Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)

March 20, 2012 - Issue 1198

The first woman to fly the Atlantic in a turbo-prop aircraft was the wife of the Vickers Armstrong test pilot Jock Bryce during a delivery flight of a Vickers Viscount aircraft to Trans-Canada Air Lines on May 9th 1955.

Reader Submitted Photos -  The photos and information below have been submitted to us by our faithful readers.  

We welcome photos of interest from our readers. Please check your cupboards and shoe boxes, we bet you have some excellent photos lying around! If you do, send them to us and we will consider them for publication in a future NetLetter. We prefer good quality Air Canada/TCA, and Canadian/CPAir, etc. airline related photos, with descriptive text and names (whenever possible) included with the submission.

Ron Rhodes Waterloo Ont sends this from a 1964 TCA Europe ad brochure.
 

The picture was accompanied by this short bio for Jocelyne Rene - 

Does anyone recognize herself?  .
"Many passengers ask, 'Where are we now?', I think that's the question a TCA stewardess hears most! We always answer in hours - 'One hour from Paris' can sound very thrilling to someone on a first trip It was being a passenger that started me on my TCA stewardess career.

Two years ago, I was a secretary on my first flight to Virginia. I looked at those girls and thought, that's what I want to do! And now, after dozens of flights along TCA's routes, I still do, I remember in our training course we used a 'mock-up' of a real aircraft interior. We learned about the galley, how to serve meals, look after children and make each passenger comfortable.

You know, the second most-asked question is: 'Can I sit by the window?' Even people who fly a lot find the sky and the clouds beautiful. Once, when I was studying German, (many of us speak more than one language), I asked a passenger if she would like to 'sit by the window', she just laughed and didn't seem to mind at all. That's how you'll find it on a TCA Jet ... a sense of happy excitement in the air. And if I can make those first hours of you trip pleasant, I will be happy too.

Ron Rhodes also sent us these photos and comments - 

I found this sign (minus the flight and time numbers) in someone's basement during an estate sale several years ago. I think I offered them $2 for it, and they accepted it!  I cleaned up the sign and added the numbers which correspond to my TCA flight from Prestwick to Montreal on a Super Connie in 1961! It now hangs in my family room on the wall behind my Boeing 767 seats from Canadian Airlines. Does anyone know anything about the sign? I imagine it came out of a small Canadian airport on the TCA route.  I wonder from where? Anyone recognize it?  I would love to get some info. Ron.

Alan Gray sends us this photo and comment - I was going though some old photos my father in law (Don Hunter TCA) took.

Winnipeg flood 1950, A BOAC stratocruiser speedbird B377 (the Caledonia) Canada Flood Relief.

He kept the TCA radio beacon operational though the radio shed was underwater. I have photo of it but am still looking for it.

Allan Gray

Jan Wegman sends us this information - 

Attached a picture of 1968. In the late 60's, the company sent an HR person over to Europe to hire language FA's. German as well as Scandinavian. This picture shows the first Swedish FA's hired in Stockholm. 

They also happened to be sisters, Elisabeth and Christien Noren. The person with them in the picture is the Swedish ambassador at the time in Canada. The picture was taken in Ottawa, they were asked especially to work this flight.

Passengers on the Company's first flight to Texas were piped off the aircraft on arrival at Houston to commemorate the opening of the new Toronto-Dallas/Fort Worth-Houston service July 1.

Shown flanked by the two pipers from the Houston Highlanders Pipe Band are, from the left: Pat Labrie, VP, U.S. Region and Jack Smith, District Manager, Houston with crew members Captain Art Bush, two unidentified flight crew. F/A Supervisor Walter van Beek, F/A Solly Eskenazy, and an unidentified flight crew member. In the foreground are F/As Joanne Ross, Chris Taschereau and Barbara Hart.

(If someone can come up with the identities of the three unidentified crew members, we can complete this tableau - eds)

Sales staff in Winnipeg hear many compliments from passengers who are impressed with the CP Air service and they decided to pass the word along. So they held an in-flight-crew recognition day at Winnipeg.

Sporting orange roses from the Winnipeg sales staff are crew members of flight 11 on Oct. 29, 1980.

Standing from left are Pamela McDonald, Karen Gable, Winnipeg Sales Manager Wayne Dale, Evelyn Middleton and Allison Shand. Seated are left, First Officer Hans Pathuls and Capt. Jim Peerless.

FIRST GRADUATES of a basic accounting concepts course and an accounting department familiarization program, receive their certifllcates from Training Supervisor Bernie Milns, second from left and Bob Griffiths, manager, training and procedures.

