Page 3 - Sept 2018

Farewell to “Yogi” He mastered the Tutor and went on to the T-33 Silver
Delwood Frederick Huyghebaert Star and was selected to go onto the CF-104 Starfighter.

by Will Chabun But before he became a fighter pilot, there was that stint
at Chatham on the Sabre, which he remembers as “a
pilot’s airplane … a really, really great flying machine.”

There was, he recalled, no two-seat trainer version of the
Sabre. Nor was there a simulator. Heck, he can
remember an instructor standing on his Sabre’s wing
until he got the aircraft started.

He also remembers his first takeoff – he’d just become
airborne when the cockpit filled with smoke! But he
quickly realized that whatever filled the cockpit didn’t

smell like smoke — it resembled condensation.
For the first 20 years of his military flying career, He concluded somebody, perhaps inadvertently, had put
Delwood Frederick “Yogi” Huyghebaert kept one a switch on the side of the cockpit to FULL COOL. A twist
story to himself. of it and the cockpit was clear again.
It took place in the mid-1960s, when he was an And this brings us back to his attempt to break the sound
aspiring fighter pilot, learning to fly the legendary barrier, which was “a pretty big thing back in the ‘60s.”.
Canadair Sabre V at 1 (Fighter) Operational Training
It involved climbing to 38,000 feet, rolling over, applying
Unit at CFB Chatham, NB.
full power and heading straight down. But his “Sword”
The Sabre V was one of the best of its breed — and was climbing slowly that day, so he settled on 37,000
capable, he’d been told, of breaking the sound feet, rolled and headed down. “You’d be surprised how
barrier in a vertical dive. A student pilot typically got quick that altimeter goes down when you’re getting to
a chance to do this once, and only once, in the that speed,” remembered Yogi.
course of his training – and young fighter pilots are
His eyes kept moving from the ground to the Mach
not exactly shrinking violets when presented with
meter. “It hung up at about .99 Mach. It just sits there —
such an opportunity.
and sits there”
The story of how Yogi – who died Aug. 2 after a
Closer and closer came Mother Earth. Where was the
sparkling career in military aviation and politics --
gentle shudder that would indicate he’d broken the
found himself in that cockpit began on the south- sound barrier?
central Saskatchewan farm on which he was raised.
He joined the air force right out of high school, Finally, he felt it – and his eyes went to the altimeter as
aspiring to be a pilot. he yanked back on the stick.
But that was around the time the federal Turns out he was at 25,000 feet – with more than four
government laid off 500 military pilots. Moreover, a miles of altitude in which to pull out!
recruiting officer told him, “Son, you just don’t have “That taught me a very big lesson — there’s more than
what it takes to be a pilot.” one gauge in the cockpit that you can use!”

So he served for five years as an electronics “The Sabre really got you flying low-level,” he recalled.
technician (at one point stationed at Marville, “You’d roll out of basic training, but in the ‘86 that was
France). And when the air force inevitably ran low our forte: flying low – and rightfully so because when we
on pilots, he successfully applied for pilot training. went in the ’104s that was our saviour -- low flying. We

No Chipmunk or Musketeer primary trainers or him had to qualify at bombing at 50 feet. You’re doing 450
– for he trained at a time when the air force was knots and you push it up to 540 knots to lay down bombs
experimenting with putting student pilots straight at 50 feet.”
into the CT-114 Tutor.