March 25, 2014 The Checkered Flag

The Liberty Gazette

March 25, 2014

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: The Sport Air Racing season is about to begin and to get you in the mood we thought we’d share a bit of history on flags used in racing. Although flags are generally associated with auto racing, when we hold the Indy Air Race each August we include the waving of a green flag (usually by a former Indy car driver) in honor of our host city – the one that is Linda’s hometown.

The green flag is universally understood, probably owing to traffic lights. In 1980, Chief Starter Duane Sweeney launched a tradition at the Indianapolis 500 of waving twin green flags for added visual effect at the start of the race. Linda has more on that.

Linda: Duane Sweeney. I knew him years before he was honored with the position as official flag man at Indy, back when he was flagging at dirt tracks and other smaller venues. Duane was a kick, a retiree from Milwaukee whose arms were evidence of robust flag waving at weekend races for decades. His son Mark was a little older than I and when Duane was chosen as Indy’s Chief Starter, replacing long time flag man, Pat Vidan, Mark and I were excited for the Big D.

Plenty of theories have been posited as to the origins of the checkered flag, including one about horse races during the early days of the settlement of the Midwest. The races were followed by large public meals; the signal that the meals were ready and racing was over was allegedly the waving of a checkered tablecloth. But I don’t buy that one.

Another theory is that the checkered flag was first used for 19th century bicycle races in France. Nope, I’m not giving this one to the French.

However, in 2006 "The Origin of the Checker Flag: A Search for Racing's Holy Grail", written by historian Fred Egloff, was published by the International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen, NY.

Fred’s research traces the checkered flag's origin to Sidney Waldon, who worked for Packard Motor Car Company, and in 1906 created a flag to mark checkpoints along rally races. That fact holds some interest for me because my Indy racing grandfather also worked for Packard.

A couple of months ago I received a call from a gentleman who said he was looking for Jim Ford’s daughter (that’d be me), and that he had worked for my dad in the late ‘40’s-early ‘50’s when Dad had an exotic foreign car dealership in Evanston, Illinois. My dad has been gone for over 15 years now, so the call was a delightful surprise. Turned out to be Fred Egloff, whose professional accomplishments go far beyond publishing the history of the checkered flag.

Before the availability of reliable two-way radios, flags were the only real communication from race officials to drivers. They still wave today for that same purpose. And sometimes radios malfunction, leaving flags the only way to relay messages to racers. And, radios still aren’t used at many dirt tracks and lower-level speedways. Flags also tell the fans what’s happening.

Today the checkered flag is the universal symbol for conclusion, and its use has spread beyond auto racing. The next time you finish a download and see a checkered flag, think of the early days of racing, and thank Sid Waldon for the idea, and Fred Egloff for his research.

Mike: Air race season beings March 29 in Sherman, Texas. We’ll be flying fast for the checkered flag.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 18, 2014 About Flying

The Liberty Gazette

March 18, 2014

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Whether your type is stick-‘n-rudder, cyclic and collective, kerosene burner, quiet glider, full of hot air, or a ground-bound lover of aviation, this is your little corner of the paper for aviation stories from everywhere.

Did you know the average age range of today’s student pilot is in their 30’s? The average actively flying private pilot is in his or her 40’s, and many over 50 are now fulfilling their lifelong ambition to fly.

What draws us to aviation? Well, the view for one thing. Experiencing the dimension of altitude means your world is no longer flat, and we humans are attracted to fullness. The next time you’re in a store, notice how the displays fill the entire store. Retailers know this is appealing to consumers, and that “flat is bad.” Flying gives us an experience of fullness in a whole new way, a perspective on the world denied when gravity isn’t defied.

Linda: And how about challenge and accomplishment – the hunt and the capture. No matter how long ago it may have been, aviators remember clearly their first solo flight, from the moment the instructor stepped out of the airplane and cleared the way for the student to say, “I made that airplane fly – me, the boss, the pilot in command.” And yet we knew there was so much more to learn.

Mike: There will always be someone who has flown more or bigger aircraft, or has flown higher, faster, longer, yet stories from novice pilots are just as exciting, and that’s the fun we have here in these air lines; the people, the adventures… oh the places we can go.

Linda: Speaking of airports, I was amused by a Facebook post made by the amazingly talented composer, Eric Whitacre a couple of weeks ago.

