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Donation Request
 Can you help? - Once a year in a few of our November/December issues we request your assistance in helping us defer the costs of producing the NetLetter each week. Believe it or not, we now estimate that it costs over $2000/year to produce our "NetLetter", which is kindly funded and sponsored by the ACFamily Network. If you haven't already recently donated to us then now is the time to do so. Please note that a donation is not required in order to receive the NetLetter. It is our pleasure to produce this for our readers.If you would like to donate (any amount) then please click on "Donations" image above or the PayPal image below to donate by Credit Card or send a cheque made out to the ACFamily Network to: ACFamily Network #800 - 15355 24th Ave Suite 523 Surrey, BC V4A 2H9 We would like to thank all of you who have generously donated in the past as well. The donations are placed in a special account used to pay for ongoing expenses for the ACFamily Network, the NetLetter and other airline related projects. Sorry, we cannot issue tax receipts as we are not a charity. Thanks in advance, Vesta, Terry, Alan - Your NetLetter Team  Please note you do not have to have a PayPal account in order to pay by Credit Card. Just click the "continue" link indicated below on the PayPal site.  |
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Vesta's Jump Seat
 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!Jim Griffiths sends this follow up to the article we had in NetLetter nr 1095 Hi Folks:  Part of the filming of Amelia was done here at the Niagara District Airport at Niagara On The Lake, two summers ago. It was the scene where she crashes at Hawaii. They built an actual Lockheed 10 undercarriage and wing on a trailer in one of our hangars and dragged it at high speed down one of the runways and filmed it collapsing. For the crash scene,they dragged the fuselage of a scrapped Lockheed 10 on a triangular closed circuit cable anchored at three points at the apex of each of our three runways. At first they were going to use the snow plough from our airport but like most of the airport denizens it was too old and feeble. Eventually they used one of the fire trucks from YYZ. Belching clouds of black smoke, it dragged the Lockheed 10 fuselage at a high enough speed on its belly to simulate the crash. Some of the scenes inside the aircraft were filmed on a "blue" sound stage specially built inside one of the hangars. The air to air shots were also done in the vicinity. Hilary Swank stayed a few nights at a local, well known hotel. Apparently she was very gracious to the local airport employees who did a lot of facilitating during the shoot. Niagara On the Lake is blessed with a relatively warm climate for Canada but Hawaii it ain't. Jim Griffith |
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Our first 70 years.
 1937April 10 - Trans-Canada Air Lines incorporated by Act of Parliament. May 11-First Board of Directors Meeting. July 7 - Transcontinental survey flight left Vancouver. Sept. I - First commercial operation began between Vancouver and Seattle. Equipment consisted of 2 Lockheed Electras and 1 Stearman. 1938 March 6 - First class mail carried Winnipeg - Vancouver. April 1 - Night flying inaugurated in Western Canada. August 18- Experimental flights commenced Winnipeg - East. Oct. 1- Regular air mail service Winnipeg - Vancouver and Lethbridge - Edmonton. Dec. 1 - Air mail service extended to Montreal and Toronto. 1939 Feb. 1 - Calgary included in Alberta route. March 1 - Regular air mail and air express service established between Montreal and Vancouver on a night schedule. April 1 Passenger service inaugurated Montreal - Vancouver and Lethbridge -. Edmonton. 1940 Fob. 15 - Passenger service began between Montreal - Moncton. April 14 - Second daily transcontinental schedule. August 1 - Passenger service Toronto - London . Windsor. 1941 April 15 - Temporary service began between Moncton - Summerside - Charlottetown (until December 6). April 15 - Service extended from Moncton to Halifax. May 10 - Toronto - New York service inaugurated. May 11 - Vancouver - Seattle service discontinued. 1942 May 1 - Newfoundland service inaugurated. 1943 June 6 - Service extended to Victoria. July 22 - Trans.Attantic Service inaugurated. 1944 July 1 - Maritime flights routed through Blissville. July 1- Halifax - Sydney service inaugurated. 1945 Feb. 1 - Third daily transcontinental schedule. May 10- Authorization for alternate "bad-weather" route through the U.S. via Minneapolis and Milwaukee.  Here we have some historical photos from "Between Ourselves" issued March 1947 |
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Air Canada News
 ACJazz will operate daily service YOW-Iqaluit effective Mar 28 utilizing CRJ700 equipment.Air Canada to launch Calgary-Tokyo non-stop service. We will operate three times weekly flights to Tokyo's Narita International Airport beginning March 27, 2010 in time for summer peak travel. Our Calgary-Tokyo flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and we will operate the new non-stop service with fully refurbished 211-seat Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft offering a choice of Economy Class and Executive First service featuring 24 lie-flat bed suites. Air Canada begins customer trials for inflight internet. First Canadian Airline to Offer Wi-Fi Connectivity in the Air. Today we announced that we have begun trials to offer our customers Gogo® Inflight Internet service on board select flights on our Toronto-Los Angeles and Montreal-Los Angeles routes. |
