The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
July 14, 2014 - Issue 1303
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First Issue published in October 1995!
(over 5,400 subscribers)
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Donation Information
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Send cheques payable to "ACFamily Network" to:
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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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| Star Alliance News |
 United Airlines is altering its Mileage Plus frequent flyer program to reward miles based on ticket price rather than distance flown. The new structure will take effect March 1, 2015. United follows Delta Air Lines, which in February became the first major international US legacy airline to announce a shift in its loyalty program to reward dollars spent rather than miles flown. Delta's new frequent flyer structure will take effect Jan. 1, 2015. The integration teams at Air India, Star Alliance and its member carriers will now complete the last necessary work in order to ensure that Air India can offer all Star Alliance customer benefits from July 11, 2014 onwards. |
| Air Canada News |
 Service Toronto- Milan flights inaugurated June 18th 2014. |
| Reader Submitted Photos - Compiled by Terry Baker |
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 Reader Submitted Photos - The photos and information below have been submitted to us by our faithful readers.
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 Norman Hogwood in New Zealand sent us this information -
A postcard shot! National Airways Corporation first Boeing 737-219 ZK-NAC (19929) as seen during an air-to-air photo shoot in 1975.
ZK-NAC "Piripiri" was delivered new to NAC in August 1968. It was sold to ILFC in 1986 and became N321XV with Presidential Airways, then to American West Airlines, Copa Airlines, Inter-Canadien and Olympic Airlines before finally being broken up at Mohave in 1992.
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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 - September 1958
Some items gleaned from the "Between Ourselves" magazines.
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 The B.C. Lions loss was TCA's gain when Glenda Sjabarg, Miss B.C.Lions for 1955 graduated as a TCA stewardess. Glenda missed her change to root for the home team when, after graduation, she was posted to Toronto just hours before the Lions were due to play an exhibition game.
Here we have this photo of Glenda with a model of a Viscount aircraft CF-TGI.
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Issue dated - December 1978
Some items gleaned from the "Horizons" magazines.
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New Airline takes off.
Born on January 1st 1978, Ontario World Air was Canada's newest airline. Not only was it the country's youngest carrier. "it's going to be Canada's best airline," says one eager employee. The international charter carrier's first flight was scheduled to lake off from Toronto bound for Montego Bay on December 1st using its sole Boeing 707. Among the fledgling airline's staff of 45 are several familiar faces from Air Canada.
President Jim McLean left the company as Vice President, Customer Service. Taking up the position of Vice President, Technical Service was "Baldy" Torell who retired from Air Canada in the spring of 1978 as Director, Facilities & Equipment. Retired captains Wendy Reid and Bob Penrose were pilots for Ontario World Air. Air Canada was providing ground service for the carrier which was to operate out of Toronto's Terminal II.
(We could not find any information regarding this enterprise, which seems to have gone the way of the dodo - eds)
 Bermuda seminar
Four company employees attended a sales seminar at the Bermudiana Hotel in Bermuda. Shown digesting a talk on the hotel's popular Passport package tours are. from the left: Elayne Appt, Passenger Agent, Halifax; Brian ''Donnie'' Murphy, Flight Service Director, Toronto; Sandray Mitchel, Passenger Agent, Toronto; Toby Dillas, Executive Assistant Manager of the Bermudiana and Ken Trider, Passenger Agent, Halifax.
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 The headline was "Soccer goes international".
The fact that North America is experiencing a soccer boom is hardly a secret. What may be less well known is that the explosion is having in the airline industry and if a group of dedicated company enthusiasts in Vancouver had its way, it would be on the road to an interline "World Cup" competition. In 1978, the Vancouver team defeated a visiting Japan Air Lines team after sending the Qantas team down to defeat. The company team is shown prior to defeating Japan Air Lines. In the photo are: John Lowe, Jimmy Fitzgerald. Dave Groat. Graham Wood. Tommy Millord. Frank Koerner, Jim McLees. Peter Hance. Walter Low, Bernie Allardyce, AI Northcott and Lionel Gock.
(It seems their dream came true. Under the auspices of the World Airlines Clubs Association (WACA) as it seems the "World Airlines Football Cup" was, this year, sponsored by the Interline Club of Portugal and held at Beja, Portugal during March of 2014. and was the 33rd annual event. - eds)
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
Paragliding!
Very high quality videos of Jean-Baptiste Chandelier paragliding all over the world. He makes it look so easy and kind of makes you think that you might be able to do this as well without too much trouble or training.
If you're thinking that way, watch the second video before you take wing.
