A simple thin film head which we call "Mellisuga Head" has been developed. The head has an extremely low flying height (0.03-mu-m - 0.07-mu-m). The reliability in the contact start stop (CSS) process and the soft dynamic load/unload (SDL) process of the head on two types of thin film disk was investigated. In the Mellisuga Head operation on a gamma-Fe2O3 disk with a glass substrate, 50,000 CSS cycles as well as 100,000 SDL cycles were completed successfully. This confirms that the gamma-Fe2O3 disk has an especial advantage to the Mellisuga Head operation. It was also shown that the head could be operated on a metal disk with a glass substrate during the SDL process.