May 8, 2012 A special jump

The Liberty Gazette

May 8, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We heard some great stories over the weekend and they’re the kind too good not to share. The first is but another example of the generous nature we find often within the aviation community. You’ve probably heard of wounded warrior organizations and the good work done through them as so many veterans return home with serious injuries.

HALO for Freedom Warrior Foundation provides support for wounded warriors as they face challenges encountered during their rehabilitation, reintegration and healing process. They motivate, encourage, and afford opportunities these heroes might not otherwise have, lifting their spirits while reminding them that their sacrifices will never be forgotten. HALO (which stands for High Altitude – Low Open, a military parachuting term) hosted the Wounded Warrior Hog Hunt in Mineral Wells, Texas on April 12–14 this year. For this event a tandem parachute jump was arranged for a special warrior. They would be led in the jump by HALO president and double-amputee, Dana Bowman. At the last minute a change in plans threatened this very special program. Organizers asked Southwest Airlines Captain Alan Crawford to help so the event could go on as scheduled. Here’s what the good captain (and USAF veteran) told us:

Captain Crawford: I was invited to fly my Lancair Legacy, “Spirit of America”, painted in stars and stripes, in the opening ceremony. Two O1 Birddogs and five T-34s would fly formation flights. The parachute jump would start the event, then we’d fly various passes over the landing zone, then I’d fly the last pass at high speed to close the aerial program.

Dana is amazing. He opens the program skydiving into the landing zone with a large American flag attached to him and flowing. This particular day he was to open the show leading the jump, then immediately following him out the door a tandem jump had been arranged for Medal of Honor Recipient, Sgt. Leroy Petry, an Army Ranger. www.army.mil/medalofhonor/petry

Thursday night I learned the jump plane scheduled to take the three up Friday morning had cancelled. They asked if I knew anyone who could fill in. I thought of Bobby and AnnElise Bennett. I called Mighty Mouse (a/k/a Bobby Bennett – he has earned quite a reputation among pilots as one who can be called upon to “come to save the day”) and after explaining the situation I asked if they could make it to Mineral Wells with AnnElise’s Cessna 182, “X-Ray,” for a jump Friday morning. They said yes, and AnnElise flew in to Mineral Wells early Friday morning for the briefing and had the honor of taking these men up to 10,000 feet for the jump.

As usual, AnnElise and Mighty Mouse came through on short notice. Thursday night Bobby put the jump platform on X-Ray and had the plane configured for the jump. Friday morning AnnElise showed up and was able to pull off what I think was the jump of a lifetime for Sgt. Petry. I guess the most important thing is that whenever any of us have a chance to participate in a wounded warrior program, either donating our time or money, we should try and do it. What these young warriors have sacrificed for the freedom we have should not be forgotten. It was an honor to have met them.

Mike: Dana Bowman’s website is www.danabowman.com.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

May 1, 2012 UAVs

The Liberty Gazette

May 1, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: What does “drone” mean to you? What it means to a beekeeper differs from its meaning to a pilot. To a pilot it is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and the present administration has mandated the FAA release more of these aircraft into the National Airspace System for law enforcement, military and commercial purposes over the next few years; as many as 30,000. These little boogers (actually varying in size, but as little as four pounds) can be programmed to fly a specific route, pattern, or they can be flown from a remote console.

When asked to comment on sharing the airspace with UAVs pilots have expressed concerns first on the grounds of safety and second on right-of-way and legal restrictions imposed on real pilots as a so-called way to deal with the safety issue. Pilots will tell you that theoretically we don’t mind sharing the airspace, but only as long as the UAVs have some means of “seeing” and avoiding human-piloted airplanes better than pilots can, with no additional restrictions. But that scenario doesn’t exist. Imagine remotely controlled vehicles, too small for you to see before a collision, entering your airspace without equal or even adequate ability to see you. Scary, isn’t it?

Smaller UAVs do not carry sophisticated equipment to see and avoid automatically and independently of their remotely based “pilots.” They are extremely hard to see and avoid (after all, they’re built to be stealth). And, scary as it is, some of the drone operators (seated firmly on the ground)are not even licensed pilots. What’s more, they’re more focused on buildings, borders, fences, and activities on the ground, displayed on a small screen.

