Royal Air Force
Derek Piggott joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 as aircrew and made a first solo in a DH82 Tiger Moth after only six hours dual. He completed his training in Canada and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in 1943. He was then sent on a multi-engine instructors' course and then on a course for elementary instructors before returning to England. By 1944 there was a surplus of trained pilots and he so volunteered to fly military gliders. After a short conversion to Airspeed Horsa, General Aircraft Hotspur and Waco Hadrians, he was posted to India and then on to Burma where he flew Dakotas dropping supplies to front-line troops. During his stay in India, he instructed Indian Air Force students and flew low anti-riot patrols just before partition.
Back in the UK he was posted as a Staff Instructor at RAF's Central Flying School at Little Rissington where he trained instructors and flew Harvards, Balliols, Athenas, Meteors, Spitfires, Mosquitos and Lancasters. After being awarded the A1 Instructor Rating, he joined the Home Command Gliding Instructors' School teaching civilian instructors for the Air Training Corps on Slingsby T21 and Slingsby Kirby Cadet gliders. As Chief Flying Instructor he introduced improved training methods. He also taught school teachers in the Combined Cadet Force how to teach flying in primary gliders. Flying with an ATC cadet as co-pilot in the National Gliding Championships, he established a British two-seater altitude record climbing to over 17,000 feet (5,200 m) in a thunderstorm over Sheffield. In 1953 Piggott received the Queen's Commendation for work on developing and introducing new instructional techniques for gliding in the ATC.
In 1953, he left the RAF as a Flight Lieutenant and joined Lasham Gliding Society and became its Chief Flying Instructor.
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