DATE: Monday, June 16, 1997                 TAG: 9706160043

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER LANGSTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND                    LENGTH:   82 lines

PILOT FEELS BUSINESS IS CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF SHE'S ALWAYS LOVED THE FREEDOM OF FLIGHT, BUT NOW IT'S GETTING SERIOUS.

After six years of turbulence, Betty Brindley hopes the charter business is ready to fly.

The new owner and operator of Southeast Air, Brindley is embarking on her first summer season shuttling passengers between the beach and mainland destinations.

``My goal is to have regular commuter air service on the Outer Banks,'' said Brindley, who bought Southeast Air in October.

``When they decided to sell, I knew I wanted to be a pilot and I wanted to stay here. And I thought there was a need.''

In a gray bungalow across from the Dare County Airport terminal that houses Southeast Air, the walls are covered with flight maps of the Atlantic coast.

Bulletin boards list the destination and flight times scheduled for the next two months - Norfolk, LaGuardia, Atlantic City.

Southeast Air flies wherever and whenever people want to go. Passengers can arrange flights to any number of destinations - $135 for one person and $195 for three to Norfolk, or $675 for one to three passengers to New York.

While some airlines have unsuccessfully tried regularly scheduled flights out of the Outer Banks, Brindley flies by appointment. She also offers air tours of the area and flight instruction.

``Scheduled air service is like a bus. We're more like a limousine,'' Brindley said as she inspected a Cessna Cardinal 177 just back from an air tour.

Brindley, 45, who lives in Duck, is one of the few women pilots on the airstrip. She began flying professionally several years ago, but her fascination with flying started much earlier.

After attending a Blue Angels air show in 1979, she showed up at their recruiting office only to be told they did not use women pilots. If she wanted to be a part of their team, she would have to be a flight engineer.

Instead, she met her future husband while vacationing on the Outer Banks. They started a beach rental business in Corolla, which occupied her time for the next decade. Then she started working on her pilot's license and ended up flying charters on the Outer Banks.

She was drawn to the scenery, the colors and the control.

``I'm definitely in it because I love to fly. That is overriding,'' Brindley said. ``I love the power of a plane. I love pushing the throttle, sitting behind it and controlling that much power.''

But running a charter business is not entirely lighthearted. Thereis always tension between the freedom of flying and the nuts and bolts of running a business.

``You've got that side of it - the soaring, the freedom, the romanticism, but the business of transportation is very serious,'' Brindley said.

With four small planes that carry from three to five passengers, Brindley is hoping to nurture a reliable market for air service. Others have ventured into that territory and failed.

Southeast Air sprouted from the ashes of Dawn Air, an airline that started in 1991. When that venture failed, the company became Southeast Aviation, which was owned by six investors until Brindley bought the business from them last year.

In fact, only one charter air service out of Dare County Airport has remained relatively stable. Jay Mankedick, chief pilot for Outer Banks Airways, has been flying locally for the past 15 years.

``There ain't no gold mine flying charters here on the Outer Banks,'' Mankedick said. ``It's a real small piece of the pie.''

But Brindley can also draw on the successes and failures of the airlines that have gone before.

``It's like climbing stairs. The first one did the groundwork and the second built the first set of steps and she's on the second rung. All of them have contributed to her success,'' said Tim Gaylord, Dare County airport manager.

With an MBA in marketing and her experience in tourism, Brindley thinks she will bring more to the business than just flying skills. She is gambling that her airline can rise to the occasion.

``You can't build enough roads and bridges around here. They're not the answer. We've got to get people in the air.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

EAGER TO FLY

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Betty Brindley, center, is the owner and president of Southeast Air,

a charter service on the Outer Banks, which she's starting up with

Chief Pilot Frank Duckwall, left, and General Manager Lorrie Love,

right. Brindley bought the company from six investors in October.

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