Linda: Reality is, they see life through a soda straw with limited situational awareness, poor visibility, and lacking maneuverability; shortfalls that make significant upgrades necessary for operating in the National Airspace System. How many UAV operators would be able to place an airplane in the Hudson River with no loss of life? They are not like real pilots, constantly in heads-up mode, scanning their surrounding for other real airplanes, controls within reach for immediate correction. What if the “kid at the console” has zipped out for a Coke or some other human moment? The kid's screen just goes blank, while the human pilot must get himself and his aircraft back to the ground in one piece. The drone doesn't care if things go wrong.

This is a big issue because public safety will be affected. The greatest danger may be if the UAV “goes stupid”, meaning the communications between the ground and the UAV are severed or interrupted. There may be nothing the operator can do to restore the signal once it is lost and eventually crashes. When communication is lost with the UAV it goes into a pre-programmed escape, not controlled by a human.

Privacy rights bring lots of questions too. If the drone sees your kid running a stop sign, will you hear about it? Will USDA use drones to see if you’re buying raw milk? What if someone uses a drone to spook your cattle or passes over your chicken shed and frightens all the birds that then stampede and smother each other? Can you shoot down a drone that flies over your deer blind? Can you use one to lure deer to your blind? Lots of questions, and for now, inadequate, dangerous answers.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 24, 2012 Remembering the Doolittle Raiders

The Liberty Gazette

April 24, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Arriving Friday afternoon for Saturday’s Bluebonnet Air Race we pulled The Elyminator up to the fuel pump before tying down for the night. Reno air racer and airplane builder Mark Frederick complimented the new paint job – a racy red and white with black and white checkerboard wingtips and tail. Mark especially likes the words which grace the underside across the wingspan: Stuck in traffic? Admittedly, I now get a kick out of flying low over I-10 and other congested freeways. For Mike, it reminisces his early days flying over crowded Los Angeles freeways. Mark began inspecting our other modifications to The Elyminator, noticing we haven’t yet replaced the original blue and white interior, which happens to match the borrowed wheel pants. Soon others gathered around the airplane; each new arrival gets the same sort of review and its ample reason to stand around and shoot the breeze.

We tied down next to Mike Smith’s red Swearingen SX300, capable of over 300 mph. He’s in a different class of competition but there’s a running joke about us passing him. Since last year’s official Indy race t-shirt featured our Cheetah reaching the checkered flag ahead of Smith’s SX300, he suggested parking downwind of his airplane might blow some of his speed onto us. We’d love that – just four more mph to break the speed record for our class.

Saturday morning dawned with low ceilings and turbulence, making for some pretty bone-jarring jolts as we knocked around the 130-mile course at low altitudes. Usually this race includes Mark and Cheryl Frederick’s grass strip as the start-finish line, but they would be out of town this time on an important historical mission.

Mike: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor 16 B-25s carrying 80 men crammed the open flight deck of the USS Hornet and blasted off on a top-secret mission, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. They became known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. It was the only time U.S. Army Air Force bombers had launched from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on a combat mission.

Flying at wave-top to avoid detection, the bombers encountered only light fighter and anti-aircraft resistance. None were shot down. However, too large to return and land on the carrier, the bombers flew west to China’s coast where there were several suitable air fields. Weather and impending darkness made those good runways hard to find and most of the crews crash landed or bailed out. While the raid on Tokyo was not a widely technical victory, it was a morale booster during bleak times.

Remaining Doolittle Raiders are Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, co-pilot of B-25 No. 1, Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, navigator on B-25 No. 9, Lt. Col. Edward J. Saylor, engineer-gunner of B-25, No. 15, Staff Sgt. David J. Thatcher, engineer-gunner, No. 7 and Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, co-pilot of B-25 No. 16. All but Lt. Col Hite attended the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Reunion on the 70^th anniversary of the raid, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio on April 18. B-25s gathered for a massive formation flight over Wright-Patterson. One of them was flown by our friend Mark Fredrick who just before our race buzzed us in “Devil Dog” (the U.S. Marine Corps B-25 variant) on his way to Ohio for the reunion.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 17, 2012 Tim's pants

The Liberty Gazette

April 17, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: He saunters into the lobby and waits patiently for the girl behind the desk to finish serving another customer. Wandering over by the old leather sofa in the corner of the room next to one of the glass display cases with all sorts of electronic wares inside, he spots an aeronautical chart someone left half folded amongst the scattered aviation magazines on a small coffee table. He picks it up, unfolds it, and holding it out at arms-length his eyes sweep from one corner to the other like a king or big rancher surveying his territory. In his mid-forties, a little pudgy in spots and his hair thinning a bit, the one thing that stands out as he waits patiently is the big smile on his face. Finally, the girl working behind the counter has finished with the previous customer and the man, still smiling, steps forward and says, “Hi, I’m Tim and I’m here for my first lesson.”

