Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter
Since 1995 September 28, 2024
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Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency Convair 580 - C-GSKR
Photo by Alex Praglowski |
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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 4,530 subscribers. We have welcomed 80 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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 Dreams Take Flight Winnipeg Chapter is holding a fundraising event on Wednesday, November 27, 2024.
Tickets can be purchased at French Way Cafe, 238 Lilac Street, Winnipeg.
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 CAHS Montreal District
Luncheon meetings are scheduled at the Point Claire Royal Canadian Legion, 365 St. Louis Avenue, Pointe Claire, Quebec.
Meetings begin at 11 a.m.
October 17, 2024 - Guest speaker: Robert Galway
November 21, 2024 - Guest speaker: Dave O'Malley
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Pierre Gillard, of the Quebec Aerospace Museum, sends us this photo of the Bombardier CSeries CS100 (BD-500-1A10) C-GWXJ August 27, 2024.
Built in 2014, this was the testbed aircraft for what would later become the Airbus A220 program. It has been preserved since October 17, 2018, at the École Nationale d’Aérotechnique at St. Hubert (YHU).
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It's always very rewarding when there is a connection with our readers on one of our stories. Frequent contributor, Caz Caswell, sent in the following regarding Wayne's Wings article in NetLetter #1541.
 It was good to read your tale of C-FTOB, which we called ‘ Toby’ at Wardair. I spent many days climbing up and down the steps in the corner of the hangar on Convair Drive, to photograph the transformation of ‘Toby’ into full Wardair colours.
I have about 50 photographs, of which I have attached 8 for you; please feel free to use any if you wish.
The second photo shows maintenance humour; they put Kenny Allen’s name on it. Ken Allen was the Wardair maintenance engineer driving the project.
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The memory of a certain scale.
During the 1940's, in North Bay, Ontario, Bob Robbins inherited an old balance scale, the kind with an oval dish about 16" long, 12" wide and about five inches deep.
This dish was just the thing for weighing babies and when a member of the North Bay staff became a parent, Bob loaned his trusty scale to the man.
Of course, the day arrived when the infant was too heavy for the scale and the combination of weights available to put on the balance beam was insufficient, said Bob. However, about that time, another employee joined the ranks of parenthood, so the scale was passed along to that TCA family. He believed this went on for about four years.
Bob did not recall the names of most of the people but he is pretty sure that Don Maxwell (Flight Dispatch, Toronto?) was one of the fathers.
He said that his practice of passing along the scale continued when he moved to the old trans-Atlantic terminal in Dorval. However, there came a time when he forgot who had it and lost track of it. He wasn't really looking for the scale but thought it would be fun to try and identify some of the "kids" and parents who used it and perhaps obtain some snaps-shots of those people.
If this story triggers any memories, we, at The NetLetter, would be happy to hear from you.
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2024
- June 18 - Service inaugurated between Montreal - Seoul, South Korea (Photo Below)
- July 1 - Air Canada Rouge celebrated its 11th year of operation.
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Found in 'Horizons' magazine
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Issue dated January 1983
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During 1982, the Air Canada Pionairs Board of Directors held its sixth annual meeting in Vancouver to discuss a number of topics.
Shown at the meeting are District Directors, back row, from the left: Ron Williams, Victoria, substituting for Tony Butler; Jack Somerset, Vancouver; Roger Alain, Florida; Don Jarvis, Calgary; Beth Ferguson, Winnipeg; Gord Smith, Toronto; Mary Young, Ottawa; Evelyn Desjardins, Montreal and Tony Bruneau, Halifax.
Seated, from the left, are: Martin Betts, Pension Representative; Bill Spratt, First Vice President; Dorothy Grant, Secretary; Ozzie Candy, Second Vice President; President George Fox and Joe Lorimer, Immediate Past President.
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Halifax loves a parade.
For the past five years, the Halifax staff has entered a company float in a number of parades across the province of Nova Scotia, garnering a number of trophies along the way. A group of the people who made it happen got together during the parade off-season near year-end to mark 1982's performance.
