Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

We wish to thank Yves Brunelle, Retired AC Flight Service Director, for sharing this video with The NetLetter.

The video shows flights of the Lockheed L-10A CF-TCC around the island of Montréal from inside the aircraft with descriptions of the surrounding areas plus some footage outside the aircraft.

Due to the excessive noise inside the aircraft, the video sound was added later with Air Canada music in French and English.

The pilots on that day were Jean Corbeil and Denis Chaput. The president of Dreams Take Flight YUL was Brian Roscoe.

Here is a memory that Jack Morath, Social Director for LHR Pionairs, sent to the members -

Today's picture shows a Trans-Canada Air Lines DC-8 which was introduced in 1960 (the Vickers Vanguard was introduced in 1961).

I remember when the company brought over the DC-8 to London (LHR) on a trial flight, and we were asked for volunteers to take a ride for an hour to the North of England.

I was working in the Import Cargo area at the time on the North side of the airport, and as it was only a short distance from home, I used to cycle each way.

When I went home at lunchtime I told Mum and Dad about my flight as I didn't know about it before I left in the morning. After flying in a propeller aircraft, the flight was so smooth we couldn't believe it. I remember placing a three penny piece on the seat table and it didn't fall over.

Amazing!

Alan Evans, living in South Africa, sends this memory -

Here is a grand old picture of a Hawker-Siddeley 748 demonstrator at beautiful DF Malan airport in Cape Town in 1969. Great aircraft on which I flew 3000 odd hours way back in 1960-70 in the West Indies. It was a close replacement for the DC-3, a real work horse. 

Editors' note: the Viscount on the ramp and the backdrop of Table Mountain.

I sent these pictures to Terry Baker because he was with LIAT, formerly known as Leeward Islands Air Transport Services.

I, as Terry might recall, was with them for 6 years. We went bankrupt in 1974. Here is an HS748 in LIAT colours. 

Editors' note: We checked and found this information -

Failed LIAT To Be Reborn As LIAT 2020 Ltd with US $15-20 Million Investment.

The airline (officially registered as LIAT (1974) Ltd) which carried a debt of EC $12 million (US $4.4 million) in 2019, finally reached the end of the road as Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that the airline would need to be liquidated, but insisted that a new airline would need to take its place to maintain connectivity within the Caribbean.

(Source: www.gatechecked.com/liat-2020-ltd-3185)

Subscriber Françoise Cohen has a request:

Hello everyone and thank you so much for the letter!

I was part of the May 1973 - BC/YVR Canadian Pacific Airlines class under Françoise Roger then from YUL.

I am not nor do I wish to be on Facebook. Could you please help me reconnect if possible with everyone?

Louise Gauthier, Carole Rivest, Helena Vartanian from Finland and Martin Tarjuelo with whom were spent flying beautiful years.

Any info would make me so happy.  I now live in Northern California and could fly to reconnect almost anywhere.

Editors' note: If you have any information for Ms. Cohen, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we pass along your info to her.

Another Dorval snowstorm memory. This from Hildegard Sachs in reference to Marty Vanstone's article in NetLetter #1445.

I am writing to tell you about my experience of the day of the blizzard in Dorval in 1971; it really was something.

My husband Georg Sachs, did not come home from his job at the Maintenance Base. With the roads blocked, the boys spent the night on an aircraft, parked near the Base.

Walking was also impossible, though we lived almost adjacent on the other side of that famous Dorval Circle en route the 2/20 highway, leading into Montreal. It took several days for life in Dorval to get back to normal.

I remember it quite well now at 95, and am amazed to learn how they got that flight ready and off the ground.

Hildegard

In NetLetter #1446, under "Submitted Photos", Mary Ellen Harrison sent us a photo of the terminal at Sydney (Nova Scotia) Airport. Unfortunately, the photo had some Sellotape damage partly obscuring the terminal.

