A CHILDHOOD dream to fly became a lifetime's passion for pilot Kevin Crossley, who died when his plane crashed at Bournemouth Airport.

He and passenger Paul Vickrage died instantly when the plane fell from the sky on July 22.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the accident, Mr Crossley's family has paid tribute to "a quiet and generous man" who died doing what he loved the most.

His forthcoming funeral is intended to be a celebration of his life and, in honour of his passion for aeroplanes, his family hopes to organise a fly-past.

Mr Crossley, 49, who lived in Highcliffe, was also a collector of Harley Davidsons and it's hoped that a troop of bikers will rev up to the service.

His sister, Linda Badger, said: "From the age of seven or eight, flying was everything to Kevin.

"Our father was a bandmaster in the RAF and we grew up on airbases.

"Kevin was always interested in the mechanics of planes."

Aged 10 Mr Crossley joined the Air Training Corps and his career later took him into air traffic control at Gatwick, where he also gained his private pilot's license.

He later went to work in Wales and then Bournemouth, where he worked as a trainer in air traffic control.

He was enormously popular among his students and took every opportunity he could find to fly privately.

Tina Charles, his partner of 14 years, described him as "a one-off" with interests as varied as playing squash, weight-lifting, restoring classic cars and volunteering at Victoria School in Branksome.

She said: "Everybody says what a brilliant controller, instructor and pilot he was.

"He was a man of few words, but he was thoughtful, careful and generous with his time.

"He wasn't a man to do things by halves, whether it was cooking or tinkering with cars. He once attempted to play the saxophone but gave up when he realised he wasn't going to excel at it."

"Apart from flying, his other passion was motorbikes.

"He called his motorbikes his boys' and some of our best times were spent out on the road."

She said they also enjoyed simple pleasures like spending quiet evenings in the garden looking for shooting stars, going to a wide range of music concerts and feeding the birds.

"This should never have happened to him because he was such a nice man, he should have had more time to enjoy his life," she said.

"He had a great sense of humour as well and was liked and loved by everybody. I can't believe I will not see him again."

Linda added: "If he could have flown all day he would have."

Mr Crossley leaves behind a daughter, Natalie Wood, 24.

"He adored his daughter. We're coping but we're desperately missing him," added Linda "Our sympathies go to Mr Vickrage's family - they're suffering as we are."

Mr Crossley's funeral takes place at 1pm on Sunday at Parley Manor.