 The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(part of the ACFamily Network)
October 22, 2011 - Issue 1184
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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:
ACFamily Network
#800 - 15355 24th Ave, Suite 523
Surrey, BC V4A 2H9
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| Greetings! |
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!
The NetLetter is an email newsletter published every weekend 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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 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!
Terry & your NetLetter Team
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| CAHS Upcoming Events - Compiled by Alan Rust |
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Pionair Meetings and Events - Compiled by Alan Rust
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 The Air Canada Pionairs have ongoing Coffee Club Meetings in the following Districts; Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Okanagan, Edmonton, Calgary, Man-Sask, SW Ontario, Central Ontario, Ottawa, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia - P.E.I., Newfoundland, UK - E.C. and the USA - Caribbean. For full information, click here.
Meetings provide an opportunity to meet old friends, learn the latest news regarding Air Canada and your pensions or hear a variety of guest speakers speaking on topics of interest to retirees.
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| Our first 70 years - Compiled by Terry Baker |
1957 - Feb 21st - First airmail shipment from Toronto to the South.
1964 - July 11th - a $500 bonus for Canadian based employees was announced.
- August 1st - Expedair, for small packages, introduced.
1974 - July 24 - New service STOL Airtransit launched between Montreal and Ottawa. |
| Air Canada Related News - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 IBM Contract ---announced that it has signed a new contract with IBM to provide human resource business process services. Under the terms of the nearly eight-year, $80 million contract, IBM will provide HR services for retirees, including HR contact center, employee data management, employee travel support, payroll, and certain recruiting services, in support of Air Canada's North American Operations, IBM application support for the HR systems used to provide the services. HR Services will be delivered from Montreal and Saint John in Canada as well as from Manila in the Philippines. The new agreement, with IBM Global Process Services (IBM GPS), is in addition to a separate information contract between Air Canada and IBM signed in 2001.(source www.yyznews,com)
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| Reader Submitted Photos - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Reader Submitted Photos - The photos and information below was sent to us by our faithful readers. If you would like to send us some old photos you have lying around. we will consider them for publication in a future NetLetter. We prefer good quality airline related photos, with descriptive text included with the submission. |
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 Wallace Hasker has forwarded some information and photos passed to him by Al Catterall which originated from Del Horn.
The picture is of the first Viscount flight through YWG.
Left to right: Lloyd Elders, Del Horn, Russ Bell, Don Curry & Dennis Stewart. I don't know the names of the Stews.
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 Also the flight plan for the inaugural Centennial intercontinental DC-9 flight from YVR to YYZ under the command of Captain R.B.Lank, and with Flight Attendants L.Gallien and P.M.Mellon. |
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| TCA/Air Canada People Gallery - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Musings from the "Between Ourselves" and "Horizons" magazine, an Air Canada publication from years gone by, and various in-house magazines.
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Issue dated - March 1957
From the "Between Ourselves" magazine -
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 New mail service to the South. Inaugural flight AC642 ex Toronto on February 21st to Nassau and Kingston. This service cuts the delivery time by 24 hours as previously the mail was shipped via New York and Miami necessitating two transfers...
The Executive of the Winnipeg TCARA for 1957 were recently elected and are shown.
Front row, left to right: Hubert Poole, Asst. Special Events Chairman; J Anderson, Secretary; Roy Parsons, President; Ed Bryson, Vice-President; Miss C. Code, Sick Visiting Chairman.
Back row: Hec Olivier, Sick Visiting Chairman; Carol Malec, Special Events Ray Helgason, Chairman Vending Machines; Gloria Killeen, Membership Chairman; Bill Stephens, Social Committee Chairman; and Allan Perry, Publicity Chairman. Missing from the group is Tony Lemieux, Treasurer.
(Is there anything significant that the treasurer would be missing - eds)
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 Female charm and beauty grace the modernistic lines of our new offices in St. Petersburg, Florida.
From the left, they are: M. E. Purdy, T. F. Bradley, R. A. Kramer (Secretary), G. A. Logie, B. C. Boone, C. M. Rady, R. H. Noland, L. F. Higgins, all Passenger Agents. On the passenger side of the ticket counter are E. T. Strugnell, Traffic Services Supervisor, and J. H. Gehlsen, Manager.
