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Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter Since 1995

Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Since 1995

Vesta's Jump Seat
Vesta StevensonWhy 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!


Air Canada - our first 70 years
TCA - Air Canada






Air Canada designed, tested, patented and installed a Cross Over type exhaust system using principle of expanding chamber for reduction of gas velocity and noise reduction. Also designed fabric wing covers for all aircraft at all stations to protect against wing
icing on the ground.

1967 - Aug 15 - Inaugural service between Montreal and Chicago.

Sept - An order for 7 new jet aircraft brings the total Douglas order to 48.

dc8Here we have this photo of two Air Canada DC-8's at the Douglas plant.






Nov 4th
- Introduction of DC-8 service to Barbados from both Montreal and Toronto.
TCA/AC People Gallery
TCAOver the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier "Horizons", should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.



snowiePilot's progress "stalled". An Air Canada retired pilot, Allan Snowie, took off from Nanaimo BC airport on June 12th, in his replica seven-eighth scale  Nieuport 118PS biplane heading for Shearwater Airfield in Nova Scotia to celebrate 100 years flight in Canada.
Check his blog at www.404eaa.org.

Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine issue dated September 1967

WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD

goldMabel Midbo, Flight Service Super visor, Vancouver appears to have an inverted baking pan in her hands, but its really a gold bar, worth $50,000. Edmonton's Klondike Days loaned the bullion to the Pacific National Exhibition for display this year. The 117 lb. bar was flown from Edmonton to Vancouver. (We wonder if Mabel has any idea about where the missing gold bullion from the Canadian mint, as recently (2009) reported, went to! - eds) "Nine" Introduced To YQR - YZE COURTESY AND PUBLICITY flights were held in Regina and Saskatoon to introduce the DC-9 to those cities prior to service beginning September 1, with four flights held in each city. Company personnel taking part in Regina are shown.

reginaFrom the left: Eddie Mann, Regional Supervisor of Commissary Services, Vancouver; Stewardesses A. Stermac and J. Loest, Winnipeg; Charles Tilbrook, Station Operations Manager, Regina; Captain Bill Storey, P. MacCourt, Flight Service Supervisor and F/O C. Penderson, all of Winnipeg; Jack MacLean, District Sales Manager, Regina; and Stewardess C. Cleven, Winnipeg.

saskatoonAt Saskatoon are, from the left: Glen Steeves, Sales Representative, Saskatoon; Stewardess J. Loest; Ron Vigars Station Services Instructor, Montreal; Stewardess C. Cleven, Winnipeg; Eddie Mann; Miss P. MacCourt; Vern Bower, Station Operations Manager, Saskatoon Stewardess A. Stermoc; Captain Jeff Scott and F/O P. Relton, Montreal; S. Parr, Sales Office Assistant, and J. McHale, Office Mgr., Saskatoon.

gordonGordon Aitchison, Station Agent at Prestwick drove off with top honours last spring when he won the final of the "British "L" driver of the year" competition at Crystal Palace, London. (For those non-Limeyite's, the "L" on a vehicle in the U.K. signifies a learner driver, akin to the "N" symbol in Canada. (We have no idea if Gordon progressed from "L" - eds)








SO WHAT'S NEW??
There will always be service training courses in the airline industry and, it appears, there always has been.The first DC-3 service training course held at Winnipeg in the Spring of 1946. The class is posing in front of the old Hangar No. 2.

oldiesThey are, from the left to right, standing: Joe Hymson. Chas. Gulland, Cliff Choppell, Gordie Gould, Stewart Hay, George Hall and Bill Danners. In the front row are:
Les Story, Frank Lehtinen, Murray Spendie, Lee Bourbonnois, Sam Purvesand Bob Hendry

GREETINGS FROM CHICAGO

chicagoWere extended to the crew of the in augural flight of the new direct service between Montreal-Chicago by Pat Dunn, First Deputy Commissioner of Aviation for the City of Chicago and Manager of O'Hare airport. The crew, in descending order on the stairs are:
Stewardess Marie-Ange Estosito, Wenche Eriksen, and Deana Albertini; Captains John Crosby and Bill Irving. Initial service, began August 15.

