FRYEBURG – Family and town officials said Monday that Joseph Solari, who died in a plane crash Saturday, was kind, hard-working and an experienced pilot.

Joseph Solari, 69, was killed Saturday when the float plane he was flying flipped over as he attempted to land on Kezar Lake in Lovell. Four passengers in the plane were injured, but all have since been treated and released.

“He was a flawless pilot,” said Fryeburg Town Manager Phil Covelli. “You wouldn’t even know you were touching down.”

Covelli said he had flown with Solari three or four times. The first time came within two weeks of Covelli’s term as town manager, when Solari took him up to show him the town from the air.

“It was always a fun experience,” Covelli said.

Joel Lusky, manager of the fixed base operation at Eastern Slopes Regional Airport in Fryeburg, said Monday marked the first operational day of the airport since the crash.

“It’s pretty quiet, pretty somber,” said Lusky of the atmosphere at the field. “Everyone here was good friends with Joe.”

Covelli said Solari was the chairman of the Eastern Slopes Regional Airport Authority for 10 to 11 years. He said Solari had been involved with the authority, which leases the town-owned airport, since the 1980s.

Covelli said that while Solari’s position as chairman did not make him airport manager, he “was certainly in charge of the airport.” Lusky said Solari will be “basically irreplaceable” in his role at the airport.

“The airport’s had a lot of improvements since Joe was there,” Covelli said.

“He was basically here seven days a week,” Lusky recalled.

The improvements to the facility included an extension of the runway and the construction of new hangars and radio beacons.

Solari’s wife, Carol, said Solari had been retired from his job as a part-owner of a power plant in Stratton. Covelli said that reports that Solari served as a selectman were erroneous, adding that he had served as a member of the Planning Board in the early 1990s.

Carol Solari estimated that her husband had been flying for 20 years.

Carol Solari, Covelli, and Lusky all remembered Solari as an experienced pilot. Covelli said he was “very safety conscious.”

“He was just that type of person that you took to immediately,” Covelli said.

“He was a very kind and generous man,” Carol Solari recalled.

Lusky said Solari showed personal interest in airport employees, helped younger employees, and gave to charity.

“He was that guy that you really don’t have anything bad to say about him,” Lusky commented.

Carol Solari said she and Joseph had been married 42 years. He also is survived by two children: Wendi, 41, and Marc, 37.