Vesta's Corner
Why not allow the NetLetter be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC etal. and share your experiences with us!Oil Company Jet Encourages Bird Migration
It wasn't long after an oil company's private jet arrived at landlocked Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, last week after flying from St. John's on the east coast, to Saskatoon, to Calgary, that its crew discovered a disoriented and strange-looking bird wandering around near the cargo hold. It was scooped up and taken to Calgary's Medicine River Wildlife Center (not far from the airport it had apparently visited, earlier), and naturalists unfamiliar with the bird sent out pictures to experts for identification.
The universal reply was that the naturalists were keeping company with a Black Guillemot ... a native fish-eater of the east coast that was now about 4,000 miles away. It seems the pigeon-sized east coast seabird had stowed away from the rocky shores of St. John's, Newfoundland, to reach the prairies of central Canada.And, all told, it was not much worse for the wear ... except that it
was now somewhat malnourished and perhaps more than a little confused.
In the good nature of the holidays, the bird has been fed from a
feeding tube and may soon be eating small fish. Both Shell and WestJet offered last week to fly the bird back to Newfoundland for transfer to an east-coast wildlife facility and its eventual release back into the wild.
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Air Canada - our first 70 years
1969 April 10 - Colorful new Stewardess wardrobe will be introduced. Unveiled March 24th in a series of 5 fashion conferences.  The multi-dress wardrobe is for the 1,400 stewardesses.April - The April issue of "Between Ourselves" is the first use of full color printing since the employee publication changed from a magazine format in 1955. With the bilateral air agreement between Canada and Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, service between Montreal and Prague is planned for early 1970. Announcement of the sale of Winnipeg O'haul base to Northwest Industries Limited. Major Viscount programs will remain for as long as the aircraft type remains in service. Take over date is planned for June 15th. April 14 - ca$10 million order signed for electronic display and control equipment with Raytheon which will be part of the new automated system called ReserVec II. |
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Bytes and Pieces
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Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People
Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier in-house magazines, should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts. Pickings from the "CP Air News" magazine Issue dated May 1983 The last of the DC-8 series 63 are sold to Worldways Canada of Toronto for use on their charter routes. The required maintenance checks are being performed prior to delivery and required the recall of 64 maintenance employees at YYZ and 10 at YVR. Two aircraft were delivered May 10th, one to follow May 28 and the final one June 8th.  We have this photo of the 1983 Marketing Meeting Latin America.Issue dated February 1984 Under the heading of "They'll all be agog in Yellowknife!" the story tells us that the first ever B-747 flight will be on March 18th, 1984 when a CP Air charter arrives from Anchorage with 400 athletes for the Arctic Winter Games. To move the passengers from the aircraft to the ground, it is necessary to truck a mobile passenger stairs from Calgary. Another historic first will be the arrival of a B-747 CP Air charters to Fort St. John carrying participants in the BC Winter Games. This is not the first B-747 to land at this station as, on January 12th, 1976, a Northwest Orient B-747 touched down due to an emergency. The B-737 fleet are to be named "Empress" together with the name of the bases that they normally serve. The headline reads "Personal computers a no-no in flight". Computers remain banned due to the possibility of interference with navigational instruments. They may be carried as hand luggage, but not activated.  How times have changed 28 years later, this photo is of a computer on an Airbus A380 of Singapore Airlines. Issue dated May 1984  The South East Asia Marketing Meeting was held in Singapore - here are the attendees. May 4th 1959 was the date CP Air operated its inaugural Tanscon flight between YVR-YWG-YYZ-YUL. utilizing Bristol Britannia aircraft.Issue dated Jun 1984 B-747 fin # 743 was painted in special Expo 86 colors and rolled out June 1st and christened "Empress of Canada" and immediately placed on the Honolulu, Nandi and Sydney route.  To complete the trio, a DC-10 was named "Empress of British Columbia" and a B-737 as "Empress of Vancouver". |
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Reader's Feedback
We have this story sent in by Gordon Aitchison. Have just come across an excerpt from Horizons of Aug 71 which might be of interest to you "The London-Victoria Air Race was sponsored by the Canadian Government and the Government of British Columbia. Conceived by Information Canada Expositions, the event was one of the high-lights of British Columbia's Centennial celebrations and attracted 79 entries from 9 countries. Fifty-seven competing aircraft faced the starter at the RAF Station, Abingdon, Berkshire. There were 54 official finishers. Race awards totalled $170,000, with the first prize of $50,000 going to Joachim Blumschein and Fritz Kohlgruber of West Germany." AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME By Margo Gilmore "It will be an experience of a lifetime" was the way in which most of the competitors in the "Great Air Race" chose to sum up their expectations for the flight from London, England to Victoria, B.C. For some, the words rang all too true. An Oregon doctor saw his dream fly off across the ocean without him as he lay on a Prestwick runway after having, what the BBC called "a punch-up on the