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TCA/AC People Gallery
 Over 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. Musings from "Between Ourselves" magazine Issue dated February 1947 December 10th was a gala day in "Hogtown". The board room at Union Station held 24 of the brightest lights in Canada's National Air Service. They arrived intact from the Royal York Arcade by means of the tunnel.  Back Row: G. M. (Muscles) Dempsey, T. Payne, A. F. Churchill, R. N. Watt, R. Ritchie, C. McCulloch, D. Young, E. E. Epping, C. Houlton. Centre Row: J. Radermacher, C. Martyn, F. Hill, R. Rogers, G. Wallace, S. Stock, J. Aim, B. Schell' P. Stewart. Front Row: W. Devonshire, T. J. Mulligan, A. G. McLarty, F. Bowlby, B. Wrigley, L. W. McCrachen.Only five weeks old, these twins were enroute from Chicago to Ottawa.  Holding the twins are Stewardess Florence D. Rogers and Capt. J.A.Webster.Issue dated March 1947  In January Stewardesses Roberta Jones and Kay O'Brien received their five year pins and a pen and pencil set. Presentation by Dave Weir Station Manager Lethbridge. Here are the participants of the first DC-4M Service training class held in Winnipeg  Left to right standing: Gord Knechtle, Chas. Kerr, Ted Emery, Sid Parker, Jack Wilson, Earl Gerow, Ted Fowler, Cy Clissold, Bob Wood, Jack Brown, Norm Pike, Cliff Chappell, Tommy Johnson, Curt Ingerville, Murph Smith, Bud Clinch, Cy Paye, Ralph Hay. Kneeling: Jack Dahlgren, Harold Robinson, Ed Taplin, Chas. Gulland, Bill Baggley, Jack McDougall,Walt Bailey, Bill Ross, Geo. Land, Stan Carter. Airport staff at Toronto.  Front row: left to right A.Shotbolt, G. Milne, J. Gehlsen, H.Stewart, H.Deegan, G.Grant. Rear row:left to right J.Brisbin, G.Kerr, A.Martel, D.Campbell, W.Hagen, G.Matson, W.Donaldson, R.McLeod. |
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Star Alliance news.
 Brun Fillmore sent us this item.Hello Folks. Just a word to say how much I appreciate you news letters and memories of the past while working for TCA-AC. Please find an interesting little bit of news about a United Airlines pilot and how he makes all his crew and passengers feel comfortable on his flights. Hope you enjoy and share if you like, here is the excerpt from "Customer Love" by Mac Anderson As flight cancellations and delays wreak havoc on weary travelers, and planes are fuller than ever, the Wall Street Journal has managed to find a bright spot: United Airlines Captain Denny Flanagan. On a flight headed your way, there is a pilot who is literally a gift from the heavens. For 21 years now, Flanagan, a former navy pilot, has put the friendly in friendly skies.With his sense of humor and personal touch, he individually welcomes aboard every passenger on his United Airlines plane. A father of five, Flanagan has also been known to buy food for planeloads of passengers on delayed flights. He snaps photos of dogs in the cargo hold to show owners their pets are safe and call the parents of children traveling alone. "I want to treat them like I treat my family and it works. It's like hospitality. You stand at the door and you greet people when they come in and you say goodbye on the porch and wave to them," said Flanagan, who is 56 and lives in Ohio.His unique brand of hospitality includes sending handwritten notes to frequent flyers and raffling off bottles of wine. "How 'bout that? A bottled of chilled chardonnay from a pilot," said a delighted Paul Schroeder, a lucky United passenger. He has developed quite a following in the air and online. One of the many posts on FlyerTalk.com about Flanagan read: "His effort rubbed off on the crew too, they were great." Attitudes are truly contagious, and Captain Flanagan's is certainly worth catching! Brun Fillmore YQM, Retired  Flight attendant attire has varied over the years from prim and proper to all-out sexy to subtly sophisticated. Flight attendants are the most important point of contact between an airline and its passengers. As the "face" of an airline, their appearance and behavior during flights have a strong influence over guest satisfaction and, consequently, loyalty. It should come as no surprise then that a great deal of thought has been given to flight attendant attire over the decades. The most recent move in the world of airborne fashion was made by United Airlines when they announced in November that they had hired world-famous designer, Cynthia Rowley, to create stylish new uniforms for all employees (look for them in 2011). This move is a world-away from the first "stewardess" uniforms of the 1920s, which, as you'll see, were more functional than fashionable. Here, we examine the evolution of sky-borne style from stodgy to sexy to sophisticated and look at the historical context in which each uniform was designed. Although both men and women both play a major role in airline stewardship, this gallery focuses primarily on the outfits worn by women as these are the uniforms that have changed the most drastically over time. |
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Alan's Space
 MotoArt: High quality furniture and sculptures using vintage aircraft parts.
