 The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
November 27, 2010 - Issue 1142
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First Issue published in October 1995!
(over 5,400 subscribers)
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| Greetings! |
We welcome you to allow the NetLetter to be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC, Wardair. etal. and share your experiences with us!
The NetLetter is an email newsletter published every weekend and contains a mixture of nostalgia, current news and travel tips. We encourage our readers to submit their stories, photos and/or comments from either days gone by or from present day experiences and trips. If we think that the rest of our readers will enjoy it, we will publish it here
We also This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in regard to anything we post here. Many readers have commented with additional information, names and personal memories from the photos and articles presented here.
The NetLetter, which is free, is open to anyone that wishes to subscribe but is targeted to retired employees from Air Canada, Canadian Airlines and all the other companies that were part of what Air Canada is today. Thanks for joining us!
Terry & your NetLetter Team
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| Our first 70 years - Compiled by Terry Baker |
1972 - April 30th - DC-9 service introduced to Victoria (YYJ).
May 26th - Last flight of the all-cargo Vanguard aircraft before fleet retired. Passenger Vanguard's were
retired in October 1971.
June 19th - 24 hour work stoppage by World airline pilots. |
| Remember when? - Compiled by Alan Rust |
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How's this for Nostalgia?
All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
It took three minutes for the TV to warm up?
You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?
Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
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| TCA/Air Canada People Gallery - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine an Air Canada publication from years gone by.
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Issue dated - June 1972
Musings from the "Horizons" magazines -
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 The jet age arrived at Victoria (YYJ) on April 30th with the commencement of the first scheduled DC-9 service between Victoria and Calgary. The daily service carries on the Regina and Winnipeg replacing the Viscount service which began in October 1970.
In the photo is Captain Frank Parker of Winnipeg, who brought the first DC-9 flight into Victoria is shown being welcomed by Manager Stan Mooney. In the background the left: Stewardesses Valerie Drysdale, Linda Flanagan, Marg Locking, and Beth Gislason; First Officer Richard Petersen of Winnipeg; and Customer Service Manager Al Wilson.
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 Under the headline "Boston goes nostalgic" tells the story of the 25th anniversary of the arrival of a TCA DC-3 CF-TDZ landing at Logan airport representing the first foreign flag carrier to serve Boston. |
 25 years later, Captain Art Crosby waves congratulations to Logan airport staff prior to departure of the Atlantic Provinces-bound anniversary Viscount aircraft CF-THO fin #633 c/n 275.
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 Members of the original Boston staff got together recently for a round of reminiscing when the Company marked 25 years of service to that city. Standing, from the left are: Keith Staples, Airport Customer Service Supervisor; Hank Anderson, Customer Service Manager; Dan DeGuerre, Public Relations Manager, New York; Teddy Chagnon, Passenger Agent; Doug Bertola, KLM, Montreal; Bert Young, Passenger Service Training Manager, Montreal. Seated, from the left: Charlie Fitzgerald, District Manager; Bob Corsiglia, Manager, Mail & Express Traffic, Montreal; Betty Kennedy (no longer with the Company); Leo Paquette, Sales Rep. and Don Richardson, MD Manager, U.S. Routes, Montreal.
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Issue dated - June 16th 1972
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 Good fellows to have around in an emergency are these Company employees who graduated recently from a St. John's Ambulance First Aid course at Halifax Maintenance Base. On the steps are, from the left: Rocky Jollimore, Harvey Matchett, Vic Penny, John Flynn, and Garnet Ramsey. Front row from the left are: Instructor Gerald Doucet, CNR Monc tori; Eric Jones, John Antonik, Orri Isoner, Wiltred Jordan, Don Leamon, Glen Ashley, Gordon Lucas, Ernie Hunter, Norm Teal, and L. Downes. Absent from the photo was G. Gould. |
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Issue dated - July 3rd 1972
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 A 24 hour work stoppage by the Worlds airline pilots on Monday June 19th. This included Air Canada pilots, as a result check-in counters were quiet, especially at Toronto International airport. Here we have a photo of such activity with Passenger Agents Fabro (foreground) and Linda Niedbala. |
| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
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| Alan Rust |
1,000th Dash 8/Q-Series Turboprop Celebration I received this from Sam Longo - Hello Alan, love your column. Thought you might enjoy this, nice retrospective on DH/Bombardier. I worked for DH as an Aircraft Mechanic from 1975-1978 before moving to Air Canada 1978-1988. Perhaps your readers might enjoy it. Best regards Sam Longo AME, A&PThanks Sam! I have included the video from YouTube below (click on image to play). I chose to capture the image of the Chipmunk below as it reminded me of when I worked at AMDU Trenton (circa 1970) "You bend 'em", we mend 'em" was our slogan. I wasn't there long, but I learned a lot. I remember being upside down in a Chipmunk that we were overhauling and trying to lockwire a turnbuckle for a flight control. I was very new to aviation and it took me three times to pass inspection. The RCAF used them for trainers.
