Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Larry Milberry has put together a blog named 'The Great Lockheed Twins' and can be followed at canavbooks.wordpress.com.

We have, with permission from Larry, some of the photos and story of those aircraft which ended up at Trans-Canada Air Lines.

CF-TDE.

The first Lockheed Lodestar that I ever photographed, CF-TDE of Southern Provincial Airlines, was based at Toronto Island Airport when I shot it there on September 26, 1959. 

Having joined Trans-Canada Air Line (TCA) in October 1942, it later served BA Oil as CF-BAO (a previous CF-BAO was converted to the later Learstar), then reverted to CF-TDE when sold to Canadian Aircraft renters, the parent company to Southern Provincial.

This company then was searching for a 'raison d'être' as a small charter airline, but soon realized that this market did not yet exist. CF-TDE was sold in 1960 into the US as N9063R, then moved on to Peru to work in aero photography.

Editors' Note: CF-TDE Lockheed Lodestar 18-08A-200 delivered to TCA on October 3, 1942 assigned fin# 52, sold to Nickel Belt Airways on April 6, 1948 after 12,798 hours of service.

Source: A Pocket Guide by Frank Pooley

Below left, in 1938, George Lothian and Gordon Haslett, first and second pilot on the TCA service between Vancouver and Seattle, were the first of TCA's pilots to wear the new uniform.

Below right, TCA's first stewardesses in 1938: Lucile Garner and Pat Eccleston.

Source: Edmonton Journal Friday September 30, 1938

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Here we have a photo of the front end crew for the Montreal - Tel Aviv inaugural flight.

Left to right: Captain Lyle Gainsford, First Officer Mario Gagné and First Officer Jean-François Boucher getting ready for the take-off to Dorval’s newest destination - Tel Aviv.

During a recent visit to our Houston station, Lamar Durrett, President and CEO met with employees and presented 5-year anniversary pins to Customer Service Agents Dana Woods and Robert Cassidy.

Pictured here are from left to right: David Ray, Manager, Customer Service; Customer Service Agents Robert Cassidy, Desna Francis and Colleen Boyd; Lamar Durrett, President & CEO; Andrea Higgins, Administrative Assistant; Dennis Lerchacher, Aircraft Services Coordinator; Customer Service Agents, Ali Hakim and Dana Woods.

In Quebec City, Pauline Jean celebrated 30 years of service.

Left to right, front row: Marc Julien, Len Greenner, Pauline Jean, Wilfred Hachey, Gary Doucet and Jacques Belleau.

Back row: Sylvain Jobin, Michel Cote, Line Robinson, Michel Tétreault, Claude J. Dufour and Normand Manville (hidden).

In 1998, these three Thunder Bay employees received their service awards: Byron Halliday, Customer Sales & Service Agent, 30 years; Dave Fernie, Cargo Agent, also 30 years and Roger Phillips, Lead Station Attendant, 25 years.

Congratulations to the following employees from In-flight Service in Vancouver who, during 1998, recently celebrated 35, 30 or 25 years of service.

Front to back: Joyce Wasylik, Barbara Buchanan, Ruth Daley, Joann Noonan, Victoria Johnstone, Rick Darcy, Paulette Couture, Jindy Melvin, Mary Wold, Dara Coughlin, Colette Loslier, Norma Gillan, Nora Wilson, Mary McMullen, Sigrun Cowan, Sandra Tonello-Greenfield, Helga Noll, Andy Noll, Dario Rossi, Siri Moore, Trevor Thomas, Paulette Cloutier, Marilyn Blusson, Steve Chadwick, Diane Brown, Linda Smith, Ray Duford, Lyn Arnason, Lynn Groberman, Penny Burke, Ida Carter, Anita Tadeuszow, Suzanne Schultz, Nathalie Jaune, Anne Swift, Michelle Meakin, Dinah Zimmerman, Lucienne Smiley, Gail Grancis, Virgina Malloch, Lilly Flather, Margaret Huber, Paulette Winter, Gunilla Kay, Sandra Allaire-Swan, Claudette Turgeon, Olivera Formby, Andrea Elsey, Cathy Zanen and Chris Dubeau, General Manager, In-Flight Service, West.

