ALAN DEREKPIGGOTTLASHAM today is known and respe-ctedthroughout the <strong>Gliding</strong>World. A great deal of the credit forthis. hapj)y state of affairs must go toDerek Piggott, who has been our C.ELfor ten years.It was in 1953 or 1954 when I metDerek at Farnborough during an AirShow. The Surrey and Army <strong>Club</strong>s hadjust decided to operate jointly at Lasham.and we :.vere looking for a C.F.I. Derek(known in the Air Force as Alan) hadbeen CP.\. o1'the Home Command<strong>Gliding</strong> School at Delling, and hispraises were sung throughout the itA.F.and A.T.C. <strong>Gliding</strong> Schools. Beforejoining Delling, he had been an ~.IR.A.F. Flying Instructor on the exammingfli~ht of the Ce~tral Flying School(thal is the top top In Service Instructing).We offered him the job at Lasham andwere delighted when he accepted. <strong>No</strong>tonly did he come to Lasham, but he evenbrought his glider repair genius-oneCl'\. Warren Storey-with him.Since then the world knows of Derek'sachievements. He is absolutely fantastic.The man never walks. he runs. He n~vetstands still, he is always doing somethmg.He Worked so hard that he wore outshoes at a faster rate than even theShoe Trade Research Institute could do.Various shoe firms were persuaded tooffer him their indestructible shoes buteach time Derek ma:naged to wear themout at Lasham in under six weeks. Eventuallya s'pecial pair was made whichseemed to last nearly six months.What of his .achievements? In soaringhe had beld the two-seat,er height recordby reaching 18,000 feet in an open T-21with a cadet. He reached 25,000 feetwithout oxygen in a thunderstorm whicshkilled numerous people on Ascot Day.The glider was struck repeatedly bylightning but Derek did not mind-~esays that he cannot remember certalOparts of the flight due to lack of oxygen!He flew the English Channel in an. openPrimary for the Dajl~ M~jl Air Race.Having reached Par~s, he returned,jumped into an Olympia 419, was towed18to the coast of France and soared, toParis.He has talCen part in 'various NationalChampionshil's-always ,doing extremelywell although each time he was flying anew and strange glider. H,e tested glidersfor Elliotts and Slingsby's; he has donemost things. One could go, Oil and on-jumping out of the Bocian over. theAirwork hangar, Manpowered 11lght,where he was the first person to getaiJborne by his own exertions, his aerobatics...This is a Vale/e-and yet we hope thatone day Derek will get fed up with themake-believe wdrld of the ClOema. andreturn to us. <strong>No</strong>w he has a film behindhim---entitled "Those Magnificent Menand Their Flying Maehimes". Next yearhe hopes to do another. During thewinter he wants to write another book(his first one-"<strong>Gliding</strong>; A Handbook onSoaring Flight"-is superb) and ,,":orkon 'his pet scheme of the po~e~ed tr~l1nerwhich will probably revolutlOOlse ghdmgtraining.Derek Piggott-this is your life. Fromthe start-Aviation. Winning the ModelAircraft World's highest trophy, takingpart in the World Model Aircraft Chaml'ionshipsin America, winning a RoyalAero <strong>Club</strong> medal for services to gliding.all your' fantastic achievements in th-efield of gliding and flying, your c1eyerschoolmistress wife and your two chIldren,both of whom have won scholarshipsto Millfield School-surely aunique family.We will remember you for the thousandsof hOlus you have spent on theground and in the air at Lasham, helpingus to fly; giving pleasure, encouragement,teaching, advising, correcting, enthusing-beingDerek.The life of a full-time instructor ingliding is a fairly un-few'lrding task. Inthe main, gliding types tend to be ratherselfish and ungratefuL But I am certainthat there must be hundreds of gliderpilots throughout the world who do saywith pride and sincerity-l was taughtto glide by DEREK PIGGOTT.All of us surely say that too-thankyou. Derek, for your len years of work,inspiration and unceasing efforts on ourbehalf.WALLY KAHN.(Reproduced from "Lasham & <strong>Gliding</strong>")
SECOND NEW ZEALAND CHAMPIONSHIPSHOOD AERODROME. MASTER'rON Zlst to Z8th NOVEMBERBy ROSS MACINTYREVERYTHING from wave to thermalE was experienced during practice weekbefore the champs. Several pilots flewin the wave at heights up to 30,000 feetbut no great distances were logged.Weather conditions during the periodof the Championships were rath.er vari·able. A north to north-west aIrstreamahead of an advancing depression fromthe Tasman Sea prevailed on the firsttwo days, which gave mainly wave con'ditions though of only moderate development.Weak thermal activity occurredfor short periods, but little advantagecould be taken of this.With a stationary anticyclone northof New Zealand and deep depressionspassing to the south, the following fourdays covered a per.iod of s~rong or verystrong westerly wmds whIch producedon two days