If you sat here, you'd be at work by now
Rarefied bunch take to skies to escape din of traffic

By Michael Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 8/18/2001

ABOVE NEW HAMPSHIRE - Charles ''Rink'' DeWitt has the kind of commute people
dream of. Here he is, 10 minutes into his regular route, on a Friday, and
there is not a honking horn, or a pothole, or even another soul around him.

DeWitt is flying. He's approaching 3,800 feet, surrounded only by a blue sky
painted with clouds so close that he could touch them with the tip of his
propeller. It's a single-engine plane, nothing fancy, room for six, and in a
few minutes DeWitt will turn a couple of dials, punch in some numbers, and
let go of the yoke.

At this point, DeWitt often fires up Don Imus on the radio. He could read a
novel, too. He could take both hands, lock them behind his head and look for
Lake Winnipesaukee, which is just over the horizon. And the plane could
pretty much, on its own, fly DeWitt to work.

Not a bad start to the day.

DeWitt has been getting to work this way since the 1980s, and though nobody
keeps track of how many people commute by plane, the American Owners and
Pilots Association says the number is up, especially in Southern California,
where sprawl and traffic congestion have made flying just about the sanest
way to get to work.

In New England, people fly to work in and around Boston from all corners.
Many, like DeWitt, who runs an executive coaching company in Wellesley, land
at Hanscom Field in Bedford. Others fly to Logan International Airport. And
yet others fly back and forth to either place from Nantucket or Martha's
Vineyard during the summer.

With the economy's upswing a couple of years ago, said Brian Moore, a flight
instructor at Executive Flyers Aviation, at Hanscom Field, there was a
heightened interest by business people in flying their own planes for work
purposes, especially commuting back and forth to New York City.

''Most of these individuals are professionals who do quite well,'' said
Moore, who hasn't noticed any drop-off during the current downturn. ''They
have a passion for flying, and now they have an excuse to do it for
business. A lot of times people don't come here intending to fly for
business, but then they see the freedom it gives them.''

DeWitt does it for the views. In particular, he does it for what he can see
from his kitchen window in his gorgeous home along Squam Lake in Center
Sandwich. He looks out that window every morning at two mountains more than
4,000 feet high. They signal what kind of commute he's going to have.

If he can see the peaks, great. Visibility is at least 15 miles, and the
cloud deck is high - perfect flying conditions. DeWitt won't need to file a
flight plan. He just drives a few miles to a local airport - a narrow
3,500-foot tar-covered path that his sons' girlfriends joke looks like
something suited more for bicycles than for planes.

From a small hangar he wheels out his Beech Bonanza plane, which he bought
for $104,000 in the early 1980s, when he was chairman of the now defunct
BankEast Corp. DeWitt was then acquiring banks all over New Hampshire, where
it's easy to get north and south on the roads, but a nightmare to go east
and west.

So he started hiring pilots. They were young. ''I took one look at them and
wondered if they knew what the hell they were doing,'' he said. DeWitt began
learning something about planes. He picked up enough that he decided to take
lessons. And almost immediately, he fell in love with the notion of flying
to work.

Flying a small plane is not as difficult as it looks. ''It's well within the
capability of a person of average intelligence and average physical
capacity,'' said Warren Morningstar, vice president of communications for
the owners' association. ''You don't have to be astronaut material to be
able to fly a light airplane.''

But it isn't cheap. DeWitt's half-hour flight to Hanscom - he keeps a car
there, then drives 20 minutes to Wellesley - can cost $40 or $50, round
trip, in gas alone.

Other planes are more expensive. Ford von Weise, the president of Boston
Aviation Finance, paid $600,000 for his used Piper Malibu Mirage. He flies
it back and forth to Hanscom from Nantucket in the summer, for $250 an hour.
And just getting the proper licenses can cost about $8,000.

Those who spend any time in the air, though, say the money is worth it.
DeWitt converts what could be a two-and-a-half hour commute into about an
hour, flying over congested highways and shaking his head in disbelief at
how alone he is, well above the bumper-to-bumper mess below.

DeWitt and von Weise find commuting by plane deeply relaxing.

''When I get to work, I feel refreshed,'' said von Weise, who lives in
Carlisle and works in commercial development for Lend Lease Real Estate.
''Flying is a nice diversion. When you're flying, you're not really thinking
about anything else. You are thinking about flying.''

And on autopilot, if either of them desire to, they can get work done.
Documents can be read, calendars updated. Or they can just take a step back
from it all and think about their day ahead.

''If I'm going to live in New England, live in a pretty place - to do this
I'm going to need to fly,'' DeWitt said. ''It saves you an enormous amount
of stress, as far as I'm concerned. You know, I guess it's a luxury. But so
is a sailboat....

''But for what flying allows you to do, it's worth it. It changes your life.
You have no idea how much it can change your life.''


This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe on 8/18/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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