Julien Joseph Audette

Julien Joseph Audette was born in Radville, Saskatchewan on June 6, 1914. Following graduation from Regina's Campion College, he successively worked in his father's grocery, Canada Packers and Gray Insurance.  In 1937, he began working for the Saskatchewan Government Audit Department.

In May 1941 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and received his pilot's wings and commission at Yorkton, Saskatchewan, on February 27, 1942. He held instructor positions at Trenton, Ontario, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  Following operational training at Comox, British Columbia, he was posted to southeast Asia where he flew the Douglas C-47 on supply runs for the 'Canucks Unlimited' 436 Burma Star Transport Squadron until the end of the war.

Audette sitting in cockpit

Julian Audette co-piloting spring of 1942. 
Saskatoon

Audette in RCAF uniform in front of aircraft

Following the war, Audette assisted in the formation of the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service in 1946 and was its second pilot. In 1949, he became the first pilot with Kramer Air Service and eventually became General Sales Manager of a subsidiary company, Kramer Tractor Ltd. He retired in 1974 from Kramer's, ending a 25-year career with the company. Throughout this time he was active in the Prairie Road Builders Association and was President of the Regina Flying Club. He was chairman of the Regina Chamber of Commerce's Aviation Committee and lobbied for improved air service, particularly for cross-border connections with North Dakota, USA.

Fairchild Husky CF-SAQ on take off
3rd Air Ambulance obtained in late 1947.

From 1976 until 1984, Audette was sales development manager for Saskmont Engineering. He was also Director of the Roughriders Football Club for 27 years. Other associations to benefit from his energies were the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs Associations (RCFCA), Ducks Unlimited, YMCA, Royal Canadian Legion, Air Force Associations, Knights of Columbus, and the Saskatchewan Western Development Museum.

It was however, in the field of non-powered flight that Audette made his major contribution to Canadian aviation. In 1952, he was one of three founders of the Regina Gliding and Soaring Club, and served as chief tow pilot, chief flying instructor, and President. He was instrumental in establishing a gliding scholarship for the Regina Air Cadets, and for bringing three National Soaring competitions to Western Canada.

Audette preparing to enter glider CF-ZDO in front of Regina Flying Club hangar.

Audette in glider wearing goggles, oxygen mask and yellow toque

CF-ZDO over Saskatchewan

In 1962, Audette was awarded Canada's first Diamond Badge by the Paris-based Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), #240 in the world. He was the only Canadian to earn this badge while establishing Canadian Soaring records, and was the first Canadian to break 9,144 metres (30,000 ft) in a sailplane.

On the national level, he was the FAI Awards Chairman of the Soaring Association of Canada (SAC). He was the only Canadian to hold all eight competitive awards available, six of them simultaneously.

From the 1958 Distance to Goal, he won the Barringer Memorial Trophy of the Soaring Society of America - the only Canadian so honoured. The 1961, altitude flight earned him Canada's first Symonds Wave Memorial Plaque and Lennie pin.

With his record free distance flight on April 22, 1962, Audette became the first Canadian to combine a wave flight (27,300 ft or 8,300 m) with a thermal flight. 

In 1959 and 1962 Audette was awarded the Soaring Association of Canada (SAC) President's Choice Award, and the Ball and Chain Trophy for his achievement in soaring flight, one criteria for this being that he was married. In 1961 and 1962 he won the SAC's Canadair Trophy for the best five nights of the year. In 1962, he was awarded the SAC Certificate of Honour. In 1967 the FAI awarded him the Diploma Paul Tissandier Certificate of Honour for the promotion of soaring aviation, the first time a Canadian had won this award. In 1964 and 1967 he won the Alberta Soaring Council's (ASC) Carling Trophy for the best single flight of the year. In 1967, he won the Bruce Soaring Trophy. In 1977 he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1982 the ASC presented him with a Certificate of Achievement Plaque.

During his soaring years in the Cowley, Alberta area, from 1960 to 1975, Audette worked closely with the Federal Meteorology Department. Recognizing that the soaring prospects in the Pincher Creek area could be enhanced by a greater knowledge of the climatology of wave clouds, he initiated a data collection program. This 'Audette Project' provided the foundation for studies by others, including the University of Calgary's Environmental Science Centre.

Julien Audette died in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1986.  He was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1989 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.

1958 Distance to Goal and Return - 322 km

1958 Distance to Goal - 380 km

1961 Absolute Altitude - 9,336 m

1961 Gain of Height - 7,108 m

1961 200 km Triangle - 72.6 km/h

1962 300 km Triangle - 65.0 km/h

1962 Free Distance - 603.8 km

1964 100 km Triangle - 85.0 km/h

"... seeing two lenticulars stilla ctive east of my position, and easterly course was set ... the lift was quite smooth, with a rate of climb averaging 313 feet (96 m) per minute, to a maximum height of 127,300 feet (8.300 m)." That day in June 1962, Audette broke the Canadian Distance Record with a soaring distance of 395 miles (635 km) in 7 hours, 55 minutes after take-off.