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and reopened where they are now [at Forest and Inwood],” he says. “I’ve been going there ever since. I couldn’t break away from it.”

He wasn’t an original member of the group, but ran into them at Kel’s and, being a retired Braniff pilot himself, began joining them for lunch.

“I knew all of them by name, knew who they were at Braniff, but I really didn’t know any of them. We weren’t running buddies or anything,” Kelly says. “But since then, we’ve developed friendships. One guy, our wives and us go out to dinner.”

The group calls Kelly “the chief” and ribs him for being the “resident aviation expert.” He often appears on TV and radio reports dealing with aviation topics — sometimes live in front of Kel’s.

“I think I’m the only one of the bunch that still works. The rest are all wealthy,” Kelly quips in response.

Around the table, much of the discussion is pilot talk. This week it’s a plane that landed in the water instead of on the runway in Bali. The men debate the technicalities of the landing, using language that sounds foreign to anyone outside the aviation realm.

It’s not the only topic of discussion, but they try to keep it civil. As one of the men begins talking politics, Russell cautions him.

“You don’t want to start that,” he says.