The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
January 12, 2014 - Issue 1289
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First Issue published in October 1995!
(over 5,400 subscribers)
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NetLetter Past Issues
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Donation Information
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Send cheques payable to "ACFamily Network" to:
ACFamily Network
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Welcome to the NetLetter!
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! 
Terry Baker and the NetLetter Team
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| TCA/Air Canada People Gallery - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Below we have musings from the "Between Ourselves" and "Horizons" magazine, Air Canada publications from years gone by, as well as various in-house publications. The NetLetter has been fortunate enough to have our readers donate vintage Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada publications from as far back as 1941 to share with you. These have been scanned and are being prepared for presenting in a special area of the ACFamily Network for archival and genealogy research.
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Issue dated - November 1949
Some items gleaned from the "Between Ourselves" magazines.
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Here is a story written by "Keflavik" about itself -
My name is Keflavik Airport. I am on the southwest tip of Iceland and have made my home out of a lava field. I have good, long runways, cool air and fair winds for aircraft landing and taking off. Now and then I need a test and call out some snow and high winds to keep visitors from coming to see me, but, on the whole, I am very hospitable and seldom turn a visitor away because of my weather.
However, a little of my history might be in order so that you other TCA stations will know me better, I was born during the war, as were many other fields, and was then known as Mceks field. Since wars end, I have become a very important stopping place on the transatlantic routes. I have an excellent hotel and operations building added to me and also acquired my present name. During the year, my average temperature is 39 degrees above zero, higher than that of Montreal. In winter, the temperature seldom goes below 20 above. I feel that I have one of the finest working climates in the world.
Throughout the years that I have served TCA, many employees have been stationed here, or have visited me.
Those that I remember are Slim Munson. Petec Diorsonnens, Al Johnston, Bob Tribe, George Anthony, Ernie Hand, Davy Davidson, Bill Russel, Gordy Aitchison, Gus Campbell, Clarence Olivcr, AI Gallacher, Ken Crinkley, Johnny Lessard, Gerry Kiely, Ian Edwards, Ray Farmer, Stew Abrams, Dusty Miller, George Weller, Jim Allen and Tony Savatonio.
Some stayed only a short time and I am sorry that I didn't get to know them better. Allow me to say that your North Stars are by far my nicest visitors and, without a doubt, the easiest aircraft I have to accommodate.
KEFLAVIK.
 The Champs - Montreal's Sheet Metal Shop "Bombers'' , winners of the inter-departmental 6- team League softball championship.
Left to right standing are: A. Lockman, B. Kuchiran, I.McGilp, B.Price, R.Proulx, T.Humbrerstone, J. McIntosh.
Front row: K. Domaratzki, D.Todd, A. LeBlanc, G. Peck, L. Cool, T. Murray. |
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Issue dated - July 1978
Some items gleaned from the "Horizon" magazines.
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 Judy Cameron stood out in the crowd. In 1978, she was the only woman among the company's 1,500 pilots. Although her achievement was hard work, it wasn't quite the most difficult task she has mastered in her life. "The most physically demanding job I ever had was flying a DC-3 out of Inuvik," she says. Obtaining her flying experience wasn't easy either. She worked as a laborer in British Columbia, digging ditches and planting trees to make money to further her career. Coming into the company with the prescribed requirement of a commercial license, an instrument rating, a twin engine rating and sufficient flying hours (1,700 in her case), she also met physical and age qualifications.
At 24, Judy expected to be second officer on a B727 flight, (her first) out of Montreal on July 13th. Her uniform was a modified version of the men's navy blue suit with white shirt. About the only difference is that she wore a navy scarf instead of a tie and her hat was a jaunty navy felt with tiny brim.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
Request for information - Air Canada Accident on May 19, 1967
We have received an inquiry from Joanne Orr who is the granddaughter of Captain Donald Orr.
Joanne is seeking an official safety board conclusion as to the cause of the accident to the DC-8-54F (Fin 813) which went down on approach to Ottawa during a training flight from Montreal on May 19, 1967. Sadly, her grandfather, Captain Donald Orr, died in that crash and she never had a chance to meet him as she was born after the accident.
Her grandfather was one of only three on board. We have gathered what information we could find on the Internet below. If any of our readers have anything else to contribute, Joanne would appreciate any information be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(please copy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as well)
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| CF-TJM |
It seems there is limited information (available on the internet) regarding this accident. Below is what we have found so far for those interested in assisting.
