~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 124 date February 15th 1997 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . Welcome to Don Demeza, presently living in Belleville, Ont and can be emailed at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Don is a radio ham with call sign VE3AZV. Leslie Trask, presently in the Arab Emirates retired after 26 years can be emailed at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Leslie is the first retiree on our ever expanding mailing list to reside off the North American continent! In case you are trying to contact Brian Hotel, whom we welcomed in Netletter nr 123, we goofed! His email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Sorry Brian, but it probably kept the creditors away for a day! ~-=o0o=-~ . In Netletter nr 119 we welcomed Helene Seiz. This is a short bio from Julio Seiz - My name is Julio Seiz and I am the Pionair. Helene Seiz is my daughter and she is a young woman still very much in the work force. I joined Trans Canada Airlines on March 1966, the same year of the name change to Air Canada, to work as a Mechanical Design Draftsman in the Ground Support Equipment Engineering at the Dorval Base. The Chief Draftsman was Frank Vann and our Director was "Baldy" Torrel. I moved to Pierrefonds on September of the same year and one member of our car pool was a young telecomm engineer, Pierre Jeanniot, who did not have a car and was always late leaving work. We dumped him!. My main job was to design jigs and tools for the shops under the guidance of Vi Martens. A small group of us was selected and relocated to work at Place Ville Marie in 1970 under Alex Soroka as our Manager, working for Customer Service until we were assigned to the Architect Office, run by Mr.Sellors. My main work consisted of design and implementation of modifications to ground support equipment. Jim Donaldson joined us there and in 1974 we were back at Dorval as the Facilities Design Branch. My Manager at the time was Frank Bogert and later Dennis Migdley. Our Director was Jim Donaldson. By now I was a Senior Technician and included in my work load were the passenger loading bridges, with Paul Cooper and later Bill Nagy. My main accomplishments were, the design and implementation of hydraulic systems on the DC8 towbar, the design, standardization and implementation of stopbars for all type of aircraft as well as coordination of aircraft docking systems and coordination of translating into French of all operating instructions of bridges, mobile and fixed ground support equipment. After these activities I became a Facilities Programs Manager and my work load changed. Julio can be emailed via his daughter This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Thanks for the memories Julio, we are sure some of our readers will remember some of the names you mentioned - we do! - eds) ~-=o0o=-~ . George Brien sends us these memories of Dec 1953 circa - Hi folks, I used to think the "old days" were long ago but my grandchildren tell me that I lived in those days, so here's some of my recollections of pre TCA days. My twin brother and I had both graduated from "Radio School" in YSJ (and were undecided on whether to go to sea and "see the world" or stay on land). A relief trip as "Radio Officer " on the "Gypsum King" out of Hantsports NS to PHL and return soon made me realize that going to sea was not as exotic as it seemed. A call from the Dept of Transport in YUL offering a job for us both in Aviation sounded good, so at the age of 18, we left the farm and headed up to the big city via a TCA DC3. We arrived at the Domestic terminal at Dorval, and the OIC kindly showed us how to get over to the "Mercroft Hotel" which was where most of the single people stayed. A few other people who I knew from Radio School were also staying there along with a few TCA Radio Operators and mechanics. The first job and being in the "big City" was pretty exciting and we started out in training over at the Domestic terminal. We trained on the various radio circuits, which included Northeast Airlines, Colonial Airlines, and CP. Northeast served YUL/BOS and all points in between, mostly places like Burlington/Plattsburg /Montpelier/White River Junction/Bangor/ etc.etc using DC3's while Colonial flew YUL/NYC/BDA and upper NY State/ SYR/ROC/ALB using DC6's and Convairs. CP at that time had DC3 routes YUL/YQB/YBG/YBC/YZV/YYY/ etc. and YUL/YVO/YUY/YYB/YXR/YQA/YYZ. The other circuits provided communications to itinerant/charter aircraft plus twice hourly weather broadcasts. Some communications had to be made by Morse code. After a couple of months, we were transferred to the International side which handled the NARTEL and ARCAN communications across the North Atlantic. Usually when this training was completed, chances were that you would be transferred to some remote northern site for an "unknown' duration. One weekend, my brother wanted a few extra days off to fly down to Boston. As this was before the days of shift trades, I volunteered to work my days off. Since we were identical twins, no one was any the wiser. By late March, the shoe dropped and I was given a "one way" ticket to YYR(GooseBay), but first a trip back home to YSJ and I,ll tell you later how I got out of that but ended up in Hopedale Lab. a week later. Landing on the ice on the bay, just before breakup, courtesty of Maritime Central Airways. p.s. I think it was Bob Brown who was waiting, with his bags packed, when the DC3 skidded to a stop. Thank you George for sharing those memories. George can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ~-=o0o=-~ . Found on the internet - Russia is to start flight testing the TU334, a 100 seat jet airliner in May. Out of an estimated 30 million - yes million - who phoned for a flight on the Concorde, there were 200 lucky people. Cost of the flight just UKL10, thats about CA$218. . Interline stuff The Big Red Boats - 3 nights from US$199 pp dbl 4 nights from US$299 pp dbl 'Oceanic' departs every Friday for 3 night cruises Monday for 4 night cruises 'Atlantic' departs every Thursday for 3 night cruises Sunday for 4 night cruises. Itinerary: Port Canaveral . Nassau . Port Lucaya . Port Canaveral. Explore the Historic's of China on a fabulous 15 day fully escorted land tour from Vancover, BC. Itinerary: Shanghai . Suzhou . Qufu . Mt Tai . Jinan and Beijing. Cost: CA$1899 pp dbl with CA$399 sgl. sup. NOT included - CA$55 Canadian Tax, CA$50 Visa, tipping & departure taxes. Includes - Round trip airfare economy, first class hotels, ground transportation and daily meals, guides and admissions. Take a four day cruise from Los Angeles calling at Catalina and Ensenada with a fun day at sea departs Monday Feb 24th at 17.30 returns Friday at 0800. All this for just US$199 pp dbl. Call Bonita at 1-800-690-3223 for these three deals. ~-=o0o=-~ . Smiles found on the internet On a small charter plane, immediately after liftoff, the pilot began to open his flight plan. A few seconds later, he turned to his passengers and inquired as to what time it was. After getting the correct time and opening his plan, he tapped his watch and remarked that he was surprised that it had stopped, because he usually changed the batteries in it the same time that he changed the batteries in his pacemaker ! Southwest FA during passenger briefing . . . "Did anyone lose a brown wallet?" All talking and all commotion instantly ceased as hands instinctively went for back pockets and eyes went forward to where she was standing in the cabin, which was now completely silent. She continued, "Now that I have your attention, I'd like to point out the emergency exits located on either side of the aircraft..." ". . . . if you have a small child travelling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you have two small children, decide now which you love more." ~-=o0o=-~ . That's it for this time, please we need your input, send comments and email addresses of any others who may be interested to Vesta with a copy to Terry. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................