“Oh yes Tim, your instructor is in the hangar and he’ll be right back."

“Great! I’ve wanted to do this my whole life.”

Tim was starting out on an adventure. A long yearning has finally brought him to a point where he is ready to begin. The average private pilot today is in his or her mid-forties and having raised a family finds themselves in a place financially stable enough that they can justify the investment into something they’ve wanted to do for a long time. Tim fits the description.

When I walked in that day in 2006 and we were introduced, immediately we discovered a real kinship even though our worlds had taken very different paths. I had pursued my dream of flight early from the age of 15 and unlike an airline pilot, flying the same route for years, my career flying freight and as a chief pilot for an international corporation has taken me many different places.

This was the start of something big for Tim, and something of a journey of rediscovery for me; to see anew the stuff I forcefully remembered long ago which at some point sunk into the far recesses of my mind. Having taught flying for much of my aviation career, although mostly in jets, I was stepping back into the realm of the beginner working with unmolded but willing and passionate clay that presented with the expectation of becoming an aviator. The challenge was one well worth the effort.

Linda: Mike gave Tim a good solid start, working with him long enough to be a strong influence on the way Tim approaches flying today, with good skills and common sense. Tim successfully achieved his dream and we see him somewhat regularly at the hangar. His two grown sons are also pilots and aircraft owners and the relationship the three men share has grown into something special from this mutual interest. Besides that, we’re rather fortunate Tim decided on a Cheetah when he purchased his first plane, because then if we need to borrow parts, he’s just around the corner. Good thing his Cheetah isn’t too bashful about letting our Cheetah borrow its pants from time to time.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 10, 2012 Texoma 100 Air Race

The Liberty Gazette

April 10, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Busy schedules kept us from early preparation for the Texoma 100 Air Race. Examination of the race course and even hotel reservations would wait until we arrived in Sherman the night before the race. After over a year of installing upgrades to our Grumman Cheetah, now dubbed The Elyminator, chomping at the bit to turn it out and really see what it can do, the good-humored banter for the race season opener fueled my competitive streak. Wayne Lemkelde flies a Grumman Cheetah with similar modifications and is our closest competitor. Apparently those who arrived at Race Central earlier in the evening joined Wayne in the hotel lounge, and as we were winging our way there they were posting in the group web page something about Wayne naming his airplane the “e-linda-nator.” It was on. Wayne was in for it. This was just what I was hungry for – someone to beat.

Mike: Earlier in the week Linda texted to me: “Another Cheetah has entered the race. We need Tim’s wheel pants!” Wheel pants are fairings that cover the wheels making fixed landing gear more aerodynamically clean, which means speed, and to Linda it was a need. We’ve been looking for wheel pants since our worn and cracked ones could no longer be repaired and wanted “speed” pants but have had difficulty locating approved parts. Our friend Tim keeps his Cheetah in a hangar near ours, but how to ask that question - may I borrow your pants? It’s like asking to borrow underwear. But when I managed the awkward question Tim laughed, assuring me that “Cheetahs aren’t bashful,” and yes, we could borrow them.

Linda: I pulled the airplane out of the hangar, fueled, loaded and cleaned while waiting for Mike to get off work. Race organizer Pat Purcell awaited our late arrival at the North Texas Regional Airport to give us a ride to the hotel. The night ended early with thunderstorms, hail and wind passing across the race course just north of the airport where race planes were lined up outside, but not a drop on the ramp.

After the pre-race briefing I caught fellow racer Greg Bordelon giving Wayne some tips on racing, and you can imagine Greg got a good scolding from me. Finally, at race time props began spinning, aircraft began taxiing out, and as Wayne taxied ahead of us I joyfully looked forward to passing him on the course.

Mike and I work well as a team and this race was my turn to fly and his to navigate. We had our race strategy, altitude for each leg, the degree of bank for each turn, and our preferred race communication style, all of which paid off when we caught Wayne before the first turn, passing him on the inside, leaving him in our wake as we turned in our fastest time ever at nearly 155 mph.

