PM Systems Execs Get Away by Getting Above it All

After a long week of work, Robert Broadwell likes to unwind by getting up, up and away. Broadwell is a co-founder and vice president of PM Systems Corp., an Internet banking and security services firm (under the name CU Defense) that has been serving credit unions out of its South Carolina headquarters for about 20 years. Broadwell and his partner, company CEO Jim Krakeel, are both licensed pilots who have a handful of light aircraft between them as well as a six-passenger company airplane – a Piper Lance – that they use for business. Broadwell lives near his office on Lake Murray, a 55,000-acre reservoir that has long been a recreation mecca for central South Carolina. One of his favorite pastimes is flying his Kolb Mark III light aircraft, which has floats that make it capable of landing and taking off from water. He also has a Super Pup, a replica of a J3 Piper Cub that he and Krakeel both enjoy flying. Krakeel has two small aircraft of his own, including an open-cockpit aerobatic SkyBolt. Krakeel is a former commercial pilot who carries an instrument rating and is qualified to fly into any airport in the country. Broadwell, meanwhile, says he’s gotten back into flying airplanes for fun for the past couple years himself. “I’m a fair-weather pleasure flyer,” Broadwell says. “I like to fly around rural South Carolina and Georgia. I have a wonderful group of flying buddies in Trenton, S.C., and do almost all of my pleasure flying out of there.” While flying small, open airplanes might seem daunting to some, Broadwell says it’s much less harrowing than his wife’s and teen-age daughter’s hobby of horseriding. He finds his flying machines to be far safer and more predictable than any four-legged riding machine. As for his daughter’s horse-jumping competitions, “I can’t even watch,” he says. [email protected]