Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday on the sun-soaked grass at Lake Poway to remember Shawn Peter Muscat, a 27-year-old father of two, described by family members as "really good on a tractor and really loving towards people."

Muscat, a Poway resident and general manager for Muscat State Farm insurance agency in San Diego, was a passenger in a homemade light airplane that crashed outside Wilcox, Ariz., on Aug. 26. Muscat was killed in the crash, along with his friend, Glen Slagoske, 47, of San Diego County.

Muscat had taken to the skies with Slagoske to conquer his fear of flying, said Deacon John Snyder of Queen of Angels church in Alpine during the memorial Friday. He said the two were headed to Texas.

"The truth is, my friends, that none of us know the day, the hour, or the manner in which we'll take our last breath," Snyder said. "What we do know is that life is to be enjoyed to the fullest. There weren't enough hours for Shawn."

Shawn Muscat's father, Ed Muscat, echoed Snyder in a brief statement before the mourners, most whom were standing or sitting in shady patches around family members seated in rows of folding chairs.

Ed Muscat pointed to a picture of his son in the program distributed to guests. In the picture, Shawn Muscat is standing next to a car-racing track, wearing a radio headset Ed Muscat said he and his son were using for the first time.

Ed Muscat, who was racing as his son watched, drove up to the car in front of him, but decided he couldn't pass and started to brake, he said. When Shawn Muscat saw the brake lights, he started yelling "Go go go! You can take him!" Ed Muscat said.

The father said he hit the gas and ran the other driver off the road, unaware that his son had forgotten about the radio and hadn't intended to offer him the advice.

"That's just the way Shawn lived his life: 'Go go go! You're gonna make it!'," he said.

Shawn Muscat was a hard worker and successful at the insurance agency where he worked with his uncle, family members said, but he always found a way to make time for anyone who needed his help.

For example, Snyder said Muscat had printed new menus for his favorite Thai restaurant because the owners could not afford to reproduce them.

He was especially helpful when it came to mechanical troubles, speakers said. Several told stories of how showed up in a pinch to fix their cars.

He also used his gift of a mechanical mind more mischievously, relatives said.

Muscat's sister Bridget Muscat said he was responsible for static on the family's phone line when he was about 10 years old.

A repair man summoned to the house had examined the problem and asked if there were any other phone lines in the house.

Muscat's parents said no, but Bridget Muscat knew better. She had been keeping one of her brother's many small secrets.

"Well, there's a hole in the wall in Shawn's room," she recalled telling the repairman. "He connected some wires and made his own phone line."

More than a decade later, Muscat was still known for mechanical mischief, said Aaron McRae, who became Muscat's brother-in-law when Muscat married his sister, Kendra.

"The first time I met Shawn at our parents' house," he recalled. "We had a tractor out back, so I came home to find some stranger was playing with the backhoe in the back yard. He was out there tearing down trees and digging holes, making a mess but having a ball."

McRae said he asked Muscat where he learned to use a backhoe, and Muscat had replied, "I don't know, I just started messing with it and figured it out."

Muscat was often covered in dirt and grease from time spent examining machinery, his brother Adam said. The grime was a kind of diploma, evidence of his ongoing education, his very own independent study in mechanics.

"He was extremely smart,"Adam Muscat said. "None of us really knew where he learned half the crap he knew."

Speaking after the memorial, Adam Muscat described a moment earlier in the day when the family had stood at Muscat's coffin to say their goodbyes.

"Everybody was putting flowers on it," he said of the coffin. "I was like, 'That's not right.' So I got a handful of dirt and put that on there, too."

Call staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-739-6675.