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Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter Since 1995

Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Since 1995

The NetLetter #1192

The NetLetter

For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)


January 17, 2012 - Issue 1192

 
First Issue published in October 1995!
(over 5,400 subscribers)
In This Issue
Progress Report
Our first 75 years
Air Canada News
Star Alliance News
Reader Submitted.Photos
TCA/Air Canada People Gallery
Alan's Space
Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc
Reader's Feedback
Odds and Ends...
Terry's Trivia
Smileys
Web Site Information

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Greetings!
Terry Baker
Welcome to the NetLetter!

We welcome you to allow the NetLetter to be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC, Wardair. etal. and share your experiences with us!

Terry Baker and the NetLetter Team
Progress Report - by Alan Rust
Alan's SpaceI failed to mention in NetLetter #1191 (last issue) that Terry has also been busy scanning old Canadian, CPAir, PWA, etc. magazines as well and these will be made available in the near future along with our AC/TCA material. There hasn't been nearly as many donated though so we are limited to what we can draw from.
Our first 75 years - Compiled by Terry Baker
AC 75 Years Anniversary1958 - Jan 1st - New health insurance plan in effect with the company sharing 50% of the cost.
Air Canada News

Summer 2012 changes - some initial changes planned for next summer's schedules include the Montreal-Brussels route being operated with 767-300 for the entire season (A330s were used this past summer), and the Toronto-Athens seasonal service will operate from June 1st through to September 17th five days a week with 767-300s. 

 

The Toronto to Barcelona route begins May 2nd and will be daily during the peak summer dates of July 3rd through to September 11th.

 

The Toronto-Madrid seasonal service operates from June 10th and will go from 6x weekly to daily between July 3rd and August 28th.  Toronto-Munich will see an A330-300 being used for entire summer period (replacing 777-300 used in summer of 2011).  (source YYZNEWS)
 
A UNITED workforce at Air Canada at Heathrow (LHR)  has agreed to a list of working conditions which will form parts of a new agreement to avoid a repeat of the fiasco brewing at Qantas.


Union leaders confirmed the 600 Heathrow-based employees gave the nod of approval to negotiations on pay and conditions, between Unite the Union and the airline's management. (source SkyPort)

Star Alliance News
Ethiopian Airlines joins Star Alliance;  effective December 12th 2011, becoming the 28th member.
Reader Submitted Photos - Compiled by Terry Baker

Readers PhotosReader Submitted Photos -  The photos and information below have been submitted to us by our faithful readers.  


We welcome photos of interest from our readers. Please check your cupboards and shoe boxes, we bet you have some excellant photos lying around! If you do, send them to us and we will consider them for publication in a future NetLetter. We prefer good quality airline related photos, with descriptive text and names (whenever possible) included with the submission.

Image Blank 200px Alan Evans sent us these photographs taken in 1948  of the post war Royal Australian Air Force Spitfire Disposal area situated at Oakley, Queensland, Australia.
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TCA/Air Canada People & Events - Compiled by Terry Baker
 
TCA/Air Canada  LogoBelow we have musings from the "Between Ourselves" and "Horizons" magazine, Air Canada publications from years gone by, as well as various in-house publications.

The NetLetter has been fortunate enough to have our readers donate vintage Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada publications from as far back as 1941 to share with you. These have been scanned and are being prepared for presenting in a special area of the ACFamily Network for archival and genealogy research.
Issue dated - November 1957
Noted in the "Between Ourselves" magazine -
CONSTELLATION 406 CF-TGD WIRED FOR MUSIC OTHERS TO FOLLOW IF SUCCESSFUL 
MUSIC, it is said hath charm! If this is true. then passengers traveling aboard Super Constellation #406 across Canada and Overseas will be charmed by the strains of soft music coming from the aircraft's PA system. This new feature has been installed in one aircraft at present but others will follow if the public's acceptance warrants it. There seems to be little doubt in the mind of William Fabro, Director of Passenger Service, that it won't be adopted on all Super Constellation ~ and Viscount equipment later. (Some prediction by Bill - eds)
 
A PROTOTYPE of an "Electronic Reservations Brain", under development by Trans-Canada Air Lines, was shown last month in Toronto. The system was conceived by Lyman Richardson Communications Analyst with TCA at Montreal. Built by Ferranti Electric of Toronto, the prototype "Machine With a Memory" is expected to provide an up-to-the-second inventory of all available seats and complete a reservation in a matter of seconds. (A forerunner of the RESERVEC systems perhaps - eds)
Issue dated - March 1975
From the "Horizons" magazine -

Image Blank 200pxUnder the heading "U.S. Service spans 38 years" the following information was provided. 

September 1st 1937 was the date of the very first company service to the US with the inauguration of the Vancouver-Seattle route. This service was discontinued during 1941 and, instead, service between Toronto and New York was started.