Mike: The friendly banter with Wayne continued after the race, and he congratulated us on the win while waiting in line for fuel. That’s what Sport Air Racing League is all about. We are competitive spirits but enjoy the people in our family of racers as much as we enjoy the competition.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

April 3, 2012 A new life for the old Inland

The Liberty Gazette
April 3, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Back in February and March last year we shared the story in a five-part series of the Inland Sport airplane, it’s creator, Dewey Bonbrake and his grandson, Lance Borden, who is the proud owner of one of only seven remaining Inland Sports – a 1929 model, disassembled. The excitement grew a few weeks ago when Lance announced he had taken on a partner in the long desired restoration project. So one recent Sunday afternoon a group of us met at a hangar at Ellington Field and loaded the rare antique airplane, piece by piece onto a U-haul truck. Lance and some other guys took the airplane up to an expert restorer in Kansas who has already brought a couple of other Inlands back to glory. We’re anxious to see it fly again some day. This particular airplane, the one Lance has, flew in the all-women’s air race, the Powder Puff Derby. Lance has offered in the past that if Linda wanted to race it in a future Powder Puff Derby he would let her, but I think the rules for minimum horsepower have changed and that airplane would not likely be eligible to compete these days. Still, it has a rich history, having been raced by both Mae Haslip and Marty Bowman, in 1931 and later. Even if she doesn’t race it, it would be great to fly it to the start or finish of the big annual air race next year to show it off. We’re excited for Lance seeing this piece of history and family legacy being brought back to life. It seemed a bit extra special, too, that his son and grandson were there to help load the airplane. A couple of pro photographers were around to document this important step in the Inland’s resuscitation and we all agreed that the photos taken of Lance with his son and grandson next to the airplane must be edited to include their Grandfather Dewey. It’s only proper

Linda: Speaking of racing, the Sport Air Racing League season has begun. I opened the League’s website just as the final grand notes in Arensky’s Overture ~ Dream on the Volga, Opus 16 streamed from my speakers. It was a perfect match for the photo of the day – Bob Mills in his bright red Vans Super Six in about a 30-degree nose up climb-out with his air show smoke on. The 2012 season opener was in Sherman, Texas this past weekend. We’ll have more on that in a later edition. Meanwhile, the second largest fly-in in the world, Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida just celebrated another great year with many new product announcements by several aviation companies. Garmin has a new app for pilots, and ForeFlight unveiled its newest offering, a superior mobile weather data gadget for use in the cockpit.

Also at Sun ‘n Fun began the campaign to build 50 "Fire Hubs" at aviation campsites across the country. The Recreational Aviation Foundation wants to broaden the horizons of pilots and their passengers who fly from one destination to another never exploring what's outside the pilot’s lounge. Campfires and camaraderie make popular aviation gatherings so the nonprofit organization launched this campaign and AOPA sponsored the first Fire Hub, at the Sun 'n Fun campground area. We’ve often said Liberty is a perfect location to fly in and camp out, so maybe one day our airport will join in the fun.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 27, 2012 Fullerton-the little airport that could

The Liberty Gazette

March 27, 2012

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: “People come out to the airport all the time telling me about how when they retire they can spend more time here,” says Bill Griggs, owner of AFI Flight Training in sunny Southern California. “I tell them I’ve been doing that for over 40 years now and get paid to hang out here,” he says with a big grin. Bill opened up his flight school in 1967 and has been going strong ever since.

“When I started this business I did a lot of homework,” Bill continues. “I looked at all the airports around Southern California and talked with all the flight schools and figured out what worked and what didn’t. I finally decided on this airport and put together a plan. And it’s worked all these years.” Bill and his son, Bill Jr. still operate AFI where thousands of pilots have learned to fly.

AFI Flight Training, derived from the company’s original name, Aviation Facilities, Inc., is located at Fullerton Municipal Airport which boasts a single runway, 3,100 feet long. That’s 700 feet shorter than Liberty’s airport. 600 airplanes call Fullerton home and it is one of the busiest single-runway general aviation airports in the world, in the middle of some of the most complex and congested airspace in the world, sitting amongst the busy airspace of Santa Ana–John Wayne, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Ontario International airports. When Bill started AFI, Fullerton was just a sleepy little airport out in the corn and strawberry fields. One of the visual checkpoints flying in from over the beach is Knotts’ Berry Farm and to the southwest is the original Disneyland. I did some of my flight training with a flying club at Fullerton in the 1970s and early ‘80s, and took many a checkride from an FAA designated examiner on Bill’s staff, so it was a great pleasure to introduce Linda to Bill while in California a few years ago, and show her the little airport that could, where people came with vision and passion to create success stories.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do what I’ve wanted for so long,” says Bill. “It hasn’t always been easy work, but I have loved it all and look forward to coming here every day. It’s a passion as much as a career or business. It has to be if you are to survive for very long in this business.”

