Deanna (Dee) Brasseur is one of the first women to be trained as a Canadian Forces pilot.

Dee joined the military in 1972. After months of listening to the dental drills as the administration clerk in the Dental Clinic, Dee decided she was not “Being all that she could be,” and applied for a commission. Her posting to North Bay as an Air Weapons Controller put her in contact with many pilots and several jet aircraft and after two orientation rides in 1978 Dee started taking lessons to obtain her private pilot license.

Shown is an image of a special issue stamp celebrating her achievements. When the military started a trial program for women pilots in 1979, Dee was one of four women selected for the program. Following wings graduation in 1981 Dee became the first and only female instructor.

However not until her remarkable emergency forced landing following an engine failure at night, did she feel truly accepted by her male colleagues. In 1988 at age 35 she was one of two women accepted for fighter pilot training. Again in the public eye, and constantly compared with young men, Dee excelled. After completing the training, she was posted to 416 Squadron Cold Lake, AB where she flew her “dream” – the CF-18 Hornet!

In 1994, after 21 years, Dee retired from the Canadian Armed Forces.

(Source: canadian99s.com)

More information on Major Brasseur at Wikipedia, YouTube and the Ottawa Citizen

Missinippi Airways -

One of the oldest air charter services in Northern Manitoba has been operating from its base in The Pas, Manitoba with offices in Winnipeg, Thompson, Norway House and Pukatawagan since 1989. Missinippi Airways serves all First Nations communities in Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nunavut.

Missinippi Airways is able to accommodate business leaders, the government as well as the private sector for air ambulance, corporate shuttles and executive charters with fast, safe and reliable air charter services.

During the recent "Women in Aviation" week, Captain Robyn Shlachetka and First Officer Raven Beardy were flying medevac operations. The pair made Manitoba history that week when they became the province's first female indigenous medevac team.

(Source: CTV News)

Italo Zalloni has sent us this photo with the title CP Air Eastern Region 1972 Sales Achievement Award.

After the cash registers had been emptied and the figures credited a significant chapter in CP Air's 1972 success book could be credited to the airline's Eastern Canada Regional Sales and Customer Service staffs.

Recognition of these achievements was in the form of award certificates presented by W. D. Gordon, Director of Sales, North America. Team photo of the Eastern Canada Quota Champs shows: 

Back row (left to right): Frank Ward, Manager, Customer Service/Operations. Ottawa; Dieter Engesser, formerly Convention Sales, now Ontario Government, Frankfurt; Pierre Cos, Manager, Customer Service Reservations, Montreal; Ed Vanoosterhout, Assistant District Sales Manager, Ottawa; Bill Noorduyn, Charter Sales Manager, Eastern Canada; Umberto Terzolo, Assistant to Regional Manager; Peter Chettle, Product Manager, Convention and Vacation Sales Development, Vancouver; Italo Zalloni, Assistant District Sales Manager, Montreal and Ralph Sharp, Manager Customer Service Reservations, Toronto.

Second row (left to right): George Neufeld, Eastern Canada Group Coordinator, Toronto; Rene Syrenne, District Sales Manager, Ottawa; B. H. Eckert, District Sales Manager, Central Ontario; Clare Ash, Sales Promotion Manager, Eastern Canada; Phil King, Manager of Sales Promotion, Vancouver; Bill Slean, District Sales Manager, Toronto; Bob Bergen, Manager, Advertising North America, Vancouver and Fred Sittman, Acting District Sales Manager, Western Ontario.

Front (left  to right) : Marc Bilodeau, Sales Manager, Quebec and Maritimes; Lloyd Brown, Regional Sales Manager, Eastern Canada, Toronto; W. D. Gordon, Director of Sales, North America, Vancouver and Jack Egan, Manager, Customer Service/Operations, Toronto.

The photos of the flight attendant insignias submitted by Jean Downie in NetLetter #1385 has prompted Doug Seagrim to send us this information and photo. 

The latest edition showed some flight attendant pins from the 1960’s. Thought you might be interested in these which I sent to Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

Doug Seagrim

Air Canada NAVI magazine was launched in March 2017.

On the left we have the July cover page. 

Below is a photo of the crew. Christine Lyon, Nathalie Karkouti, Veronique Gauthier, Michael Gladstein, Navneet Kaur, Veronique Poulin, Stephanie Haas, Brock Besley, Lina Matossian and Jamie Fox.