This Classical composer with the rock star image made the following public admission: “Yesterday in the airport gift shop I hear this very familiar oboe solo wafting over the store sound system. I listen more closely and can't believe it: they are playing my 'Equus' for orchestra! I am so excited, take my magazines to the counter and ask the woman, ‘do they play this piece often? I wrote this music!’ She smiles at me strangely, and as I open my bag to take out my wallet I realize that the music is blasting from my iPhone; I must have accidentally started it at airport security. I blush like an idiot and get out of there as fast as possible.”

It’s nice to see the real and human side of someone who spends his life in the spotlight. He could so easily become what turns us off most about people in the public eye, yet he comes across as a likeable guy with a sense of humor. I’m thinking he needs his own jet…and a couple of pilots. Nothing against my airline friends, but this guy probably travels enough to justify a company plane.

And so, aviation nuts, propeller heads, jetti-sons, rotor rats, glider guys and gals, hope your next weekend includes some measure of aerial awesomeness. You can always go out to the Liberty airport and say hello to Jose and Debbie while you watch for airplanes. They’re great folks!

Give me a mile of highway and I can travel a mile;

give me a mile of runway and I can go anywhere.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 11, 2014 The Wild Life

The Liberty Gazette

March 11, 2014

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Ken Wittekiend loves flying his Piper SuperCub low and slow over the Colorado River in the lovely part of Texas a bit west of here, around Burnet, in the Hill Country. He’s the son of a WWII P-51 pilot, has been flying a long time and is a Master Certified Flight Instructor with all manner of awards. The view from his office window can’t be beat – except maybe when he flies with the doors off.

I first met Ken seven or eight years ago and trusted him with training and testing me in a tailwheel airplane. His signature of approval in my logbook is a testament to his gift of teaching, and his passion for teaching is evidenced by the fact that his most memorable experiences are the friends he’s made and the satisfaction he receives in seeing someone gain confidence and skill.

His love of teaching and his substantial contributions to the flight training industry, educating the educators, are only part of the story. Beyond the beautiful sunrises over lakes and hills and flocks of Bluebonnets, beyond the heart for his fellow man, Ken was moved to support the work of fellow aviators with the Kenya Wildlife Service, stopping the illegal murder of animals such as elephants, for example, slaughtered for their ivory tusks.

Mike: The Kenya Wildlife Service was established in 1990 as a Kenya state corporation that manages wildlife at most of the National Parks and Reserves in the country. At its inception the service established an air wing in Nairobi at the Wilson Airport. Now with 12 Cessna Caravans and five helicopters the pilots of the KWS patrol the land looking for poachers.

One of Ken’s fellow supporters of this effort is world-renowned aerobatic champion Patty Wagstaff. While one of Patty’s flight suits and her faithful airplane, an Extra 260, are displayed in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Patty has spent many years of her air show off-season time in Africa, teaching and refining the skills necessary for pilots flying these specialized flights over African terrain. It’s called bush flying and it’s low and slow and requires precision, carrying a higher risk than your average civilian flying. Thanks to Patty’s contributions the KWS Air Wing realized a drop of more than 50% in the aircraft accident rate, and a significant increase in the elephant population.

In addition to the specialized flying skills necessary for successful KWS pilots, the team of 12 must have an understanding of Kenya’s terrain and wildlife. Then they are carefully trained and mentored in security, veterinary support services, animal tracking and game census, fire fighting, rescue (including mountain rescue), and transport of rations and supplies, including ammunition.

Fifty-nine parks and reserves spread over a country almost the size of Texas – about 224,962 square miles – is a lot of area to cover. The KWS Air Wing Unit is on permanent standby to fly into action anywhere in Kenya, whether for routine monitoring, field trips, or security operations and emergency evacuations, helping to protect some of the country’s assets.

That’s one of the most interesting things about the aviation industry, seeing how people combine their talents and passions with aviation to contribute to pretty amazing outcomes.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com 

March 4, 2014 Peruvian Lights

The Liberty Gazette

March 4, 2014

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Here in Liberty we’re fortunate to have an airport and a couple of helipads. As publicly owned assets they should serve the public – that’s their job – and they do, night and day.

There was a heart-warming story from eastern Peru and we thought you would like to know about it. It makes me think of one local family who shared their story of how the Liberty Airport played a role in the rescue of one of their family members.

It was one night last April when an emergency medical flight needed to depart immediately from Contamana in order to save some lives. Contamana is a remote town in the Rain Forest, and in the deepest darkness of night a take-off from the local landing strip was unsafe. There are no lights on this dirt and grass strip.