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Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker |
 News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and it's "ancestry" of contributing airlines. |
Issue dated - December 1999
Extracts from the "Canadi>n Flyer" magazine.
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 Japan staff celebrated 50 years of service to the Asian country. Here we have this photo of the staff at Narita and Nagoya Airports. This of the Narita staff.
Left to right: front row: Ikemura Takako, Muto Tamiji, Hasegawa Rumika, (back row): Kazuo Suzuki, Akihisa Masuda, Takahiro Mitsumaru, Seiichi Tanaka.
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 And here we have the staff at the Nagoya event.
Left to right front row: Michiya Koshita, Emiko Sashida, Takane Kaneka, Bill Nakayama, Kan Niwa, Centre row: Toshiko Shibata, Akiko Takahashi, Back row: Toshitsuga Sagara, Hiroko Igari, Naoaki Deki, Takehiko Kurihara, Atushi Mitsumoto, Minoru Akiya, Aki Kumagai, Masashi Aota
(We are sorry that FOD seems to have appeared on the photo. This was on the original - eds)
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 Hawaii staff also celebrated 50 years of service by Canadian and its processor carriers by holding a luau on November 10th. Over 190 active and retired and former employees attended the event. Nearly half of the guests were from Canada.
Unfortunately we only have two photos. Andrew Geider on the left and Richard Tendo on the right managed to snare Michele Kaplan who is Miss Hawaii USA 2000 (nice catch guys - eds)
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 Now the other photo has a group of five, but they are unidentified - anyone help here. |
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Issue dated - December 1998
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 Under the banner "We are family", is the article about the Bereras family. Here we have this photo of Marco Berera a 20 year plus veteran is joined by his sons Christopher in the centre and Kevin on the right. Marrco is hoping his eldest son Derria will follow suit. |
 Another "family" are Chicoine mother and daughter duo. Natalie on the left with Lise. They work in YYZ and commute to YUL each weekend. |
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 And finally in the "family" category is Brian Smith in the centre who has worked in Resolute Bay with the PWA Hercules Operations, but the majority of his career was in YEG. Here we have this photo of the group.
Left to right: (Brandee Smith daughter), Mike Henderson, Brian Smith, Brad Smith (son) and Shauna. Brandee was planning on obtaining her private pilot's license working towards her commercial license.
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| Reader's Feedback - Compiled by Terry Baker |
Every week we ask our readers for their stories or feedback on what they have read here in previous issues. Below is the feedback we have received recently.
Jack Stephens sends this memory after reading the article in NetLetter nr 1141 regarding the Dart engine -
How well I recall the Dart fuel pump, flow control unit and the Rotol prop governor time between overhauls increasing at a steady rate too. The prop governors would come in for periodic checks and often this simply meant, changing the rubber seals, and inspecting for wear. After cleaning and test, the units were quickly put back into service.
'till next time...Jack
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 Ian Rennie has sent us this information, with a request for some identities -
:l have a group picture of guys and gals taken in Moncton NB around 1948/49.
