SENECA, N.C. -- Dexter is a dog, but he knows when it's time to fly.
He's always waiting under the 1964 Bentley helicopter when Randy Van Surdam comes out of the second-story loft apartment built inside this private airplane hangar in Seneca. Dexter's tail wags as Van Surdam scoops him up.
"When I come out in the morning, he'll be sitting under" the chopper, Van Surdam said.
Van Surdam, who owns a vintage aircraft business, is an airplane mechanic at the Oconee County Regional Airport. He inspects airplanes and helicopters. Every day, he starts up the engine of his two-seater Bentley helicopter, places Dexter in the doggie bed on the passenger seat and flies the two miles to work.
