A top Australian aerobatic pilot, killed in a fiery crash in the NSW Riverina, was a highly-skilled aviator who loved to fly, his grieving friends say.
Tom Moon, 51, was killed when his Extra 300 aerobatic aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Temora airport, about 80km from Wagga Wagga, just after 10.30am (AEDT) on Tuesday.
An emergency call alerted police to the crash, which happened halfway down the runway near the Temora Aviation Museum.
The Australian Air Safety Transport Bureau is investigating the circumstances of the crash.
Australian Aerobatic Club president Paul Bennet said the tight-knit aerobatic community was in shock at the loss of a man considered one of the most qualified aerobatic pilots in Australia.
Mr Bennet said Mr Moon, a former president of the club and the treasurer of the aviation museum, was well liked and would be missed.
"I don't know what's gone wrong," he told AAP.
"It doesn't make sense that someone that good can have an accident like that.
"It seems impossible but these things can happen I guess."
He described Mr Moon as a fantastic pilot.
"He was very experienced, very skilled," he said.
"There's not really very many like him in the country."
Mr Moon - a chartered accountant based in Sydney during the week, and a display flier at weekends - had more than 1,400 hours of flying experience, including 1,100 flying aerobatics.
He secured his pilot's licence in 1986 and started competing in 1988.
In a video of him flying at a display, posted on YouTube, Mr Moon said he became hooked on aerobatics after a flight with a friend at the age of 27.
"It is fantastic fun," he says on the video.
"It's the closest thing you'll ever get to three-dimensional freedom."
In the video, he says that while the display looked daredevil, every detail was meticulously planned and practised and required "an awful lot of discipline".
He said the carbon fibre Extra 300 weighed about 600kg and had about 340 horsepower, giving it a tremendous power to weight ratio.
Mr Moon won the Australian National Aerobatic Championships in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003 and competed at three World Championships where he was the highest placed Australian in two events.
Coached by world champion Frenchman Xavier de Lapparent, Mr Moon won the NSW title six times and has been Australian Freestyle Champion five times.
In posts left on the online pilots forum PPRuNE, Mr Moon was remembered as a "true gentleman" whose loss left the aviation industry poorer.
"Tommy was one of the most irrepressible, larger than life, indelible characters anyone was likely to meet," one message says.
"Flying hard-core aerobatics we all knew the Reaper was nearby, but that was what made it such a hugely exhilarating experience.
"I am shocked beyond belief that Tom, one of the most skilled and able practitioners anyone could ever meet, has met this fate."
Mr Moon's crash came half an hour after a light aircraft overturned on a runway at the Old Bar Airstrip near Taree, on the NSW mid-north coast.
Paramedics treated two people after they managed to free themselves from the aircraft.