Standing from the left, are: Jim Kirby, Passenger Sales Manager; Gerry Simpson, In-Flight; Charlie Stock, General Manager, Nova Scotia; Joyce Burris, wife of Arnold Burris, Millwright; Ian MacKenzie, In-Flight; Jim McClue, Maintenance Manager; Ron Banks, Supply Supervisor and Ken McLeod, Sales Representative.
Seated, from the left, are: Arnold Burris; Nicole Beland, In-Flight; Starr Williams, Statistics Clerk, Linda Tanner and Bob McKinnon, In-Flight.
Missing from the photo are: Sylvana McKinnon, Desiree Conn, Gloria Doyle and Sandy Molson, all of In-Flight and Station Attendant Derek Burris.
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CP Air / Canadi>n People Gallery |
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October 28, 1987 - Service began between Vancouver and Bangkok, Thailand using DC-10 equipment.
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June 1, 1994 - Service between Toronto and London Heathrow (LHR) commenced.
Captain Eric Rogers and First Officer Jim Powell read up on the sights and sounds of London with help from a very official looking tour guide.
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During 1997, Canadian launched the following new services -
- March 3 - Calgary - Los Angeles
- April 3 - Toronto - Buenos Aries
- April 6 - Vancouver and Toronto - Dallas/ Ft. Worth
- May 5 - Calgary - Chicago
- May 5 - Vancouver - Boston using A320 equipment.
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From the 'Transition Times' magazine.
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Issue dated July 1994
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The Ramp Safety Initiative team has begun its venture into the realm of safety.
Below from left to right are: Pierre Payette, resource manager; Gilles Leduc, lead station attendant; Pierre Trudeau, lead station attendant; Ian Anderson, quality performance manager; Ernie Furanna, manager, Commercial Operations; Knut Ohm, manager of Ground Operations Safety and Dangerous Goods. One person is unidentified.
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Issue dated August 1994
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The sun rose early on the first Sabre class in the system. Airport employees in Tokyo were among the first employees to start learning basic Sabre.
From left to right: M. Murayama, Yuko Miki, Kazuo Suzuki, Shigeki Tsubokawa and Hideto Oda.
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| Issue dated October 1994 |
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 Saskatoon station attendants, from left to right:
Chris Feher, Rolly Langlois, Dale Rutter, Todd Heroux and Greg Rourke handle the baggage off a Canadian Regional flight.
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 Regina agents: Rob Patterson, Charlene Masyoluk (back row) Sherrill Norris, Julie Parks and Lorne Campbell.
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Our video comes from the Stig Aviation Aircraft Maintenance Adventures YouTube channel recommended by Ken Pickford. Stig is a line maintenance technician with American Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). He usually uploads a weekly video covering his activities the previous weekend. ..
Two highlights -
At 13:15 - The AC 787-9 with names of 2024 Employee Excellence Award winners on the tail. C-FVNB, Fin #857 had operated AC785 YYZ-LAX that morning (September 14) and was preparing to return as AC788.
At 19:54 - Story of the AA A321 that was struck by a bus in February last year while being towed to a remote parking position. It required major repairs and only went back into service in June this year, 16 months after the incident.
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Spirit of Skeena
This DC-3 was manufactured on February 24th, 1940 for American Airlines as 'Flagship Texas'. Since that date she also served in the USAF, under the colours of Trans Alaska Airlines, Queen Charlotte Airlines, Pacific Western Airlines, Great Northern Airways and Trans Provincial Airlines.
In 1972 her flying career ended when Trans Provincial used her as a spare parts ship for other DC-3's in their fleet. After removal of all serviceable parts, CF-PWH was pushed into the bush adjacent to the Terrace, B.C. airport and abandoned.
Thankfully, a founding member of the 'Friends of the DC-3 - Canada' recognized her long contribution to the people of British Columbia and through last minute negotiations with the scrap man, was able to purchase her remains for future restoration. In 1987, CF-PWH was moved from Terrace to the then Transportation Museum in Cloverdale.
Upon the closure of this facility, the Township of Langley invited the Friends of the DC-3, North America to relocate at the Langley Municipal Airport.
