It is this responsibility that Scone man Val Quinell proudly completed every working day for most of his life and what makes the chief engineer of Pays Air Service an extremely interesting                     character. 

Mr Quinell believes he has had a great life, it’s been a busy life, living in seven  different countries across the globe and gaining certification in more than 30 scholarly courses throughout his successful career. 

Many locals would know the grandfather of seven as the Scone RSL Sub-branch president or the enthusiastic pilot and member of Scone Aero Club.

What they probably don’t know is the Picton born man has experienced a career and lifestyle of pride and excellence, and at 72-years-old, one he is still enjoying today. 

When he was just three-years-old, the Quinell family moved to the Hunter Valley to operate a dairy farm between Muswellbrook and Denman. 

Throughout his childhood years, the family moved north to the New England region and then further up to Queensland, which is where they lived when he left school and worked on dairy farms and in sawmills for a few years. 

With a long held passion for aviation dating back to his first ever memories, Mr Quinell was driven to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on February 29, 1960 (a leap year) when he was 17.

Although his older brother had spent a few years in the RAAF, Mr Quinell said this was no influence as he had simply loved aeroplanes and flying since he could ever remember.

After spending the year of 1960 training at Rathmines and undergoing technical training at the FAAF School of Technical Training in Wagga, Mr Quinell was considered a trained engine          mechanic and worked for two years at Number 82 Wing at RAAF Amberley Queensland on the Canberra Bombers.

He then returned to Wagga to complete his training to qualify as an engine fitter before being transferred to the RAAF base at East Sale, Victoria for three years. 

In February 1966, he left the RAAF and joined Qantas as an unlicensed aircraft maintenance engineer, however soon became licensed after completing his studies to allow him to maintain and            certify aeroplanes in order for them to return to the air. 

After joining the QANTAS Line Maintenance Department in 1968, he spent 1969 attending the Qantas Technical Training School training on the aircraft Boeing 707 – HS125 aircraft, and cross training on aircraft electrical, instrument and radio systems.

He was then transferred to Avalon Victoria before moving to the newly opened Tullamarine Airport for a period.

In 1972, Mr Quinell returned to Sydney for further training on the Boeing 747 and the Vickers VC10 aircraft.

Mr Quinell said it was in early 1973 that he started his overseas wanderings when he was transferred to Kuala Lumpur as a member of the QANTAS maintenance team maintaining  a  wet leased  Boeing 707 to the Malaysia Airline System. 

After proving his initiative in just a year, he became the shift supervisor on the QANTAS ramp for the next four years overseeing the Boeing 707s, Boeing 747s,  VC10S and Convair 880 transit maintenance.

Back in 1968 Mr Quinell had learnt to fly at Bankstown and bought his first aeroplane – an Auster VH-KAP, which he says was “just the start of it”. 

After a few years he sold it and bought a Cessna 180 VH-CDX, which he had sold before moving to Malaysia, but during his time at Kuala Lumpur he purchased another Cessna 185  9M-AMG, which he said he planned to fly home to Australia via Bali. 

This aircraft never flew out of Malaysia as it  subsequently crashed into a rubbish tip on a pre-departure test flight due to a fuel transfer issue. 

At the end of 1978 Mr Quinell moved on to Papua New Guinea to work as the QANTAS maintenance manager for two and half years, where in his spare time he restored another Cessna 185 P2-SEO in which he later flew back to Australia on completion of his posting. 

This aircraft returned to the Australian Civil Aircraft Register as VH-GKI and remained in Scone for many years. 

For the next block of his life, Mr Quinell worked as the QANTAS shift supervisor at Athens, then maintenance manager at Rome and Belgrade, before transferring to Zimbabwe to establish the QANTAS Engineering Office to support the QF747 operations on the return of QANTAS to Africa.

In 1984, he returned to home soil for a short six month stint as relief maintenance manager working in Cairns, Darwin and Adelaide before transferring to Denpasar, Indonesia in 1985 as Maintenance Manager Indonesia, in charge of both  Denpasar and Jakarta. 

It was there that Mr Quinell stayed for 13 years and met the love of his life Anne. 

In February 1998, he retired from QANTAS and they moved straight to Scone as he had met and formed a bond with the late Colin Pay back in 1975 when Colin had a contract  in Kuala Lumpur fertilising oil palm plantations. 

In 1988, Mr Quinell  bought a kit plane which he assembled in the Pay’s hangar over the next four years during holidays from Bali. 

This aircraft VHLMQ still operates from Scone  today. 

When he first moved to Scone, Mr Quinell worked part time for Mr Pay while also teaching Boeing 737 mechanical subjects in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. 

In 2000, he trained on the Boeing 717 for Impulse Airlines in Los Angeles, before being offered the chief engineer position at Pays in 2002. 

Mr Quinell said he has had a great life as it has been very satisfying to work and live in so many foreign countries. 

“Bali was by far the best of the places I lived in for many reasons, and the most important being, it is where I met and  married Anne,” he said.

In many of his roles, Mr Quinell was the person solely responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft during transit through the many Line Stations he was managing, often with ground times of only one hour, during which routine inspections and any required rectification needed to be completed. 

“It has been a very rewarding and challenging career as I’d always go to work not knowing what to expect for the day. 

“Large passenger jet aircraft are a very complex machine, so you have to be well trained and experienced to be capable of restoring any aircraft system to an airworthy condition, with the ever present time constraints imposed.”  

Being an ex-military, Mr Quinell was approached to join the RSL Sub-branch about six years ago and was secretary for a short time before becoming president, a role he continues to enjoy.

He said he really enjoys organising services for Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and has been heavily involved in the centenary students’ tour to Gallipoli in 2015. 

As the Scone RSL Sub-branch president, Mr Quinell is also called upon to participate in ex military funerals, and holds the position of vice president of the Scone RSL Club, primarily due to his association with the Sub-branch.

Mr Quinell said after leading such a busy life, he enjoys being able to do something for the local community. 

“Even though there is a huge amount of work involved, it is quite satisfying.”