Name/Title
Charles YeatesEntry/Object ID
2026-03-019Description
Charles (Charlie) Yeates was a respected member of the Canadian soaring community, with a remarkable soaring career spanning 60 years.
Charlie was successful as a contest pilot, winning Canadian national contests at Regina in 1959, and at Hawkesbury in 1967; his competition career continued all the way up to the 1996 contest at Red Deer. He represented Canada in World Contests in 1958 (flying a Breguet 901 in the Open Class, at Leszno, Poland); in 1963 (flying a Ka6 in Standard Class at Junin, Argentina); in 1965 (flying a Skylark IV in Open Class at South Cerney, England); and in 1968 (flying an Open Cirrus in Open Class at Leszno, Poland). Remarkably, he capped a 51 year career in contest flying by winning the U. S. National World Class Contest in 2002 [https://www.wgc.mb.ca/static/freeflight/02_05.pdf].
Charlie earned numerous Canadian records, too many to list, all the way from distance flights in a 1-23 in 1956, through his remarkable flights during the 1960s to points in the New England region of the U.S., and triangle speed records, all the way through to several two-seater record flights shared with his wife Kris in 2006 and 2007.
He was a very active member of the PW community, both PW-5 and PW-6, telling the story of his PW-6 sales tour in https://www.wgc.mb.ca/static/freeflight/01_06.pdf
Throughout, he was a prolific contributor to Canadian soaring stories and history writing, published many times in Free Flight, to the edification and entertainment of all.