Derek Piggott, who has died aged 96, was a gliding instructor who improved the safety of his sport. He also worked as a stunt pilot in films including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1964) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1967).

Derek was chief flying instructor at Lasham Airfield in Hampshire when colleagues were testing the 1910 Bristol Boxkite plane to be used in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Derek became involved and ended up doing stunt piloting for the film, and others.

When filming The Blue Max (1966), Derek was the only stunt pilot who would agree to fly beneath a bridge. For multiple takes, he flew through the wider span of the bridge 15 times and the narrower span 18 times, with only four feet of clearance on each side. For Villa Rides (1968) he deliberately crashed a plane.

He was born in Chadwell Heath, Essex, son of Alice (nee Harvey) and the Rev William Piggott. Derek went to the local school, and then, when the family moved to south London in 1933, to Sutton county school. He was commissioned in the RAF in 1943 and was posted to India to No 668 Glider Squadron. He flew Dakotas with No 267 Squadron over the frontlines in Burma.

Derek Piggott in front of a Bristol Boxkite that was used in the 1964 film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

He returned to Britain in 1947 and was posted to the Central Flying School, where he reached the highest RAF qualification for a flying instructor. He was selected for the Empire Test Pilots’ school, but high-tone deafness debarred him.

Instead he went to the RAF gliding school in Detling, Kent, as chief instructor. The systematic sequence of exercises he created at Detling improved gliding safety and for this he received the Queen’s Commendation. He also test-piloted every glider that was to be sold in Britain and sometimes recommended improvements. In 1953 he became the chief flying instructor at Lasham Airfield, where I met him, and he stayed there until 1989.

In 1961, Derek was the first person to make an officially authenticated man-powered flight, using pedal-power, when he piloted an aircraft for Southampton University.

Despite his adventures, Derek’s greatest achievement was to make gliding safer. His structured progress cards, instructor courses and defined weather limits undoubtedly saved many lives. He wrote eight books on gliding, including his autobiography.

Derek was a warm person, keenly interested in anyone who wanted to fly. He took immense trouble with his pupils.

In 1987 he was appointed MBE for services to gliding. In 2007 the Royal Aero Club gave him its gold medal and the Royal Aeronautical Society appointed him an honorary companion.

In 2008 he was awarded the Lilienthal gliding medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

He is survived by his partner of many years, Maria Boyd, and by his son, Robert, from his earlier marriage to Myfanwy Rowlands. A daughter, Julia, died in 2014.