Note: This is the same aircraft that crashed in London on November 6, 1963 four years earlier (cabbage patch) which was then repaired and placed back into service. This can add to the confusion of researching this accident. To further add to the confusion, there was another accident on November 29, 1963 of a DC-8 (FIN 814) (CF-TJN) that crashed 20 miles north of Montreal which killed all 118 people on board.
- Date of accident: May 19, 1967
- Aircraft Type: DC-8-54F
- Fin# 813
- Registration: CF-TJM
- MSN: 45653/178
- Flight Crew: Captain William Robinson, 46 (Flight Instructor), Captain Donald Orr, 46 and Captain Clark Henning, 48.
- Narrative: The DC-8 suddenly rolled to the right and struck the ground inverted while on approach
- Probable Cause: "Failure to abandon a training maneuver under conditions which precluded the availability of adequate flight control".
- There appears to be a 40 page report available from Transport Canada, but I couldn't find a way to order it or view it. (see Google Books link below)
- Unofficial Report from Pilot Forums
Air Canada (trainer) / 20May67 [TD shows 19th] DC-8F-54 CF-TJM accident at Ottawa. // 2-Eng Approach, Rudder Boost Off, Yaw/Roll/Dive upset, impacted inverted. \\ Very experienced instructor pilot (training a very experienced captain transitioning to DC8), attempted an approach with 2-Eng asymmetric thrust with Rudder in Manual mode (tab) [thus simulating three failures]. Control was lost when power added on #1 & 2 Engines late in approach, at an airspeed too slow for effective Rudder control. Concluded that a faulty check valve for rudder-boost was OFF then ON then closed again (at least 54 seconds prior to impact); faulty Check Valve (design deficiency induced wear pattern which allowed the poppet to stick OPEN in its reverse position), & improper installation of T-piece in Rudder hydraulic line). \\ P.C. = Failure to abandon training manoeuvre under conditions which precluded the availability of adequate flt control. \\ SOB= 3 crew, all killed. No CVR installed, good FDR ...
- Donald Orr was the Captain of the last cargo flight when the North Star retired from service on July 1, 1961. (from the North Star Chronicles www.projectnorthstar.ca )
- Captain Clark Henning's son was the famous magician, Doug Henning .
- Montreal Gazette Article - May 22, 1967
- Resources
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Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker
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 News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and its "ancestry" of contributing airlines. |
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Issue dated - November 1982
Items from the "CPAir NEWS" magazine -
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 The Jewish community's annual bazaar and trade fair in Regina is a major event attracting thousands of people, so our Regina staff set up a history display, passed out 1,500 chocolate cherries, and staged an Empress Class promotion.
From Left, a weary (but smiling) Tim Moreton and Deb Busch from the ticket office and Frank Van Gisbergen, airport services manager.
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 Minoru Akiya, res sales agent in Tokyo, shows off a big sea bass he caught while dragnet fishing.
From Left: Masae Kimura, res sales agent, Yasuko Tanuma secretary of the airport services manager, Reiko Izuml. res sales agent: and Kayoko Matsuoka, city ticket office agent.
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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.
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Marty Vanstone sends this information after reading about the airport codes the NetLetter nr 1287 -
You took all the fun out of OGG with the story behind its origins. The story I heard and had adopted because it was fun is as follows:
Many years ago, the juice industry in Maui developed a fruit mixture of passion fruit, orange and guava. It was very popular locally and became known as POGG. I can recall that collecting the bottle caps became quite a fad. Our kids were into it when they were there so it has to be 30 or 40 years ago.This is made more believable when you convert the IATA code of OGG to the ICAO code of POGG. What's the last G for? Well, guice of course, as in Passion, Orange, Guava, Guice.
Marty Vanstone
Ken Pickford has responded to the airport code information in NetLetter nr 1287 - Just a comment re the Kahului, Maui IATA airport code of OGG originating from Bertram Hogg. Coincidentally, the 4-letter ICAO code (used for operational and air traffic control purposes) is PHOG.
ICAO codes for airports in Hawaii and Alaska don't follow the practice for most other U.S. airports of adding the letter K to the IATA code, but rather begin with P, followed by H (for airports in Hawaii) and A (for airports in Alaska).
Examples:
Honolulu - IATA HNL, ICAO PHNL, Kahului - IATA OGG, ICAO PHOG, Kona - IATA KOA, ICAO PHKO, Anchorage - IATA ANC, ICAO PANC, Fairbanks - IATA FAI, ICAO PAFA, Juneau - IATA JNU, ICAO PAJN.