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Urban Side - Jean-Baptiste Chandelier
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| Paragliding Bloopers and Crashes |
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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. |
Here are some photos from the "PWA Flightlines" magazine
issued July 1985
 From the left are Lee Anne Gerde-Lanz Rick Lichtenwald Geri Laurence and Brent Prystupa at a staff meeting in Regina - 1985
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 Customer Service Agent Ron Morton and Sales Manager Sheldon Page after boarding the passengers on the Regina - Toronto inaugural flight - 1985.
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 Customer Service Agents Barb Fraser and Allan Ball are keeping up to date with PWA bulletins.
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 Customer Service Agent Lee Anne Gerde-Lanz is shown in the PWA Regina back office in 1985 checking out the flights - for her vacation perhaps!
Help wanted...
I am trying to find out some information on Ron McNeilly (my father in law) a senior captain for CPA. At the time of his retirement (mid 80's) he was a check pilot and #2 man in the company as I understand, but I can't seem to find any information on him.
Can you assist or recommend anything? I have already reached out to the CPA website via email and am awaiting a response. Your help in this project would be much appreciated!
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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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. Roger Slauenwhite has sent this response to the appeal by Neil Taylor in NetLetter nr 1301. This information may be of interest to our readers. I have pertinent info on the TCA/Air Canada Vanguard, in a Press Kit 54 years ago from Montreal. FYI in my info it states the A/C has interior mood lighting. Now 54 years later the 787 has a new feature for pax comfort called mood lighting. Interesting, but different manufacturers . What goes around comes around! Roger Slauenwhite
In NetLetter nr 1302, Jim Griffith suggested to the W.C.A.M. a unique method to collect the tickets for the recent "Show" on the Viscount, and he shares this memory with us - Back in the Viscount days flight crews got to know the air-side, ground staff on a first name basis, especially at the smaller stations that they regularly flew into. It's small wonder then, that ground crews were often co-opted into some of the high jinks. Sometimes the pilots, when boarding an originating flight, would find mini-skirted flight attendants tucked up in the overhead baggage racks. In the bad old days, aircraft designers and operators for some reason failed to understand that items of carry-on baggage could become deadly, misguided missiles in turbulence. So the baggage racks were built like the ones on buses, with no doors to keep the stuff contained. A Viscount baggage rack could hold several average sized flight attendants whether well-endowed or not, quite handily. Imagine the surprise of the first boarding passenger when an elegant hand reached down from seemingly nowhere to take the boarding pass. The pilots, enthusiastically aroused with the thrill of having to get them down, never really concerned themselves about how the flight attendants got up there in the first place. It was never recorded if a male flight attendant was ever put in a Viscount overhead rack or if the pilots or indeed anyone else ever helped one down. Now, thinking about it, how did those ladies get up there anyway, who put them there how and why? (Many years ago, we, at the NetLetter, had heard from a retired stewardesse who had been being hoisted into the luggage rack while serving on a Viscount with the Montreal hockey team as passengers. - eds)When we received this story from Jim, we asked if we may print it, and he sent this reply - "Oh Yes, it's absolutely true. We'd find them up there all the time. There were one or two of them who'd stay up there... and take boarding passes. Flying the prairies on Viscounts was a bit like the stuff that Southwest Airlines and West Jet are now famous for. Lots of joking on the PA and with the passengers. At the time, if they were found out, they'd be threatened with dismissal. I guess we were a little before our time". I wish I was going to be in Winnipeg for that play in the Viscount. I sent that quip to the person at the WCAM who is in charge of it. I also tried to find out the nature of the play's script but wasn't able to. But what a terrific idea. Who'd have thought a play about a flight inside an airplane.
Betty Draper found this article in the Leader-Post dated June 1st, 1943 OTTAWA. June 1st.-The main line service of Trans-Canada Air Lines will be extended to Victoria starting next Sunday, instead of terminating at Vancouver, it was announced Tuesday. Trans-Canada Air Lines made claim for the first time to having the longest trans-continental route In North America - 3,911 miles from St. John's, Nfld. to Victoria. The statement said that there important military and other establishments on Vancouver island in addition to the governmental and commercial activities of the B.C. capital.
Dave Rowlandson has sent these comments regarding the article "Women are better pilots?" in NetLetter nr 1298 - Interesting set of facts that have very little merit if you just read through what you have written. Women in WWII were in Ferry command ... so if you are comparing ferrying a Spitfire to let's say dogfighting... yes they probably had fewer accidents. Likewise for the guys that were sitting in 200 plane formations trying to hold positions while all hell was going on around them. As to Helicopters... well just imagine flying into a hot LZ. I have no doubt that there are great women pilots, but come on... saying that it is no surprise women are safer car drivers. Military flying isn't about flying safe. The airplane is the tool... the mission is what's important and sometimes safe isn't part of the equation. Never was, never will be unless of course you are some nig nog bean counter General. D Rowlandson |
Odds and Ends.
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 Sometimes we receive articles and information that just doesn't fit in our other areas. This is where it goes!
