FLYING ‘A DISEASE’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969, Page 30

FLYING ‘A DISEASE’

(N.Z.' Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 9. A topdressing pilot, Mr Erceg, swore he would give up flying when he reached 10,000 hours.

This week-end he passed the magic mark —and is looking forward to another 10 years of flying. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said at his Bell Block home

today. “Flying is a disease and I’ve got it bad.” Mr Erceg is one of only three topdressing pilots in New Zealand who have reached 10,000 hours flying time. It is equal to 416 days of 24-hours-a-day flying. He has spread 55,000 tons of manure and treated more than half a million acres of land throughout New Zealand. “They reckon it’s equal to a million miles at the wheel of a car,” he said. Mr Erceg has been flying

for 17 years, the last 15 of them with Rural Aviation, Ltd. He has survived eight crash landings without injury. Although he has faced many hazards in his years of flying, Mr Erceg came closest to being killed in a car accident He was in a coma for four days and ever since has preferred to trust an aircraft above a.car. “You know, I reckon I face more danger driving to and from work than I’ll ever strike in the air,” he said.