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Hugh MacCallum sent us this information in reference to the note from Norman Hogwood in NetLetter #1385. Regarding the PBY Canso or Catalina. During my continuing research for theperfectadventure.ca I found the following : An explanation is given for the 3 common names: the Americans initially knew it as a PBY P = Patrol B = Boat Y = Consolidated From everipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PBY_Catalina the explanation below: "In accordance with contemporary British naming practice of naming seaplanes after coastal port towns, Royal Canadian Air Force examples were named Canso, for the town of that name in Nova Scotia. The Royal Air Force used the name Catalina and the US Navy adopted this name in 1942". Those interested in Consolidated Aircraft Corporation's flying boat might like to read & view the following by David Legg at www.catalina.org.uk (Duxford, England). Also, www.catalina.org.uk/catalina-history by David Legg: UK Catalina Preservation Society, Duxford, England, there is a 53 minute documentary near the end of his article (not in colour and somewhat grainy; nevertheless informative). Best regards, Hugh |
| The following articles are personal memories of the recovery of Fin #813 from the "Cabbage Patch" near London in 1963. |
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Keith Rhodes received this e-mail from Dick Hovey who, in turn, received them from Helen Munson and passes them to our readers - I received this e-mail from Dick Hovey, retired power plant engineer, who runs a monthly luncheon in Montreal for retired engineers. Thought you might be interested, Keith. Helen Munson brought these photos yesterday. The gang thought the rest of you might be interested. The note to Slim is from a British Air Ministry chap, pics 1-9 air British Crown copyright, and the last is a BOAC photo.
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Reminiscences by Terry Baker from NetLetter #148 issue April 1997. One November evening, the 6th, in 1963, while watching the 'tele' at home, I got a phone call from my father. My father was a Chief Customs Officer at Heathrow, London England, and was the very first Customs officer after WWII when Heathrow was made 'commercial'. The subject of the call was “One of your DC-8's aborted within the last few minutes and crashed through the end of the runway - no injuries but I thought you would like to know before you see it on the 9 o'clock news”. Naturally I was stunned - our airline having such an incident. Well, that incident was the start of what you may call a career change - almost right angles for me. I was the Office Supervisor in the Purchases and Stores office under Tom Carr Hodgson. The next day, the whole office was atop the Queens building looking at the crash site which was at the end of the runway that ran parallel to the Bath Road and, in fact, ended up in a field of cabbages, hence the name 'Cabbage Patch'. Several days later, from our perch on top of the Queens building, we watched as the damaged aircraft was dragged, supported by large airbags, down the runway to the B.O.A.C. Maintenance complex and into one of their hangars. The B.O.A.C. Maintenance complex was one huge building with 4 bays separated by workshops and could house several Britannia and Comet aircraft at one time. Trans-Canada Air Lines - in those days - was obliged to insure the complete complex together with several aircraft and issue a 'hold harmless' clause to B.O.A.C. for the period of time that our DC-8 was being repaired. A team of approximately 50 mechanics was flown in from the Douglas plant headed by John Cook, known as 'Big John'. Danny Sweetman and Ted Rogers from Dorval were seconded to London for a period. My role was to arrange for shelving to completely surround the DC-8, on which the mechanics would place the various units removed from the aircraft. Those units declared unserviceable would be recorded and reordered from Dorval, while the unserviceable unit was shipped back to Dorval by Wally Evans and Ted Dean. All the time accurate records of the movements had to be kept as the area was declared a customs bonded zone to avoid duties on the various units. One highlight was the arrival of the under belly and wing panels in a huge aircraft (I believe it was a USAF Douglas C-124 Globemaster II) which was maneuvered around the various maintenance hangars, guided by a navigator who had his head out through the top of the aircraft, similar to a tank commander. This aircraft was huge. The day finally arrived when the aircraft did its test flights successfully and returned to service. Eventually, Fin 813 was lost at Ottawa during a training flight in May 1967.
Click the icon at left to see the full story from "Between Ourselves" magazine issue January 1964. |
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The recent articles in past NetLetters regarding the Bristol Freighter has prompted George Brien to share this memory - Maritime Central Airways received their Bristol Freighter in 1953. I am not sure if many on this site have ever been a passenger on this type aircraft. I was working as a Radio Operator in 1953 for a company building DEW line sites in northern Labrador and had to fly into the Saglek site on the northern coast. On the trip back to Goose, CF-FZU was waiting on the gravel strip and a couple of us climbed aboard and into the canvas seats along the wall. It looked like a cold and noisy ride. Take off was on a downhill incline, out and over an icy fjord. Although it was the last day in August, we flew through a snow squall on takeoff and could spot icebergs off the coasts Unfortunately, the aircraft crashed a few years later. George Brien |
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Guy Goodman sends this memory prompted by the article in NetLetter #1387 - Interesting stuff, as always fun to read. The piece on the June 1, 2009 inaugural flight from Montreal to Geneva caught my attention. I'm pretty sure Geneva was a so-called extension of the Montreal-Paris route in (guessing here) the mid-1980s. I have a vivid recollection of being on one of these flights on company business with my wife and being upgraded to First out of Paris. I fell asleep while still on the ground in CDG and stayed that way until back on the ground, in GVA. Meantime, so I was told, we had briefly been "escorted" by some Air Force fighters (can't remember which Air Force). Exciting, if only I'd been awake. Cheers to all. |
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In NetLetter #1387 we had a request from Leo Dana regarding the DC-10-10 on the YMX-AMS route. Ken Pickford gave an answer in the same NetLetter and we have received this information from Robert Barwick - A quick check of my logbook shows that I flew the DC10-10 on several flights YMX - AMS from February 5 to May 6, 1987. |