 

Direct service between Toronto and Chicago and Cleveland commenced during 1946. During 1946 Vancouver-Seattle was recommenced and the route from Fort William (now Thunder Bay) and Duluth. 1947 the following routes were added, Windsor and Chicago, Halifax and Boston via Yarmouth and Saint John. 1950 saw service to Tampa, also Montreal to New York, 1966 saw service commencing to Miami and, in 1967, the route Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles.


The photo shows well-wishers gathered around the North Star being readied for the inaugural Toronto to Miami on April 2nd 1950. Captain Dal Woodward was in command.


Image Blank 200px Amongst the more than 100 people who gathered in Vancouver recently to honor Bill Garven, former General Manager, B.C. on his retirement, were some of the old gang.


Most of those pictured worked with Bill during his many years with the Company.

 

 

From the left, back row are: Don Maclaren, Jack McGee, Ernie locke, Emily Coxon, Howard Cotterell, Jack Jones, Crawf Burns, and Jack Dalby. Center row: John Maxwell , Pat and Bill Garven, Martin Betts, and Jack Robinson. Front row: Les Brook , Pat Maxwell, Mary Dalby and Ruth Robinson.


Image Blank 200px ACRA - Air Canada Recreation Association presidents from across the system held their annual meeting in Toronto to discuss mutual problems and future plans including the possibility of Toronto being host for an invitationaI bowling tournament.

 

Shown at the meeting are, seated from the left: Maurice Donnelly, Sault Ste  Marie; Doug West, London, Eng.; Bob Anderson, Edmonton; Shirley McAlary, Saint John; Aranka Torok, Vancouver; Janet Ferguson, Ottawa; Brian Murray, Halifax and Harvey Kloss, Los Angeles. Standing, from the left: Bob Lance , Thunder Bay, Dorothy Buss,  Winnipeg; Gord Thompson, Dorval; Dan Rowe, Chicago; Myron Curley, Toronto and Hal Walker, Manager, Employee Services and Suggestions, Montreal who was chairman of the meeting.

Alan's Space - by Alan Rust
Alan's SpaceA Pilot/Father's Tough Love
(Submitted by a pilot)
Most people nowadays think it improper to discipline children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have had one of "those moments".

Since I'm a pilot, one method that I have found very effective is to take the child for a flight during which I say nothing and give the child the opportunity to reflect on his or her behaviour.
 
I don't know whether it's the steady vibration from the engines, or just the time away from any distractions such as TV, video games, computer, iPod, etc.  Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our flight together. I believe that eye to eye contact during these sessions is an important element in achieving the desired results. I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

SHOULD WORK WITH GRANDKIDS ALSO.

Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker
CAIL TailsNews and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and it's "ancestry" of contributing airlines.




  • A CPAir DC8-63 commenced service to Costa Rica on February 12th 1979
  • A CPAir employees charter to Las Vegas from both Toronto and Vancouver operated April 15-18th 1979
  • CPAir inaugurated YOW-YVR July 2nd 1979 and YOW-YWG July 30th 1979.
Issue dated - February 1979
From the "CPAir NEWS" magazine -
Image Blank 200px The whole gang at Grande Prairie -
SMILING sales and service staff at Grande Prarrie, (standing from left) Pius Seewalt, Pam May, Len Ribar, Marilyn Rodgers and BiIl Shilvock of Vancouver, manager of Western Canada services. From left at table, Randy Stanley. Grande Prairie manager Paul Murray, Terri Barschel. Marion Hunter and Tom Holder.
Image Blank 200px Bob Hurley, Gerry Langenberger and Brian Nash.

Issue dated - March 1979

Image Blank 200px FINE FORM was demonstrated by CP Air's Fiji operation last year by meeting its sales quota. In recognition of the fact, Ian Becket, manager, sales and service planning, Vancouver, third from left, presented the sales achievement award to Fiji manager, George Heinmiller, second from right.

 

Sharing in the honour are from left; Said Hasan, passenger agent and John Stewart, CTO supervisor, Both from Suva and far fight, Henry Bing. airport services manager, Nandi (Nitin Lal photo)


Image Blank 200px CP AIR'S entire West German team. which staffs sales offices In Dusseldorf, Munich. Hamburg and Frankfurt, recently gathered in Frankfurt for a three-day technical seminar on ticketing and fares.

 

Around the table from left, sales reps. Anna Wrossok and Mrs Brigitte Jovic; passenger agent Mrs. Anne Klemm. district sales rep. Detlet Hinrichsen: passenger agent Mrs. Sylvia Rehbock: services training senior Instructor Jim Redding of Toronto, accountant Regina Boendgen; senior passenger agent Mrs. Jutta Castellino. passenger agent Mrs. Rita Schnoor, Germany sales manager Peter Garms. and cargo sales assistant Mrs. Rotraut Emde.

Reader's Feedback - Compiled by Terry Baker
Reader's Feedback 
Every week we ask our readers for their stories or  feedback on what they have read here in previous issues. Below is the feedback we have received recently.



