Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Percy was known as "Skipper". He enlisted during October 1914 aged 21 and served in the 3rd Field Ambulance at Gallipoli. Same unit as the legendary Simpson and the donkey. He served there for the duration of the campaign. During late 1916 he started flying training and was discharged from the AIF in March 1917 and appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. 

After the war he went and flew with Quantas as one of their pioneer pilots. Moody and his wife Helen owned Daydream Island from August 1941. They came from Rockhampton where Skip had been a part-owner of the Rockhampton aerodrome from which he ran an aerial taxi and ambulance service (Proserpine Guardian 26 July 1941, 2 August 1941).  Having learnt to fly during World War I where he served mainly as a test-pilot in England for the Royal Flying Corps. This instilled in him a love of and an aptitude for flying and on his return to Australia and discharge from the Corps he entered the aviation field in various activities from joy-flights to commercial airline piloting. In 1924 he joined the infant Qantas as a pilot flying their planes on Western Queensland services out of Charleville. There he met and married Helen Nantes, daughter of a Charleville grazier.

He was keen on the land and in 1926 drew a ballot in a sheep property at Dillalah about 50 kilometres south of Charleville, nevertheless he continued flying with Qantas until 1928 when he resigned to join with a friend, Howard Jolly, in a pioneering flight across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand but the Government of the day banned the flight. Skip then took the aircraft he had purchased for the venture to New Guinea and entered commercial flying between Lae and Wau but within several months an engine failure forced him to ditch his plane in the sea near Lae and that was the end of the project.

He returned to his property at Dillalah but finding it a struggle, he rejoined Qantas and flew with them until 1930 when he resigned to return again to his property. For the following ten years he persevered with sheep-farming but became disenchanted because of low wool prices and sold out to go to Rockhampton and his aerial taxi service. However, World War 2 intervened and in 1941 the aerodrome was taken over by the military and Skip decided to try an island life.  He purchased the lease of Daydream Island but within a few months found it a losing proposition because of the war and lack of tourists so closed it down, leaving it in the hands of a caretaker, Sam White, and joined the RAAF in Townsville. He discharged in 1944 as a Flight Lieutenant.