Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter
Since 1995 Saturday, September 14, 2024
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C-FTOB in Wardair livery
May 7, 1989 at Calgary Photo by Steve Aubury |
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Dear Welcome to The NetLetter, established in 1995 as a dedicated newsletter for Air Canada retirees.
We have evolved into the longest running aviation-based newsletter for Air Canada, TCA, CP Air, Canadian Airlines and all other Canadian-based airlines that once graced the skies. The NetLetter is self-funded and is always free to subscribers. It is operated by a group of volunteers and is not affiliated with any airline or associated organizations. The NetLetter is published on the second and fourth weekend of each month. If you are interested in Canadian aviation history, and vintage aviation photos, especially as it relates to Trans-Canada Air Lines, Air Canada, Canadian Airlines International and their constituent airlines, then we're sure you'll enjoy this newsletter. Please note: We do our best to identify and credit the original source of all content presented. However, should you recognize your material and are not credited; please advise us so that we can correct our oversight. Our website is located at www.TheNetLetter.net Please click the links below to visit our archives and for more info about The NetLetter. |
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 We have welcomed 79 new subscribers so far in 2024.
We wish to thank everyone for the continuing support of our efforts.
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 Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.
Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.
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We always welcome feedback about Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) from our subscribers who wish to share current events, memories and photographs.
Particularly if you have stories to share from one of the legacy airlines: Trans-Canada Air Lines, Canadian Airlines, CP Air, Pacific Western, Maritime Central Airways, Eastern Provincial, Wardair, Nordair, Transair, Air BC, Time Air, Quebecair, Calm Air, NWT Air, Air Alliance, Air Nova, Air Ontario, Air Georgian and all other Canadian based airlines that once graced the Canadian skies.
We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.
Thanks!
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The 41st World Airline Road Race will be held in Auckland, New Zealand
October 4 - 6, 2024.
Contact:
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CF-FUN on approach at London-Gatwick
July 1972
Photo by Richard Vandervord
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 Of the many airlines that have passed into Canadian aviation history, Wardair seems to be the most fondly remembered.
We have enjoyed watching the catalogue of well-crafted videos that have been posted over the years. Click the YouTube icon to view a list of videos for your enjoyment.
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See also a few past NetLetter feature stories on the Wardair legacy.
NetLetter #1336 - History of CF-FUN (pictured above), the only B-727 operated by Wardair.
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- 1985 - December 14 -
- Inaugural service between Toronto and St. Lucia begins with B-767 equipment (see below).
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Found in 'Horizons' magazine
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Issue dated January 1986
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Inaugural flight lands in St. Lucia.
There was snow on the ground outside Terminal Il on December 14, 1985, but passengers waiting for flight 964 out of Toronto were treated to sunshine in the form of orange juice, champagne and Danish pastry before boarding. The early morning repast was in honour of Air Canada's first scheduled flight into St. Lucia, en route to Port-of-Spain.
The crew comprised of: Captain E. Maslak, First Officer C. Cassidy, Purser Robert Brunet, Flight Attendants Bev Clark, Diane Brown, Alix McNeilly, Katerina Bosanac and Connie McElory.
In our photo Captain Maslak and his crew pose with a 15-foot fir tree presented as a Christmas gift to the children of St. Lucia.
John Buchanan, right, as District Manager, Barbados, held the responsibility of the St. Lucia operation.
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Meet Atlantic class of '85
Customer sales and service agents in the Maritimes greeted 13 new co-workers, who were hired to fill positions vacated through the retirement of several agents.
"It's the largest group we have trained for one city since May, 1973," says Don Mercer, Training and Development Supervisor, Atlantic Canada.
In the photo are, back row, left to right: Don Mercer, Doris Laviolette, Joan MacGuire and Ralph Mohammed, Training Instructor.
In the second row are, in the same order: Lisa Knight, Carolyn Kirk, Colette Flinn, Nancy Hall, Joan Buell and Theresa Burgess.