KINIGHIRO YAMAGUCHI, the Company's new Cargo Sales Representative in Tokyo visited Canada, Britain, and continental Europe recently for the first time on a familiarization trip to meet Company cargo representatives and cargo agents in these areas.
He is shown being greeted at the London office where he spent almost a week.

kinighiroFrom the left, are: Ken Banks, Cargo Sales Representative, John Petry, Cargo Sales Manager; Kinighiro, Ted Sayers and Bob Williamson, Cargo Sales Representatives
Bits and Bytes

Aegean Airlines, Greek independent carrier has applied for join the Alliance, but no date had been agreed upon.

London Heathrow officials unveiled plans for a new £1 billion ($1.67 billion) Terminal 2 construction project that will allow the consolidation of Star Alliance operations and provide capacity for an estimated 20 million passengers each year. Construction will take place in two phases, with the initial creation of a terminal building on the site of the existing T2 and Queen's building, both of which will be demolished later this year. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2013. The second half of the project will extend T2 into the existing T1 site and will include a satellite building. T1 will remain open throughout construction but will close upon completion in 2019. The new building is designed to produce 40% less carbon than those it is replacing.
Alan's Space
Alan Rust
A Bucket of Shrimp
It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun  resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.  Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp.  Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself.  The glow
of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach.  Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Seagulls and old manBefore long, however, he is no longer alone.  Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings
fluttering and flapping wildly.  Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds.  As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty.  But Ed doesn't leave.

He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.  Invariably, one of the gulls lands on his sea-bleached, weather-beaten hat - an old military hat he's been wearing for years.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away.  And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the
water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say.
Or, 'a guy that's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say.
To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird
world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty.
They can seem altogether unimportant ....maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and
Busters.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida .
That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker.  He was a famous hero back in
World War II.  On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he
and his seven-member crew went down.  Miraculously, all of the men
survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks.  Most of all, they fought hunger.  By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food.  No water.  They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.

They needed a miracle..  That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.  They tried to nap.  Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose.  Time dragged.  All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.

Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.  It was a
seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his
next move.  With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he
managed to grab it and wring its neck.  He tore the feathers off, and
he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight
men - of it.  Then they used the intestines for bait.  With it, they
caught fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle
continued.  With that simple survival technique, they were able to
endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after
24 days at sea....).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull.  And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.'  That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, In The Eye of the Storm, PP.221, 225-226)

PS:  Eddie was also an Ace in WW I and started Eastern Airlines

See the Wikipedia article on Eddie Rickenbacker at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker

(Contributed by Ken Bjorge, YVR)



Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People
Canadian AirwaysOver 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.


Mike Lynch sends us this invite to former Transair employees  "In September 2007" a few former Transair employees put some thought into the idea of a Re-union Luncheon, with the hope that some people would turn up. Almost 100 former employees and spouses did, so they followed up with another lunch last year, which attracted almost 150 attendees from all across the country. This was a remarkable attendance since the airline ceased to operate as an
entity 30 years previously.
This year the re-union Luncheon will be held on Friday the 11th of September at the ANAF VETERANS CLUBROOMS at 12 noon. The price is $15.00. and the clubrooms are located at 3584 Portage Av. Winnipeg. We would like an RSVP by September 1st. Anyone with an anecdote about the Company that they would like to share with us, please let us know ahead of time and we can shedule you into the program. For more information or RSVP, please contact  Joyce Rose at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Mike Lynch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. "

Jottings from the "CP Air News" magazine issue dated July 1973 CP announce that the reservations will by computerized with the first city being Winnipeg by the fall of 1974. One of those leading the studies on automated reservations for several  years is Bill Murphy, director of development in the Customer Service Dept. He recalled seeing coat hangers on the wall of a tiny CP Air office in  Rimouski, Quebec, in the early 1940s. On each coathanger were a few  clothes pegs, each peg representing a seat on the small bush type aircraft of the day. When a reservation was made a slip of paper with the passengers name  was clipped on the hanger with a clothes peg. Often the flight would go only when all the clothes pegs were used, that is, when the plane was filled.
Payload control director Gordon Hercus recalled how the daily diary charts, usually covering a 30-day period, gave way to  wall-mounted boards with thumb tacks to indicate the status of a flight: Green tack, sell the seat; red tack, flight full.

