"I've always wanted to fly - it's the closest to heaven I ever get," he laughed.

Now 93 and living at the Warrigal facility at Mount Warrigal, he's still taking to the skies, now sitting in as a co-pilot.

"It's a thing that I've done for donkey's years - about 70 years - and I just like it," Mr Badger said.

"I'll still fly as long as I can, until they find me medically unfit - then you give it away."

Mr Badger experienced his first flight in the Southern Cross in 1929.

The pilot was Charles Kingsford Smith, who Mr Badger refers to as 'Smithy'.

"I was sitting in my father's lap - I was four-and-a-half," Mr Badger said. "There would have been eight or ten of us in the plane."

Mr Badger was soon hooked.

"I thought I might go into commercial aircraft, but I never did because I always had to work for the family businesses," he said in 2012.

Unfortunately, Mr Badger "flunked" the maths component to become a pilot during World War II.

"They said, 'if you can't do the maths, we don't want you'," he said.

"I said, 'I want to get in the Air Force, what can I do?' I told them I was a fitter, so they took me as a fitter in the RAAF."

After the war, he was needed in the family business and was married.

He still retained a passion for flying though.

In 1950, he joined the Illawarra Flying School to get his pilot's license, and was one of the original members of the South Coast Aero Club.

He soon met Tony Bevan, a fellow flying enthusiast and the youngest son of a wealthy Wollongong family, who was the moving force behind the Australian Aerial Patrol's establishment in the 1950s.

Mr Badger was one of the original members, and the only life member of the Australian Aerial Patrol.

He's owned a couple of planes in the past, but eventually become reluctant to fly solo after a quadruple heart bypass operation.

He's a self-confessed fan of aerobatics.

"As long as you do what the aircraft is capable of doing - you don't spin an aeroplane if it's not (capable)... It's got to be approved for aerobatics," he said.

"Otherwise you could tear the wing off, the tail - you could do damage.

"I don't only fly one aeroplane... I've flown about 25 to 30 different types of aeroplanes."

Mr Badger let his pilot's license expire a few years ago, and now embraces the role of co-pilot, and enjoys chatting with other pilots.

He flew as recently as six weeks ago, in a Pilatus he said is worth $5 million.

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