Derek Piggott - Gliding Career

Gliding Career

Derek Piggott is well known as a gliding instructor, and has written several instructional articles. In addition he had success as a competition glider pilot winning three regional championships, was the UK National aerobatic glider champion in 1961 and set several national gliding records including the single-seat altitude record of over 25,000 feet (7,600 m) in an active thunderstorm in a Slingsby Skylark. He holds the FAI Diamond Badge. Between 1953 to 1989, Derek Piggott was the Chief Flying Instructor at Lasham Gliding Society, though he took breaks during this time to do stunt flying.

He has travelled widely, lecturing and advising gliding associations such as the Soaring Society of America and the Dutch gliding association on matters such as the use of motor gliders in training. As a leading authority on gliding, he has written seven books on the subject, an autobiography, several monographs and many magazine articles. His first book 'Gliding' was first published in 1958 and is still in print in its eighth edition. In 2003 at the age of 81, he completed a 505 km task in an Me7 glider with only a 12.7 metre span in a national competition in a time of 7hr 14min. (Several much younger pilots with superior machines failed to complete this task). He is an active glider pilot and competitor, though he no longer holds a full Private Pilot's Licence.

He was a member of a test group for the British Gliding Association and tested a number of prototype gliders and foreign machines for approval to be imported. He made a successful emergency parachute descent from a damaged Bocian making him a member of the Caterpillar Club. He researched the effect of sub-gravity sensations as a cause for many serious and fatal gliding accidents.