Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

We had the indentifications, here is the picture showing the numbers which related to the employees names had disappeared. .

Take a stretched DC-8 (back ground), take a single (contingent) passenger, Joanne Blackwell (No. 1 in the seat, foreground). Put between them some of the people and machines that service the plane and serve the passenger. and you have quite a crowd.
 
Specifically: 2, Gii Rochon, Purser; 3. Peggy Bevan. Stewardess: 4. Barbara Berger, Ground Hostess; 5. Robert Ste ward. Navigator: 6. David Stanton, Captain: 7. ,J. H Coleman. First Officer: 8, C. I,. Jezzard Flight Crew Scheduling Officer: 9. Gloria Bousher. Ground Hostess ; 10. Robert Ruston. Passenger Agent ; Il - William Brown. Porter. 12. Wolfgang Roessler. Head Chef. Aeroqua Restaurant; 13, S. Mcllraith, Pharmacist. Air port Drug Store: 14. Mrs. Margaret Watho Drug Store sales clerk: 15. Sam Blandino, barber; 16. Enrique Luis, Captain of waiters at the Aeroquay. 17. John Buchanan. Load Agent; 18, Ernie Bowyer. Flight Dispatcher; 19. Victoria Thistle. Telecommunications Operator: 20. Gray Montgomery, Telecommunications Agent; 21, W. J. Taylor, Commissary Supervisor. 22, Doug Will. Sales Rep for Avis Rent-a-Car: 23. Euclide LaPointe, Air Line Service chauffeur; 24. George Porter, Manager. Budget Rent-A-Car: 25. David Dow. Millwright Mechanic: 26, Jim McGuire, Electrician; 27. K. C. Rung, Painter: 28. W. D. Pinto. Millwright Mechanic; 29. J.J. Slowinski, Metal Shop Mechanic: 30, M. Barker, Janitor: 31. John Stirton. Storeman. 32, Gerry Dodds. 'Air Traffic Controller : 33, Kenneth Ralph, Air Traffic Controller; 34 S. Dennis, Supervisor Gate Assignment: 35. C. S. Baldwin, Telecommunications Area Manager 36. John Harris, Electrician: 37. Jack Davey. Structural Trades Supervisor: 38. J. Knaud, Superintendent of Building Maintenance; 39. M. Cristink, Maintenance Supervisor: 40. Joy Campbell. Eastern Air Lines Ground Hostess; 4I Mary Heron, Mohawk Airlines Counter Sales, 42, Julia Marahno. CPA Ground Hostess; 43. Arvind Shah, Met Officer. 44, Joan Smart, Mutual of Omaha insurance : 45. James Carroll, Medical Officer: 46. Gladys Bonucl Nurse: 47, H.1. Killikelly. Medical Officer; 48. John Lucas, immigration officer, 49. Earl King. Shift Manager:50, Kenneth Fell, Maintenance Work Control 0fficer ; 51. George Townsend, Chief Operating Engineer; 52. M. B. ONeill Fire Chief; 53, Sgt..John McDougall, RCMP; 54, Sgt. A. J. Pulford. Commissionaire. 55. Cyril Wilson, Lead Station Attendant; 56. Dennis Fostou, Firefighter; 57. Horace Owen, Firefighter; 58. William Munro, Fire Officer; 59, Don Miller. Station Attendant: 60, John Brodeau. Station Attendant. 61, Evertoo Kitchener. Maintenance Foreman; 62. Beverly Porter, Equipment Operator; 63. Jack Petty, Bus Driver; 64. John Weir, Aircraft Grooming; 65. V. Bridport, Radio Technician: 66. Norhert Farley. Aero Mechanic: 67. Bruce Thompson, Aero Mechanic. 68. Kennineth McBride. Aircraft Mechanic; 69. R. F. Vye. Aircraft Mechanic : 70. M. J. Eleo, Fueller: 71, Frank Piper, Fueller.
 
The vehicles are:
A. groomers' vehicle; B, fire engine; C. cargo pallet trans porter; D. RCMP cruiser: E, fork lift truck; F. Department of Transport vehicle; G. maintenance vehicle for aircraft servicing; H, conveyor; I. refueling tender; j, aircraft towing tractor : K, air conditioner; F, bus; M. snow blower; N. Department of Transport service vehicle.
Hopefully this will now be rectified. (Sorry - eds)

First TCA crew into the new St. John's terminal are pictured here receiving miniature pins. From the left: Captain J. Grant, Stewardesses H.Gatze, G.Ensmann and F/O R.A.Coneen.