Looks like someone has finally found a way to preserve older aircraft and make a profit. Here's the story by artist Donovan Fee III - "As a young boy growing up in Southern California in the early 1950's, airplanes and the men who flew them became a lasting fascination. In 1959 I stood in line for hours at Los Angeles International to gaze in awe at the new DC-8 jet passenger liner. United Airlines offered the public free tours of this new aircraft to acquaint them with the future of aviation, jet propulsion.  As the years passed jets became commonplace and propeller driven aircraft have become a rarity. During this time my career evolved into building themed entertainment structures and sculptures for museums and the entertainment business. One January morning in 1998, the metal junk man who recycles our scrap aluminum made his usual stop. By chance I glanced in the back of the scrap pile and viewed several marvelous creations from the past. As it turned out, these were B-17 propellers. All were greasy, dented, and about to be melted for scrap.What beautiful shapes they were and what countless memories of engineering, combat and freedom they contained. It was love at first sight and I vowed to save these unique forms of metal from the smelter¹s furnace. Within minutes a deal was struck and the possession of several hundred pounds of scrap aluminum changed hands. The next few weekends were spent degreasing, sanding and polishing these beautiful metal shapes from the past. Due to their size and weight, wall mounting these pieces was out of the question. Eventually the idea of a single freestanding blade sculpture evolved. Within a few months my office and adjacent workspace had become a propeller forest. Realizing others shared my enthusiasm for these seductive historic shapes led to a new and lucrative hobby. After some initial detective work, several sources were found for procuring more blades, hubs and various other components that make up these sculptures. The rescue of these marvelous engineering components from yesteryear gives much joy as well as a feeling of being a small part of the great art of aviation." See their website at: www.motoart.com Here's one of the nicest pieces of furniture that I found!