Story by Wayne Albertson (with additional details by Ken Pickford)  -

It's always a treat when we see a familiar name as a new subscriber to 'The NetLetter'.

So I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Eunice Robinson (pictured below),  who's name brings back memories of the Air Canada / Canadian Airlines merger back in 2001. Eunice was working within Corporate Real Estate at Canadian's YVR Ops Centre at the time while we were a small group working in the Air Canada 'Stores' warehouse.

I remember Eunice (who cannot ever be considered shy) coming into our warehouse to introduce herself and welcome us before our move over to the Ops Centre. 

My next surprise (though it should not have been) was finding out what she has been up to since her retirement. She has been involved with the Sea Island Heritage Society since its beginning back in 1995 (an eventful year) and is currently serving as the president.

For those who may not be familiar with British Columbia's 'Lower Mainland", Sea Island in the 2nd largest island (after Lulu Island) that make up the city of Richmond (south of Vancouver). Sea Island is also the location of Vancouver International Airport.

One of the most fascinating historical facts is that Boeing built a manufacturing plant (pictured in this issue's header) on Sea Island, to support Canada's involvement in the war, in 1939, initially employing 175 people. The plant most notably produced PBY Catalina flying boats and amphibians. The Catalina was known as 'Canso' by the Royal Canadian Air Force and subsequent commercial operators in Canada, which included Canadian Pacific Airlines.

After World War II the former Boeing Canada plant became the maintenance base and home of many other departments of Canadian Pacific Airlines. Part of the Boeing plant also became the maintenance base for Pacific Western Airlines.

CP Air began moving in stages to the current (now Air Canada) Ops Centre on its completion in 1969/70. The only part of the former Boeing plant still standing is a separate hangar structure at the east end which was once the PWA maintenance base. A new hangar built by CPA adjacent to the ex-Boeing facilities for the new turbo-prop Bristol Britannia, 8 of which were delivered in 1958/59, is also still standing. It held two Britannias. Long after the DC-8 replaced the Britannia starting in 1961, the hangar was still referred to as the "Britannia hangar."

Boeing also built a community on the island to house its employees. 'Burkeville' was named after Stanley Burke, the then President of Boeing Aircraft in Canada, and still exists as a landmark today amid the constant growth of YVR. 

Sea Island's rich history is far too vast to chronicle here so we strongly recommend visiting their web site (click the image below) where you can get lost for a while. 

Additional information at:
www.yvr.ca/en/blog/2019/boeing-canada-centennial-anniversary

See 'Wayne's Wings' below for some personal memories of Sea Island. 

Editors' Note: The Sea Island Heritage Society was set to hold its first Sea Island reunion on May 30, 2020. They had rescheduled to May 2021, but unfortunately Covid-19 had other ideas.

In the hope that 2022 is a better year, the reunion has been tentatively rescheduled for May 28, 2022. 

Click Here for up to date info:
www.seaislandhome.org/sea-island-reunion.html

In Netletter #1470 we published the photograph below that has been posted on the PWA Employees Facebook page by Paul Peron. 

We wish to thank subscriber Stu Russell who contacted us to advise the the names of the group of pilots and to add a few personal comments:

This photo from the 1950’s shows 5 Pacific Western Airlines pilots in Resolute Bay.

They are from left to right: 

Captain Jack Magel, Captain Doug Haney, Captain Robin Mackie, Captain Hank Debarnardo and Captain Ken Rausch. 

They were a special breed of aviators who flew Ansons, DC-3’s, C- 46’s and other assorted aircraft from the era that were utilized by Pacific Western to help build the Distant Early Warning line across the high arctic in the 1950's.

They went on to fly Boeing 737, 727, 707, and/or Lockheed L100 Hercules aircraft throughout their colourful aviation careers. 

It did not seem right to have a classic 70 year old photo without their names attached; they deserve the recognition. 

Special thanks to Alan Philpott in Edmonton for assisting with the names.

Regards,
Stu Russell