A schoolmate remembered

Sir,

Your correspondent asked about Bill Pinckney’s death (Letters, February). He died, I understand, flying his Rallye Tobago in Scotland in 1990.

He farmed in Warwickshire and was married to Evelyn (since remarried). Apparently he had taken some pork to friends in Oban in exchange for some lobster. Before leaving for home he was taking his friends for a short pleasure trip.

The Air Accident report, so far as I remember, suggested that the length of the airstrip, the wet grass and additional passenger weight were all contributory factors preventing his aircraft from becoming fully airborne. The undercarriage caught a fence and caused the aircraft to flip over and catch fire. All sadly perished.

Bill and I were inseparable mates at school in the early ’50s and we kept in touch on and off until his untimely death.

He raced a Lotus 11, then in Formula Junior with a Lotus 22. He competed with David Hobbs in the ‘Mecha-Matic’ Lotus Elite, as Rupert Lloyd Thomas wrote. I believe he also raced a Jaguar 3.4 in Historic saloons with another mate, Bob Meacham.

Bill was a larger-than-life character, very charismatic, full of fun and a joy to be with. He loved his family, enjoyed his cars, loved flying and flew solo to South Africa to visit his daughter Sarah, and on another occasion flew to India in his little single-engined Rallye.

Michael White, Heage, Derbyshire