Obituaries Australia

Captain Eric Herbert Chaseling, one of Australia's most widely known civil pilots, died at his home at Millswood today at the age of 48. He had been in ill-health since last December.

Capt. Chaseling was operations manager with Guinea Airways, a post he had held since he joined the company 6½ years ago.

He had a serious illness a few months ago, but recovered sufficiently to return to his work for a few hours a day until a week ago.

Before joining Guinea Airways Capt. Chaseling was in charge of the aviation section of the Broken Hill Proprietary Co.

His work with Guinea Airways had been most valuable, handling all flying operations, the secretary (Mr. Colliver) said today.

He had definite progressive views on civil aviation in Australia.

Capt. Chaseling leaves a widow and one son.

Capt. Chaseling had 6,700 flying hours to his credit in America and Australia, was senior pilot to the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, and held two Australian flying records.

In 1931 he flew from Melbourne to Sydney in 2 hr. 44 min., an average speed of 176 miles an hour, and the other record was for a Melbourne-Launceston flight in 1 hr. 58 min.

Capt. Chaseling made two visits to America – in 1927 and 1937. After the second trip, he said that Australia must make great efforts to bring its flying up to American standards.

Then he advocated improvement of ground organisation and radio, and increased money and personnel for the Civil Aviation Board to enable it to carry out its safety plans on American lines.