very marked waves toheights over 30,000 ft. Unfortunatelyperiods of severe turbulence in the lowerlevels prevented these days from beingcontest days.Saturday. Zht <strong>No</strong>vemberThe Championships were opened at9 a.m. Saturday morning by Mr. I. F. B.Waiters, the Divisional Controller ofOperations for the Air Department.The Contest Director, John Messervy,gave the task as Free Distance. Launchheight was 4,000 feet and X was 30miles.From the configuration of the country.north was the direction for maximu~ndistance but a northerly component IDthe wa~e·producing west wind stoppedthoug,hts in this direction. Instead, mostheaded south. The first report back ofa landing over X ~as also one of .thelongest flights, 51 mJles to Cape ~alhserlighthouse - about as far as It waspossible to go without wet feet. Thepilot, Gordon Hookings (Skylark 4), waslater joined by Alan Carneron (K-6cR)and John Cooper (K-6).Cooper (last year's champion) had .themisfortune to hit a wingtip on landmg,which put him out of the contesL Only10 out of the 27 crossed X, so thatmaximum points for the day were only569.Sunday, ZZndA lOO-km. Triangle race was set withturning-points at Featherston and TeWharau. An expected slackening of thewind did not occur, and considerabledifficulty was experienced on the firstinto-wind leg. Launches were to 2,000feet. With the increasing wind. wavedeveloped, marked only by a line ofgood cumulus right do~n the valleylike a cloud street at fight angles tothe wind. SOme pilots didn't recognisethe wave and did the whole trip onthermals and ridge lift.Alan Cameron was first to go around.He did so in I hQur 36 mins., whkhbroke the existing N.Z. lOO-km. trianglerecord. He flew tbe first leg on thermals,struck the wave, where he climbed to11,000 feet, then set off on a straightglide.Rass Reid in a K·6PE went around inoH'.t·MILE:S10 10019
- Page 1 and 2: SA LP A&GLIDIGFebruary - March 1965
- Page 3 and 4: SAILPLANE& GLIDINGOFFICIAL ORGAN OF
- Page 5 and 6: 1965 WORLD G,LIDINGCHAMPIONSHIPSHE
- Page 7 and 8: FRED SLINGSBY'S RETIREMENTANY are t
- Page 9 and 10: D-34(o)D·36Polyt 3Kria7
- Page 11 and 12: dead into sun, and the haze made VI
- Page 13 and 14: its normal position lies very near
- Page 15 and 16: well that you should understand how
- Page 17 and 18: TESTING A SOVIET DISCOPLANEBy V. IV
- Page 19: cursed. The designer looked despond
- Page 23 and 24: •Official rest day.three pilots a
- Page 25 and 26: 1965 COURSES AT LASHAMHE 196'5 cour
- Page 27 and 28: LEE WAVE uGEN" FOR AEROPLANE PILOTS
- Page 29 and 30: of the Sheffield gale. The other is
- Page 31 and 32: IT wasn't just having to get used t
- Page 33 and 34: change, my man," I sa.id grandly, a
- Page 35 and 36: outes. It's all a snare and a delus
- Page 37 and 38: electrical horizons 'have complete
- Page 39 and 40: Finally, the turn-and-slip indicato
- Page 41 and 42: 1964 KRONFELD ART EXHIBITION AND196
- Page 43 and 44: Loi61U ;nOrder Pi/or Points 1964 Or
- Page 45 and 46: RHODESIA'S FIRST 500 KILOMETERSBy E
- Page 47 and 48: 2-3~ en154.2'-'5-0 IDID6 0 en~c7
- Page 49 and 50: JIy30-40506"0 70 8"0 9"0I I I I, eq
- Page 51 and 52: BRITISH GLIDING ASSOCIATION NEWSCHI
- Page 53 and 54: wings ar~ lewel. If you can do this
- Page 55 and 56: T" T I G" I. 1.111 Y 11 74'0THEKRON
- Page 57 and 58: as the squall struck us, about half
- Page 59 and 60: about 3,000 feet, at which altitude
- Page 61 and 62: TRUE FLIGHT-A FABLEBy M. BIRDOOKING
- Page 63 and 64: iBOOK REVIEW•Great Flights and Ai
- Page 65 and 66: will go on into the foreseeable fut
- Page 67 and 68: I feel that the home-made winch wil
- Page 69 and 70: FOR SALE (contd.)T.3IB, C. of A. fr
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BLACKPOOL AND FYLDEP"e.~enratioll o
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which we had from the Shaw Slingsby
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able piece ef Club equipment was bu
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And still he wasn't satisfied, this
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As usual, Lasham continues to opera
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to his usual standard. The surprise
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Margate before setting off in Sky.)
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CHEVIOTS (Acklington)SINCE our last
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a gliding record. He made his first
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The Boomerang.from a light-weight a
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The Club's order for a Ka-6 waschan
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Lindner, of Teek, with 2,434.2. - A
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A Gliding Holiday io Kentwith the K
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