The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
September 29th, 2012 - Issue 1223
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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
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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 |
 1953 - May - Introduction of a new line in uniforms called "TCA Blue".
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| Air Canada News |
 Air Canada (AC) executive VP and CFO Michael Rousseau told investors Wednesday the Montreal-based airline will launch a subsidiary low-cost carrier (LCC) next year with a branding announcement to come "within a couple of weeks." Speaking to a CIBC World Markets conference in Montreal, available via webcast, Rousseau said the labor peace achieved by AC earlier this year with the help of government intervention (ATW Daily News, Aug. 8) enables it to launch an LCC that eventually will have a fleet of 50 aircraft. "We're working a lot on developing a low-cost carrier," he said. "We are currently developing those plans." He said the LCC within "several years" will operate 20 Boeing 767s and 30 Airbus A319s, including 20 A319s sourced from AC's current mainline fleet. The LCC will be focused on transatlantic, US leisure and Caribbean routes. "There are markets we do not currently fly transatlantic that... we believe we can be very successful at [using reconfigured 767s]," he said, explaining that the LCC's 767s will have 20% more seats than AC's 767s. Higher capacity aircraft are "where about half the cost difference comes between low-cost carriers and mainline carriers," he said. While the LCC (ATW Daily News, April 14, 2011) will operate new transatlantic routes for AC, some of its current US and Caribbean routes "will flip to the LCC," Rousseau said. Further details on the LCC will be revealed shortly, he added, but noted it has been decided "the model will be 100%-owned, separate leadership." |
| Women in Aviation - Compiled by Terry Baker |
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 Miss E.H. Coxon, Secretary to the T.C.A. General Traffic Manager and the first woman in TCA to earn the 10 year service award, pictured here at Montreal 1951.
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| 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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Bill Norberg tells us: While digitizing some of my slides and negatives, I came across some pictures I took on the delivery flight of our first L-1011 in spring of 1973. I went to Palmdale to accompany the flight home and had spent a delightful evening chatting with D.R. (Don) McLaren. Don was on the return flight as was Dan Haughton President of Lockheed, Pat Labrie and John McGill. I took several pictures during the flight, and have attached several that might be of interest.
 John McGill
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 Pat Labrie |
 Picture of PVM as we circled it prior to landing at Dorval.
It was an auto-approach... auto-land and auto roll-out completely under the control of the auto-approach system. We had come a long way from the early days in 1949/50 when I was doing experimental work on the Flight Path Control system in North Star aircraft with Capt Ron Baker.
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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.
Robert Arnold sends this information:
A bit of news for those who might be interested. The long and illustrious career of Lockheed 10A, CF- TCC will be coming to a graceful end on Thursday September 20, 2012 as it will be permanently parked and take on a new roll as a permanent display at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg. For those who don't know, the Western Canada Aviation Museum is located in the former Trans-Canada Air Lines headquarters and maintenance facility, the very same facility where CF-TCC was maintained while it was in service with TCA from 1937 to 1939 when it was sold to the Canadian Government. From there it went to the RCAF as part of the war effort. Following the war it was sold to a private owner. In 1983 Air Canada purchased the aircraft and the plane was flown to the airline's Winnipeg maintenance base where it spent two years going through a complete restoration. Pratt & Whitney Canada arranged for the complete overhaul of its two engines and for furnishing accessories and spares. Over the years, CF-TCC participated in many promotional activities, including flights to raise funds for a variety of charitable organizations. The photo I included is one I took from atop the WCAM on April 28, 1986 shortly after it arrived in Winnipeg from a cross country tour to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Air Canada. It's hard to believe that was 26 years ago.
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 I knew it was arriving at the WCAM as part of the 75 year ceremonies for A/C being held there on the 20th, but didn't know this was going to be its final flight. I was there for its first engine run-up and flight after restoration and now I will be there for its final flight and engine shut-down. This is a photo of it being towed out of the hangar at Air Canada for the first time and its first engine run-up March 17,1986.
