The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
September 23, 2012 - Issue 1222
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First Issue published in October 1995!
(over 5,400 subscribers)
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NetLetter Past Issues
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Donation Information
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Send cheques payable to "ACFamily Network" to:
ACFamily Network
#800 - 15355 24th Ave, Suite 523
Surrey, BC V4A 2H9
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Sponsors
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Greetings!
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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
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| Our First 75 Years - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 1966 - December - The company became the first airline to install a covered passenger loading bridge at a Canadian airport. |
| Reader Submitted Photos - Compiled by Terry Baker |
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 Reader Submitted Photos - The photos and information below have been submitted to us by our faithful readers.
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 George Brien has dug up a picture of the Fredericton YFC terminal building:
This building originally was located at another N.B. airport called Blissville located 35 miles SW. TCA used the Airport and terminal at Blissville from 1945 to 1947 to serve both YFC and YSJ. When the New Airport in YFC required a terminal building when it opened in 1952, the old terminal building from Blissville was cut in two and moved there. No AIF fees involved in those days of recycling Terminals!
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 From the Robert Arnold collection: For those pilots who sat behind the instruments, we have this photo of the Vickers Viscount front office.
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| TCA/Air Canada People Gallery - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Below 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.
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 George Brien has sent us this photo of the inaugural TCA flight into YFC, February 1, 1952; Capt. C.M. Harper, F/O S.W. MacPherson and Stew. S.E. Kerr in front of their DC3. Original TCA ground staff included; Station Manager Wils Himmelman, and Operations Agents Jack Geldart, John Gandy, and Lou Releeder. |
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Issue dated - January 1967
From the "Between Ourselves" magazine -
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 UNLOADING THE LOADING BRIDGE - The transport and erection of the bridge on the site required much planning and dovetailing of effort. Here, two huge cranes place the door portion onto its hydraulic jack at gate 1 on the Domestic finger of the terminal at Montreal in December 1966. |
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Issue dated - December 1975
Found in the "Between Ourselves" magazine -
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 The first flight of the TriStar took place at Palmdale, California on November 16, 1970, and to mark the occasion, Bob Burns of Lockheed handed out giant fifth anniversary cards at the company's headquarters in Montreal. With him at the reception area In Place Ville Marie are, from the left Christiane Botos, Secretary; Lise Gauthier, Receptionist; Janet Pacheco, Secretary, and Marla Sanchez Receptionist.
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 Paris at work.
The sales staff of Air Canada-France were all dressed for action at a recent two-day meeting to setup their new sales campaign.
Sporting "Get a Friend to Fly" t-shirts are, from the left; John Barnes, General Manager, France and Western Europe; Michel Schott, Sales Manager, Lyons; Sales Representatives Jean Munoz, Martine Bridoux, Maurice Demont, Jean Rousse and Alain Pelle, as well as Passenger Sales & Service Manager Fernand Leroux.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
 Yes, still on vacation, but the gang offers this for you -
Sent in by Brian Dunn editor of YYZNEWS
"A British Airways internal presentation remembering 27 years of Concorde."
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Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker
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 News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and its "ancestry" of contributing airlines. |
Canadian Pacific Air Lines timetable nr 1 dated 1943.
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Issue dated - March 1985
Found in the "CP Air News" magazine. -
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 Toronto had its worst storm of the winter Feb. 12th, 1985 when 12 centimeters (seven Inches) of snow fell, accompanied by howling winds. At the airport CP Air crews made a heroic effort to get Flight 81 off to Vancouver, but alas, the snow won
and the airport was closed most of the day. Sweeping the wing of B-747 aircraft No. 742 at Gate 50 are, from left, Rick Vodarek, avionics technician; Peter Sturge, mechanic; Ken McDonald, air engineer; and Joe Moniz, aircraft mechanic.
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 COPENHAGEN staffers held another big Canada West promotion early March 1985, giving a seminar for 102 travel agents from Sweden and Denmark. The object was to promote polar traffic to Western Canada via CP Air, and one of the events featured was Vancouver's Expo 86. From left, Jim Cowie, manager, Tourism Alberta, London; Sid Fattedad, comptroller, CP Air, Vancouver; John Pastuszynski, regional vice-president, Europe, Middle East and Africa; Jens Rlsgaard, junior passenger agent, CP Air, Copenhagen; Turld Blom, sales supervisor, CP Air, Copenhagen; John Lawson, assistant deputy minister, Tourism Yukon; Ell Anderson, senior passenger agent, CP Air, Copenhagen; Jim Willis, Manager, Tourism British Columbia, London; and Flemming Timmermann, manager, Scandinavia and Finland, CP Air, Copenhagen.
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| Reader's Feedback - Compiled by Terry Baker |
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.
In NetLetter nr 1217, Vern Swerdfeger submitted an early photo of United Airlines with no location. Ted West sends us this suggestion:
I think the city is Vancouver & aircraft could be a ford tri-motor. United had a long record of airline service between Seattle & Vancouver. Best regards, Ted West.
