 Pentland served in the fledgling Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) , and later the Royal Air Force , before going into business in 1927 . His ventures included commercial flying around the goldfields of New Guinea , aircraft design and manufacture , flight instruction , and charter work . In the early 1930s , he was employed as a pilot with Australian National Airways , and also spent time as a dairy farmer . Soon after the outbreak of World War II , he re @-@ enlisted in the RAAF , attaining the rank of squadron leader and commanding rescue and communications units in the South West Pacific . Perhaps the oldest operational pilot in the wartime RAAF , Pentland was responsible for rescuing airmen , soldiers and civilians , and earned the Air Force Cross for his " outstanding courage , initiative and skill " . He became a trader in New Guinea when the war ended in 1945 , and later a coffee planter . Retiring in 1959 , he died in 1983 at the age of eighty @-@ nine . 
