October 10, 2023 Celebration Hops

The Liberty Gazette

October 10, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: At the end of September, we celebrated 17 years of wedded bliss. My goodness, time flies! In that time, we’ve explored 16 countries in Europe and Southeast Asia, claimed the national gold title five times in the cross-country air racing championship in the Sport Air Racing League, published five books and over 850 articles, adopted five dogs, and so much more. Yet it feels like we just got started yesterday. 

The ups and downs life throws at us aren’t always as we would choose, and I thought Mike had a great idea for a way to celebrate our lives together thus far: take a day to bounce around a few airports. Mike enjoys logging landings at each airport in the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) Pilot Passport program. He’s been doing it for a few years now. He downloaded the app and uses it to check in, which earns him points, badges, and rewards. There’s also a community feature, so participants are encouraged to share their adventures with fellow aviators. In addition, the state aviation departments of Louisiana and North Dakota offer bonus badges and recognition for landing in the airports in their respective states. 

For our anniversary, he selected 10 airports and planned a route that would allow us to hop to each and get back home without having to stop for fuel. I would take the first five, and he would take the second five. 

Mike: It was still hot, 94 degrees, so taking off RWJ’s runway 8 and climbing out to the east, we wanted to get as much altitude as practical for the length of our first leg on the journey. Linda climbed to 3,500 feet, which gave us a brief respite from the heat, but it seemed so quick that we were suddenly upon our first airport of landing, Southland Field in Sulphur, Louisiana. We zipped down to pattern altitude, flew the traffic pattern for runway 33, joined by only a couple of other airplanes, landed, taxied back, and took off for airport number two, DeQuincy, a whole nine minutes away, even with a headwind. Twenty minutes to Welsh, and that scored her the honor of scooting in on the shortest runway of our adventure, 2,700 feet long and 50 feet wide. From there, she made the four-minute hop to Jennings. Six minutes from Welsh was Le Gros, giving her two very short skips in a row. The wind was beginning to pick up, but it was mostly right down the runway. It brought a fair amount of chop, but not much crosswind. This is where we got out and switched seats.

From Le Gros, we scooted southeast to Abbeville. The wind direction and intensity necessitated passing the next two airports, so from there, we flew northwest to Eunice and then to Chennault International before heading home. 

Louisiana has 67 airports and 7 museums on their badge list. I should rack up the points fast. It’ll take longer in Texas though, with 389 eligible airports.

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