the blue max revisited

Hi All . Here is a article that was in IRISH EXAMINER PAPER ON OCT08.
Derek Piggott , the pilot who performed the daring aerial stunts on the block-buster film the blue max some of which was filmed in Fermoy in 1965.in one of the most spectaculer scenes in the film he had to fly a triplane through a narrow span of fermoy viaduct over the river Blackwater. Derek enjoyed his time filming the blue max, and struck up lifelong friendships with many of the irish aercorps pilots who also worked on the movie.it had long been his ambition to return to fermoy to see the railway bridge he had flown under all those years ago.Last week that ambition was realised, when thanks to the effords of former aer corps pilots , Paddy o Mara and Peter mcMahon,he returned to the county cork town.accompanied by his partner Maria Boyd, Derek was flown by helicopter pilot pj mansfield of weston to the grounds of Rathealy house, just outside Fermoy on the north side of the river Blackwater. there he was met by a group of Fermoy people, who walked through the fields with him to the viaduct. it was an emotional return for derek, who after filming in the blue max, went on to be the most in -demand pilot for the many aerial films which were being made in Ireland in the 60s and 70s among these were , Darling Lili, and Von Richtoven and Brown. Standing under the viaduct , derek told of how director , John Guillerman asked for a volunteer to step forward to fly a Fokker dr1 triplane under the viaduct in the climatic scene for the blue max. as the only volunteer, he took the role of both pilots,standing in for thr star of the film,George Peppard, and also Jeremy Kemp. He ended up flying under the wide span fifteen times, and seventeen times under the narrower span, derek said that he had two scaffold poles , one in the river and one on the south bank to guide him,and that when he flew under the narrow span,he had only two feet to spare on each side..... more next week [ not bad for 2 fingers typing]