In the front row are, from the left: Cindy Lee Henry, Randy Moore and Astrid Martin.
Missing from the photo are: Mary Jane Banke and Heather Hayman.
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Bombay - always a night shift -
It's the middle of the night and Air Canada personnel at Sahar International Airport in Bombay are wide awake checking in passengers destined for London, England.
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Bombay & Singapore are one year old
 On January 15, 1985, inaugural flight 858 took off from Toronto proving that the airline was serious about capturing a share of the Bombay and Singapore markets.
One year later, many of the hopes and aspirations symbolized by that first flight have come true. Bombay and Singapore employees agree that in one short year Air Canada has firmly established itself in both cities.
Ingo Hirt, right, Airport Manager, Bombay, says goodbye to George Spence, District Maintenance Manager, Bombay, who returned to Scotland after being “loaned” to Bombay for a year.
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The Sales Office in the Oberoi Towers Hotel in Bombay is busy. On the right, the newest agent, Noshirwan Ranji prepares to handle customer requests.
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CP Air / Canadi>n People Gallery |
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Northwest Regional Airport Terrace-Kitimat (YXT)
Construction commenced in the Spring of 1943 as a military base. In 1946, administration of the airstrip passed from the DND to the DOT. In 1947, the permanent airport license was issued.
In 1956, the installation of portable lighting allowed night flying. During 1957–1959, the infrastructure was upgraded to mainline status. In 1968, a new terminal was erected.
In 1999, Transport Canada transferred ownership and control to the Terrace-Kitimat Airport Society and it celebrated its 25th year anniversary of private ownership on August 10, 2024.
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From CP Air News
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Issue dated January 1985
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Here we have some photos of Terrace-Kitimat airport from the CP Air News magazine issued January 1985.
The long, friendly relationship between CP Air and the Aluminum Company of Canada Kitimat works (served by Terrace airport) was cause for a celebration when Kitimat's Alcan works celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Below left - Jim Mutch, right, CP Air's director of Western Canada Services and Tom Laurie, Manager, Terrace presented a picture to Kitimat works manager Emery LeBlanc.
It depicts a CP Air DC-3, Convair 240, DC-6B and Boeing 737 on an aerial photo of the plant. The inscription reads "30 years of history in your skies."
Below right - We have Line Engineer Laird McCallum, technical expertise when it is needed.
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Below left - On duty at the airport are passenger agents Greg Clements and Dave MacDonald.
Below right - Doreen Goodwin, passenger agent who staffs the downtown City Ticket Office in Terrace.
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Purser Bill Hoffman and Flight Attendant Karen Watts welcome aboard the Empress of Terrace.
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A more recent photo at the airport with an Air Canada A320 on June 30, 2021.
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Photo of Customer Service Agent Teena Beckley working the check-in desk on August 10, 2024, the day the airport celebrated its 25th anniversary of being transferred to private ownership.
Photo by Terry Baker.
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Here we have a genealogy chart of Canadian Airlines and Pacific Western Airlines (Click the image for full size) -
Source: Special Canadian Airlines commemoration issue March 30, 1987
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From the 'Transition Times' magazine.
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Issue dated May 1994.
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While visiting the Far East, Kevin Jenkins, President and CEO visited Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo.
The resumption of service to Beijing was a welcome event for the employees in the Chinese capital.
Celebrating the event are, from the left; Vivan Yu, John Annet, Li Kang, May Wang, Grace Zhang, Katule Wang, President and CEO Kevin Jenkins, Terry Wang, Linda Shaw, Henry Man, Faustina Wang, Manuel Botelmo and Tom Yu.
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Participants of the second of three emergency coordinator courses include, sitting, from left to right: Frank Arsenault, Gord Camp, Ron Johnson, Val Blackwell, Michelle Dubeau,
Hoss Abbott, David James, Roger Harmon, Glen Powell, Rod Gyorkos, Darroch Quinn, Larry Johnson and Ken Dewerson.