(not the girl, the cowling, silly)  Click on image for full size photo
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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.Heather Johannson sends us this information I really enjoy your netletter. In the latest one, you said you were short of WD/PW/CP pictures, so I dug around an found some for you I started my career as a F/A for Wairdair (based in YYZ) , then went to PW as a F/A (got married and they fired you) then to CP as a res agent, then to being the 4th female in cargo where I happily stayed until the take over by AC, which required moving to the airport until my 2005 retirement. Hope these can be of use to you. Thanks Heather Johannson, retired sales and service agent Peachland, BC Here we have some of the photos Heather sent.  Arctic crossing Cert given to passengers enroute from Yellowknife to Inuvik (I was filling in at Norman Wells and went to Inuvik on my days off, entitling me to the certificate)  Expo 86 Canadian Pacific employees who volunteered for the whole of expo. Ice to Tokyo, in case you can't read the caption "Cold Cargo", 133 pound block of ice is held by CP Air cargo agent Heather Hunter. Glacial ice from Northwest Territories is to be used at a cocktail party in Tokyo in May when a Japanese distillery introduces a new brand of Saki to 30,000 guests"(More next time - eds) |
 Ken Anderson spotted our error with this information in NetLetter nr 1096 We had... C-GAGA fin 306 c/n 20977 C-GAGC fin 308 c/n 21354 C-GAGA fin 307 c/n 21627 He said... Registration C-GAGA is mentioned for both fins 306 and 307. I don't know exactly which one had GAGA, nor what the correct missing registration is. Cheers, Ken (Fin 307 was registered as C-GAGB - eds) Brian Dunn also points out another error - oh boy! In the section titled "Where are they now?" you mention the three combi 747-200s that have been sold for scrapping at Marana AZ. The note says since 2007, when in fact they have been there since 1999 when they were replaced by the three "new" 747-400 combis. Regards, Brian Dunn Robert Giguere has spotted some errors in NetLetter nr 1094 and points them out for us. Thanks for keeping up with the great work keeping our airline history alive! The photos submitted by Allan Gray taken by his father-in-law Don Hunter are a great piece of history. Upon more careful examination the photo identified "Heavy maintenance for the North Star" is actually a DC-3. The one identified as a "DC-3 engine check at YWG" is actually a Lockheed Super Electra 14H CF-TCE shown by company identification #27 on the nose. Talk to you soon. Rob Michael Smith also spotted an error of identification in NetLetter nr 1094 and sends this. "The last photo is not a DC 3, looks more like a Lockheed Electra or something similar" Glen Cawker sends us this memory invoked by the mention of the inaugural L1011 flight in NetLetter nr 1094 Hi!... Memories come back. Wilf McKenna (recently deceased, Oct,27, '09), and I worked that flight and and the subsequent return, as Second Officers. It was our first Line flight each as newly appointed S/O Supervisory pilots. I don't remember the names of Capt & F/O. We had two young children as complimantary guests on the flight, a boy and girl, one of which was 10 and the other 11. All pax received a letter embossed deeply with the aircraft symbol, and detail of flight number etc. and signed by all ? crew. Unfortunately I no longer have my copy.. Thanks for your fine Newsletter output.... Glen.. (Retired as S/O off 747 in '83. It was a great era)......Glen Hi, thanks for sending me The Letter on a regular basis, always very interesting and appreciated Jean-Pierre Levasseur, Beloeil Jean-Pierre sends this information regarding the inaugural L1011 flight mentioned in NetLetter nr 1094 "NB Just to let you know that the In-Charge on that L-1011 flt from YYZ to YVR is Charlie Tanner ( not Tanne). We graduated together in YUL in 1967" Salut les amis |
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This n That.
British Airways (BA) 'claimed' to be celebrating its 90th anniversary in August. The airline in its present form was created by the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways in 1974. However, it can chart its history back to August 25, 1919 when Air Transport & Travel made its first flight from Hounslow in west London to Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris. The journey onboard an Airco de Havilland 4A took two and a half hours and cost 42 guineas, the equivalent of around £1,700 today. |
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Terry's Trivia & Travel Tips
 Caesar Hotels Airway Vacations has this and many other deals. 15 Days Glories of Turkey, deluxe escorted tour from us$1599 confirmed air included from NYC! Per person based on double occupancy, airline taxes are additional. Escorted tour visiting Istanbul, Troy, Pergamum, Ephesus, Kusadasi, Pamukkale, Antalya, Aspendos,Konya, Cappadocia and Ankara. Departures from JFK Nov. 25, Dec. 16, 23, 2009, Jan. 20, Feb. 3, 10, 17 March 3, 10, 17, 24, 2010 Call Today! 1-800-422-3727 Did you know that Alaska Airlines offers a guarantee that if your luggage does not arrive at the baggage claim within 25 minutes of your arrival, you receive a travel voucher for the value of the checked baggage fee? That's a move in the right direction. (of course, at some airport terminals it takes you more than 25 minutes to exit the aircraft and walk to the baggage claim area - eds) Visiting St.Maarten? This is the island where the airport approach is right over the beach, and aircraft of all sizes are almost at ground, or sand, ;level before touching down on the short runway. Warning signs are posted to make the public aware of the dangers from jet blast while taking close up photographs, but this doesn't stop people from standing at the perimeter fence.  A surfboard on the beach has a listing of the daily arrivals, and this special offer for free drinks at the nearby "Sunset" pub for female visitors. Note the sign. |
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Smilie
 After missing the airport by 240km, someone took a picture of the cockpit when they landed. |