Although Trans-Canada Air Lines (Atlantic) Ltd. did not officially take over from the Government the responsibility for the Atlantic route until May 1, 1947, operations were actually begun on April 15th with DC-4M Mark I aircraft.

During the twelve months to April 15, 1948, the service completed 957 crossings.

(Source: Flightglobal/archive 1948-0553)

In 1939, Trans-Canada Air Lines (Atlantic) Ltd. is acting as its own general contractor in the construction of the Company's hangar at Moncton, N.B., in preparation for the extension of the flying route eastwards from Montreal. Tenders received were higher than the cost of hangars built by Trans-Canada Air Lines at other airports. Sub-contracts have been awarded, and work is already under way. Extension of the Winnipeg hangar has been completed, and it is expected that the hangar at St. Hubert, Montreal, will be completed before winter sets in. Trans-Canada Air Lines is co-operating with the Canadian Department of Transport in the construction of the apron and the runway in front of the building at St. Hubert.

With the return to Standard Time, Trans-Canada Air Lines has made changes in its time-tables. The trans-Continental planes now leave Montreal daily at 9 p.m., Ottawa at 10 p.m. and Toronto at 10.30 p.m., arriving Vancouver 11.34 a.m. Pacific time the following day. Eastbound planes take off from Vancouver at 6.15 p.m., arriving Montreal 12.05 p.m.

(Source: Flightglobal/archive 1939-1151)

J.E.T. Training course

This photo was sent to Jack Morath at LHR for showing at this year’s LHR Pionairs Christmas party.

The photo is of the LHR Commissary's project team in the J.E.T. training programme that came up with a better approach to the tedious job of inserting cutlery and condiments in cellophane bags – they process almost half a million each year

Team members are, from the left: Balbir Singh, Percy Davidson, Eva Riley, Dick Summeral, John Wallace and Terry Mills.

In response, Jack sent this information -

FYI regarding the JET programme, I was responsible for it here in LHR as I did a course in Texas with half a dozen colleagues from around the system. Commissary came up best with the programme. No other Managers gave it their support so it really didn't get off the ground.

The course was two weeks in Dallas and one of the best courses I had done whilst at Air Canada. All about 'how to work smarter not harder' was the course name and I learnt a lot from it has had an influence on my life I have to admit. The gentleman who ran the course was in Intelligence in the navy during the Second World War, and invited me to stay with his family during part of the course.

Jack

A day in the Winnipeg Call Centre.

Of the five call centers, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Saint John, the one in Winnipeg was chosen for a visit by the "Horizons" team. The day was organized by Maria Weir, Customer Sales and Service Agent and a L.O.U. 16. We have these photos of those interviewed for the article.

On June 1, 2009, service to Geneva was inaugurated, from Montreal. Prior to boarding the inaugural flight YUL-GVA, the In-Flight crew took time for a photo.

Left to right: Flight Attendants Diane Béchard, Hélène Roy, Mélanie Mailloux, Natalie Couet; Service Director Pierre Fournier and Flight Attendant Pierre Carpentier.

Ready to greet passengers on the inaugural flight GVA-YUL, on June 2, 2009 is the crew:

Left to right: Service Director Carlos Vasco, Flight Attendants, Eric Young, Pascal Leroy, Captain Chris Powell, Flight Attendants Micheline Boucher (front), Francine Landry, Frank Kervoelen and First Officer Karen Mundell.

Leo Dana has sent us this request for help-

Thank you for an interesting web page. Did CP use a DC-10-10 on the route YMX-AMS in 1987? I wrote so in my notes in 1987 but now I wonder whether I made an error?
(Anyone out there with the answer that we can pass along to Leo? - eds)

Our in-house expert, Ken Pickford answered this question while proofing this issue.

Re the question, 3 domestic model DC-10-10's were leased from United Airlines as part of an exchange deal that saw 3 of CP's long-range DC-10-30's go to United for about 4 years in early to mid-1983, after UA was awarded the Seattle-Hong Kong nonstop route but had no aircraft in their fleet with enough range to operate it. United was also awarded Seattle-Tokyo about the same time. Those were UA's first long range international routes. Their 747-100's could handle SEA-TYO but not SEA-HKG.

CP used the 3 UA DC-10-10's on transcon and some shorter international routes such as Toronto-Amsterdam and Montreal (then Mirabel/YMX)-Amsterdam, which were about the limit of their range. They were returned to UA (and the -30s were returned to CP) in mid-1987. Whether they actually operated YMX-AMS during those first few months of 1987 I don't know.