Also, standing, from left to right: Juliet Marte, Geoff Hayes, Estelle Jacobsen, Rosanne Pruden, Joan Rudd, Rick Sedola, Kim Kilburn, Ken Mario, Larry Syvret, Randy Abel, John Orso and Suzie London.
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Issue dated January 1986
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CP Air changes name and colours.
CP Air is going back to its former name, Canadian Pacific, and adopting its former red, white and blue colors.
One DC-10 has already been repainted and the new color scheme will appear on the fleet over a three-year period, with newly acquired Eastern Provincial Airways planes among the first to be painted. The cost of the switch was being minimized by timing the painting to coincide with major maintenance work.
The main reason for abandoning the shorter CP Air name is the lack of public recognition abroad. The existing orange and red emblem will give way to a combination of 'sky' white, 'corporate' red and 'Pacific' blue, and the words 'Canadian Pacific' will be painted in 'corporate' grey.
Editors' Note: Obviously, many more changes were soon to follow!
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Walking through the mighty Martin Mars Air Tanker
The final flight of the Martin Mars to its new home at the British Columbia Aviation Museum received quite a bit of media attention and several new videos posted on YouTube.
While scrolling through these videos, we found one with a tour of the interior of the great aircraft posted by VMC Aviation.
This 'Hawaii Mars' (C-FLYL) video was taken September 10, 2015 at Sproat Lake SeaPlane Base on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
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Montréal–Mirabel International Airport (YMX) originally called Montréal International Airport, widely known as Mirabel and branded as YMX International Aerocity of Mirabel, is a cargo and former international passenger airport in Mirabel, Quebec, 39 km (24 miles) northwest of Montreal.
 It opened on October 4, 1975 and the last commercial passenger flight took off on October 31, 2004.
The main role of the airport today is cargo flights, but it is also home to medical evacuation flights and general aviation and is a manufacturing base for Airbus Canada, where final assembly of the Airbus A220 takes place (formerly Bombardier CSeries).
It was also the assemby site for the Bombardier CRJ regional jets until early 2021 when the last CRJ was produced. The CRJ business was sold to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. Mirabel airport is also the headquarters of charter airline Nolinor.
The former passenger terminal apron is now a racing course, and the terminal building was demolished in 2016.
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An end to Mirabel's (YMX) losing streak.
You’ve got to feel for the town of Mirabel.
First the Mirabel International Airport turns out to be a white elephant. Then, during the mid-2000's, projects so outrageous they should have been immediately recognized as unfeasible were announced for the Mirabel area, about 40 kilometres north of Montreal.
Thankfully for Mirabel, those plans to turn the old airport terminal into a type of theme park were abandoned years ago. So was the old Lac Mirabel project, off Highway’s exit 28, which would have invested $425 million project into a tourist and commercial complex, complete with a giant aquarium.
With U.S.-based Simon Property Group and its Canadian partners, now pledging to create an 80-store outlet centre on part of the old Lac Mirabel site, it would be fun to revisit some of those ‘what could have beens.’
Remember Reveport, or Aerodream? News reports from 2006 said French investors were planning to invest $100 million to turn Mirabel airport into a year-round “recreational multiplex” complete with a “beach, spa, fitness centre, conventional and high-tech theatres, discos, arcades, museum, exhibition hall, TV studio, shops, and restaurants.” Oh and let’s not forget the “giant aquarium, complete with acrylic tunnel that people could walk through to see the fish.”
The project would be viable with 800,000 visitors a year, reporters were told. In the end there were none.
AeroDream followed Lac Mirabel, a similar scheme announced in 2005 for 330,000 square feet of mini-lakes, a 140,000-square-foot aquarium with 20,000 different species, a nearly 100,500-square-foot spa, a 70,000- square-foot indoor city for children, a 500,000-square-foot sports complex and a 3,000-seat auditorium.
Straight-faced developers insisted that there would be no overlap between the two projects.
