Derek Piggott

[cats_five]

Derek Piggott died yesterday, 6th January 2019, following a stroke. I'm sure a great many people here have met him, the lucky ones flew with him.

[DaveUnwin]

Flew with him when I was a member at Lasham and he was CFI, then got to know him better when he submitted several articles to Today's Pilot. An amazing pilot, lovely bloke and a life well lived.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Flew with him back in the 1970’s. A full and fascinating life. His books (autographed) and read many times have always had a prominent place on my aviation book shelves.

When I was a kid he WAS gliding. I bet he wasn’t scratching for lift on his way to heaven!

SND

[rotorfossil]

He sent me off in the Olympia at Lasham in ‘57.Happy times. We met again on the display pilots committee. Very quiet chap, but a fascinating guy if you could get him to talk about his experiences which wasn’t easy.

[old,not bold]

My initiation into flying was with Derek Piggott at Lasham in 1958 in a T21; in among every other gem he imparted, he taught us to fly accurately. Careless turns would earn an instant rebuke; "Keep the ball in the middle!". (Or was it the string on the pitot tube? Did the T21 even have a T&S indicator?). So would a failure to judge an approach so as to touch down precisely where he wanted it, a lesson that later came through in successful field landings, as well as unwanted forced landings (2) in powered aircraft.

It's a sad closure to an era.

[alfalpha]

How sad to hear, 96 is a good innings though.
Derek sent me for my first solo gliding in the early 1980s. Read a couple of his books avidly too.
Condolences to his family.