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Frequent contributor to The NetLetter, Mike Nash of Prince George, British Columbia kindly sent us the following comment after we assisted in connecting him with former colleague and fellow subscriber, Patrick Leung. "This sort of thing is one of the many side-benefits of the work that you guys are doing with The NetLetter and, incidentally, one of the rewards for subscribers who choose to contribute articles. It was through The NetLetter, several years ago, that I discovered and connected with FoFS (Friends of Front Street) after I was contacted by an old Texas colleague from the Network Controller project from the 1970’s after you had published something else that I had written. FoFS is a retirement group from my old office at 151 Front Street West in Toronto, and they meet for a reunion afternoon near Pearson Airport every fall. This is something that I haven’t yet managed to physically attend for obvious logistical reasons, but I have enjoyed the reconnections, correspondence and seeing photos from the events. When you are inviting submissions to The NetLetter, you could mention the possible side benefit of reconnecting with long ago colleagues as an enticement. Thanks again for your work! Mike Editors' Note: Obviously, we fully agree with Mike's comments. It is always rewarding when we can bring people together. The NetLetter Team. |
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Vic Bentley comments on the B-767 flight story by Mike Ronan in NetLetter # 1474 - From the newsletter: ... "The longest scheduled nonstop flight by an Air Canada B-767 was Toronto to Tokyo, which lasted 13:45 hours and covered 10,324 kilometres.” I flew this route numerous time on the DC-10 with Canadian. Most flights were 12+ hours, but one was 13:31 with 132 passengers. Distance 5735 nm (10,620 km) and we went 100 nm south of Inuvik and as far north as 67 degrees. One bizarre briefing item for this trip with the DC-10 (probably true of other big jets, too) was the situation of unexpected head winds causing reduced fuel reserves at destination. In this case it was necessary to make an enroute stop at Anchorage or Fairbanks. But, the aircraft would be overweight for landing, meaning that a fuel dump down to landing weight was required. So you would have to dump fuel so that you could land and take on more fuel!! Go figure… Seasons Greetings, Vic |
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Darryl Danner comments on the DC-9 flight - Reading a recent article in NetLetter #1475 about Mike Ronan’s DC-9 Long Range Flight from Vancouver to Toronto triggered a similar memory of an even longer flight. On December 1, 1987, Earl Cummings and myself were tasked to fly a DC-9 ferry flight from Vancouver to Montreal during an Air Canada pilot strike. (we were management pilots at the time). With full tanks we were initially filed YVR-YWG, but overhead Regina, we reworked the fuel required and found that we could make Montreal. My log book shows the trip total of 2.5 hours of day flying and 2.6 of night for a total of 5.1 hours (5 hours and 6 minutes). Darryl Danner, 12,509 hours and 25 years on the DC-9 and loved every minute. |
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Retired Captain Ken Jones remembers Fin #601. I was surprised to see the story, ‘A story of a stripper!', in NetLetter #1475. I had a history with this aircraft, B-767-200 C-GAUB Fin# 601. On the morning of December 7, 1991, I was the captain on Flight 791-7 (YYZ-LAX) when the left engine’s gear box failed at V1 (130kts). We did a successful rejected take-off and returned to the gate, changed aircraft and were on our way with only a one hour delay. Those were the days when the captain could give complimentary drinks to all on board because of the delay. Air Canada also authorized giving out an extra free travel prize as part of a promotion at the time. Those were the days. My experience with Fin #601 still continued when on January 15, 2019 I received a e-mail from Mark Palser on behalf of ACPA (Air Canada Pilot’s Association) forwarding a letter they had received from a passenger, Mike McGrath commending on that flight that had occurred 28 years prior. Not knowing how to handle this PR situation I phoned Mr. McGrath to thank him for his kind words and still correspond with him every Christmas. My understanding is Fin #601 had now been broken up for scrap, a sad ending for a good friend. Ken Jones, Captain retired |
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C-GAUB - Fin # 601 - Air Canada's first B-767, delivered October 30, 1982, was the 16th B-767 built. Pictured here in its original livery, July 14, 1984 at Toronto Photo by Andrew Thomas @ commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File |