Most of us worked as radio operators or teletype operators for ARCAN Radio (aeronautical radio of Canada) Operated by TCA on behalf of the DOT (now MOT) providing point to point and air to ground radio communications for all airlines operating over the North Atlantic It was all done with morse code radio messages as at this point in time low flying aircraft were not pressurized and radio telephone would not provide coverage. All flights carried a radio operator and a navigator. There were listening stations in Moncton, Montreal, Goose Bay, Gander, Shannon, London, Prestwick, Paris. Keflavick, Azores and New York. The off shore listening posts were of course provided by that particular country.
We passed Oceanic Air Traffic control clearances, load, weather, fuel, position reports and sundry company information messages for all carriers. Canadian Gov't Transatlantic Air Services was the forerunner of all of this. But enough already. The picture also includes people that worked for TCA domestic operations. I cant give you a list of names other than me and Wilma Atkinson on the far right. Most may have passed on by now but I would sure like to learn if any remember the good old days. Ian Rennie |
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Don Johnson has sent us his comments to the article we had in NetLetter nr 1141 and the million pound payload IL76 -
Like many of the things you find on the 'net, they turn out to be inaccurate.
Wikipedia shows the payload of the IL 76 to be about 45 tons or 90,000 lbs. or about a 10th of what the article claims. To put it in perspective, when I flew them, a fully loaded B747-400 was approximately 875,000 lbs. but of course that was not "payload". The newest version has a `payload` of 248,600 lbs.
The Airbus 380 ( payload 330,000 lbs.), the USAF Galaxy (payload 270,00 lbs.) and Antonov 225 (payload 550,000 lbs.) are all aircraft considerably larger than the IL 76.
The IL 76 in the video looks like it may have been heavily loaded but at a million lbs. it would have become a permanent fixture at the loading dock.
Captain Don Johnson, retired
L Grant Wilson, all the way from Dubai, UAE sends us his observation regarding the IL-76 in NetLetter nr 1141 -
Guys,
Re: Your Odds & Ends item in this NetLetter on the "Russian IL-76 cargo plane...... payload 1 million pounds!!!!"
I believe the payload was more like 40 Tonnes.
Brgds, LGW L. Grant Wilson Dubai, UAE
Vic Rivers has his say -
I think that the payload of "1 million pound" for the IL-76 is wildly incorrect. MTOW is in the order of 420,000 lbs and max payload about 110,000 lbs depending on the variant.
Vic Rivers
Ferg Kyle has this information on the same subject -
That was a grand message video of the heavily-loaded IL-76 Candid taking off from an Aussie airfield and I can only assume they used the whole length on purpose - but I don't think it was a surprise to the crew. One thing grabbed me: Somewhere it was remarked that it was a Million Pound takeoff. I don't think so.
The weight specification in my latest book shows less the 375,000 pounds, and the latest version of the machine is 384,000 pounds.
It's be a true hero to treble the weight......... but a dead one.
Ferg Kyle |
Odds & Ends - Compiled by Terry Baker
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 Sometimes we receive articles and information that just doesn't fit in our other areas. This is where it goes! Jack Morath of the LHR PIonairs has saved us another episode from the Skyport LHR newspaper issued June 2010 - THROUGH the gloom of a misty February morning in 1963 lumbered a huge and slightly sinister shape. It was a Tupolev Tu-114, the largest propeller-powered plane ever built. The fact that this was a Russian aircraft - based on a Soviet bomber - and that this was the height of the Cold War, added to the chill of that grey day 47 years ago.
Among those there to watch its much-anticipated debut at Heathrow was Hugh Evans, who was working at that time for BOAC.
He said: "I had attended a meeting of the aviation historical society Air-Britain in Holborn in 1963, where the guest speaker was the Aeroflot London manager. There was some discussion about one of their Tu-114s visiting Heathrow in the near future and I was invited to attend the event. "Being uniformed BOAC staff at the time, I had little trouble gaining access to the apron accompanied by the Aeroflot station manager. "After waiting for what seemed ages, CCCP 76481 landed on runway 28L, the sound of its contra-rotating props being unlike anything else that operated into LHR]'
Hugh recalls the Tupolev gradually appeared out of the murk and taxied on to the open apron between the original Terminal 1 and the south wing of Terminal 3 "There were no piers or gangways there, so a BEA vehicle with a modified set of aircraft steps was gingerly positioned against the open door of this enormous aircraft," he added.  "While this was going on I walked about underneath taking a set of photographs, but I wasn't able to go on board."
