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"Olive Oyl" was the nickname Manual High School classmates hung on lean and lanky Gail Butterfield in the early '50s. Later she became "Mrs. ‘Cowboy Bob'." But nowadays at United Airlines, she's known as Capt. Gail Glaze.

Born on Indianapolis' Southside 45 years ago, Butterfield attended Public Schools 95 and 65. One spring day when she was 16 years old, she helped her father, Bob Butterfield, set up sound equipment for the Crossroads Rehabilitation Center Easter Egg Hunt at the Governor's Residence. WTTV-Channel 4's children's show host, "Cowboy Bob," was there as a celebrity. In awe, she shyly shook his hand and got his autograph.

The event quickly was forgotten, as Butterfield spent the next two years caring for her beloved mother. Dorothy Butterfield suffered from a heart condition and a debilitating stroke. She was 40 years old when her last child, Gail, was born. Son Bob and daughter Linda were gone and married, so the daily caretaking responsibilities fell on the small shoulders of Gail, the serious, straight-A student. Graduating third in her class, the green-eyed beauty also garnered honors as an accomplished ice skater, flautist, and Job's Daughter Honored Queen.

In 1972, Butterfield became a film director at WTTV. "Cowboy Bob" — 11 years her senior — met her in the television station's hallway and was enamored immediately. He didn't remember that they had met before. But Butterfield did. "On our first date, I handed him the card he had autographed for me when I was a kid," she says with a laugh. His jaw dropped. Corralling his chagrin, "Cowboy Bob" roped her in with horseback riding dates in Brown County. A glorious fall turned to winter as Indianapolis' most famous cowboy, Bob Glaze, blazed a romantic trail to Butterfield.

It was a frigid December day — the kind of day where you could blow ringlets with your breath — when Glaze invited her to go scuba diving in the Bloomington stone quarry. Locals call the quarry "the Ice Box," but the dauntless Butterfield didn't bail, and was able to dive in the icy water for five miserable minutes. That's when Glaze was certain he had met his soulmate.

But they still were just dating and Glaze's birthday was coming up. Butterfield's search for the perfect gift led her to Divers Supply Indy. They assured her that scuba lessons for both of them would be the ultimate birthday present. That fortuitous shopping expedition was a pivotal moment in Butterfield's life: She began working for Divers Supply.

Diving led to flying the day Ambassadair founder and Capt. George Mikelsons and his flight crew walked into the dive shop. They wanted to become certified scuba divers. Mikelsons was so impressed with Butterfield that he asked her to become an Ambassadair flight attendant. By now an accomplished scuba diver, she was the perfect person to fly Ambassadair's dive trips. She graduated from Ambassadair's first flight attendants' class in 1975.

Unbeknownst to him, she considers Mikelsons instrumental in her career choice. It was during Ambassadair flights that Butterfield became fascinated with what was going on in the cockpit. The math and science of flying didn't deter her; she had excelled in both subjects in school. Flying in the face of all gender odds, the 5-foot, 5-inch, 120-pound woman decided to become a pilot.

That same year Glaze asked her to marry him on an Ambassadair dive trip to Cozumel. They were 30 feet under water when he proposed, writing on an underwater slate: "Will You Marry Me?" The woman he nicknamed "The Flying Fish" said yes, and they were married on May 7, 1976, in an outdoor wedding in Brown County State Park. With Gail playing flute and Bob on guitar, they performed Born Free for wedding guests, including the bride's adoring mother, who later died.

After a dive honeymoon in Hawaii, they moved to Bloomington. Shortly thereafter, Gail left Ambassadair to become a flight attendant for Allegheny/USAirways. When she revealed her aviation goal to an Allegheny pilot, he took her to an airplane simulator in Pittsburgh. She was hooked.

In her free time, she secretly began to take flying lessons at Franklin Field. It was clandestine because when she first discussed it with Bob, she met with marital turbulence. "But I knew I really wanted to do this," she says. "Marriage is a compromise, but if you want to do something, you do it." Panic set in when she realized people at the airfield might reveal her secret. "I was worried that someone would say, "Hey, Mrs. ‘Cowboy Bob' is learning how to fly and ‘Cowboy Bob' doesn't even know!"

Glaze was forced to confess when it was time for her to begin working on cross-country flying. "When I was able to show him that I was serious about pursuing flying and that I had a plan, he became very supportive," she remembers. Landing him on the deal led to their buying a 1969 twin-engine model Cessna so she could gain required multi-engine time.

Shortly thereafter, Glaze's professional horizon broadened when she spent a year flying light twin-engine aircraft for two separate charter operators. Among her most notable passengers were Sen. Dan Quayle and former Lt. Gov. John Mutz.

Her aviation career ascended when she joined Comair, serving as first officer and then captain from 1985-1989. Going full throttle, she moved to United Airlines in 1989, flying as second and first officer. Glaze joined United's captain list on July 8, 1997, no small accomplishment. "Olive Oyl" had mentally muscled her way into a lofty group of female major airline captains.

