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_| TCA |_ B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S
_|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R
> CANADA <
>_./|\._< for Air Canada retirees
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Our crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson
Chief Navigator - Terry Baker
number 183 date July 29th 1997
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. Welcome to Lucien and Mary M Guillaume
I just got on the net and can finally access your netletter.
I've known about it for quite a while and usually got copies from
Bill Sim, but now that Lucien and I have moved to Kitchener/Waterloo
area (actually R.R.1, St.Jacobs) and I stopped piggybacking on our
son's interline connection, I can get the netletter direct.
I miss the Montreal gang and the airline connection as I was
Secretary to Montreal Region Pionairs Committee for 4 1/2 years,
and editor of the 'Sentinel Newsletter' for 2.
Try their email at:
~-=o0o=-~
. Dennis Brown sends us this information -
I've noticed several comments and concerns about the year
2000 "Y2K" in 'NetLetter Between Ourselves' lately and I thought I
would share a little heads up with our readers.
Air Canada is well underway with a comprehensive effort to make
sure that there are no surprises built into the thousands of
applications and systems used in the company.
My scope of knowledge is limited to the Materials Management
Systems that are part of ARTOS. This package went on line in 1994
after being selected and developed from 1991. The package is used to
handle the movement, the purchasing, and all the inventory control
needs of the corporation.
A large part of the Materials Management functions in ARTOS were
purchased from an American software house "ASI" and have been
created over the last 20 years. So every function, on line and in
batch must be checked to make sure it will not get weird in January
2000.
We are using a main frame tool "Hour Glass" to set the clock in a
special region to any date we need for testing. So far after a month
of work we have identified one major problem and are still searching
for other show stoppers. The good news is that the Air Canada
designed and developed DB2 data base is fully compliant to Y2K specs.
The reason I can supply some of this info is that I was called in
as a contractor to go through the functionality line by line.
I guess my years on the project as the customer leader created the
impression that I could be useful. My concern is that I'm a much
better crusty old purchasing guy than a systems nerd.
If anyone wants more detail that is not proprietary please drop
me a line.
Remember, double dipping is only bad if you are a politician.
Dennis Brown
~-=o0o=-~
. Super Connie gets another life -
Ever wondered what happend to fin 405 registered CF-TGE? Well after
accumulating some 19,000 hours between 1954 and 1962 before being
retired by Air Canada, nee Trans Canada Air Lines, she was sold
to Aircraft Radio Industries in the US. Then bought by Montreal
Air Services in 1964, registered as CF-RNR and leased to Worldwide
doing trips to Cuba and Europe. Worldwide lost their license in
1965 and fin 405 was sent to pasture in rural Quebec.
Well fin 405 is again in the air - on a pedestal in front of
the Regal Constellation in Toronto.
Yes you can still 'fly' in ol' 405 as she serves as a cocktail bar.
Call 416-675-9866 for reservations.
Tom Martin sends us some of his memories regarding the Super Connies -
The article above the Super Connie on display at the Constellation
Hotel in YYZ, and seeing Roy McCormack's name as Chancellor of the
Pionairs Exchequer brought back bunch of memories for me.
CF-TGE (405) was delivered as a 1049C then modified to a 1049G and
hereby begins a tale, with some names and events that may be
familiar to some subscribers, particularly if you were associated
with Tech. Services.
In the fall of 1955, four of us from Dorval , the late George Land
who retired to our Navigator's (Terry) neck of the woods, Ladysmith,
B.C., the late Frank Smith, John Bellingham who went back to the UK,
and I, Tom Martin were sent to Lockheed, Burbank for 3 weeks to
provision the spares differences between our existing fleet of 1049s
and the 1049Gs we were buying. I also had to try to convince
Lockheed to improve our delivery positions for the mod kits to
upgrade some of our current fleet to 1049G configuration.
The main things that I remember were new chordwise de-icer boots,
heavier 4-1/2 inch brakes, and tip tanks to make the Atlantic
non-stop. Maybe Jimmy Miller can recall the avionics involved,
I can't. Our Tech. Rep. at Lockheed at that time was Roy McCormack,
as he said in his bio, and he looked after us well.
As I recall Roy was flying as an exchange pilot with a reserve US
fighter squadron as he had flown Spitfires for the RCAF during the
later part of the war. Our paths crossed many times over the years,
but I'll save those stories for another day.
(Thanks for the story Tom - eds)
ps, for those who joined our "Between Ourselves - NetLetter"
after Aug 16,1996 in Netletter nr 80 we published a preliminary
article about this very same Super Connie.
~-=o0o=-~
. Splashdown Park Summer Picnic
Where: Splashdown Park, Tsawwassen (near the Ferry Terminal),
Delta, B.C.
When: Tuesday, August 5, 1997. Rain or shine.
Time: 10:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m.
Who: All ACRA members, retirees, families and friends, kids of
all ages, and water slide enthusiasts.
Price: Adults $10.00, Children under 12 years, $6.00,
under 3 years, free.
What to bring: Bathing Attire, towels, sunscreen, picnic lunch,
lawn chairs (optional), and admission tickets
(mandatory)
Advance ticket sales ONLY.
Tickets available from your ACRA representative or at the
Air Canada Personnel office. Tickets not sold after August 1.
No tickets sold at site. (For further info call 604-231-6941)
See: http://www.mortimer.com/acra/splashdo.htm
~-=o0o=-~
. Interline stuff.
Interline Europe Cruises - Seabourn Cruise Lines.
- Western - 12 nights Aug 29, Sep 22 from US$998 pp dbl.
- Classic Med - 12 nights Oct 4, 28 from US$899 pp dbl.
- Atlantic - 16 nights Dec 4 from US$749 pp dbl.
Southeast Asia Cruise - Dec 9 - 14 nights Singapore - Hong Kong
from US$699 pp dbl.
Panama Canal - 15 nights Oct 27, Nov 9, 24 from US$749 pp dbl.
Interline Historic China - Oct 27 - 15 days
CA$1499 pp dbl(No air) or CA$2299 pp dbl (with air)
China & Yangtze River - Nov 3 - 15 days CA$2299(No air)
Call 1-800-665-3100 for details and mention Pionairs.
~-=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.
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. GREETINGS FROM .
. Vancouver Island .
. BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA .
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