WELLINGTON AIRMAN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 54, 27 November 1929, Page 11

WELLINGTON AIRMAN

FLYING EXPERIENCES IN EUROPE ARRESTED IN RUMANIA AS A SPY (Rec. November 26, 9.30 p.m.) London, November 25. “It Is a fascinating game, and the best way of seeing the world imaginable,” said Mr. F. C. Chichester, of Wellington, who began flying in 1927. Mr. Chichester came to England and bought a moth, in which he has been flying over the Continent preparatory to longer flights. He told the "Sun” that air touring gets off the beaten tracks. “You see real people, not show places. I am unable to navigate, and use maps and railway lines. I land where suitable. I fly alone to please myself. I could spend years circumnavigating the world like that. It is perfectly safe. I do not get lost, and I do not lose interest. The trouble is passports and the authorities’ interference. As soon as the ’plane lands anywhere, however remote, I am surrounded by Customs, police, and military, all demanding my papers. I was forced to land in a remote corner of Rumania, near the Russian border, whereupon I was immediately arrested as a Bolshevik spy and told I would be shot. I had the greatest difficulty in establishing my bona tides, as nobody there had ever heard of New Zealand.”