During the June 25 thru July 5 Canadian visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, CP Air had a major role in moving the royal couple to their destinations. A B727 was assigned to operate Charlottetown to Thunder Bay and Regina. Flight crew members selected were as follows -Capt. C.D.Lamb, F/O J. E. Tucker, S/O J. R. Florence. Standby crew: Capt. K. I. R. Kirk, F/O G. P. Andreason S/O L. G. Fraser. Flight attendants under Mrs. Agi, supervising flight attendant, were: F/A i/c Mrs. D. F. Tweedy, first class steward P. B. Brauer; economy steward A. C. Kuiper; economy class steward esses G. M. Buckna and Mrs. N. G. Saint-Germain. Reserve duties were held by steward J. B. Williamson and stewardess Mrs. J. T. Dow. Line engineer selected was Paul Gladysz with L. E. Paterson as alternate. P. J. R. Bedard was assigned to accompany the flight as agent, backed by S. J. Kowalewicz.Capt. C.D. Lamb and stewardess Mrs. Sharon Agi, were also with the Queen's flight during the previous visit in May 1971. (We have no photos of this event - eds)

CUSTOMER SERVICE, North America, held a series of weekly training seminar for all supervisory and management personnel in May.
Attending the meeting were customer service/operations and reservations managers from all North American bases.

customerShown left to right standing are: Pierre Cos, Montreal; Harry Voth, director; Frank Ward, Ottawa; Danny Burton, Fort Nelson; CharlIe Baker, Grande Prairie; Vic Cheropita, Watson Lake; Stan Baron, Calgary; Gerry Manning, vice-president, customer service; Frank Vikse, Whitehorse; Norm Dartnell, Fort St. John; Alf Peart, Winnipeg; Jim Wilkinson, San Francisco; Art McCarville, Winnipeg; Tony Lloyd, asst director and Jack Egan, Toronto. Kneeling left to right are: Jim Langridge, Terrace; John Rusinko, Prince George; Vern Barlow, Vancouver; Don Hawe, Prince Rupert; Eric Weir, Edmonton; Wayne Dale, Prince George; Ralph Sharp, Toronto; Bill Shilvock, Vancouver and Bill Cameron, Montreal. (Some of these employees were in the photo we printed in NetLetternr 1081 Hmmm! - eds)
This n That

STANSTED INTRODUCES FACIAL RECOGNITION GATES
BAA STANSTED UK has been trialing a facial recognition system which
scans passengers' faces and checks them against their passport photographs. The special gates were introduced in December 2008.
The machine takes seconds to scan each passenger's face against the digital photo recorded in the passport. It also undertakes checks against security watch-lists.

Kenneth I. Swartz
sends us details of an upcoming book
by author LARRY MILBERRY. " Aviation in Canada: The Formative Years" (VOL. 2)" Vol. 2 shows how civil aviation finds its place in Canada - from barnstorming to the rise of bush flying, the importance of such First World War surplus planes as the JN-4 and HS-2L, then the appearance of new commercial designs, Canada's first airlines, the coming of the air mail, the first great trans-Atlantic flights, drama in the bush & tundra, etc.
Formative Years covers it as never before and polishes it all off with some 450 glorious photos, many never previously seen. 224 pages, hardcover, large format, photos, maps, glossary, bibliography, index.
Larry is working on a five book series to celebrate the Canadian Centennial of Flight. Vol one came out in November 2008 and celebrated the "Early Years" up to 1919. This is volume 2 and covers Canadian aviation between the World Wars.
http://canavbooks.wordpress.com/

Readers Feedback







Following the request by Jim Griffith in NetLetter nr 1081 we received this information  from Jim.
I'm helping a friend, he is the media representative for our Silver Dart organization, the AEA 2005, our not for profit group that built and flew the Silver Dart last February at Baddeck. He is writing a book describing  the building and flying of the replica Silver Dart titled,
"CIGGY Flies". C-IGGY is the registration arbitrarily given to us by Transport Canada so that we could legally fly the aircraft. In addition he is re-writing a book already published in the 80's about Sheldon Luck a bush pilot who was much involved in the building of Canadian Pacific Airlines, indeed the first three chapters deal with his  relationship with Grant McConachie which although estranged by a silly argument, nevertheless lasted until Grant died. The book titled, "Pilot of Fortune", has been re-written and will soon be published.
He is writing a third book titled, "Earth Angels Rising" which is about
Ferry Command of  WWII. In doing research for this book he stumbled upon a woman living in Windsor, 88 years old, who is fighting for pension benefits for the civilian aircrew of Ferry Command who, like members of the merchant marine, were denied veteran status and thus denied pension and other benefits.
As you can imagine, there are very few of them left. I was (am) going to ask for your help through the netletter in tracing others who may not know that they may be entitled to some benefits. I thought thatsurely some our retirees might know of individuals who might qualify. Its my understanding that to qualify a person must have flown outside of Canada as civilian aircrew of Ferry Command which would include pilots, navigators radio operators etc.
My friend has sent letters to the departments of veteran affairs of Canada, the UK , and the USA to determine what benefits might be available. He plans to follow up with other enquiries to other Commonwealth Countries. Of the three books a large part of the profits from the book about the Silver Dart will go to AEA 2005 to cover expenses involved in showing the aircraft at various venues exclusively in eastern Canada. We aren't subbing the west. Nothing would have made us happier than to have brought it to the Abbotsford airshow. In spite of our best efforts we simply couldn't get enough sponsors to truck it that far. The cost of trucking it to XX would have been $40-50,000.00. I'm getting a little off topic but to get back to my friend who's names is, Ted Beaudoin, (his bio is on our AEA2005 website www.silverdartreplica.com )  is writing the other two books for his own profit. My role in all this that since Ted is not a pilot, I help him with various aviation terms and so on, with which he is not familiar.
Jim Griffith

