Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 80 date Aug 16th 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . Reminders - Vancouver Island Pionairs Up Island luncheon on Aug 29th at Kingfisher Oceanside Inn Courtenay Telephone area code for Vancouver Island and areas OUTSIDE the Lower Mainland will change from 604 to 250 effective Oct 19th ~-=o0o=-~ . Vesta sends along this information about visiting the Smithsonian - continued from Netletter nr 78 - WWII's displays include much more than just the aerial hardware, although that is impressively represented by a number of aircraft, including a Spitfire, a P-51 Mustang, a Hellcat, a P-40 Warhawk done up in the "shark's mouth" paint scheme of the Flying Tigers, and its principal opponent, a Mitsubishi Zero. But there's also a fascinating display case that features literally hundreds of ordinary items collected from US airmen who were stationed in England. The Museum's gift shop carries the book that is the companion to this exhibit: "Overpaid, Over-sexed and Over Here." The display includes tickets to shows, personal i.d. cards, music hall programs, letters, post cards, handwritten notes, ration coupons, civilian admission badges to base dances, photos, newspaper clippings. The whole effect is like opening someone's long-forgotten attic trunk and having this enormous pile of the ordinary bits of service life spill out in front of you. You can easily spend an hour reading this one display alone. There is memorabilia from Jimmy Doolittle, Clair Chennault (who commanded the Flying Tigers) and Richard Bong, the quintessential blonde->haired, blue-eyed, boy-next-door American Ace who survived the War only to die testing an experimental aircraft shortly thereafter. There is no B-17 Flying Fortress, the workhorse bomber of the US Eighth Air Force, but aviation artist Keith Ferris fulfilled a commission to provide the Museum with the next best thing. The backdrop for the Hall that houses the Spitfire, Mustang and Zero is a 1:1 scale mural painting that features a flight of B-17's coming right at you. I read an interview with Ferris some time ago and he said he took as his starting point the wall itself, where he positioned the perspex nose of the lead bomber, in exactly the size it would be if it were parked in the room. Everything else in this spectacular painting is scaled back from there in both size and perspective and, if you can forget you're standing in a Museum, you can easily imagine yourself in the tailgunner's position of the bomber immediately in front of this one. The sky is filled with vapour trails, dozens of other B-17's sharing this mission, and the much smaller dots of the "little friends," the fighter escort that is flying cover for you. The jet age receives at least equal time. Besides Gary Powers' U-2 and Yeager's Bell X-1, there's a Messerschmitt Me-262, the jet that was supposed to turn the whole war around for the Nazis; too few, too late, as it turned out. There's a post-war mission-scarred X-15 rocket plane that preceded NASA's manned capsule launches into Earth orbit and several other jets in which records for speed, altitude or endurance were broken. Even commercial aviation has its showcase. Right beside a display case featuring uniforms of several of the world's airlines, there's a DC-6 airliner cabin, which is set up with stairs at either end to allow you to walk through and compare today's cramped cabins with the comparative space luxury afforded passengers in the 1950s. I cringed when I saw how much polished wood was used in the interior - the storage compartment doors, armrests and table tops, for example, were all poised to fuel the first hint of fire. (Nowadays, of course, we all choke to death on the toxic chemical smoke that modern "fire-retardant" materials give off when they finally ignite.) Mail carrying, air racing (including a sleek aluminum machine designed and flown by Howard Hughes), even entertainment in the form of kites, ultra- lights and home-built replicas are all represented. Final chapter later - ~-=o0o=-~ . Found on the Internet - The 1st McDonnel Douglas MD90 for China Northern was delivered Aug 1st under co-production arrangement for 20 models. Canadi>n has sold Canadian Holidays to Trans A.T. The London England underground system is scheduled to be hit by labour dispute on Aug 27th, Sept 5th and 9th. Vancouver International Air Races at Boundary Bay Airport on