Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Ken Pickford spotted an error and sends us this correction -

One correction to the list of TCA/AC Presidents/CEOs in Issue 1150. The initials of the first President (Hungerford) were S.J, not C.N. He was the President of the Canadian National Railway at the time which is no doubt the origin of that error. TCA was legally a CNR subsidiary for many years. Regards, Ken

Peter Dawson

We, at the NetLetter, received this explanation from Chris Arbique of StarTrips.com -

"We have a number of clients who wish to participate in StarTrips, only those who offer true Interline discounts are permitted to post their offerings. Time4Travel (T4T) is one of these clients. The offerings they have posted are from "all" of the properties that they are aligned with and these properties are only available to www.StarTrips.com and www.RumRabbit.com members.

Yes, the rates being offered via the Time4Travel portal are in most instances, better than Interline and you won't find this offering on any other Interline website. There are over 20,000 properties in this one portal. This is just one way members to our site's can surf and save. Hope this answers the question

In NetLetter nr 1149,we asked if anyone knew of the nickname for Claude Taylor, and Lionel Musgrove sent this information...
 In reference to your Issue # 1149 - I had the privilege of working for Claude Taylor for the best part of my career with Air Canada. You asked if Claude had a nick name? Claude was often called "C.I.T." Many of the other officers during those years were also referred to by their initials. Dave Tennant was known as "DCT". Pierre Jeanniot was known as "PJJ". and the list goes on. I hope this is of some help.

Keep up the good work. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Lionel Musgrove (Retired)

Pauline James sends us this information - 

Hi there! I was very excited to read this issue and see the note from Janet Carten, who says she was an "old Stew in 1943-44"- It is highly likely that she knew my mother who was also a TCA Stew at the same time based in Montreal, doing the same routes. In fact, my parents met in Moncton where my Dad was a radio operator (or a flight dispatcher - or both!). In later 1945, my mother forgot her watch and didn't have one for her return flight to Montreal, so he loaned his to her. The "rest is history", as they say, and here I am, the proud daughter of former TCA pioneers, Ron James and Trude Lafontaine (later James). Thanks again for another delightful issue of the Netletter - Pauline

We, at the NetLetter, passed the email to Janet who sent this reply -

Thanks for forwarding the e-mail from Pauline James. I have sent her an e-mail telling her that while I did not know her mother I probably knew her father.  Things were so informal in those days all the flight crews knew the ground crews by first name.There was always a warm welcome for us whenever we arrived.  I didn't know her mother as we were flying the same route (just one stew per trip) so would not run into each other as we did occasionally with gals on other flights.  Anyway, I enjoyed hearing from Pauline. Thanks for forwarding her message. 

ReserVec, the most modern system of its kind, goes into full operation. First operation was all direct services to and from New York City on June 17th 1962. Then on the Pacific Coast Vancouver-Seattle-Victoria routes, followed by YVR-YYC and Edmonton-Calgary-Lethbridge routes mid-September.  October TCA began selling space on all even-numbered flights in North America, and by January 1963 all reservations centres were on the ReserVec system. 

Mike Nash sent us this piece of history just as we found the above article from "Between Ourselves" issue March 1963 -

I don't know whether you are familiar with Tracy Kidder's famous book, "Soul of a New Machine" which portrayed the human side of the building of a new computer, but he caught the feel of what it was similarly like working with the then state-of-the-art computer and communications technology with the company in the 1970's. Many of the computer company people who worked on the 'Reservec 2' project from 1969-70 came directly from the Apollo Moon program as its development work was winding down - long hours and interesting camaraderie.  Cheers Mike

Back In The Old Days

A while back I mentioned some of the so-called jokes that flight and ground crews inflicted on each other. In retrospect I suppose that some of these escapades could be seen as being cruel and insensitive which indeed there is no doubt some of the so called practical jokes were. That some of these escapades might even have undermined safety, notwithstanding, most of them were innocent, quite harmless stress relievers and would even pass the test of current political correctness if judged in the context of the aviation cultural standards back in the day. These, then, aside from the well worn request for some junior neophyte whether pilot, mechanic or flight attendant to go get a bucket of prop wash are some of my more gentler recollections of the fun and games indulged in back in the hay days of the late sixties and early seventies.