to land at an airport without an air traffic control tower, and how do conditions in the air or on the ground affect our flight? Legally, pilots are charged with the full responsibility of knowing “all available information” that affects their flight – all of it. 

One of the new pieces of information will come from the FAA on December 5. Note that this is the date that the FCC said 5G service is supposed to be available. But 5G is scary, even to the FAA. So now those two oversized government agencies will have to duke it out. Which does the American public want more? Increased bandwidth or safe flights? Pick one.

Washington, D.C. is where problems are born. The FCC sold little slices of the frequency pie to investors of a private 5G network. Unfortunately, these little slices are in a frequency range dangerously close to the radio band dedicated to aircraft radar altimeters, used with instrument landing systems.

Since the FCC isn’t willing to restrict 5G antennas from placement near 46 major U.S. airports, the FAA will issue a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin and an Airworthiness Directive. Both are strong actions, and what they mean is that if a certain condition becomes true, then pilots and crew must take certain actions. 

That “certain condition” is the aircraft’s radar altimeter indicating erroneous altitudes due to 5G signals between towers and satellites. And that “certain action” will affect the possibility of landing using the instrument landing system.

Think about the times you’ve been on an airliner, descending to land, and you go through a low cloud layer. For each runway, there is an altitude which an aircraft cannot go below if the pilots cannot see the runway. Therefore, a decision has to be made when reaching that land/don’t land minimum altitude. 

While there are airliners are equipped to auto-land in near-zero visibility at specific airports, this feature can only be used by pilots who are trained to use that system. These approaches require radar altimeters to determine the aircraft’s height above the runway. But if the instrument that provides this information suddenly receives signal interference, the radar altimeter can become unreliable, and the landing cannot be completed. 

Since we cannot have airplanes taking off if their ability to land is uncertain, this could lead to many delays and cancellations, because right now, 5G appears to wield a significant threat to safety of flight.

Even if it is possible to modify the altimeters to shake off the stray energy that will come from 5G cell phones, that will come at an enormous cost, and the FCC isn’t offering to pay for it. It’s a fair bet that airlines may not be in a position to refit the instruments in their entire fleet. Certainly not by December 5. Interestingly, Canadians have solved the problem by structuring no-5G-zones near major Canadian airports. That may be the only thing Canada is doing right these days.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com