The combined three-day program was started In October and by the end of 1981, some sixty-eight key punch operator. and 244 accounting clerical staft will have completed one or both of the courses.

From left, certificate recipients are Margaret Coates, Margaret St. John, MurIel Thomas, Pat Gray, Joy Ratnarajah, Gertrude Yarr (sitting), Kathy Suiymks, Allcla De Crewe and TerrI Budden.

REPRESENTING 700 YEARS OF SERVICE to CP Air. these employees received 25 year service pins at dinner held In their honor In Vancouver Ops Centre cafeteria.

All are from Vancouver unless otherwise stated.

Back row from left they are Jack Egan. CTO mgr., Toronto; Tony Lloyd. mgr.. standards and procedures; Bernie Eckert, supervisor, commercial accounts, Toronto; Andre Lalonde, supervisor. airport services, Montreal; Ian Smith. a/c mech; Capt. Dennis Hunter, Instr/check pilot DC-8; Bob McKay, vacation sales asst.; Eric Moore, station attendant; Otto Tiede, lead station attendant; Max Freedman, line engr.; Alex Noble, mgr., fuel contracts; John Anderton, supervisor, personnel placement; Charles Webster, psgr. agt.; Gordon Willson, air engr. II; Junya Fujiwara, accountant, reports, Tokyo; Doug Shields, chief mech.; Ken Dakin, exec. VP.; Kazulku Ohno, sr. cargo agent, Tokyo.

Front row from left, Andre Ferland, psgr. agt.. Montreal; Margaret Brewster, psgr. agt.; Bill Hooton, supervisor, quality control; John Dapp, tech, support specialist; Don Cameron, sr VP.. admin. and public affairs; Nina Morrison. psgr. service dlr.; Capt. Donald Hill. DC-8: Shirley Carswell, manuals editor; Ernie Kyryluk, sr. clerk; and Pedro Zegarra, sr. psgr. agt., Lima.

Absent were Helen Ducharme. interior a/c clnr.; Fred Dennis. supervisor, quality control; and Kelly Wong, communications, Tokyo.

When we got this email from Dick Hovey, we thought the gremlins had acted up again BUT - we had faithfully copied the information from the Horizons magazine but, as Dick had worked with all the guys, we gladly accept his information.  

In the pic of Job Safety course, (NetLetter nr 1196) you've got the order wrong in the back row. It should be Vallee, Manzo, Stewart, Gibault, Nicholas, Drennan.  Front row is correct I worked with them all.

Dick Hovey AC045397


Linda Kellins has sent us this information about ACRA on the 50th anniversary - I was always involved with ACRA, mainly GOLF, for my 38 years with the company. On a local basis, here in YVR, we organized most years, 8 golf tournaments. We hosted, each April, a tournament which included employees from YWG WEST and some years had over 120 golfers. The days when we had Ramp Agents playing with Reservations Managers, Pilots playing with Customer Service Agents, males and females together.

I was then nominated to take on the role of a member of the System Committee with Lorne Gray,YVR;  Gerry Lint, YSJ and our PR Guy from YOW, Hugh Riopelle. We took on the role each April to locate the sight of that year's September tournament, arranging for sometimes 140 golfers and maybe as many as 100 non golfers, in the good old days. 

It was usually the first Sun. Mon of Sept. a day to register and to have  a practice round, then the tournament day followed by a banquet. Things changed soon after our time in Chicago, when Frank Cunnius could do nothing about the weather, when the temperatures dropped 25C and the rain and wind forced us to postpone to the next day. It was then changed in the bylaws: to have a 2 day total point tournament..so we had a practice day, followed by 2 days of tournament play, that evening a banquet. Each hosting city tried to OUTDUE the previous year... we had barbeques on the Sunday night; another dinner or cocktail party, sometimes with entertainment, on the Monday; banquet after the final day of play Tuesday.

The tournament was usually EAST one year then WEST the next, but having golf in September in some provinces was difficult in the snow so we moved further SOUTH, and tried to do East and West but we had difficulty getting to some of the OFF route stations and bus fees were high.  When Ron Costelli was in LAX, he managed to get us some sweet deals in Anaheim, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Indian Hills, even down to San DIego, and not too many years ago to Napa Valley, Sonoma.

On the East coast, sometimes threatened by hurricanes, Miami Doral, Tampa, the Carolina's. Overseas, Ayr, Scotland, where women were now allowed to enter the main doors and the pub, Nassau, splitting up the group over two hotels.