Sept 17th and 18th. ~-=o0o=-~ . Vesta sends the follow up to this Constellation saga - The text in this post is an abridged version of an article appearing on Etobicoke Life of July 31, 1996, relating the restoration and impending public display of a Connie by Philip Yull, of Mississauga, Ontario. The airplane will be parked in front of the Regal Constellation Hotel at Dixon Rd. and Carlingview Drive. The self-confessed airplane nut is hoping there are others like him - people that will pay to take a peak inside the 63-seat aircraft, which is one of only a handful of Constellations remaining. Soon to be Etobicoke's newest landmark, it was trucked into town [in June] and is being pieced together by a team of volunteer workers in a Derry Road hangar. Early Monday [Aug. 5] the 115-foot-long fuselage will be set gently on a flatbed truck and taken to the hotel at 900 Dixon Rd., where they will bolt on the wings. Mr. Yull plans to launch the plane Thursday, Aug. 22, when the doors will swing open for public view. He plans to make the plane available for tours, conferences and parties. Parked on hotel property with a long-term lease, the aircraft has cost the Mississauga man "a lot of money". But given it is one of only a few with an original cockpit and intact interior, Mr. Yull feels it is worth the expense and trouble of preserving a former "Queen of the skies". ~-=o0o=-~ . Constellation affectionadoes - From 'Touchdown' the British Airways Retirees magazine The 6th Lockheed Constellation L049 aquited by B.O.A.C. (now British Airways) was G-AKCE and its aquisition was unusual. B.O.A.C. bought this aircraft from TWA as NX54212, originally built Aug 4th 1945, who in turn had purchased it from an enterprising US serviceman who had fiddled the aircraft out of the US Military Air Transport. He arranged for a pilot friend to fly the aircraft into a field where it sat until the demand and price was right. The Chief Flying Instructor for B.O.A.C. at Dorval went and collected the aircraft from TWA and flew it back to Dorval. After many weeks of being checked and brought up to B.O.A.C. standards it was introduced into the B.O.A.C. fleet. Anybody remember this at Dorval? For you Dehavilland Commet affectionadoes - Seattle Museum of Flight is to restore the last D.H.Commet IVC (c/n 6424) in North America to the highest static display standards. ~-=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. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 79 date Aug 14th 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . Found on the Internet AA CALLS BACK LAST OF THE FURLOUGHED PILOTS American Airlines, faced with crew shortages and cancelled flights, said it will recall 376 furloughed pilots, the last of the 610 laid off in 1993 and 1994 who hadn't been offered their jobs back, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. In the last eight days of July, 185 flights were cancelled because of crew shortages, the airline said. AMELIA EARHART'S WORLD FLIGHT TO BE RE-CREATED At the EAA's Oshkosh Fly-In last week, aviator Linda Finch announced that she will follow the route flown by Amelia Earhart on her final flight in 1937, in the same make and model of aircraft -- a Lockheed Electra 10 E -- and complete the round-the-world trip with a crew of two. "Personal Request of the Chief Pilot..Vesta And I would like all of our subscribers to send me via my Internet E- Mail address 'anything but anything' that they find about this flight until it is successfully finished." USAIR SUES "TWO-TIMING" BRITISH AIRWAYS USAir went to court to try to force its partner British Airways to stop its pursuit of an alliance with American Airlines, saying it would undermine USAir's competitive position and limit overall competition in U.S./U.K. markets. USAir says BA is violating the terms of a 1993 deal between the two airlines, when USAir unloaded valuable U.S.