It's an elite group indeed. United Airlines spokesman Roger Vesely reports that "United Airlines currently has 618 (6.4 percent) female pilots flying for us. There are 149 female captains; the remainder are first and second officers.

"Female and male United pilots are paid the same," Vesely adds. "The median wage for captains is $150,000 a year." That's a nice piece of change, conceeds the woman who is her happiest when she's flying.

But she's had her share of flaps with sexual discrimination. Like the time when she attended an accelerated program in North Carolina to work on her instrument, multi-engine, and commercial license. The flight school's owner "seemed to enjoy failing an engine during take-off," she recalls, "and I honestly had to look for the shortest trees to clear." Naive and trusting, Glaze thought "that's just the way it was." Until an enraged female pilot instructor tipped her off that the man was bigoted against female pilots.

And then there was the time when she was flying commuters. "I had a first officer say to me, 'I've been captain of military planes for years and I'm not going to let a female kill me in the sky.' " Capt. Glaze responded, "Look, you sit on the right side of this airplane. I'm sitting on the left side because I'm in command of this airplane. You do your job, I'll do mine."

She was livid and reports there was very little friendly talk during the flight because she wasn't in the mood. "At the end of the flight, he apologized, saying he had heard horror stories that women don't know how to fly, that they're just getting hired just because of equal rights. He then bragged about my flying skills," Glaze laughs sardonically.

Once a passenger almost refused to board her Comair commuter flight. Fear of flying met fear of dying. "I was standing at the foot of the airplane's stairs in my captain's uniform when a lady passenger started to board and then stopped. The passenger said, ‘I don't think I want to do this. Are you sure you can fly this airplane?' I said, ‘Yes, I'm the captain on this airplane and I can assure you that I value my life as much as you value yours.' She got on!"

Glaze's face lights up like a nighttime runway when she talks about flying Boeing 737s. And given a choice, she prefers the challenge of landings to take-offs. "It's pretty easy to do a smooth take-off. The whole idea is to fly as smoothly as possible. You want to rock the people in back to sleep. You don't do anything that startles anyone. You can work your rear end off to make everything smooth during the flight but the only thing people remember is the landing," she explains. "Landing is the most challenging part. But it's also the most fun."

One of her most memorable days as a pilot was when she had and all-female crew. "It was wonderful! The jet that I fly is in Chicago and tends to go into certain gate areas rather frequently, so I've gotten to know some of the mechanics who work in that area. We have a flight intercom system where a mechanic plugs in and we communicate before push-back. That day when they plugged in, I said, ‘I've got an all-female crew up here! How about getting a female mechanic for me?' " Unfortunately, a woman mechanic wasn't on duty that day.

Being in charge is Glaze's favorite part of being an airplane captain. "Large and in charge," she laughs. "I've always like to make decisions. I like to be the one in control. When you sing or play the flute, you're showing off for a crowd. When you fly as captain, you're orchestrating that flight. You're conducting the flight and you're performing. It's that desire to show off that keeps the excitement up and makes it rewarding."

But she clouds over when she talks about having to go through airport security. "It's so belittling to have to go through a metal detector and be scanned when I'm the one who is taking the airplane up. I love flying and I value my life," she complains. "On the other hand, I recognize that I have to do it because the public wants to see that everybody is being screened."

Throwing her shoulders back, she becomes tight-lipped about security training and anti-terrorist measures. She admits only to having taken extensive security training. Pressed for details, she jokes, "I can't go into detail, because if I told you, I'd have to shoot you!"

Her sense of humor is as finely tuned as her airplanes. She remembers a flight from San Francisco when she was a flight engineer. On take-off, a seagull smashed into the wind-screen. Flying east with the morning sun in their eyes, she and the crew had to stare at the hapless bird all the way to Chicago.

She's never had a near-miss as a commercial pilot. But she has experienced losing all electrical power on her own twin-engine Cessna. She was flying Bob and four of their friends to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a ski trip. After taking off from a refueling stop in Green Bay, Wis., the airplane's lights began flickering and the radios fell silent. She immediately began running checks on the electrical system, to no avail. Even the battery appeared dead.

"Thank goodness the magnetos still were cranking our voltage to the engines," remembers Bob. "Our sleeping passengers were unaware there was a problem as Gail calmly began to examine her options." Landing in Green Bay wasn't one of them. The airport was so socked in they couldn't even find a dim glow of the city or airport lights.

Concerned about ending up over Lake Michigan and flying too close to O'Hare Airport, Glaze took a heading that would take her to visual conditions so she could search for an airport and land. "That's when we became aware of a hot electrical smell," shudders Bob.

She flew until they saw a bright glow ahead. A break in the clouds revealed a flashing green and white beacon. The beacon was emanating from the Moline, Ill., airport. "Our hearts were in our throats as we manually cranked down the landing gear while holding flashlights. Gail made a beautiful no-landing-lights landing. She maneuvered off the runway onto a taxi-way and then shut down the engines in case of a fire," he recalls.