When I was flying out of Fullerton there were five flight schools and airplane dealers on the field. There are still many fixed base operations there but only AFI has remained with the same owner all this time.

Linda: Vision and passion are big things that touch everything you do, but a successful operator doesn’t overlook the small things. Bill Griggs knows the importance of a clean bathroom for instance. “Some business owners don’t realize how important it is,” he says. “Dirty reflects on you.” An observer of human nature, Bill shared a little-known fact with us: “women are funny – they won’t use up a toilet paper roll. They’ll start a new one before one is finished.”

Bill’s well thought through methods of reward and discipline underscore his understanding of people and the industry in which he works, and every bit of how his business and his life are run is based on Biblical principles, the only true recipe for success.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 20, 2012 Aviation and Social Media

The Liberty Gazette

March 20, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Tweet! Tweet! It’s not just for birds anymore. On Twitter, one “tweets.” Tweeting is one modern-day method of getting real-time information to a target audience, and it’s done in very small amounts – micro-blogging. Social media has become more than just Facebook, and more than just personal. Businesses using social media have found the new marketing and public relations methods, although carried out through different channels, essentially operate most successfully by employing traditional standards. Experience within the aviation community has funneled the proper use of social media into a couple of categories. Some companies find it best to use Twitter, Facebook, and others for purposes of announcements and deal offers, while others use these real-time electronic methods to obtain feedback from customers, to engage them.

While many companies are still finding their way through the learning curve, what’s certain is the importance of how and what a company chooses to tweet. For one company, opening up the lines of communication with customers by asking for feedback can be (and has been) potentially embarrassing, because once a customer’s has been sent, all subscribers are able to see it. But these methods of communication can also work very well, and the aviation industry is jumping aboard like gangbusters. There’s even a social media boot camp for aviation businesses to hone their skills at reputation management. While some 200 airlines are already using some form of social media, airports and aviation related businesses located on airports – called FBOs – have been more cautious.

The Akron-Canton airport in Ohio was one of the first airports to begin tweeting, and on Valentine’s Day this year their public relations strategies were stellar. I saw several tweets throughout the day as they handed out treats to passengers, and by the end of the day they posted a link on Twitter to a video they’d taken of their innovative ideas and posted on YouTube, and tweeted, “What an amazing V-day at CAK! We gave away 500 cupcakes, 300 carnations, and hundreds of Cinnabons and cups of coffee!” Customers posted messages all day long about the great experience coming to the Akron-Canton Airport, adding to the positive image that airport already enjoys. So for those who “followed” the airport on Twitter, they would have seen messages about sweet treats awaiting them upon arrival.

In last month’s publication “Business Standard” Priyanka Joshi wrote, “Twitter plays a vital role in customer relations and engagement while their customers are at the airport as well as while offering specific deals to targeted users.” In fact, it is estimated that 40 per cent of airlines are expanding their social media teams, bringing in employees from marketing, customer service, e-commerce, corporate communications and other departments.

While electronic social media is still relatively new, successful implementation relies on the core standards and philosophies of traditional marketing and public relations. So while we might think younger employees will be more adept at using social media for marketing, without a good understanding of marketing principles a careless plan, haphazard tweeting, posting, or messaging can be disastrous. The traditional marketing professional knows how to build a successful campaign and only has to learn these new methods of communication.

I enjoy watching the many tweets of airports, FBOs, airlines, aviation writers and consultants and many others in the industry embarking on new media.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 13, 2012 Beyond the airport fence

The Liberty Gazette

March 13, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: A small boy presses hard on a bike which from a glance appears too big for him such that he unable to reach the pedals when he sits in the seat. The tree-lined lane he’s traveling is adorned with bushy clumps of grass separating two dirt ruts left by the constant travel of cars. The boy is on a mission, an adventure, having returned to this alluring path, only this time he will go farther, searching and dreaming of what he will find. As he rides onto a portion of the road that is clear of trees, he is startled by a flash of color overhead and the roar of an engine and instinctively ducks his head and rolls off onto the grass on the side of the lane where his bike’s wheels sink into the softer ground and the bike comes to a stop and falls to the side. The young rider tumbles, rolls on the ground and looks off in the direction the startling object has gone.