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| Bert Ollivier sends us this information after reading NetLetter nr 1219: Interesting issue... especially the parts to do with the good ole reliable noisy North Stars. And, of course, my wife Juanita (nee Scott) will also be interested, as she was a "Star" on the specialized North Star Desk res position in Toronto's Church Street office during the early 1950's. Also, I flew thousands of miles on those excellent airplanes. Even though they were noisy, the cabin staff in those days made sure that all pax enjoyed their flight to the utmost! Both Juanita and I enjoy The NetLetter. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, Bert Ollivier (CTC emeritus) |
 We had this photo of the crew on the steps in NetLetter nr 1219 and Bill Samson has sent in this information: The individual in the upper left in the light coloured suit is Mr. Norm Donnelly. I believe his title was Director, Operations at this time. Bill Sansom |
Doug Seagrim has come to the same conclusion with this email:
The gentleman on the stand in the Martin Betts photo who is wearing a light coloured business suit was J. Norman Donnelly. He was overseas regional manager about that time, but resident in Montreal (Baie d'Urfe), so the photo is likely also in Dorval.
As Ed Chorniak was aboard the first flight into Frankfurt. He supplies some more names with this comment: Just a note in response to the request of Tom Rogers as to the crew of the first flight into Frankfurt as was shown in the issue #1216. The captain was indeed Don (smokey) Patry; F/O Pete Rogers; S/O Barry Gard; and N/O Ed Chorniak (thats me, second from the left!) At the time, I was operating as a Navigator, also holding a position of First Officer and Second Officer until being promoted to Captain in 1967, retiring off the B-747 in 1991 after 34 years of service. Your hard work is much appreciated and enjoyable. Ed Chorniak (We also had the photo in N/L 1219 - eds)
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Odds and Ends.
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 Sometimes we receive articles and information that just doesn't fit in our other areas. This is where it goes!
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Brian Dunn editor of YYZNEWS has sent some photos by Eric Dumigan of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Hamilton Air Show 40th Anniversary: On June 14th the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum took their B-25 Mitchell and Avro Lancaster to Buffalo, New York for a brief photo-flight with the Commemorative Air Force's Boeing B-29 "FiFi" and the Cavanaugh Flight Museum's North American P-51 Mustang "The Brat III".
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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Laszlo Bastyovanszky has sent us some interesting information. Here is one of them:
Never lose another piece of luggage
Las Vagas McCarran's third terminal has also put in place a high-tech baggage-handling system, where airport workers attach a tag embedded with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip to each checked bag. The RFID chip broadcasts a unique signal, similar to a radio transmitter.
The RFID tags can be scanned more easily and quickly than tags with bar codes, helping crews correctly route bags and find misplaced ones. The airport has installed 55 sensors at the airport to track a bag at every stop, from conveyor belt to carousel. It is the first US airport to embrace the technology, though some non-US airports, such as in Lisbon and Milan, and airlines like Qantas, have experimented with RFID tags. |
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Some interline deals from Interline Vacations:
Prinsendam
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In U.S.A. or CANADA 800-200-7170 (toll free) or +1 512-691-4501
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| Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker |
As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.
Alan Evans in South Africa sent this along:
A captains dream:
I had a bad dream last night.
In it was the FAA, crew scheduling, bad schedules, bad management, self-serving union, unserviceable aircraft equipment, changing weather, no extra holding fuel, ever-changing procedures, endless flight manual revisions, dead heading in the middle seat, broken luggage, lost luggage, nasty passenger agents, crabby old 170 lb. flight attendants that were axe-handle wide, all-nighters, foreign countries, sleep deprivation, mergers, seniority squabbles, company threats, food poisoning, no food, bad coffee, bidding, pulled away from my family for weeks at a time, fleabag hotels, late cabs and maniac cab drivers, bidding vacation, waiting for gates, weather, low visibility approaches, aircraft de-icing, PCs, Gestapo check airman, medicals, commuting to and from work in unspeakable weather, the parking lot from hell, parking lot buses, inter-terminal buses, spring break, Christmas rush, Easter rush, PA announcements, insurance, drug and alcohol testing, noise violations, customs lineups, dry cleaning, terrorism, security passes, rude security personnel, high gas/oil prices, pay cuts, rush hour traffic, that infernal alarm clock, crash pads, catching cold away from home, lackadaisical crew members, sexual harassment threats, flight attendants and co-pilots implying that they are a gift to aviation after being there three years, back biting, gossip, cell phones, aircraft cram courses, plus laying my job on the line several times a year with simulators, endless procedural memorization and annual recurrent training days.
Then I woke up and joyously found myself still retired!
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 Cartoon by Fernando Moure, Flight Attendant, YVR from "CP Air News" issued December 1982.
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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 and personal memories 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
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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.
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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
- Stewardess - Lisa Ruck, Brooklin, Ontario
To contact us, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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