George Brien has had a stab at identifying a few YSJ members of the photo we published in NetLetter nr 1079
George wrote I should be able to identify over half of these people, but hey! that's 45 years ago. I likely wouldn't be able to name myself if I was  in the picture.1st row from left 1st Hugh Mcelliott DSM YSJ, 3rd Wils Himmelman, Stn Mgr YFC 9th Seldon Drake, reg Stn Svcs Mgr, 11th Tony Bruneau, Rgnl Mtce Mgr Back row 5th Eldon Richardson, 11th Vern Chouinard, 13th Bud Cavanaugh 14th Ed  MacDonald I think I  also see Ernie CrawleyFrank Cogger ,Ziggy Zeggerchuk and Jim Smith in there.
cheers George
Terry's Trivia & Travel Tips
Terry Baker





Terry's travel tips and trivia.

cpafleetIn May 1967, C.P.A. celebrated its silver anniversary, the roster of its fleet over the years include these depicted in this photo. All images are numbered, anyone care to identify them?






Terry's Travel Tips

Emirates Airline has increased its checked in baggage allowance
from 44 to 661b (20-30kg)  for Economy Class passengers, from 66-881b (30-40kg) for Business and 88-ilOIb (40-50kg) for First Class. The new allowance has been implemented across the airline's global network of over 100 destinations. Codeshare passengers traveling on Emirates-operated flights are also eligible for the revised allowances.

IRISH BUDGET carrier Ryanair has confirmed that all passengers making use of its online check-in service will incur a £5I€5 fee. The surcharge is payable per person per flight on all new bookings with the exception of the airline's promotional fares those that are advertised as 'Free, 1 cent' or '€5' will be exempt from the charge.
From May 20th all passengers booking flights with the airline will have to make use of the online check-in sys tern as it presses ahead with the phasing out of airport check-in by October 1. Ryanair has also confirmed that it will charge a £401€40 'boarding card re-issue fee' to encourage all passengers to arrive at the airport with their pre-printed boarding cards.

The service from Nanaimo to Vancouver International Airport by Pacific Coach Lines
via Duke Point ferry terminal will be suspended effective September 28th 2009.

Airport or Zoo - airports for animals?
1.    Monkey Mia Airport (MJK), Australia
2.    Atlanta Beaver Ruin Airport (JAO), USA
3.    Squirrel Cove Airport (YSZ), Canada
4.    Big Trout Airport (YTL), Canada
5.    Snake River Airport (YXF), Canada
6.    Goose Bay Airport (YYR), Canada
7.    Whale Cove Airport (YXN), Canada
8.    Beaver Creek Airport (YXP), Canada
9.    Muskrat Dam Airport (MSA), Canada
10.  Sheep Mountain Airport (SMU), USA
11.  Elk City Airport (ELK), USA
12.  Deer Park Airport (DPK), USA
13.  Hawk Inlet Airport (HWI), USA
14.  Big Bear Airport (RBG), USA
15.  Red Dog Airport (RDB), USA
16.  Moose Jaw Airport (YMJ), Canada
17.  Mammoth Lakes Airport (MMH), USA
18.  Wolf Point Airport (OLF), USA
19.  Chicken Airport (CKV), USA
20.  Fox Airport (FOX), USA
21.  Duck Airport (DUF), USA

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