Hugh, now better known in the area for his work with the British Trust for Ornithology, has kindly supplied us with this selection of photos taken on that memorable morning.
Vern Swerdfeger points us to another interesting web site -
A 5 minute film about the Princess flying boat, In 1945, British Overseas Airways Corp (BOAC) planned to use this aircraft for transatlantic passenger service.
Pay close attention and you will see a Canadian Pacific Comet at the Farnborough Air Show..
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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| Terry Baker |
Vern Swerdfeger sends this timely cartoon for us to snigger over -
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Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker
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As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.
We have this story from the internet which you may enjoy -
Old Pilots Never Die, they can stick around for years
Don't Try This at Home
Our drop mission was weather dependent. It required smooth conditions in a layer up to 1500 ft above ground, to stay below radar, with at least a minimum off-shore breeze of 10 Kt. The drop had to be done half an hour before sunset in cloudless, though not necessarily clear conditions. In fact a little obscuring haze up-sun would help the stealth nature of the task.
We had to be back on the ground before total darkness. There was every reason to expect our conspiracy could be carried out under the noses of the authorities without our true intentions ever being detected.
It wouldn't take much fuel. Twenty minutes to the target area, ten minutes on a straight run half a mile out over the lake at 1000 ft above the water, parallel to the shoreline and twenty five minutes return flight would put us back just before official darkness. The lake was to the west of the airport and our only chance of being noticed doing anything unusual was the curiosity of drivers on the heavily traveled six lane highway which ran north-south along the lakeshore. We needed the setting sun behind us to blind any drivers who might take notice of anything odd taking place out over the lake.
Circumstances afforded us only a three day window of opportunity to carry out our proposed task. The May long weekend was the only time the aircraft, I and my partner-in-crime would be able to rendezvous for the mission. After that other arrangements would have to be made. There was no plan B.
For two frustrating days we waited for just the right conditions. Providentially at last the weather gods and perhaps even other gods smiled on us. A high pressure area settled in late on Saturday afternoon bringing with it a light southerly return flow of smog. The hot sun beating down mercilessly in calm conditions on Sunday, our last available day, had produced a text book sea-breeze in the afternoon changing to a land-breeze just before the sun started to set. The perfect weather change seemed to add a special benediction to our mission.
The tired old aircraft squatted forlornly on the ramp of the deserted airport as the end of the day approached, looking a little lop sided from too many hard cross wind landings. I did the walk around while my crewman adjusted his mission-specific, self-designed equipment inside the crowded cabin. It had taken many days of discussion and research to plan the complicated array of plastic pipes and containers. We had studied the many failures of others. Death had been the reward of some pilots who had dared to tempt fate in such a well intentioned, sacred endeavor. These were my thoughts as I rotated the aircraft into a blazing red sun setting ever lower on the horizon as I took off on runway 28.
It had all started in January when my friend and flying partner had suddenly taken a turn for the worse in the course of his debilitating disease and unexpectedly died. We were two old farts who had pooled our financial resources to allow us both to continue flying into our dotage. It meant we could log two hours of our shared passion for the price of one with the additional advantage that if one of us screwed up the other could probably pull the fat out of the fire.
My research on the internet confirmed what I had heard from an airline pilot years ago who had learned the hard way, that the biggest problem of trying to spread ashes from an aircraft in flight was that inevitably the ashes back washed into the aircraft cockpit and cabin. At the very least the ashes make a mess of the cabin with lingering ash bits that adhere like Velcro and are impossible to vacuum up. It has been known for plane owners to find ash still clinging stubbornly to cabin fixtures especially carpets, even years later!
(We will conclude this next time - eds)
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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the NetLetter, see you next week!
Sincerely,
Your NetLetter Team
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First published in October, 1995
- Chief Pilot - Terry Baker, Nanaimo, B.C.
- Co-pilot - Alan Rust, Surrey, B.C.
- Flight Engineer - Bill Rowsell, Londesboro, Ontario
To contact us, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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