 Lack of patronage led to Pentland folding his businesses and taking a job in 1930 as a pilot with Australian National Airways ( ANA ) , a new airline founded by Charles Kingsford @-@ Smith and Charles Ulm . By 1932 , ANA was in trouble as well , and Pentland left to set up as a dairy farmer on a property he bought at Singleton . Within two years , drought forced him to sell the land and he returned to earning his living as a pilot , instructing at aero clubs in Queensland and New South Wales . By late 1937 , he was again employed as a transport pilot in New Guinea , where he was known as a practical joker who liked to hold a map in front of his face in apparent short @-@ sightedness and ask his passengers if they could see a landing ground anywhere . He returned to Australia after war was declared in September 1939 . 
