Angus Catt was waterskiing with his father on Queensland's Quilpie Lake when he saw a plane fly past.
The then eight-year-old turned his "old man", Andrew, and said 'that's our plane dad", which was supposed to be parked at the airport.
They got into their Holden town car and went to airport to find their plane was in fact gone and that it was the one spotted in the air. So they reported it to the police.
By the time they returned to the airport they saw a man walking on the road, who turned out to be the culprit that took the plane for a joy ride until it ran out of fuel and crashed.
It might seem like a comedy of errors, but it was in those early days of flying with his father and funny memories like this that started his his love affair with planes.
"When I was a kid we had a property near Quilpie (about 40,460 hectares) and we had planes and I loved it," Angus says, as he puts his planes away in his workshop at Deniliquin.
"I was always going out with my father where we did contract mustering in Cessna 172s and then Piper 180s and did the water runs as planes were our transport.
"I do have another story about a crash we had when I was a kid where we ended up in a gum tree, but I'm not sure you want to hear about that one - it was a right-off, but we were all good."
Fast forward three decades and Angus, 41, is one of the youngest aviation mechanics in the country to hold a certificate of approval to maintain aeroplanes. And for Angus, who runs Catt Aircraft Maintenance, it has certainly been a journey to get there.
At the age of 10 his family left the station at Quilpie and moved to a rice farm at Deniliquin, but they didn't have a need for planes so they sold them. Six years later he did work experience with an aviation mechanic at Tocumwal and never went back to school.
It was here that cemented his passion for the industry as he worked on a lot of agriculture planes like Air Tractors, Cessnas and Pipers.
"I love fine machinery and thought I'd find it interesting ... being an aviation mechanic was something a bit more special than being a car mechanic," he said.
When he finished his trade he went to Melbourne and worked for General Aviation Maintenance for seven years before heading to Darwin to fly for a charter company. Most of his work in the Top End saw Angus flying trades people into indigenous communities.
"I would fly most of the day then come back and work on the planes to repair the day's problems," he said.
Four years later he came back home to work with an ag company. Angus had been working with them for a year before he proposed to take over the business as they were planning to relocate.
"In 15 minutes, we had it worked out and I had taken over the business and then I had to get my own aircraft maintenance approval," he said.
That was seven years ago and he hasn't looked back since. Angus now maintains 80 aeroplanes compared to the four he started with. In that time he has worked on plenty of planes and he even resurrected a survey plane - a Cessna 210L - that searched for iron ore from Thursday Island.
"They (its former owners) did the wheels up landing and decided to right it off so I paid $5000. They had taken the engine and prop out of it and a lot of the instruments so it much pretty much a shell," he said.
"I took me three trips over a year where I brought everything up there to put it back together.
"I had to get a special ferry permit and I flew it back home, it took 10.6 hours to get back to Deni - that's pretty quick as the 210 is a high performance aeroplane.
"I did some more repairs once it was home and then I sold it."
In the past year he has been learning how to do aerobatic flying in a bright red Pitts Special.
"I wanted to learn how to fly properly and Pitts certainly teach you how to fly, they are tricky, twitchy things.
"With no risk, you get no reward, but you have to be careful and calculated.
"You do a lot of stalling and spinning, but it makes it easy to fly other aircraft. It's a nice way to view the world up there, you get a good perspective and the challenge is good for you."
But when asked what the biggest thrill of his job is, straight away Angus says it's the stories around the cockpit.
As he works side by side on people's planes they talk about their life while handing each other a screwdriver or spanner.
"What I really like is the people you meet, you get some good people through here," Angus said.
"I've met some interesting people, some help with their planes and stay with me or at the hanger for a couple of days, and we get them going and they are off again.
His customers include The Flying Vet Ameliah Scott (featured in The Land in 2020), as well as Graham and Lindsay Wellings from White Cliffs who have a strong history with the region with Graham having owned the White Cliffs pub for 40 years.
Among the mix is also airline pilots that just love flying small planes even on their time off, farmers, retirees, computer programmers and real estate agents. But Angus also has a love of the machine.
"I like operating and repairing fine machinery. I like the machines and what they can do and the enjoyment of operating them, especially machines that I think are special like planes," he said.
Looking back on his career, Angus said he had gained a lot of "life and flying experience" throughout Australia.
"I'm happy to say it's made me who I am, I love being in business," he said.
"Yes there is no one to rescue you if it doesn't work out but this makes the reward have more value. No risk, no reward."
When asked what his father would say now, Angus replied: "well he had plenty to say and he was very charismatic".
"He'd be out in the hanger talking to the great characters we have as customers and he'd be making them laugh," Angus said.
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