Today, he's president of the company and at age 24 the youngest president of a scheduled airline in the country.

Greg Kahlstorf, who moved up from president to chief executive officer to make room for Kimbrell, said he told his associate and chairman, Frank Ford, "We're going to lose him if we don't challenge him."

Kimbrell told The Maui News he intends to be a hands-on president. He flies "about five times a month" to "keep it fun and exciting.

"I want to be a president who still works in day-to-day operations."

At other places, he found he didn't like receiving decisions from executives who didn't know what the people on the line were facing.

Finding a president frees Kahlstorf and Ford to spend more time on their new business, EAS Solutions, which in turn is a development of winning their contest with Mesa Airlines to fly on subsidized routes in New Mexico – and of giving up their subsidies in Hawaii.

Their new venture, New Mexico Airlines, begins flying between Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Carlsbad and Hobbs on July 1. As president, Kimbrell is managing that, too, with 20 to 25 pilots in Hawaii and, eventually, about the same number in New Mexico.

"It took me a long time to get used to the idea that someone half my age had better ideas than me," Kahlstorf said.

But as he kept giving Kimbrell tasks (like improving the airline's Web pages), Kimbrell kept delivering.

"He has an almost obsessive need for perfection," Kahlstorf said.

Kimbrell said he always wanted to know about other aspects of the business besides flying. Besides, most pilots realize they need to have a backup skill.

Pilots have medical evaluations every six months, "and if you don't pass, you're grounded the next day."

Kimbrell took his first airplane trip at age 11, began flying lessons at 14 and graduated from a college in Washington with a four-year degree in aviation technology at age 20.

He headed for the Caribbean, where he developed a taste for islands. He also wanted to learn firsthand about the ground operations of an airline.

Taking a job as second command pilot or first officer and customer service representative for less than he could have made flipping burgers was not as economically perverse as it may look, he said.

The hunt for pilot jobs is much more competitive than it used to be. A first-year pilot flying for CommAir, Mesa or similar big little airlines can expect to make $15,000 to $20,000, Kimbrell said.

Rated pilots make more, but it requires experience to get uprated, and because Pacific Wings has a perfect safety record, a pilot can move faster, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has minimum qualification hours, but insurers sometimes require more hours, while giving breaks for flying for the best operations.

Kimbrell is instrument- and instructor-rated for multiengine planes now.

As part of the management changes, chief pilot Chuck Hill also gets more responsibility.

Meantime, Kahlstorf and Ford are exploiting the openings that their New Mexico contracts are creating.

Even before they won those contracts, Kahlstorf had been developing his EAS Solutions strategy based on what he learned about getting off subsidies in Hawaii.

Pacific Wings was flying to Kalaupapa, Hana and Kamuela under subsidy, an ever-threatened FAA program that supports scheduled seats into small airports – as long as no free market provider provides service.

There is no incentive, Kahlstorf said, for subsidized airlines to get off the gravy train, but Pacific Wings decided to do it. It meant giving up about a million dollars a year, but it eliminated a lot of hassles, too.

Kahlstorf claims he is flying more seats than he did under subsidy. Taking the hard-won experience of refusing money on the road, he decided he could sell that to other EAS airlines.

Their payoff might be that, by gaining flexibility, they could develop markets beyond their limited EAS routes.

That's the strategy in New Mexico, and Kahlstorf said it seems to be working.

When Mesa failed to retain its EAS contracts, it also abandoned some unsubsidized towns – 18 in all, he said. So far, 15 of those cities have contacted Pacific Wings to see if it would be willing to take over.

New Mexico Airlines has already committed to adding El Paso, Midland-Odessa and Lubbock, Texas, to its routes within 60 days of its first operations. It is surveying customers to see where else it might go.

Kahlstorf sees a future in promoting tourist flights in the eastern New Mexico region.

"There are a lot of opportunities outside the EAS market," he said.