Dick Stratton
I'm sorry to hear this morning that Dick Stratton, passed away quietly on Thursday 20th September at 3 pm.
Dick was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Royal Aero Club Silver medallist, formerly Chief Technical Officer at the British Gliding Association, and before that head of helicopter development at Saunders Roe. Formerly he'd run the flight test programmes on the Saunders Roe Princess, the SR53 rocket plane and had started his working life as an RAF flight engineer on Sunderlands.
To the end he was loud, reactionary, often awkward - and rarely wrong. His encyclopedic knowledge of aviation, his generous help to many many people across light aviation (although especially in gliding in later years) was inspirational.
I shall miss the occasional conversations and arguments with Dick, he was an astounding source of aeronautical wisdom, and we are all poorer for his passing.
On the other hand, he was a very ripe age, he was active to the end of his life, and I doubt that he died with any significant regrets about his life. He was very much one of the good 'uns, that light aviation has been so privileged to have amongst out number.
G