Making the presentation is Geirge Hess Transport Minister.

DELIVERY FLIGHT OF FIRST COMPANY VANGUARD
Six years after the delivery of the Company's first Viscount, a "second generation" Vickers turboprop is being introduced to North America by TCA.
The aircraft is, of course, the Vanguard. The first of these 425 mph airliners left Vickers' air field at Wisley, near London, on December 7, 1960.

The Vanguard flew from Wisley to Montreal with only one refueling stop, at Keflavik.
The Company's Viscount aircraft were ferried by Vickers' crews, but TCA accepted the first Vanguard aircraft at Wisley. Superintendent of Flying, Captain George Lothian, was captain of Vanguard Atlantic delivery No. 1. Lothian acted as co-pilot on the first Viscount ferry flight to Montreal in December, 1955

On March 5th 1960, inauguration of service between YYZ/YUL and Rome with Bristol Britannia 314 equipment started.

- In June 1961 the route was operated with first jet flight to Rome with DC8-43 equipment.

- and in 1968 with DC8-63 dubbed the "Spacemaster" the route was extended from Rome to Athens and later to Tel Aviv in 1971. When the airline introduced the DC10-30 service between YUL and Rome and Milan with the B747 replacing this equipment in November 1996.

Canadi>n Stanislav Solomko, Manager, Route Planning (left), Vijay Bathija, Director Route Planning and So! Zia, Senior Analyst, Route Forecasts review one ol the business cases for the new summer schedule launched .DN and AC.

Charlie Chaplin visits Beijing!
One of our visiting customers from Manitoba, who is also a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, was so impressed with the service he received from the BJS Res and CTO staff, that he came back to thank them in a special way.

Pictured left to right: Helen Zhang, Res Agent; Stone ShI, Res Agent; Marina Feng, CTO Agent; Evan Dong, CTO Agent; Jakie Zkao, CTO Agent; Anita Wang, ATAC Agent; Jack Charlie Chaplin Slessor; Jacob Yin, CTO Agent; Tiger Zhou, CTO Supervisor; Alice LIu, International Business Class Office Agent; and Vivian Xie, Res Agent.

Three former Canadi>n employees are settling into new surroundings at Air Canada in Montreal.

Left to right: Juan Kranky, Lisa le, Torben Bentzen.

George Brien sends us this information about Halifax International Airport -

Hi  folks
Halifax Stanfield International Airport celebrates 50 years - notes a special insert of the local paper this month.

Halifax's new Airport near Kelly Lake, was operational by June 1960 and July 1, was opened to IFR traffic
 

Peter Pigott's book "National Treasure, The History of Trans-Canada Air Lines" tells us that on JULY 31ST, 1960 as TCA Viscount 426  departed Shearwater at 1145,on schedule for Sydney NS. TCA Station Manager "Hec" Mackenzie and his crew of 52 men began moving out to the new  airport 30 miles away. Ramp equipment, vehicles and office furnishing all had to be in place by the next morning when TCA flight 400 from Montreal touched down at 0500 to offload its passengers.  It would be followed by a North Star flight 750  arriving at 0540 enroute to YQY/YJT/QX and YYT.

Allan Mackenzie, retired employee and son of "Hec" had pictures of the move , which have been donated to Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum.  No doubt, some oldtime retirees from the YHZ area took part in this move?
 
It was not until Sep 10th that Transport minister George Hees, donned a kilt of N.S tartan and, escorted by Ann Standish, a TCA stewardess, officially opened Halifax,s  new Airport Terminal. I cant identify the other girl. Perhaps an TCA agent?
Former AC VP and also former CEO of the airport, Bernie Miller, in an article in this newspaper insert, remembers his early days with TCA at Shearwater and the beautiful new Airport and terminal building at Kelly Lake.

What was it like for TCA in 1960?
A look at the flight schedule shows over 20 flights departing daily,
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/tc60/tc60-06.jpg

Most all First Class Viscounts and a few of the ageing North Stars along with two Super Connie flights a week overseas. No non stops to YYZ and all westbound flights via YUL.