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Issue dated - July 17th 1974
Extracted from the "Horizons" magazine -
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 As Air Canada is governed by the laws of France, to this end a "Comite d'establissement" was formed in 1962. Here we have this photo of the present members of the "Comite d'etablissemeflt" taken during one of their meetings in Paris.
From the left: Josette Decottlgnies, Nicole Lefalher, Martine Benchétrit, Daniel Bregere, Guy Chiasson, president of the Committee and General Manager - France and Western Europe, Michel Péan, Annie Broquet, Michel Plazanet, Micheline Breton and Françoise Kvapil.
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Issue dated - July 1st 1974
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 Mastering money matters was the theme for financial and administration representatives from the US stations to learn about the Accounting services in Winnipeg.
Shown at a work session are, from the left, standing: Hugh Bowman, Director, Financial Projects Montreal; Jim Dupret, Boston; John Craddock, New York; Cliff Stobo, Tampa; Ken McDonald and Bob Hooper, Los Angeles; John LeMay, Miami and George Clifford, Finance, Winnipeg.
Sitting from the left: Kathy Baltz, Cleveland; Fay Huntley, Los Angeles; Scotty Sinclair, Supervisor, Budgets & Cost Controls, Winnipeg; Dick Simons, Chief Accountant - General, Winnipeg; Ralph Goodmurphy, Los Angeles; Jack CampbeIl, New York and Alex Douglas, Chicago.
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Issue dated - August 15th 1974
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The Great Race STOL fastest but only just...
Last month's Great Race from Montreal to Ottawa involving five journalists will never reach the fame of "around the world in eighty days", but it proved a point.
The five reporters decided to test Airtransit's new STOL (short takeoff & landing) service against conventional forms of transport, prior to its introduction July 24. They traveled by STOL, Air Canada jet, Voyageur bus, automobile and train, and also.took taxis and the Metro to make connections. They all clocked out from the Montreal Press Club at various times, bound for the National Press Club in Ottawa.
Of all the modes of transportation used, the new STOL service proved to be the fastest, if only by a narrow margin. Patrick Finn of the Montreal Star, who took the Twin Otter STOL plane, did the journey in 17 minutes less time than Cliff Cowan of the Ottawa Journal, who took a scheduled flight on the Company's DC-9. The elapsed time for the STOL was 1 hour 43 minutes, compared to 2 hours for the jet. The other participants dragged well behind, taking 2 hours 44 minutes by car, 2 hours 55 minutes by bus, and the train traveler coming in last with an elapsed time of 3 hours and 20 minutes.
"My overall verdict," wrote Finn, "is that STOL is not only faster than Air Canada, but more fun. The flight brings back some of the adventure into travel... of course it was an excellent day, and passengers flying on a the day when the air is bumpy might feel differently about the whole venture." Cowan thought his way was best "I think I had the smoother, quieter flight, with coffee and papers and pleasant stewardess company as well. Perhaps they could put floats on the Otter and land on the Ottawa river- until then, I'm for Air Canada," he wrote.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
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| Alan Rust |
DC-3 Rescue from Queen Maude Land, Antartica
Below is a Kenn Borek Air and ALCI presentation for a DROMLAN meeting. It gives a brief overview of the salvage mission for a crash landed DC-3 named Mia.
The crash site was at a remote location in Queen Maude Land Antarctica at a height of over 3,300 meters.
It looks like it was a really expensive operation to get the DC-3 out. Would be interesting to know what it cost.
Watch video below...
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| EAJ Salvage 2009 Video DRAFT |
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Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker |
 News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and it's "ancestry" of contributing airlines. Premium Parcel Service was introduced by CP Air on August 1st 1964. |
 Wings over the West: Russ Baker and the Rise of Pacific Western Airlines [Hardcover] Order from Amazon at us$14.78 |
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Issue dated - August 1984
Gleaned from the "PWA Flightlines" magazine -
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 In 1984, Yellowknife N.W.T. celebrated their 50th anniversary and part of the home coming was the Pacific Airlines Midnight Sun Golf Tournament. Here we have a photo of the friendly staff at YZF. |
 The friendly staff at YZF City Ticket Office were only too pleased to pose for this shot. Left to right are: Paul Steeves, Greg Baird, Ken Smith and Alice Wong (sealed). Anyone out there have one of the certificates issued to players? |
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Issue dated - September 1984
From the "PWA Flightlines" -
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 Yellowknife had its 50th birthday this summer and to help celebrate the event, the Edmonton Journal supplied copies of a Yellowknife feature for our passengers, These flight crews become official paper carriers for the day.