The group deplaned, met by airport authorities who said their plane had been followed on radar during the entire ordeal. Other pilots had sighted them and reported their position. "We also learned they were on the verge of launching a fighter escort to help us down!" Bob reports. He credits Gail's professionalism with saving their lives.

Bob's flexibility makes his wife's life easier. Her schedule is erratic. Sometimes she works six days straight. But three-day trips are the norm. "Since I live in Indianapolis and fly out of Chicago, it's better to fly a stretch of days. Sometimes it's easier once I'm on the road to keep on moving, because my suitcase is already packed. An average month is having 14-16 days off," she explains.

If you think getting to work is a hassle, just try her flight path. Driving in from her Morgan County retreat, she normally takes a United Airlines flight from Indianapolis to Chicago. But if that flight is delayed for any reason, she has to give herself enough time to drive to the Windy City. "I'm just like any other employee. I have to be at work on time."

When she's not being "large and in charge in the sky," Glaze comes home to Bob and their seven pampered dogs: four big ones — DeeCee, Tenna (DC-10), Sir Charles Barkley and Isabar — and the three little ones — Prancer, Nip and Tuck. The couple rescued Nip and Tuck when they found them injured and abandoned. A killer tropical fish named Clyde rapidly is outgrowing the kitchen aquarium.

Has she ever walked in the door, exhausted from a long flight, and heard Bob ask, "What's for dinner?" "Oh , yeah," she says emphatically. "I handle it by cooking dinner. I would rather cook than have him cook me dinner." The gourmet cook explains, "I eat on the road so much that I would rather not eat out. I would rather fix what I feel like eating. But we have a great balance. I do the cooking and he cleans up the kitchen" (better known as "Gail's Galley"). Not surprisingly, "Olive Oyl's" prized recipe is for spinach souffle.

Their split-level ranch home in Morgan County is nestled in seven heavily wooded acres. The living room decor is an island motif reflecting the Belize condo they just sold. Bob, who nicknames everything dear to him, dubbed the condo "Yours and Mayan."

Mementos from their extensive travels and his television days adorn the walls of their rustic home. Gail's bathroom features an airplane motif, with everything organized to give her a quick take-off in the morning.

Bob clearly adores his wife of 23 years. "She's my best buddy, my best friend," he says lovingly. The pair certainly has fun together. They jog and cross-country ski with the dogs nipping at their heels. They are work-out regulars at the Barbara B. Jordan YMCA in Martinsville. And you can spot them at Eagle Creek windsurfing and rowing with the Culver Club of Indianapolis' rowing team.

Though she seems always to be on-the-go, Glaze also values her alone time. "My favorite way to relax is to take my chaise lounge out onto my balcony. Being outdoors is my link to my soul," she philosophizes. "It helps to keep me in balance. You have to be able to relax and you have to like being with yourself. Those are characteristics of maintaining a happy, healthy existence."

So there's no twinge of guilt when she's lounging in her favorite chair and sees an airplane overhead. She just thinks: "There goes my office!"

The 45-year-old pilot already has figured out what she wants to do when she hits United's mandatory retirement age of 60. "I would love to have another airplane and do some aerobatics flying," she says excitedly. It still will be throttle up for Gail Glaze.

 

Cover Sidebar:

Flying female facts

* The first woman airline pilot hired in the United States was Helen Richey. Employed by Central Airlines in 1934, she resigned 10 months later when the all-male pilots' union refused to accept her. Out of piloting work and nearly penniless, she committed suicide on Jan. 7, 1947.

* Officially, Emily Warner is considered the first female airline pilot hired in the U.S. Frontier Airlines hired her on Jan. 29, 1973. She is also the first woman in the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Her pilot uniforms are displayed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, as well as in the Pima Air and Space Museum.

* There are about 80,000 airline pilots worldwide. Approximately 4,000 of them are women with the majority being American women. The percentage of women airline pilots is about 5 percent worldwide.

* United Airlines has the most women pilots. Gail Glaze is one of 149 United captains. Another Gail — Gail Gorski — was the first female United Airlines pilot. She was hired Jan. 9, 1978. In 1973, Gorski reigned as the Kentucky Derby Queen.

* United Airlines pilot Joy Klopfer, a grandmother, was hired Jan. 3, 1989. Klopfer was the first grandmother hired by United, and possibly the first in the industry.

* Duana Robinson was the youngest female pilot to be hired by a major U.S. airline. She was 21 years old when she flew a Texas International DC-9 on Feb. 13, 1978.

* The first sisters to become airline pilots were Jan Ramos (Southern Air Transport) and Vicki Ramos (Gulf Air).

* The first female jet captain in the world was Piedmont Airlines' Cheryl Faye Peters. She was captain of a B737 on May 10, 1982.

* The first flight with more than one female crew member occurred on Nov. 20, 1976. First Officer Elena Folch Serra and Flight Engineer Concepcion Barnard Ruiz were crew members on the Compagnia Mexicana de Aviacion B727-200 flight.

(Statistics courtesy of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, ISA +21.)