tarmac" with his co-pilot. His co-pilot's hopes were later ended with disqualification. Two Australians had their "experience of a lifetime" in a swamp off Goose Bay, Labrador when they ran out of gas and had to make a forced landing. Several pilots reported later that they had just made it into Greenland and others had landed in Goose Bay with only enough gas left for a tight circuit. Two pilots, though, had perhaps the most dramatic experience of them all. Bill Snyder, of Brampton, a First Officer on DC-8s with Air Canada and Paul Gilmore, chief pilot for Leggat Aircraft of Toronto, left their hopes for victory in the icy waters of the North Atlantic off the coast of Greenland on July 2, 1971. They fared better than Amelia Earhart and Frank Noonan who went into the waters of the Pacific on July 2, some 34 years ago, and were never seen again. Paul and Bill chose a Bellanca Viking for the flight; a single-engine aircraft, made of wood, fabric covered wings and a metal fabric-covered fuselage. Its cruising speed is 190 miles per hour and it has a range of 6 hours and 45 minutes. Six months of planning had gone into the race preparations and Bill had arranged to hire off-duty Air Canada personnel at the refueling stops enroute to speed up ground handling. They took off from the starting point, RAf Abingdon, England at 20.50 Greenwich time on the evening of July 1. The first stop was at Prestwick, Scotland and their turnaround time, for refueling and clearance was a fast 12 minutes. They were on their way to Iceland. Things were going well. The weather forecast out of Iceland noted that the winds would be light and variable - they turned out to be blowing at 30 knots at an altitude of 17000 feet. When they estimated that they should be over Greenland, Bill tried to pick up the appropriate beacons with the ADF. The ADF proved to be malfunctioning and due to the false indication, they were drawn off track. At this point they decided to let down and try to pinpoint their location geographically, but by this time the weather had closed in and they were in thick fog. As they descended, they could see the ice cap below them, looming 10000 feet into the sky. They realized they had been blown far off course by the strong winds and that they would have to locate the airport soon or they would be out of gas. They flew past the ice cap, towards the Davis Straits as Bill continued to try to pick up the Simiutaq Beacon, which they had to find in order to locate the correct one of three fjords leading to the airport. Their attempts were unsuccessful and they realized that if they did not locate the beacon within the next few minutes, they would have to ditch. (We will continue this in the next NetLetter - eds) Doug Seagrim has sent us this response to the article in NetLetter nr 1048 -....I was most interested to re-read about the re-creation of Amelia Earhart's flight using CF-TCA. I am the last living person to fly that airplane. This came about because of a father & son story. My father, Herb Seagrim, who was one of the original TCA pilots from 1937, actually picked CF-TCA up at the Lockheed factory in Burbank when it was new. When Air Canada donated it to the Canada Aviation Museum, we were to do the family thing where we would fly it to Ottawa together and my father was to make the presentation. At the last minute he could not go so the then Director of Flight Training, Captain Alan Ross took his place and he allowed me the opportunity to fulfill the plan whereby I would do the final flight, which I did. CF-TCA never flew again after that. It was on display at Ottawa Uplands Airport for some time and was then trucked over to Rockliffe where, except for a brief appearance at Expo 86 in Vancouver as part of the Air Canada pavilion, it has remained. It is beginning to get a bit scary since there are now five airplanes in the national collection which I have flown having also delivered the Viscount with Captain Bob Coneen, also now deceased. Best Wishes & keep up the great work Doug Seagrim. |
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This and That.
From the February 1969 issue of "Between Ourselves" is this article headed "New name chosen for L-1011". TriStar was the name chosen by Lockheed during January 1969, carrying on the 42 year tradition of associating Lockheed aircraft with heavenly bodies. The first "star" was the Vega in 1927, and through the years we have seen such names as Sirius, Lodestar, Electra and Constellation. Military names have been StarLifter, Galaxy and the corporate JetStar. |
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Terry's Travel Tips
 www.helloflight.com will show you. At Winnipeg airport (YWG) The Goldwing Ambassadors and Silverwings are volunteers who donate their time to assist passengers and other airport visitors. Ambassadors are always friendly and they are easy to spot in their gold or silver vests with their Ambassador logos. If you arrive early for your flight, there is a lounge where you can chill out, enjoy peace and quiet and complementary snacks while waiting for your flight. The lounge is open to ticket holders Monday to Friday from 0700 to 2000 and is located on the second floor past Central Security. $15 per visit. Thunder Bay International Airport is proud to be the only airport in Canada that does "NOT" charge an Airport Improvement Fee to passengers. This accommodation is not suitable for you if you can't sleep while on an aircraft! The Jumbo Hostel is a B-747 parked at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Sweden. Due to open as you read this, the B-747 built in 1976 for Singapore Airlines c/n 21162 was, instead, delivered to PanAm. Subsequent owners included Nationair of Canada.  With 23 rooms and 85 beds, a luxury suite on the upper deck. The situation offers a scenic view of the airport, a cafe and visitors can stroll on the wings.Check www.jumbohostel.com for more information if interested. (We are not sure if there are any "interline/airline rates" available - eds) |