The victim of a recreational plane crash in Victoria's high country has been identified as 42-year-old Mathew Farrell, a cinematographer, pilot, adventurer and environmentalist.
Mr Farrell was the sole occupant of the aircraft, which went missing on Sunday afternoon and was located in dense bushland near Lucyvale on Monday morning.
His close friend and collaborator, Brad Harris, said Mr Farrell was an experienced aviator.
"He was a very thorough, very technically-minded kind of guy," Mr Harris said.
"I know that he spent several hours the day before figuring out a flight plan and where he was going to go and studying the weather.
"His aeronautical knowledge was pretty fantastic — he was a very, very good paraglider pilot and he flew model planes from when he was young and was always interested and involved in aviation."
Mr Farrell was also an accomplished outdoorsman and he and Mr Harris bonded over a shared love of fly fishing, mountain biking, paragliding, back-country skiing, climbing, and snowboarding.
"He was an adventurer," Mr Harris said.
"He was used to taking risks and confronting risks and confronting fear, just like all outdoorsy people.
"It's something that you do and it's very calculated — it's not reckless."
Unpredictable conditions
Mr Harris said the conditions on Sunday may have been worse than Mr Farrell expected.
"Nobody really knows — nobody was out in that weather so we don't know exactly what happened," he said.
"When I first heard that he went missing, I said to people, 'Look if anyone can get themselves out of a bad situation, it's Matt — if anyone is going to pull off a miracle, he's the guy.'"
Mr Farrell was flying from Mount Beauty to Wollongong on the day of the accident to help his partner Karen Waller's father fix his roof.
Rugged terrain and poor conditions made aerial and ground searches difficult after the recreational aircraft failed to reach its destination.
"Because of the weather they weren't able to search thoroughly the first day he went missing so there was just this big unknown," Mr Harris said
"I don't think anybody expected this outcome."
Skilled cinematographer
Mr Farrell's talent for working with cameras took him all over the world.
"Each year he would go to Antarctica to be a photographer and guide on cruise ships for a couple of months," Mr Harris said.
"He travelled to Karakoram in Pakistan to document the effects of climate change on locals … He loved the environment, and loved protecting it."
Mr Farrell also filmed and photographed adventure sports extensively.
In a social media post, not-for-profit film and television organisation Wide Angle Tasmania paid tribute to Mr Farrell.
"Mathew as a joyous and generous human and a good friend to Wide Angle and our filmmaking community," the post said.
Marriage papers in plane
Mr Farrell moved from Tasmania to regional Victoria to further his filmmaking career, which is where he fell in love with Ms Waller.
She is also a pilot and together they purchased the Jabiru aircraft.
"I call them the shiniest couple I've ever met, they were just so perfectly matched and amazing," Mr Harris said.
"They were planning on getting married, he had the papers in the plane with him.
"It's a tragedy that she only got a year with him — they were just so perfectly suited, perhaps more than any couple I've ever met in my life."
Mr Farrell is survived by his mother and stepfather, father and stepmother, brother, sister, step brother, step sister, and "heaps and heaps of friends".
"I'll just always remember Matt's smile — he had a huge smile and it was always on," Mr Harris said.
"Everybody has said how much he lit up parts of their life, or lit up a room, those sorts of expressions.
"He was such a gentle guy.
"He had the most beautiful heart and was incredibly generous with his time, he'd do anything for anybody if they asked — and even if they didn't ask, if he could see that they needed something he would just go and do it."
