World record-setting glider pilot

Douglas Owen Yarrall, glider pilot: b May 25, 1932; d May 12, 2021

Maybe it was the altitude, or maybe it was extreme cold, but there was something almost Hillary-esque about the way Doug Yarrall broke the world gliding altitude record.

Like Edmund Hillary, Yarrall was one of this country’s humble doers who let their actions speak for them.

The Picton born aviator told Stuff back in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of his recordbreaking flight, that the enormous discomfort he endured somewhat detracted from the elation one might expect to feel breaking a world record.

Instead of basking in his achievement, all he could think about for the next few days was getting warm.

He clearly remembered the bone-chilling temperatures he felt as he reached the rarefied heights.

‘‘I started to get a bit convulsive with the cold and by this time the canopy was iced up and the instruments were icing up on me.

‘‘Because I was still suffering from the penetration of the cold into the marrow of the body for about three days, it took that long to really get over it. Then I could sit and think about what had actually happened.’’

His official recorded maximum height was 37,600ft (11,460m). Although it has since been surpassed internationally, it still stands as a New Zealand record.

He wrote in his memoirs about the moment he got as high as the Wairarapa thermal would take him.

‘‘I almost drained the wave of everything it had to offer. So out with the brakes and down the nose and let’s get out of here, for I was feeling pretty miserable with the thermometer hovering on -55 degrees Centigrade.’’

Flying was a love that remained with Yarrall right to the end of a life full of adventure and enterprise.

He won several national and regional gliding competitions over the years and in 2018 was awarded the Federation Aeronautique Internationale medal for his contribution to aviation.

Until a few months before his death at the age of 88, he was the long-standing chief flying instructor of the Wairarapa Aero Club based out of Masterton’s Hood Aerodrome.

Fellow pilot Peter Rix said Yarrall played a critical role in

‘‘In my opinion he was a giant of a man but very, very humble. I loved him deeply.’’

PIERS FULLER/STUFF Masterton pilot Doug Yarrall reflects on what it was like achieving the world altitude record in a glider 50 years ago.

Recently Doug Yarrall fulfilled a lifelong dream Havilland Vampire British jet fighter earlier thi was chief flying instructor at the Wairarapa Ae years. He was still flying well into his 80s. He is club’s twin seater Tecnam.