(Top) F/A Sharon Levacque, (2nd Row) F/A Anne Ryle. F/A Marg Wright, (Front) Captain Patrick Stewart, F/A Kim Wagner and F/O AIy EI Zanaty. |
 From (left t0 right) F/A Bob Billington. F/A Debbie Wood, F/A Melody Triebwasser, Captain Gord MacKenzie and F/O Dale Crowe. |
 Recently eight members of the Vancouver Training Department received their 15 year Service Pin Awards at a reception held at the Delta River Inn, Vancouver Pictured here (from left to right) are: Ross Wilkinson, Isabel Lamb, Ian Lambton, Lynne Foster, Kathleen Knight, Norm Smith, Ron Knight, Ken Merren, Erika Pinz and John Pinz. |
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 August marks the 30th anniversary for Alcan at Kitimat.
The pouring of the first aluminum ingot from the Kitimat smelter in August of 1954 marked the completion of one of the major projects in British Columbia. In 1949, the Aluminum Company of Canada commissioned Central B.C. Airways to carry out aerial surveys for the giant aluminum and power complexes at Kitimat and Kemano in the rugged mountainous backcountry of British Columbia.
During the development of this project, Central B.C. Airways handled 95% of the air support, consisting mainly of workers and heavy industrial freight.
Between 1949 and 1952, the Company acquired seven other smaller flying services and in 1953 adopted the name Pacific Western Airlines.
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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.
Brian Walsh sets the record straight about the following item in NetLetter nr 1183 -
Just a little correction.
On March 24th 1987 it was announced that Canadian International Airlines LTD would be the integrated name of Pacific Western and Canadian Pacific Air Lines.
The actual name is Canadian Airlines International LTD.
And, BTW, we were told NEVER to use the abbreviation CAIL.
Cheers, Brian Walsh
Jim Griffiths has sent us these memories prompted by a photo NetLetter nr 1180 -
Robert Arnold's picture of the Bristol Freighter nose to nose with the Viscount brought back a few memories. My name is the last flight entry in the log book. Me and my good friend Gerry Norberg flew it down from Gimli on its last flight before going into the display at WCAM in Winnipeg in 1983. I also worked on the Viscount spar mod.
My first job with TCA was a learner mechanic on DC-3s on Bill Ander's crew but because of the urgency on the spar mod some of us were seconded to work on the Viscounts or was it the flap mod? Either way all the guys I worked with were a great bunch. I can remember stories of guys on the DC-3 crew telling tales about when a North Star came in for an engine change the glycol would be drained out and all the maintenance guys got fresh anti freeze for their cars. Similarly before overhaul the DC-3 had to have very last drop of Av-Gas drained out of it. The next day the performance of cars leaving the TCA parking lot had a noticeable level of enhancement. Anybody on the hangar floor should know what a G-job was: I wasn't there long enough to take part on any of those mysterious evening excursions.
I recall one of my associates on 727's getting the golden tow bar award in ORD one day as he mistakenly took a wrong turn on one of ORD's many, at times, confusing taxi ways. He came nose to nose with a plane going the opposite direction in the middle of the taxi strip. ORD Ground Control advised that Air Canada was getting the Golden Tow Bar Award. One of the two miscreants had to be towed off the taxi way as neither could back up. Well of course a 727 can back up, after all we did do push backs for awhile which was always fun but they were hard to steer with no rear view mirror and backward facing TVs were not on airplanes let alone cars as they are now. Being shamefully towed was the only solution. Still the airplane could have been sent to ORD's penalty box for their infraction of messing up departures.
I have some questions.
