SUMMIT COUNTY — When Kent Schuhart last saw his longtime friend Matthew Crine two weeks ago, all Crine could talk about was how much he enjoyed flying.

“He’s the happiest when he’s up in the air, and he just loves it,” Schuhart said.

“He was so enthusiastic about it, so if somebody else wanted to learn to fly they were lucky to get him as an instructor because he was just so into it.

That was just like a huge passion for him.”

Crine, 41, died last Saturday when his single-engine plane crashed shortly after taking off from Erie Airpark.

A student, 58-year-old Emmett Murphy, of Riverton, Wyo., also died in the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

Crine grew up in New Jersey and moved to Summit County after graduating from the University of Massachusetts in 1988.

Schuhart and Addison Cummings met him that year when the three started working together at Beaver Run.

They spent their free time skiing, golfing, biking, kayaking or having a drink at the pub.

“We did everything together,” said Schuhart, who also roomed with Crine and installed cabinets for him over the years.

Crine, known by his friends as “Matty,” was very devoted to his friends and his dog, Norton, who he named after a character in 1950s sitcom “The Honeymooners.”

In the mid-1990s, Crine, started his own cabinetry business, called Ten Two Cabinetry, named for the elevation of his home he built in Fairplay.

He worked many cabinetry jobs around the county, including building cabinets for Grand Timber Lodge in Breckenridge.

Crine also had a home in Wheat Ridge, and split his time between there and Fairplay so he could enjoy the best of both worlds — the city and the mountains.

“A couple of the guys that we used to work with at Beaver Run, they all live in that same area down there and they’d ride their cruiser bikes down to LoDo all the time,” Cummings said.

“They were big into cruiser bikes, just going to games, going to LoDo.”

Crine began flying in about 2000 and was initially interested in becoming a commercial airplane pilot.

After earning his private pilot’s license and his instructing credentials, he decided the stress and time commitment involved in commercial flying wasn’t for him, and opted to teach lessons instead.

He’d been instructing for about a year-and-a-half, Schuhart said.

Crine also loved music, especially bands like the Allman Brothers and Tesla.

He played guitar and went to many concerts.

He was well-known around the county and well-liked, Cummings said.

“He was really outgoing. He just kind of did things his way. I mean the kid had no regrets. He lived his life to the fullest,” Schuhart said.

Matthew Crine memorial service

A service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Crown Hill Funeral at 29th and Wadsworth in Wheat Ridge.

A gathering will follow at Crine’s Wheat Ridge home.

Crine’s friends are planning a local gathering to remember him as well.

For details or questions call Addison Cummings at (970) 389-5196 or Kent Schuhart at (970) 453-4191.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Crine’s name can be made to the Colorado Humane Society at www.coloradohumane.org.

Nicole Formosa can be reached at (970) 668-4629, or at nformosa@summitdaily.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.