- London routes. American Airlines said its proposed alliance with British Airways "respects USAir's rights in every way and is extraordinarily pro-competitive." FEELING CROWDED? TRY THE NORTH POLE For the jaded traveller who's seen it all, Forum Travel International offers a trip guaranteed to show you a new perspective on the wide open spaces. You are flown to Siberia, where a helicopter takes you to a Russian air base at the edge of the polar ice cap. Then the fun starts: You climb into an airplane, cinch down your parachute, fly north till the pole beckons, and out the door you go. Only you won't be the first-- this year, 125 people paid $8,900 to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet to say they parachuted onto the North Pole. ... OR, FOR THE FAINT OF HEART If the North Pole is not your cup of ice tea, a gentler time is offered by Barnstorming Adventures in San Diego. You can climb aboard a 1920 iplane, don your helmet, scarf and goggles and swoop, climb, soar, roll and -- as the brochure claims -- "dive on enemy tanks cleverly camouflaged as cows." All for only $268. ~-=o0o=-~ . Bill Sim of the Montreal Pionairs sends the following finformation - 1996 Air Canada System Golf Tournament. Dates: September 15,16,17, 1996. Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, Box 10 Fairmont Hot Springs, BC V0B 1L0 Phone (604)345 6311 or 1 800 663 4979. Entry Fee Golfers C$330.00 Non-Golfers C$150.00 Resort charges for Sunday, Monday,and Tuesday. C$80.00 per room per night- single or double occupancy (plus PST & GST) *Rates are in effect: September 11-19 inclusive. Deadline for entries Wednesday August 28,1996. For more information: D.B. Murray, Secretary-Treasurer Air Canada System Golf Committee P.O. Box 470 Dartmouth Nova Scotia Canada B2Y 3Y8 or D.B. Murray Airport Operations, (AC Mail) Halifax 392 ~-=o0o=-~ . Tom Martin sends us the following article - L1011 news with an Air Canada connection: Some of you may remember that we had a Technical Services Agreement with Aero Peru. Initially they operated 3 leased Air Jamaica DC8s and we supported them with a team of Maintenance and Supply people in Miami under the late Al Turner, and their pilots received at least some training from Flight Ops. These old 8s were returned to Air Jamaica and replaced by two ex Pacific Southwest Airlines L1011s leased from Lockheed, which we serviced for a while. These were specially designed for PSA with a lounge below the main cabin where normally there was a forward cargo compartment. According to an article in Airways magazine, one of these airplanes was brought out of desert storage and bought by evangelist Pat Robertson's group, and after a $14.5 million mod program it has been converted to a Flying Hospital and has an STC by the FAA as a cargo aircraft. It has 3 surgical stations, a dental treatment area, an ear, nose and throat and opthamologic care centre, a pre/post op area that can accomodate 24 people, and in the lower deck, a pharmacy and patient check in check out station, and is capable of carrying enough medicine to treat 200,000 people. Quite a change from flying Miami-Lima. -|- o-o-O-o-o- " ' " . 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. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 78 date Aug 12th 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . News from the Montreal District Pionairs 'Sentinel' quarterley - Items of interest from the AGM - The fees for our travel insurance will be reduced 10% for those under 60 years of age, and by 5% for those 60 and over. Our present pension fund is valued at C$3,590,000,000.00 with a 14% return on asset. At the upcoming Air Canada Pionairs' Day at the Montreal Olympic stadium, Air Canada President Lamarr Durrett will throw out the first ball, Pionair Leo-Paul Rodrique will sing the National Anthems. All on August 11th. Plans have been finalized for the Halloween Lunch on Thursday 31st Oct, all Pionairs are invited to join for a casual lunch at Casa Grecque Restaurant at 1459 St.Martin Blvd West in Laval. Call Real Henri at 697-5405 for details. Bill Sim led a group of Pionairs through the Dorval Base recently to visit various shops and hangers and to catch up with old friends still working. Sept 17th is set for the Autumn Walk and Picnic in the Park at Bois de l'Ile Bizard. Call Real Henri 697-5405 or Bill Sim 631-1435 for details. ~-=o0o=-~ . Found on the Internet Continental MD80 with 127 passengers landed safely at Houston after fire broke out in the galley. Those hamburgers again! A passenger fought the crew forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing with no injuries reported on the United Airlines flight. ValuJet aims to be airborne by month end. North Korea is to open its skies to allow overflight by the worlds airlines. A Japanese trading company has ordered 22 Boeing B737-800 jets. ~-=o0o=-~ . More interline tours - Airline employees, retirees, parents & companions sharing - Starting Sept 1st to Dec 14th