Although painted in CP's orange livery, the 3 UA DC-10-10's retained their US registrations (N1834U, N1836U, N1837U) during that exchange deal, and the 3 CP DC-10-30's operated by UA retained their Canadian registrations (C-GCPF/G/H).

Ken Pickford

Dominion Skyways was formed in February 1935 and commenced scheduled service between Montreal and Rouyn on May 3, 1937. Below is the timetable issued May 18, 1938.
(from the collection of Bjorn Larsson).

The prototype Norseman, CF-AYO, first flew on November 14, 1935, powered by a Wright R-975-E3 Whirlwind. Delivered to Dominion Skyways, Rouyn, Quebec January 18, 1936.

The aircraft was named “Arcturus”, and was hired by Warner Brothers in the summer of 1941 for the filming of “Captains Of The Clouds” in the North Bay area of Ontario and carried temporary registration CF-HGO during the filming. More about the film from NetLetter #1374.

(Source: www.norsemanhistory.ca/Aircraft.htm)

Wardair cancels Amsterdam flights

Wardair Canada Ltd., a unit of Wardair International Ltd of Edmonton says it has cancelled all planned flights between Canadian points and Amsterdam for the 1983 summer season because Dutch authorities rejected Wardair's fare levels.

The company said that Dutch civil aviation authorities "insist that we don't charge any fares lower than CP Air or KLM."

(Source: AC Horizons" Jan 1983)

From the "FlashInfo" magazine issue dated May 1987.

A lunchtime crowd of some 800 CPAL retirees and their spouses, the largest ever, celebrated their ninth annual reunion at the Hotel Vancouver on May 20. 1987.

We have this photo of Kenn Fraser of Vancouver who retired from CPAL Maintenance Planning in 1977 meeting with Bill Bryan the president of the PWA Retiree Association who retired in 1977 as Vice President, Tech. Services.

This photo, chatting with Sheldon Stoilen, has Pat Semple (left) who retired in 1964 after more than 35 years’ service, and Scotty Comack, who retired in 1973 with 44 years service.

Both Semple and Comack joined Western Canada Airways in January 1929 as aircraft maintenance engineers. 

In NetLetter #1374, we had an article regarding the "The Perfect Adventure" from Hugh MacCallum, and the PBY Catalina Canso which had planned to fly across Canada.
(See NetLetter #1386 for latest update)

The article asked for any feedback from our readers. Hugh has sent us this information -
The following NetLetter subscribers responded to my initial request via NetLetter #1374 dated September 11, 2017.

Hugh notes that in some instances he cut & pasted their notes and paraphrased in others.

George & Noreen Brien

“...before AC, as a teen age radio operator working at the Pine Tree radar site at Hopedale, NL. 55°27′59″N 060°13′47″W. He said that when the ice left the harbour, MCA-Maritime Central Airways did the resupply with Cansos from CYYR (Goose Bay)."

Charlie Burtch

“...in 1958 with CPA where the Canso operated Prince Rupert to Sandspit daily. The Canso would connect with the DC-6B at Sandspit for passengers destined Vancouver. Of course at that time Prince Rupert did not have a runway. We also operated a bus from Prince Rupert to Terrace airport for additional pax demand. YPR a/p built in 1961."

Hugh notes: (I put W. J. Cameron in touch with Charlie. I was in email conversation with both on the same day).

William Cameron

"...1955 -66 CPA’s YPR Radio operator-agent dispatcher. Then mgt positions worldwide with CPAL." Now at 88 - a fountain of info re: Cansos -especially CPA’s Cansos. Also active with CAHS."

Ken Clarke

"...nothing specific, xcept he knows about Martin Mars & various water bomber outfits in Alberta & NWT. "

Alan Evans

"...flew in the Canadian N.W and Arctic. In 1976 flew the last Catalina to take to the skies in Southern Africa."

Hugh notes - He sent me many photos of Sunderlands, Catalinas at South African WWII Indian Ocean bases.

Doug Fulton

“ in 1958 flying support for a mining exploration crew about 100 miles SW of Wabush, Labrador. A Canso operated by either Northern Wings or Wheeler Airways delivered fuel to our camp. Fermont, Quebec in same general vicinity - the city living in a protective wall."

Mike Nash

"He worked for either CPA or PWA at Prince George a/p. Currently a news writer, many aviation articles."