What did it cost to fly from YHZ -one way  first class fares?
LHR $392 YQI - 12  YQY -16  YSJ -12  YUL - 41  YYZ -65
YSJ to YQI would only cost you pocket change at $8.00
Downtown Halifax to the airport was only $1.50

Richard P has sent us this promotional photo. 

Dave Townson has sent us some information regarding the photo of the B787 and two Spitfires published in NetLetter nr 1134 under "Odds" & Ends" -

That picture of the 787 in formation with two Spitfires represented a flypast of four Rolls-Royce engines.

referring to this paragraph in the article on the book "Earth Angels Rising"  "However, Stemson told the Leader he didn't find the infamous Nazi battleship before it was sunk in 1940 by Allied ships after it destroyed Britain's beloved battleship Hood". 

Dave points out that the Bismarck was sunk in 1941.

Regards, Dave.

John Caron has sent us this information -

In Issue 1135 of the NetLetter you published a series of five charcoal impressions done by British artist and painter Juliet Pannett. The sketches, according to the above mentioned NetLetter, were published in Air Canada's "Between Ourselves", Issue 325 - January 1969 and were done whilst she was a guest on AC Flight 857, DC-8 service LHR-YYZ. The impressions were of Captain Art Adamson, Navigation Officer Jerry Caron, Purser Ray Grenham and Stewardesses Kathy Gass and Lorraine Gore. As a former AC Navigation Officer, please be advised that Air Canada never had a "Jerry Caron" as a Navigation Officer. There was Gerry Chesley, based in YUL; Gerry Haynes and Jerry Rouselle both based in YVR and yours truly, John Caron, based in YYZ. Furthermore, upon checking my logbook, I have no record of operating an 857 flight in that time period and the likeness on the sketch of "Jerry Caron" does not resemble yours truly.

(We rechecked the "Between Ourselves" issue nr 325 and the information we published is as published in the magazine - we were just the messenger. Perhaps someone else could comment - eds) 

The "Mechanics dream" by Chas Freckleton we published under the Smileys in NetLetter nr 1137 evoked some memories by Chas himself -

Thank you for bringing back memories of that day long ago when I stood admiring the beautiful lines of a DC8!

I moved from Winnipeg to Montreal in the early 60's, working in Power Plant Test and Maintenance Training.

In 1968 I moved to Flight Operations Training in Montreal as a Flight Operations Instructor. I had the pleasure of meeting many of those "kings" during the years I spent instructing on the Vanguard, DC9 and L1011. In 1978 I moved to Toronto as Supervisor B747 and L1011 Ground Training. I subsequently retired in Toronto in 1993 as Manager Flight Operations Ground Training. I now live in Bolton, Ontario enjoying retirement with my wife Sheila.

Chas Freckleton.

In response to NetLetter nr 1137 and the article "Pilots check list" in "Alan's Space"

Jack Morath of the UK Pionairs has sent us some articles from the LHR Skyport newspaper July 9th 2010

A remote existence -
IT LOOKS like something out of a fairground, but this peculiar vehicle had a vital role to play at Heathrow in the 60s. It was one of several runway control vans (RCVs) that were parked near the end of the various active runways.

The idea was that the staff inside were a 'remote pair of eyes' for the main control tower (seen in the background on the right). They checked planes taking off for things such as flat tires or open hatches and made sure inbound aircraft were lined up for the correct runway and had their undercarriage down.

They also kept an eagle eye out for unauthorized vehicles or pedestrians on the runways - not an uncommon occurrence apparently, before the days of security fencing - as well as making weather checks and keeping records of aircraft movements.

The book Heathrow ATC the First 50 Years, mentions that Aldis lamps and Verey pistols (flare guns) were kept in the RCVs for use in extreme cases. The book states: "On one occasion a Verey was fired to deter a cyclist from crossing an active runway.
"The flare actually hit the bicycle and burned out, lodged in the wheel."

The RCVs often had to be driven to new positions in the days when planes were more susceptible to cross winds, meaning runway changes were more frequent. Sometimes staff had all the palaver of driving the vehicle to its new position, only to be told to move elsewhere again. Working a shift inside one could be a lonely business, akin to a railway worker on duty in a remote signal box, though there were occasional visits from patrolling police officers or other workers who had cause to be roaming the airport.