Ho Chi Minh City - 7 days from US$1249 Bali, Indonesia - 8 days from US$759 Bali, Yogyakarta & Jakarta from US$1399 Departs Los Angeles, includes positive space Garuda International price pp dble. US Customs and departure tax extra. Visa for Ho Chi Minh at US$55. Call 1-800-422-3727 for details. ~-=o0o=-~ . Vesta sends along this information about visiting the Smithsonian - If you enter the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum by the front door, it seems entirely appropriate that the first thing you see is the Wright Flyer, suspended directly above you. Unlike Canada's National Aeronautical Collection, which has a pristine replica of the Silver Dart, Canada's first powered flying machine, the Smithsonian's Flyer is, apparently, the actual machine which lifted off the sands that 1903 day at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, launching us into the era of powered flight. The same entrance gallery - Milestones of Flight - also showcases the Apollo 11 command module which brought Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins safely back to Earth. Wrapped in a clear plastic bubble, the capsule is sitting on a floor display stand and provides a superb view of the atmosphere-blasted heat shield. The Voyager, the first aircraft to circle the globe non-stop without refuelling, is there. Slim and slender, her dimensions stretch forever, it seems. There's a video display nearby which shows Voyager in flight and her wings are so light, they actually bow upwards, a deliberately planned design feature to gravity-feed fuel from every square inch of the wing's interior to the aircraft's engines. Directly above Voyager is the Gossamer Condor, the bicycle with wings, wrapped entirely in Saran Wrap, whose incredibly athletic pilot completed the difficult requirements laid out to stake successfully his team's claim to the "first fully man-powered flight." Far overhead is Glamorous Glennis, the bright red Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager was flying the first time a human being broke through the sound barrier. And right next to her is the Spirit of St Louis, Charles Lindbergh's Ryan monoplane. Lindbergh's only forward view was through a periscope, a requirement created by the need to accommodate the enormous gas tank required for his flight. When you get up to the floor where you can stand level with the cable-suspended Ryan, you can almost, but not quite, touch it. Of all the aircraft there, Lindbergh's - perhaps because so much tragedy followed his aviation milestone - seems to exude the most mystique. It's such a frail-looking thing that I found myself wondering not only how this machine accomplished the task of carrying a man across the Atlantic in 1927, but what in God's name would possess someone to commit his body and soul to its claustrophobic cockpit confines for so long. The Museum pays a lot of attention to space exploration. There's a full-scale model of Robert Goddard's first rocket; an actual V-1 and V-2 captured from the Nazis at the end of WWII; an unapologetic account of the process by which Wehrner von Braun was brought to White Sands after the War to develop the US Space Program; a full tour through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo; and a docked Apollo/Soyuz combination that exemplifies the links between the US and Soviet programs. Skylab 1 apparently had a fully functioning back-up, Skylab 2.When 1 managed to find a stable orbit, 2 was shipped to Washington for incorporation into the Smithsonian's exhibit. Even the Arms Limitation treaty gets a nod with a side-by-side exhibit of a US Pershing and a Soviet something-or-other missile, both of which were stood down as a result of the Treaty. If you're an aviation buff of any era, you'll find something to love in this Museum. World War I's exhibit includes a Sopwith Snipe, a SPAD (favoured by Eddie Rickenbacker) and a German Albatros. The Museum also acknowledges the populism which arose around the Red Baron with a wonderful display of Red Baron merchandise going all the way back to when Snoopy was first wrapped in WWI flying ace goggles in the Schulz comic strip, Peanuts. Many of the hundreds of games, toys and books which have since borne the name are featured in this sideshow. More next time - ~-=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. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 77 date Aug 5th 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .Found on the Internet - London, England - LCY is London's fifth airport, after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London Luton, and is the newest and smallest of all. It is located in the London Docklands some 10km (six miles) east of the City of London, its main catchment area. The 16 airports which are served from LCY. Amsterdam, Antwerp, Augsburg (near Munich), Berne, Brussels, Cologne/Bonn, Dublin, Dusseldorf Express, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lugano, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Rotterdam and Zurich. It is reasonably easy to get to the airport by public transport, though there is no train service direct to the single terminal. The North London rail line operates to Silvertown, but it's a six-minute walk along public roads to get to LCY which is not impressive (what if it's raining or if you have luggage). There is the Docklands Light Railways, an unmanned service which originates from Bank in the City of London, which can be used to travel to Canary Wharf from which a "Yellow Route" shuttle bus takes you to LCY for two pounds. From Liverpool St Station on the edge of the City of London, a "Red Route" shuttle bus operates to LCY at a cost of four pounds. Lastly, the 473 bus operates between Stratford and LCY. Other attractive features of the airport include a minimum check-in of 10 minutes for all airlines, a minimum connecting time of just 30 minutes, only five minutes from aircraft arrival to terminal exit and the car park just a 2-minute walk away. Once inside the terminal, the first thing that many people will see is the desk of Serviceair, one of the UK's biggest airline handling agents. At LCY, they are the sales agents for nine of the airport's 11 scheduled passenger airlines, namely Business Air (II), World Airlines (W2), Denim Air (2D), SABENA (SN), Air Engiadina (RQ), Air France (AF), Crossair (LX), Air JET (BC) and Augsburg Airways (IQ). The other airlines are VLM (VG) and Virgin Atlantic CityJet (VS). An interesting feature of Air JET (BC) systems, ie the use of a smartcard which is swiped though a machine to give the passengers access to the VIP lounge - no traditional paper tickets or boarding passes are issued. If too many passengers turn up for a flight, then Air JET has on standby another aircraft to take passengers to Paris (CDG). As for the future, three more carriers will soon be coming to LCY. Firstly, Air UK (UK), will operate a return service to Amsterdam using BAe 146s. Secondly, Swedish carrier Malmo Aviation (6E) operating a BAe 146 to Malmo Sturup which enables easy connections to Stockholm. And thirdly, ALITALIA (AZ) will launch a service to Milan in September. ~-=o0o=-~ . Here is another story from Charles Mackie about his CGTAS days in Lancastrians - Snow in Bermuda. Just before Christmas 1945, our crew under Captain Bob Bowker were getting ready for a trip from Prestwick to Montreal. Due to weather, this would be via the Azores and Bermuda. The plan was to stay overnight in the Azores, and then Bermuda. We did eight and half hours to the Azores and decided to keep going after refuelling ourselves and the aircraft. We encountered a severe thunderstorm midway between the Azores and Bermuda. The tops of the cloud looked 30,000 feet up. Rather than go around, the captain decided to go underneath. We were down to 150 foot and could see the white caps of the waves below. The all of a sudden we were out of it and continued to Bermuda without further incident. As the crew was anxious to get home for Christmas we decided to continue. Also it had snowed in Bermuda and the Quonset hut with small stove did not look inviting. So we refuelled and headed North for the four and a half hour flight to Montreal. The weather was clear and the flight was going without problems, so I decided to get my head down for a bit of a snooze. I woke up over Maine, dead on course for Montreal. I looked around and the navigator, pilot and first officer were also having a snooze, the whole aircraft was flying on automatic pilot. The long hours without sleep had gotten the better of us. I got on the intercom and woke up the crew, they all woke up with a start. Shortly after we began our decent into Montreal. Home for Christmas. _|_ -o-o-O-o-o- " ' " . 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. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................