I gather the first Viscounts did not come equipped with radar.
- I wonder if anyone can tell me when they were installed?
- Did only the first ones come with no radar?
- At what point, if ever, did they come with radar installed?
- What about the auto pilots?
- Did all the Viscounts have A/P's retrofitted?
If anyone has the answers email me direct. Thanks! Keep up the good work!
Jim GO.
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Odds & Ends - Compiled by Terry Baker
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 Sometimes we receive articles and information that just doesn't fit in our other areas. This is where it goes! Ken McLeod sends us this information - The Pionairs Curling Bonspiel 2011 taking place in " Halifax Nov 16th & 17th"....full details available on the Pionairs web-site...or by contacting me direct at... This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ... Great job on your "Newsletter" ...always full of good stuff, old and new...thanks to all the crew...cheers Ken
Brian Dunn, who issues the YYZNEWS has sent us this interesting item - WOW! I had no idea film of this existed. There's a nice little museum there now, but most of the WWII structures are gone.
This is a compilation of two films shot during the September, 1945 airshow at Freeman Field. The aircraft seen both in the air and on the ground are nothing short of spectacular. Many of the remaining captured aircraft have yet to arrive. Our thanks to the Freeman Army Airfield Museum who provided the video. Freeman Field in Indiana was where all the captured Nazi aircraft were tested after the war ended.
This film is from an air show for the public in late 1945.
The video is 10 minutes long and accompanied with music by the Glen Miller orchestra.
Click on image below...
I did some more research and we found this video on YouTube with more information about the American Luftwaffe: The Ghosts of Freeman Field
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| American Luftwaffe: The Ghosts of Freeman Field |
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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| Terry Baker |
Frank Shettlesworth sends us this message -
Greetings from Northern Thailand,
We are shaken but not stirred after the passing of Tropical Storm MUIFA bang smack in the middle of the rainy season.
Chiang Mai is back to normal but Bangkok and particularly Ayyuthaya still have many problems. Currently both have flooding issues and the buses and trains between Bangkok and Chiang Mai have been suspended although the flights are operating as per normal.
I have a question and if it is not correct and proper I understand but I am wondering about an old friends and colleague: Air Canada In-Flight Service Directors Paul Coates who once wrote a book called "Don't Fly With Me' and If anyone has any information as to their welfare I would be grateful to hear.
All the best and hope to see you all in Thailand one of the days!
From Frank Shettlesworth - Chiang Mai, Thailand
Should anyone be considering a visit to Thailand, Dao, Ann and I will endeavor to get you the best possible deal - be it Tours, Accommodation, Car Hire or Travel in Thailand.... or just plain advice and information. Website at www.wanderingstartour.com This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Telephone Frank, Dao or Ann on 66 (0) 53 273602 or FAX 66 (0) 53 27370
In the UK, some good news. For some time now the UK has been a curious contradiction between a 70 mph speed limit on its freeways (motorways) and the actual speeds drivers travel at - usually 80 mph, sometimes appreciably in excess of 90 mph.
The police have a general policy of not stopping cars going slower than 77 mph. Britain's 70 mph limit is one of the lowest speed limits in the EU; famously Germany has its 'no speed limit' during daylight hours on some stretches of autobahn; France and the Netherlands both have 130 kph (81 mph) speed limits.
The British 70 mph speed limit was set back in 1965 - 45 years ago. That was a time when most ordinary cars could barely reach 70 mph. Poor road handling and bad tires made cars dangerously unstable. Poor car design and few seatbelts also made crashes at even moderate speeds very dangerous.
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 Flash forward to today. Notwithstanding an explosion of traffic in the last 45 years (I'll guess and say somewhere between three and four times as much traffic as in 1965) road fatalities have dropped four-fold. Cars today are incredibly safer than they were then.
At last, Britain has announced an intention to increase its speed limit up to 80 mph, although it will do this incredibly slowly. The new limit will be introduced at some as yet unknown time next year. (source The Travel Insider)
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Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker
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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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 From the "Between Ourselves" issued March 1957 we have this cartoon by F.G.Freeland |
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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.
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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the NetLetter, see you next week!
Sincerely,
Your NetLetter Team
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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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