I have a lot of good memories although it was a lot of hard work. Met so many of the Air Canada family from all over the world and have remained good friends with some. Attended several of the ACRA president's and event organizers meetings in Montreal over the years, having major support from the company, who at one time donated or contributed funds to help in the events, believing that through ACRA the company could bring together the whole Air Canada family and their friends. 

This year's tournament will be held in the San Diego area... Sept. 8-13, 2012, Sycuan Casino Golf, and Tennis Resort, San Diego  and promises to be bigger and better than all the others, Ron Castelli is still on the committee, on and off over many many years. As Host, he will see that all runs smoothly and all will have more great memories to take home with them.

Check your calendars, clean off the clubs and golf shoes... see you there. My heartfelt thanks go out to the committee members of any of the events put on by ACRA, lots of hard work but it is appreciated.  

Linda Kellins

Retired Customer Sales and Service,

YXE, YYC, and then YVR.

I'm asking if anyone might have a picture of Jim Aikins who passed away on Feb. 24 or 25, 2012. He was personnel manager at Air Canada on Bloor St. in the 60s as well as Ticket Office supervisor I believe.

I can't put a face to the name but I remember his name so well. Any help with a picture would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Gayle Graham C.S.S.A. Toronto Airport

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bob Berry sends us this short video - Lightning strike to a plane at the gate. You'll need to watch it a few times; it's only about 11 seconds.

Watch closely at the tail of the plane. (looking for a lightning strike) Then replay it and watch the front landing gear. Then wonder why we don't refuel airplanes when there is lightning in the area.

Three key things/areas to watch first watch the tail of the aircraft as the bolt hits the vertical stab, do not blink, it happens that fast. Next, watch the nose of the aircraft where ground crew is walking up to, and under, the nose of the plane. Then, look just to your left of the nose gear. That brown square on the ground is a metal plate imbedded in the concrete, with a small manhole cover. The strike exits onto the metal plate, and sends the manhole cover flying through the air toward the tug on the far left. 

Lightning Strike - Ground Ops

Paul Peron sends us this url of a Nordair promotional clip about 15 minutes long - Nordair B737 promo circa 1965 for pax/cgo config flight from Montreal to Fort Chimo, Frobisher Bay, Resolute Bay then configuration change to charter Montreal to Jamaica.

Nordair B737 Promo Video 2011

Unfortunately the last little bit of the video is missing - but very true of
the way the aircraft were used at the time. A northern trip such as this one would have taken approximately 12.5 hours (including turn times). It looks like the YRB flights in the 60's were on an overnight schedule.

Thanks for the NetLetter, I look forward to reading it every week. Keep up the good work!

Paul Peronz

Courtenay, B.C.

Ken Collie is looking for some information - can anyone help him - Can anybody of Transair heritage tell me about this Avro York?  I would like to know the registration, and why it was never flown to Winnipeg where it could have found a home with Western Canadian Aviation Museum.

The picture taken on the tarmac is at the Pas Manitoba Airport, YQD. I was working for Lambair of The Pas at the time in the late 1960's. We sort of looked after the old beauty for Transair, insuring that the tires were inflated, that the wheels were rotated occasionally and on occasion, two or three times a year the engines were run up by a crew from Winnipeg. We would be there for support, (and of course to hear the music of those big Merlins).

For some reason the plane was towed down the highway to an area next to the highway near the turn off to the airport, shortly thereafter vandals did what the war and years of freighting in the arctic could not do. The burned out hull sat there for quite some time before it was finally removed to a land fill site.

Ken Collie.

Family Affair program extended to September, 2012. 

The Family Affair program has been extended with new last ticket date of September 3, 2012, and a new last travel day of September 10, 2012.  Details on the Family Affair program which features confirmed air travel are available on the Employee Travel Site under News & Policies.  For reservations or inquiries, please contact Call Centres at 1-888-247-2262.
 

John Glew sends us this information - Here is some useful information for anybody who is a regular visitor to Las Vegas. 

For the past ten years I have subscribed to a magazine called Las Vegas Advisor which is a monthly magazine posted to me in England.

It is only a twelve page mag but full of up to date information on everything that is going on in Sin City. It has a 30,000 membership following and is well worth the money. 

Their web-site is amazing. Check it out at www.LasVegasAdvisor.com
Good luck John Glew (LHR FLT DX RETD)

This from "info Canadi>n" magazine issued July 1987.

What's in a name, eh? Quite a chuckle when the peculiar Canadianism "eh" is added to the corporate logo! Some Calgary maintenance staffers used cardboard letters to conjure up this humorous photo. No harm in a little fun, eh?