Judy McKay-Roncetti sends this information relating to the Reservations system photo we had in NetLetter nr 1185. We also had a response from Allen Knapp on this subject which we published in NetLetter nr 1187 -

You showed a picture of a female agent at the VSIB (Visual Space Indicator Board) in Toronto Reservations and asked if anyone knew the name. Well, I have been racking my brain for that name. I am not sure but I think her name was Phyllis ????. She was great friends with a "girl" called Marion MacDonald (?). I think they were both Spud Islanders. Phyllis married a UAL pilot (once again I am not certain).  
The incident you were referring to took place in the Reservation Office in the Austin Building at 737 Church Street in Toronto between 1957-1960. For those of you that could, or would not remember, the Yonge Street subway ran behind the building. There was no air conditioning in those days... so on a very warm day..."Let's open the windows and get some air!" Swoosh!!!!! And then the FUN began. All those "stop" sales, "extra sections", etc flew off the Board. What to do? No back up plan as I recall. Just start from scratch with Payload Control and Records trying to help. What a day! 

Judy McKay-Roncetti
 

Norman Hogwood sends us this correction and some more of his memories -

Thanks for placing my item in the NetLetter 1186 but it does contain a wee error. In the preamble it says I left TCA and LHR in the late 60's.

Fact is I left in February 1961.

In fact after going through the emigration process I received my sea voyage ticket for a 10 March sailing from Tilbury in one of the pre-war tubs belonging to the NZ Shipping Corporation. I politely turned it down as I damned if I was going to set sail on my birthday!

I then got a revised set of sailing documents which gave me a ticket on the second voyage of the t.s.v. "Oriana", the new pride and joy of the P & O Line, sailing from Southampton on 12 April - the day that Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. To top it off, the "Oriana" came from the Vickers stable. (Remember the days when UK shipyards built UK ships?).  

When I get round to it, I'll pen something about the joys and woes of getting to work at LHR from my home between Weybridge and Woking.

It would not suit today's yoof!

Cheers. Norm

PS - We get the UK TV programme "Antiques Roadshow" and last night's was shot at the Brooklands Museum - brought back a few memories.
Odds and Ends

Image Blank 200pxThis article appeared in an LHR local newspaper - 

SUPPORT Air Canada employee Lisa D'Souza in her quest to help her talented son win a music award and the opportunity of a lifetime The customer sales and service agent at Terminal 3 is proud of her 20-year-old son who is up for an exposure award from MUZU TV.


Those of you who recall the "Gimli Glider" may be interested in the book published in 1989 by William and Marilyn Mona Hoffer ISBN 0-312-92274--4

Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker

Terry BakerAirbus A320-211 fin 409 c/n 302 C-FMEQ now with Solomon Airlines registered as H4-BUS.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Image Blank 200pxAfter a successful one-year trial, London/Heathrow (LHR) has introduced the automatic transport pods at Terminals.

The computer-driven electric vehicles can carry four passengers and their luggage at speeds of up to 25 mph along a dedicated 2.4 mile track which runs between the airport and the car park. The system is expected to carry up to 500,000 passengers per year and replace 50,000 shuttle bus journeys.

 


BODY scanners in operation at Heathrow are to be upgraded and a further roll out across UK airports will go ahead. Passengers will not be able to opt out of scans and, in future, images will no longer be seen by security workers to address privacy concerns.
Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker
Smileys
As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.
 

Image Blank 200px This cartoon by V. Baroncelli from the "Between Ourselves" issued November 1957.
Image Blank 200px Another of the futuristic Air Canada cargo transports from the 1979 Cargo Calendar supplied by Allan Gray.

The NetLetter is an email newsletter published (usually) once a week and contains a mixture of nostalgia, current news and travel tips. We encourage our readers to submit their stories, photos and/or comments from either days gone by or from present day experiences and trips. If we think that the rest of our readers will enjoy it, we will publish it here.

We also welcome your feedback in regard to anything we post here. Many readers have commented with additional information, names, personal memories and corrections from the photos and articles presented here.

The NetLetter, which is free, is open to anyone that wishes to subscribe but is targeted to retired employees from Air Canada, Canadian Airlines and all the other companies that were part of what Air Canada is today. Thanks for joining us!

We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the NetLetter, see you next week!
 
Sincerely,
Your NetLetter Team

Disclaimer: Please note, that neither the NetLetter or the ACFamily Network  necessarily endorse any of the airline related or other "deals" that we provide for our readers. We would be interested in any feedback (good or bad) when using these companies though and will report the results here. We do not (normally) receive any compensation from any companies that we post in our newsletters. If we do receive a donation or other compensation, it will be indicated as a sponsored article or link.

 

E&OE - (errors and omissions excepted) - The historical information as well as any other information provided here is subject to correction and may have changed over time. We do publish corrections when they are brought to our attention.
First published in October, 1995
  • Chief Pilot - Terry Baker, Nanaimo, B.C.
  • Co-pilot - Alan Rust, Surrey, B.C.
  • Flight Engineer - Bill Rowsell, Londesboro, Ontario
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