Pioneering Australian aviator Max Hazelton has been remembered as an "incredible person", after his death aged 95.
The NSW Central West local died at Orange on Sunday.
Mr Hazelton's lifetime association with aviation began when he purchased a single-engine Auster plane to run charter flights in rural areas in the early 1950s.
His early customers were primarily stock agents or livestock buyers, but over time the airline developed into a regular service.
Hazelton Airlines grew to become a major regional operator, employing 270 people and carrying 400,000 passengers a year to 23 destinations.
The airline became part of Ansett Australia in 2001, and was later resurrected with Kendall Airlines to become Regional Express or Rex Airlines.
Survival against the odds
Yet all that success was almost over before it started, when Mr Hazelton crashed during bad weather near Oberon in the NSW Central West in 1954.
It sparked the then-largest search in Australian history, and he had been all but given up, when after six days Mr Hazelton reached a post office and called his mother.
Rex deputy chairman John Sharp, who was one of Mr Hazelton's close friends, said it was a gruelling tale of survival.
"Max told me he survived by drinking water from puddles he found in rocks, and eating berries."
"During those six days the soles of his shoes literally fell off ... he had to rip up his shirt and wrap the shirt around his feet in order to stop his feet from being cut so he could keep on walking," he said.
But it was not just this epic story that Mr Sharp felt this "incredible person" should be lauded for, but his work to change aviation law and improve services to regional areas.
"I think Max will be remembered as a pioneer of the aviation industry, one of the last great pioneers," Mr Sharp said.
"Everyone's heard of Charles Kingsford Smith and Nancy Bird Walton ... but I think Max is up there with those aviation pioneers because of the things he did first in the industry."
Mr Sharp praised his skills, including a time he engineered a way of fixing a stuck wheel on a light plane—by dragging a rope between two cars and snagging it.
Unforgettable legacy
Ken Barber is president of the Orange Aero Club, or the "Max Hazelton Aero Centre [as] we actually call it".
"Australia's lost a pioneer, a true gentleman."
"We'll never see another Max Hazelton," Mr Barber said.
He recalled a story Mr Hazelton told him about the time a staff function was held at Parkes, west of Orange.
Everyone had to get back to Sydney but the aircraft was one seat short —so Mr Hazelton told everyone he would find his own way.
When they landed, they were shocked to find Max in the luggage compartment.
"That was the type of character he was, he put his staff first."