This Douglas DC-3 in fact, was the first DC-3 to be owned and operated by a 'home grown' B.C. airline, -- Queen Charlotte Airlines. She became Pacific Western Airlines first DC-3 and as such was assigned the fleet number of 301. Today, CF-PWH is the oldest surviving DC-3 in Canada.
Technical Details: MSN 2198, CF-PWH
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Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency - Convair 580's
Videographer Alex Praglowski, sends out some great photographs to members of his YouTube channel.
In his most recent post, he sent photos of a few active special aircraft with the following description:
"In August, I also made a quick side trip to Northern Saskatchewan to catch some little-known classic aircraft - The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency's firefighting Convair 580s!"
I emailed Alex to ask permission to share these photos with our subscribers and he responded, "Absolutely you may". He also, very generously, sent us a group of photographs specifically for our use.
If you are unfamiliar with Alex's YouTube channel, do yourself a favour and Click Here to treat yourself.
Special thanks to Ken Pickford for his research on the history of these four aircraft.
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Pictured above (and in this issue's header) is C-GSKR (fin #471), built in 1958. It was one of six variants of the Convair 440 ordered by the U.S. Navy but cancelled before being built. They were completed by Convair on speculation and stored pending future sale.
That aircraft was converted to VIP configuration and sold to a wealthy U.S. banking and newspaper publishing family. It was converted to a turboprop 580 in 1962. After multiple subsequent operators it was acquired by the Saskatchewan Government in 2005 and converted to its fire-fighting role.
It's noteworthy for being the second-last of 1,076 ConvairLiner aircraft built by Convair, not counting 10 final aircraft license-built by Canadair in Montreal in 1960/61 for the Royal Canadian Air Force, bringing total ConvairLiner production to 1,086.
Of those, 178 were converted to 580 turboprops using the Allison 501 engine. There was also a less popular Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop conversion program that modified 65 aircraft, 38 original 240's (known as Convair 600) and 27 340's/440's (known as Convair 640). Pacific Western Airlines acquired six of the latter, referring to them as "Javelin Jet-Prop".
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The three aircraft pictured below were built in 1954/55 as military variants of the Convair 340 and delivered to the U.S. Air Force as VIP transports.
After conversion to 580 turboprops and modified for fire-fighting, they were acquired by the Saskatchewan Government. in 2006/07.
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C-GVSK (fin #473)
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C-GYSK (fin #474)
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C-GSKQ (fin #475)
above and below.
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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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We hope you enjoyed the challenge.
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Visiting Mexico soon? Be careful about how many electronic devices you pack.
Tourists arriving at the Cancun International Airport have been nailed by Customs for having too many electronics. Some tourists have been charged nearly $200 USD to ‘import’ their electronic devices while they vacation in the country.
With the rise of remote work and pleasure trips, many travelers don’t think twice about tossing an iPad, a laptop, and any other essential devices in their bag.
But in Mexico, that could lead to hefty, unexpected taxes due on demand when you go through customs at the airport. if they don’t pay the ‘tax’, their over limit devices are confiscated.
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Madrid, Valencia and the la Tomatina Festival – Aug. 22 – 29, 2025.
You won’t find this tour anywhere else as this is an exclusive tour from InterlineTravel.com. This is our exclusive tour to Spain and the la Tomatina Festival!!!
Come join us for a tour of Spain including Madrid, Valencia and the la Tomatina Festival. The la Tomatina Festival is the largest food fight on the world. La Tomatina is a Spanish festival in Buñol, Spain where participants throw tomatoes at each other.
It is said to be the biggest food fight in the world. From the festival’s origin as a food fight between friends in the 1940s, it has become a famous tourist attraction and you will be a part of it in 2025!!
Our arrival transfers are from the Madrid Airport (MAD) and from the Valencia Airport (VLC) on the return.
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From the Caz Caswell collection dated March 1991.
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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 honur 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):
The historical information as well as any other information provided in the "NetLetter" is subject to correction and may have changed over time.
We do publish corrections (and correct the original article) when this is brought to our attention.
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