Jumping to his feet he watches as the airplane makes a smooth climbing turn eventually disappearing behind the trees. The boy remains still, not wanting to move until the engine’s roar is no longer audible, as his mind fills with wonder, who is flying that airplane and where they are going? What does it look like from up there? What does it feel like to fly?

He knows now that what he seeks must be only a short distance more down this lane, and knowing this makes him push harder on the pedals to make the bike go faster. Finally, rounding a corner, there it is: the airport, the very symbol of the gateway to adventure. He had heard there was one here, almost in a mythical sense – nobody in his school really knew for sure. But he has found it. He is the adventurous one willing to search beyond the far horizons to discover, to conquer, to successfully complete his mission.

A short, three-strand wire fence separates a parked truck and car from a little yellow airplane facing away from him and toward the runway. Off to the side around a little building, not much more than a shack, sits another airplane. Sunlight sparkles bright as diamonds through droplets of water as a man hoses dirt off the wings. The young explorer spies a couple of other buildings. From the fence he can see propellers and tails of airplanes parked inside, and his dreams are energized with the idea of flight, flying low over a field, looking out over the horizon a hundred miles or more, where all the world is his to explore. His spirit begins to soar. This is no video game. He has discovered the real thing.

What if there were no airplanes beyond the fence, no roar of an engine as the pilot sets off to far-away places? What if there was no place a boy or girl could go and be inspired? What if children had only TV or computer video games? Would they even seek new horizons or would they become, as Rick Durden asks, "easy prey for the beaten-down adults who tell them to quit dreaming,” to be “content and attuned to just beetling across the surface of life rather than living it fully”?

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 6, 2012 Community Airports

The Liberty Gazette

March 6, 2012

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda:After spending a lot of time with airport executives in the Houston area and beyond we see the results of good and not so good ideas. Airports are complex organizations, each a unique “mirror” of the community it serves requiring competent administration to manage them. First impressions are important and an airport, being the community’s front door, says “welcome,” or otherwise to newcomers.

Just like a business, an airport’s reputation in the local and aviation communities is built by a combination of influences, including policy-makers and tenants of the airport. The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) recognizes that for an airport to be successful policy-makers must understand and balance two dichotomous philosophies: first, that an airport is a public entity and must be managed as such, and second, that the airport is a business enterprise and must be managed as such. The land and buildings of many public-use airports are publicly owned, by a city or county. The aircraft they host are mostly privately owned, whether by individuals or companies, engaging in commerce, while using airspace controlled by federal government regulations. So in reality there are many things about an airport over which its property owner has little or no control.

AAAE also recognizes that airports represent a variety of perspectives to a community, and expects that most citizens recognize the indispensable role of their airport. Professional airport management training educates students that key stakeholders in government positions sometimes use airports for political advantage, often preventing citizens’ participation in decision making related to airport operations and policy. This unfortunate situation should be addressed where ever it is a problem. No citizen of a community should become persona non grata at the whim of a politician.

Mike: While financial self-sufficiency is a goal, publicly owned airports are subject to public administration and subjected to policy decisions by people often far removed from the industry. Ignorance often cripples the host city and its airport. The most productive goal is for a city to recognize the airport as an asset and put it to work to benefit the community, using its entire economic impact to measure success. The inability to understand the unique nature of airports often leads local government agencies to attempt to put their airport into a frame of reference they better understand, such as parks or public utilities. This is where AAAE and the Aviation Division of the Texas Department of Transportation are such valuable resources. TxDOT’s Aviation Division is recognized as one of the best run state aviation divisions in the country. Under Dave Fulton’s leadership for many years, the entire state has benefited from his dedication to aviation and strong advocacy for airports throughout the state, and has set the standard for other states.

TXDOT holds the purse-strings for all the FAA grant money doled out to community airports such as ours so if they know about something that isn’t right they probably won’t be providing the funding. By utilizing TxDOT’s resources we can avoid costly problems before they occur, some of which come about as a result of depending on other so-called “experts” in aviation, and can expect healthy progress that will spell growth for the community.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com