Chris Templeton

“Your name was given to me by Charlie Burtch on July 25th, 2017 regarding your experience with the RCAF, in particular - the CANSO. Charlie forwarded your story of the med evac (14 yr old boy & blasting cap) from Prince Rupert in RCAF Canso 11041 based at Sea Island."

Bernie McCormack chips in with this memory -

My recollection of the Canso and the PBY was that the US original was a boat only and the Canso was a (Canadian designed) amphibious. (wheels). Bernie, I had better do a little more research. Original production model - PBY-1 Sept. '36 to June '37, 60 built. Named after Catalina Island. (California South coast).

PBY 5A 1941-1945 Ongoing modifications including Hydraulically actuated, retractable tricycle landing gear 802 built. Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso.

A version of the PBY-5A Catalina, this aircraft was built in 1944 for the Royal Canadian Air Force. PBV-1A Canadian Vickers built version of the PBY-5A, 380 built including 150 to the Canadian Air Force and the rest to the USAAF as the OA-10A. Total Canadian built Catalinas/Cansos - 620

Stuart Russell has sent this information to complement that which was in NetLetter #1385 -

Thanks for the updates. Always full of interesting stories.

Just wanted to let you know the photo of the Pacific Western Hercules in this issue is not of the first PWA Hercules aircraft or the original paint scheme for the time. CF-PWO MSN 4197 L100-10 was ordered in October 1966 and delivered in May 1967.

She was the first of six PWA painted aircraft and many leased ones as well. The photo shows CF-PWO at YZF during the spring of 1968. 

1967/1984 – 108 countries / 90,000 hours / 26 million miles / 800,000 tons of bulk cargo and fuel / a reputation second to none for ingenuity and performance.

Keep up the good work gents!

Thanks Stuart

At left is a Harbour Air timetable issued March 31, 1997 from the collection of David Zekria.

Harbour Air was founded in British Columbia in 1982. With two small De Havilland Beaver seaplanes and a plan to service the forest industry, Harbour Air began by offering private charters to log buyers visiting the coast.

With growing success and an increasing demand on both commuting and touring service, the company quickly expanded over the years adding daily, frequently scheduled flights between Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and Whistler.

After 35 years in business and more than 40 aircraft, the Harbour Air Group consisting of Harbour Air Seaplanes, Whistler Air and Saltspring Air has become one of the largest all-seaplane airlines in the world.

Embraer's tiger-liveried E190-E2 prototype, which starred in the Singapore air show's static display.

(Source: Flight International February 13, 2018)

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Ever wondered about the importation of an aircraft by Air Canada? The following story is from the "Parts & Pieces" magazine issue March 1990.

Anything to Declare?

Most of us have left Canada for a holiday in another country. We enter most foreign countries as a citizen of Canada without difficulty. But, when the trip is over, some of us sweat, smile or otherwise radiate sincerity when the "Welcome to Canada" greeting comes into view at airports, harbors and border crossings.

"Do you have anything to declare?"

Lillian McLean had an interesting answer to that question when asked recently by Canada Customs. She said, "Yes, I have our first Airbus A320 at Gate 5". "What is the value of an A320?", asked Canada Customs. Lillian replied, "$37,492,329.00."

At that point, serious business began to occur. The paperwork was organized while answering the other Canada Customs question, "How long have you been out of the country?" While she replied "This is a direct import from France."

The flow of documents started with a Canada Customs Invoice declaring the import of a "jet aircraft passenger transport new - non-military".

As the A320 crew were being cleared in the normal manner by regular Customs officers, LiIlian began submitting other originals of forms such as the Cargo Manifest which specifies the nature of goods accompanying the aircraft, "including the galley modification units and technical documentation. 

Finally, the Customs Cargo Control Document is handed over. The six-part form is distributed to several Federal Government agencies: Revenue Canada, Canada Customs Long Room and Statistics Canada. Most of us fill in our Canada Customs Declaration form on board our flight home.

Perhaps the next time you declare the sum of your purchases for duty exemption purposes you will think of Lillian who declares a new aircraft and contents without having left the country. A closing note must recognize the contribution made by many of Lillian's fellow employees, including the Maintenance people at the Terminal who verify ETA and assigned gate position for the incoming aircraft. Canada Customs people also appreciate her accuracy and attention to important details.

Thanks to all the members of the team, the task of importing a new, foreign-made Airbus A320 into Canada with a sincere smile is made to look easy.

Story by David Wood.

(Source: Parts & Pieces March 1990)