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C-FTOB Boeing 747-133 - Air Canada & Wardair
Always looking for aircraft with interesting lifecycles, I was quite surprised to find a Boeing 747 that flew in both Air Canada & Wardair livery.
Boeing line #121, CF-TOB was delivered to Air Canada on March 18, 1971. It was re-registered as C-FTOB (Fin #302) in 1978. It was sold to Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA) in 1983 and left the fleet.
After a few short term leases (as registration EI-BRR), it returned to Canada under its original registration (and fin #) with Wardair on October 28, 1986.
In keeping with Wardair's tradition of naming aircraft, it was named for World War 1 flying ace H. A. Doc Oaks.
It was acquired by ATASCO Leasing of the United States and leased to Federal Express in June 1990. However, as seen in the photo below, it does not seem to have undergone a cargo conversion. Actually, it returned to Canada, and passenger service, with charter operator Nationair in December 1992.
Its final registration was TF-ABR with wet-lease operator Air Atlanta Icelandic and it was primarily operated by Saudi Arabian Airlines.
It was withdrawn from service and stored at Marana Pinal Airpark in December 1999; it was broken up in 2003.
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CF- TOB - May 1971
at Toronto original Terminal 1
Photo by Russell Sutherland
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C-FTOB - May 14, 1989 at Calgary
Photo courtesy of Steve Aubrey
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N621FE - Federal Express - July 6, 1991 at Frankfurt
Photo courtesy of Danny Grew
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TF-ABR - Saudi Arabian Airlines - March 31, 1997 at Geneva
Photo courtesy of Marco Dotti
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| Terry's Trivia
& Travel Tips |
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Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.
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The final list of tails
Click the images for larger view.
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Answer to the tails in NetLetter #1540
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 Air Georgian was a privately owned charter airline based at Toronto Pearson International Airport that operated from 1994 until 2020.
Between 2000 and 2020 its main business was operation of certain Air Canada Express routes.
Air Georgian began as an airport developer in 1985. It began commercial operations in 1994 and subsequently developed its commercial air carrier business, which as of 2011 represented 87 percent of its total business.
In 1997 It became a code share partner of Canadian Airlines, operating under the banner of Ontario Regional.
In 2000 Air Georgian became a Tier III partner of Air Canada and operated as Air Alliance. Ceased operations in May 29, 2020, after a sale of its assets to Pivot Airlines.
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Images of Beechcraft 1900D C-GWGA in various liveries while operated by Air Georgian
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Canadian Airlines colours
Toronto - June 16, 2000
Photo by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
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Air Alliance colours
Montreal - July 7, 2008
Photo by Pierre Gillard
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Air Alliance colours
'Operated by Air Georgian' visible under the window
Hartford, Connecticut - May 25, 2009
Photo in Public Domain
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C-GWGA is currently operated by Sky Jet and flying for Air Liaison.
Photo by Pierre Gillard
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The RAPCAN News October 12, 1999
By Jim Griffiths
The bird strike stories reminded me of an incident that happened to my brother in Vancouver enroute to Victoria in a Viscount. They realized they'd hit bird on landing and asked if they could go out with the DOT truck to retrieve and identify the corpse.
It turned out to be a nice fat pheasant which had flown up and hit its head on the underside of the wing thus killing itself. The bird, except for a major head wound was otherwise in perfect condition.
With the approval of the DOT, the aircraft which had sustained no damage and crew proceeded to Victoria with the offending carcass and had the chef at the layover hotel prepare it for their dinner.
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Submitted by Caz Caswell from his Top Gun Air series - dated June 1993
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Wayne, Ken & Terry Richmond, British Columbia - December 2019
(Bob Sheppard was not available for the photograph) |
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Wayne, Bob & Ken Richmond, British Columbia - December 2023
(Terry Baker was not available for the photograph) |
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We wish to honour the memories of
Vesta Stevenson and Alan Rust. They remain a part of every edition published. |
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E&OE - (errors and omissions excepted):
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