SEEING EUROPE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1929, Page 5

SEEING EUROPE

FROM A MOTH PLANE. [United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] LONDON, November 25. “It is a fascinating game—the best way of seeing the world imaginable,” said Mr F. O. Chichester, a young man from Wellington, New Zealand, who began flying in 1927. He came to England, and bought a Moth plane in which he has been flying over the Continent, preparatory to any longer flights. He told the “Sun” that one who goes- air touring gets off the beaten tracks/ “ You see the real people, not showplays,” he said. “ 1 am unable to navigate, so I use maps and railway lines. I land where suitable. 1. fly alone, and I please, myself, I could spend years circumnavigating the world like that.- It is perfectly safe. Ido not get lost. Ido not lose interest. The trouble is the passports and the- authorities’ interference. As soon as the plane lands anywhere, however remote, I am surrounded by customs, police, and military officials, all demanding papers. I was forced to land in a remote corner of Roumania, near the Russian border, whereupon I was immediately arrested as a Bolshevik spy, and was told that [ would be shot. T had the greatest difficulties in establishing my bona tides, as noh-ody there had ever heard of New Zealand.”