The only two flying examples of the De Havilland Mosquito flew on the same day in the same country last week, albeit 2,500 miles apart. A newly restored Mosquito took its first flight, with Reno race pilot Steve Hinton at the controls, June 16th, 2014 at Victoria International Airport, B.C. Canada. The same day a Mosquito owned by Jerry Yagen's Fighter Factory in Virginia Beach took off for home from Hamilton International Airport in Ontario after performing at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's night airshow the previous weekend. Ironically, both aircraft were recovered from the same British Columbia boneyard owned by Ed Zalesky before taking divergent routes back to the air.
Jack Morath in London UK, has sent us a link to this Youtube video for those who remember Heathrow (LHR) in 1964 which may bring back memories.
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| Look at Life - City of the air 1964 |
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 Early photo of Vancouver Airport. Sent to us by Doug Robinson.
The airport underwent continued expansion, and in 1957 added a new control tower to its facilities.
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 Betty Draper came across this article in "The Leader-Post - Jun 10, 1938" during her research on another project and thought our readers would be interested -
Biggest plane ready to span biggest oceans.
Launched in the Dumawish river at Seattle, the giant Atlantic Clipper dwarfs small boats floating nearby and gives spectators a graphic show of her tremendous size. Built by Boeing for Pan American Airways, the ship may be put into service this summer over either the Atlantic or Pacific and will then be the largest plane flying on any of the world's air routes. The 72 passenger "flying hotel" built at a cost of more than us$1,000,000, will sleep 40. The ship has a height of 284 feet, wing span of 152 feet and length of 109 feet.
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 David and Diane Bellamy found this on the internet and sent it to us -
In the early days of commercial flight, when a transatlantic plane trip could take you 20 hours, there wasn't much to do but read, nap, and eat. There was no in-flight movie to stare at and try to lip read because you refused to purchase headphones. You could look at the clouds, I guess.
To keep passengers entertained, airlines copied other modes of transportation-trains, boats-and turned to food. It was not uncommon, in the post-World War II era, to be served a multi-course meal on a flight. A fancy one, too. We're talking carved roast beef, lobster, prime rib. Real glassware, not those plastic cups filled with those ice cubes that have inexplicable holes that we get now. Airlines were falling all over each other trying to offer special dining experiences to passengers.
"The other entertainment was, of course, to drink," says Guillaume de Syon, a professor of history at Albright College who has researched the history of airline food. "These propeller aircraft were not always very reliable. If (passengers) knew they'd have to land in Reykjavik to have the engine checked, they'd be happy because they knew they could stock up on booze. It was not uncommon to have passengers come off transatlantic flights completely drunk."
As flying got cheaper and easier, these airborne booze-hounds soon found themselves with more company in the cabin, and airlines found themselves with more mouths to feed, making that level of fine dining unsustainable. Check the url below for more information -
www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/the-evolution-of-airplane-food/371076
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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This poem of complaint is from the "PWA Flightlines" magazine issued June 1985. PWA did respond and we will print it in NetLetter nr 1304
The complaint PWA flight #802
I was more than conscientious
In checking out my flight,
Being quite assured
I'd fly out 7:10 tonight.
Arriving at the airport
I was told there what to do,
"Gate four to board the buses
For Abbotsford at 6:42."
i waited for those buses
Till the clock read 8:15
My stomach now was empty
My face was turning green.
i asked "Where are the buses
I'm losing one whole day,?"
i was told 'They'll be here shortly
Don't wander far away".
Finally we boarded
The bus at 10:15
And started out for Abbotsford
To make the Reno scene
At Abbotsford we pulled in
The driver left his seat,
And was gone for twenty minutes
We were hoping we could eat.
He returned and told us nothing
Frustration we all felt,
Hunger pains were setting in
So I tightened up my belt.
We moved towards the aircraft
And waited there again,
With disbelief I checked my watch
The time was now 12:10.
12:35 we boarded
At last we're on our way,
But another snag had popped up
No fuel I heard them say.
"The fuel will be here shortly
And we'll be moving out'',
''Why not feed us while we're waiting''?
I heard somebody shout.
''We can't feed you all at this time
Cause when the fuel gets here,
We'll take off in a hurry
And t'would be unsafe I fear.
Finally we took off
Now it's after two,
I'd have eaten hemlock sawdust
After all I'd waited through.
So should I get inquiries
'Bout flying The Competition,
I certainly would not hesitate
To pass on this submission.
So on future travels
Just one point I make
Get some information
And try to communicate.
(Anonymous passenger)
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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 by J.London dated Nov 21st 1978 appeared in the "Horizons" magazine issued December 1978.
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 Vern Swerdfeger has sent us some photos of English Pub adverts. Here is one.
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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
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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