The pilot of the airplane, a Cessna Caravan, had to consider the safety of his passengers, and determined they could not take off such a short and unimproved strip in total darkness.

But in that remote little town there’s a local radio station, and I imagine its run by someone much like Bill Buchanan, someone who cares about people and doesn’t stand still and shake his head and say, “Someone ought to do something.” The good folks at the radio station learned of the situation and went without delay to the airwaves, asking listeners for help. I imagine our local station would do the same if the need were there.

But how could the people of this remote town in Peru help their neighbors in need? Their response will warm your heart.

Mike: In less than half an hour after the radio station sent out the plea the count of about 300 taxi drivers and people from across the listening area drove their cars, motorbikes and auto-rickshaws to the air strip, lined up along each side, and turned on their headlights to light the way along the 2624-foot long strip. By comparison, the Liberty Airport is currently 3,801 feet long. That tells you the pilot had no wiggle room for mistakes – they had to get off the ground in a short distance.

Thanks to the goodness of all those people who rushed to the airport that night to give of their time and use of their belongings without any expectation or request for compensation, with nothing to gain but knowing they did the right thing, the pilot was able to take off with three passengers in need of medical treatment. Bystanders cheered, and people knew they’d done what was right at the time it was needed. Some taxi drivers must have sacrificed a great deal, being put out of service and unable to pick up paying customers for that period of time.

There’s a BBC report on file which you can watch online, just search using a word string such as “BBC headlights Peru air strip medical flight” and I bet you’ll find the video.

The airport in Contamana is the lifeline to the outside world, and the passengers who were served that night, a mother and her newborn baby, and a 17-year old boy, can thank the people who dropped everything they were busy doing to drive to the airstrip and light the way to hope and healing.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 25, 2014 Orbis

The Liberty Gazette

February 25, 2014

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: When I turned 50 I had to admit there were times when reading glasses would help. It’s been tough on the ego, but then I consider the millions who cannot see well, or at all. Our local Lions Club is one of the strong supporters of eye care and sight restoration – please, be generous in your support of our Liberty Lions Club.

Where the business of aviation meets the business of ophthalmic is in Orbis, a company that has been bringing sight to the world since 1982. It’s a flying hospital, with destinations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, for two- to three-week missions in-country where volunteer staff train local surgeons and medical personnel. Doctors volunteering with Orbis are preventing and treating blindness in the developing world. Volunteer pilots are getting them there, and volunteer mechanics keep the airplane flying.

Inside the world’s only airborne ophthalmic training facility are 48 seats where trainees attend lectures and watch surgery broadcast live, while they can ask questions directly to the surgeons during the operations. Filling out the rest of the cabin of the DC-10 they’re currently using are a full audio-visual room, a laser room for front and rear cornea and retina repair, a medical simulator, a full operating theater, and recovery area.

Mike: United Airlines donated the first airplane, a DC-8, which served for ten years as doctors taught doctors how to restore sight. But the fuselage didn’t lend itself well to a hospital environment, and by the late 1980’s the DC-8 was being retired (which would soon mean no more qualified pilots), so Orbis executives approached Fed Ex Founder and Chairman Fred Smith for help finding a replacement: a DC-10, which first took off as the new flying hospital in 1992.

The myriad of logistical puzzle pieces require a year’s planning for trips. The airplane hauls tools, equipment, generators, and experts – 22 people go on every trip, including two mechanics. The DC-10 is an out-of-production airplane, so they rely on the aviation community a lot, and Fed Ex has continued their support with donations of parts, labor, and satisfying regulatory requirements.

Upon landing they can set up the hospital in a day and a half. Surgical candidates are selected through a screening process. There’s no telling how many people enjoy restored eyesight because the job is to teach the healers, but Orbis volunteers return and monitor the cases, and provide an e-learning and e-mentoring tele-medicine program for doctors all over the globe. In this way, they’ve reached nearly 300,000 doctors in 77 countries, equipping them to help others.

When the work is done, Orbis volunteers leave videos of the surgical demonstrations so they can be used in further training, and an ORBIS ophthalmologist returns within two months of each program to examine patients and review cases with the local doctors.

Since its time to replace the DC-10, Fed Ex has donated an MD-10 to be outfitted with a modular clinic that was built in Vermont, and shipped to Victorville, California for installation. Expected completion is any day now.

They say 90% of the blind live in underdeveloped countries and that 80% are treatable. Thanks to Orbis, Lions Club, and other eye programs, the World Health Organization’s predictions for blindness have finally started a downward trend.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com