When Don Weaver spotted this he sent us this information -

Hi......enjoy your Netletter. Retired from Air Canada in 2004 as Captain on the B-767. Mary Ellen's picture is so great. It had suffered some pixel damage so decided to 'fix' it up with photoshop. I've attached the modified picture.

Thank you, keep up the good work, 

Cheers, Don Weaver.

Mary Ellen Harrison (Wilson) has sent us this T.C.A. postcard from her scrapbook -

Celebrating Christmas 1957, we have this menu (below left) and a postcard (below right).

Ken Starnes of Kelowna B.C., retired from Air Canada Warranty and Contracts, Dorval Base in June 1993, sent us these photos.

Hi, we did two RV trips and discovered these for our readers. Enjoy.

Most were found in far out places up North. Small communities had photos from the past. This was 10 years or so ago. Dawson City, Whitehorse and Watson Lake, visitors' centres and the like.

There were no copyright infringements posted or notices not to take a picture of a picture. We are not using them for commercial purposes.

Think our group would be interested in seeing this historical material. We are all aviation buffs.....it’s all positive.

CF-CPE Lockheed Lodestar.

Editors' note: c/n 2489 built 1943 allocated to CPAL by USAAF on July 5, 1943 as fin #263 photographed at an unknown location. Ken Pickford advises that the photo location is (now closed) Edmonton Municipal Airport (YXD). 

The aircraft was eventually sold to C.H. Babb Inc., Glendale, California on August 8, 1950.

CF-BLV Barkley-Grow T8P-1.

Editors' note: c/n 3 built 1939, photographed at an unknown location. Acquired from Yukon Southern Air Transport by CPAL on December 22, 1943, as fin #212. Sold to H.R. Peets, Edmonton on November 29, 1949, eventually scrapped at Peace River, Alberta in 1960.

Additional note from Ken Pickford: This aircraft was named "Yukon Queen" while with Yukon Southern. It is now at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton (on loan from the Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary which has another Barkley-Grow on floats).

CF-BLV crashed near Peace River, Alberta in 1960 while with a subsequent operator but was later resurrected and rebuilt for museum display (not airworthy).

Several photos here:
www.albertaaviationmuseum.com/otw_pm_portfolio/barkley-grow/

Interestingly, although only 11 Barkely-Grows were built, 3 still survive, all in Alberta museums. The first one built is at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, 70 km south of Edmonton.

CF-BTX Barkley-Grow T8P-1.

Editors' note: c/n 11 built 1940, photographed at an unknown location. Acquired from Mackenzie Air Service on December 2, 1943, as fin# 215. Damaged beyond repair at Lake Porcupine, Alberta due to engine failure at takeoff on October 19, 1945.

Famous DC-3 workhorse for Canadian Pacific now a gate guard at Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport.

Editor's note from Bob Sheppard: Erik Nielsen was the brother of actor Leslie Nielsen who appeared in the 'Airplane' movies.

CF-AAM a Fokker Super Universal aircraft.

Editors' note: The Fokker Super Universal was an airliner produced in the United States in the late 1920's.

An enlarged and improved version of the Fokker Universal, fitted with cantilever wings and an enclosed cockpit. It was subsequently also manufactured under license in Canada.

A restored Fokker Super Universal is at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The full story of CF-AAM is available at:
www.explorenorth.com/library/aviation/cfaam-fokker-2001

And finally, a photo of two unidentified gentlemen standing in front of "Yukon King".

Editor's note from Ken Pickford:

The aircraft is a Barkley-Grow T8P-1 operated by CP predecessor Yukon Southern Air Transport. It was registered CF-BMG and named "Yukon King".  You can see part of the name on the fuselage.

Additional Info: Damaged beyond repair after overturning at its mooring in Port Alberni, B.C. February 1, 1947.

Source: Canadian Pacific Air Lines Its History and Aircraft by D. M. Bain.

Also see NetLetter #1362 for Wayne's Wings article about Yukon Southern Air Transport.