Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 8, 2015 19:00:09 GMT 12
from The Dominion Post....
Doug's gliding on in the record books
47 years and still unbroken
By CALEB HARRIS | 5:00AM - Saturday, 07 March 2015
Doug Yarrall descends over Wairarapa from setting a new national altitude gliding record in 1968.
ONE OF the country's oldest active flying instructors is also one of its longest-standing record holders.
Masterton's Doug Yarrall, 82, is chief flying instructor at the Wairarapa and Ruahine Aero Club based at the town's Hood Aerodrome. On Monday it will be 47 years since he rode a rare weather system in a wooden glider to a then-world altitude record of 11,365 metres — still the New Zealand record today.
“It was an amazing record and no-one has got near it since,” Gliding New Zealand executive officer Max Stevens said.
The feat was achieved without modern insulation or protective gear, with Yarrall enduring a temperature of 55 degrees below zero with the help of long johns, a boiler suit, a leather flying helmet with a built-in oxygen mask and electrically heated socks.
“It was pretty rigorous ... I was starting to get convulsive with cold.”
The interior of the cockpit and its instrument dials frosted over and ice began forcing the perspex cockpit off the fuselage, letting in an icy blast.
LEFT: Doug Yarrall is pictured with a cup of brandy immediately after setting
a NZ gliding record. | RIGHT: Masterton's Doug Yarrall, 82, set a NZ gliding
record for absolute altitude in 1968, which has never been beaten.
Yarrall, who had been training for months for the record, went on to set a New Zealand gliding speed record and later flew at the world gliding championships in Finland and Yugoslavia.
He said Wairarapa had perfect conditions for high-altitude gliding, only found in a few other places in the world. They were created when the prevailing westerly wind struck the Tararua Range and created a “wave” effect that enabled the glider to go higher.
But despite the pride of his record, Yarrall is ready to relinquish it.
“You can't hold onto these things.”
Yarrall now mentors two younger flying instructors and, as long as he kept passing medicals with flying colours, did not think he was too old for the role. “I've got close to throwing it away but I think about the people who get pleasure out of my being there to help them learn, and about the experience I've gained over the years ... and I keep myself fit.”
Stevens said Yarrall's record had lasted partly because altitude records were not as vulnerable to technology advances, and from his ability to exploit the conditions. “It was pretty awesome.”
www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wairarapa/67071162/Dougs-gliding-on-in-the-record-books