Apart from Hawaii and Alaska, many islands in the Pacific, mainly those that were (or still are) under U.S. administration, have ICAO codes beginning with P.
Examples:
Guam - IATA GUM, ICAO PGUM, Wake Island - IATA AWK, ICAO PWAK
Regards, Ken
 Robert Arnold sends us this information referring to NetLetter nr 1284 - I note the flight of the PWA 737 took about 15 minutes. What an incredible video.
This got me to thinking as to how long it took to fly our Viscount, CF-THS, about 95 kilometres from Gimli to Winnipeg back on September 17, 1983. Below is the final entry and closing remarks from the "Aircraft Journey Log". This was carefully filled out by Captains Jim Griffith and Gerry Norberg. Note the logged time was 30 minutes.
CF-THS was delivered to Trans-Canada Air Lines on February 1, 1958 and was retired from service by Air Canada on April 28, 1974. The aircraft stayed in Winnipeg till 1976 when it was flown to Dorval and then later to Cartierville. On September 1, 1982 it was purchased by two members of the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg.
Later in October 1982, it was flown to Gimli for short term storage. Here it stayed in storage until September 1983 when it once again took to the air and was flown to Winnipeg. From what I can find in the maintenance logs, the aircraft had a stellar career with the airline and served its passengers and crew well. On January 27, 2014 CF-THS will be 56 years old. Not a bad career for such a remarkable aircraft. An interesting little side note, CF-THS is the only complete and potentially flyable Viscount left in the world and it is right here in Canada as stated in the final notes, "Goodbye to a Damn fine Aircraft".
Regards, Robert |
Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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 Vic Rivers spotted this article in the Dallas News Business section dated January 2nd 2014 -
'American Airlines' employees will be able to travel for free in coach class on any flight in the worldwide network, the airline told them today in a company newsletter.
Elise Eberwein, American Airlines' executive vice president of people and communications (Courtesy of American Airlines Group Inc.)
The free flights are part of the carrier's new non-revenue flying program for employees. Fort Worth-based American merged with US Airways last month and together employ about 100,000 people.
The new program also will give employees' registered family members and parents unlimited travel privileges and they won't have to use buddy passes. Pre-merger American employees will no longer have to wait until age 55 for retiree travel if they meet the qualifications.
Starting this summer, the airline also will use American's boarding system for employees based on a flight's check-in time.
"While implementation will take some time, when complete, American Airlines will offer free coach travel across the largest and best network in the industry, improved pass privileges for family and friends, and a consistent boarding system," Elise Eberwein, American's executive vice president of people and communications, wrote in the newsletter. "With more than 6,700 daily flights to over 330 destinations, let's go!"
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GET YOUR PERX ON by calling us @ 800-200-7170. We're here M-F 8to8; Sat 9to5; Sun 9to2 (All Central Time) or 24/7@ www.perx.com
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 Another of your chief pilot, Terry's memorabilia - New and Old insignias of Air Canada and TCA.
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How staff travel has changed. At one time it was required to call the pass bureau to get a pass issued, later we were issued with blank airline tickets which we completed ourselves. and now, we just get on to the Employee Travel Service (ETS) web site and make our own reservations and then the boarding pass and even the baggage tags now.
Here are some examples of tickets used in the past.
 Issue June 1994, June 1996 and stopover coupon issue Oct 1998.
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 Issue May 1997, December 1998 and December 2000.
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 Issue August 2001 reissued after forming Star Alliance.
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 Family Affaire required the completion of PM002 validation form by the employee, and t423 was issued. Here we have both forms.
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| Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker |
As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.
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 Our cartoon is from the "Between Ourselves" magazine issued January 1956, contributed by F.G.Freeland. The caption "You heard what I said - one full fare and two halves".
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The NetLetter is an email newsletter published (usually) once a week 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 welcome your feedback 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!
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the NetLetter, see you next week!
Sincerely,
Your NetLetter Team
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Disclaimer: Please note, that neither the NetLetter or the ACFamily Network necessarily endorse any of the airline related or other "deals" that we provide for our readers. We would be interested in any feedback (good or bad) when using these companies though and will report the results here. We do not (normally) receive any compensation from any companies that we post in our newsletters. If we do receive a donation or other compensation, it will be indicated as a sponsored article or link.
E&OE - (errors and omissions excepted) - The historical information as well as any other information provided here is subject to correction and may have changed over time. We do publish corrections when they are brought to our attention.
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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
- Stewardess - Lisa Ruck, Brooklin, 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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