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 Thought I would send along a photo of CF-TCC as it sat the next day at the Air Canada hangar on January 15, 1984. It still has the old markings on it. That was a cold morning as we headed over to the hangar. I believe it was about -29 with a strong wind that day.
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 Robert Arnold sends us this photo of CF-TCC final arrival at YWG. |
 Jim Bruce responded to Robert:
I read your comments and looked at the great restoration job done on TCC in your photo, and I recalled B/W shots I had from 1962 when we had just got the aircraft from Matane Airways. Al Hunt was in charge of getting it in shape for the cross country 25th Anniversary tour. This photo has a lot of issues with scratching and other damage. Anyway, that's me and a DC-8 (801) tail in the background. When it was in a corner of the Base hangar, it looked so tiny and vulnerable. There was so much surface corrosion on the aluminum that Al opted to paint it white: there was not enough time to do a proper restoration. I think Lindy Rood was Captain on the tour. Although, George Lothian was around then, too. It's wonderful to see how great it looks now with all that polish. Seems like yesterday. Jim
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 In a later email, Jim told us: There was only 1 ex-TCA Lockheed 10A in Canada in 1986, so that a/c 23 is CF-TCC. They must have done the switch as a promo thing (CF-TCA) during the 50th and put it back to TCC (25) later. Where the hell is all the paperwork covering these things? That's what drives me nuts. Who occupies the old RCAF hangars in the rear now?
Thought you might get a kick out of this 1962 shot I took of TCC (painted white) from nearly the same angle as yours. I noticed some things in your great photo: they haven't put the aircraft number 25 on the nose; the underwing registration is more inboard and the letters spaced wider; the tires seem narrower, and the port tire a little soft (get TCA line maintenance on this right away!). I include a nose cone photo: it might help if the WCAM ever wants to add the number. They seem to have added two nose cone lamps in c.1986 which weren't on the original 1937 TCC. And also removed the little antenna that was there.
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 The service building between the hangars in WG is where I used to work. Isn't it? Cafeteria on the ground floor and engineering on second floor. Boy, was that ever hot in the summer. My sweaty arms used to stick to the tracing paper. One summer day they were re-tarring the roof and the vibrations of all the men and equipment moving around caused a fluorescent fixture to come loose at one end. It swung down over Al Swain's drawing desk and nearly hit him in the head!
My camera was an early Minolta 35mm. The lens was f3.5 and fixed, not a single lens reflex. Took good pictures, though. I shot a lot of B/W because I had a darkroom at home for processing (but not colour). Cheers, Jim
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Issue dated - January 1967
From "Between Ourselves" magazine -
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 The second annual Southern Ontario Regional sales meeting was held at the Skyline Hotel in Toronto and featured a special theme relating to the 1967 Centennial. In attendance were all Managers, Supervisors and Sales Representatives from Southern Region, the aim being to attain an excess of $100 million in sales during the year.
MORE THAN 400 YEARS of Company service is represented by the people flanked by Regional Sales Manager Eddy May and W. Gordon Wood, Senior Vice-President - Sales. All have at least 20 years Air Canada service. Left to right, standing: Eddy May, Roy Strachan, Howard Kennedy, Howie Deegan, Gord Smith, Bill Hind, Bob Hainstock, Ed Waud and Gordon Wood. Second row: Bob Nicholson, Reg Brewster, Marjarie Williams, Pat Ford,Trudy Gillis, Helen Patterson and Pat Patterson. Front row: H.B. Malcolm, Ron Reed, Jim McMurray, Greg Grant and Ran Lafthouse. |
Issue dated February 1951:
Canada's Immigration Plan
It is possible that this month and next, TCA scheduled flights from the United Kingdom will be arriving in Montreal with every seat occupied. Many of the seats will be held by British and European immigrants taking advantage of the Canadian Government*TCA special $160 one*way fare The plan, which went into effect in December 1950 with the frank purpose of stimulating immigration. It allows a bona-fide immigrant to travel to Canada with TCA at a cost to himself of only $160, the government making up the difference between the special fare and the regular one-way fare. As the plan went into operation, TCA named G.B. Duhamel, General Supervisor Group Sales, to co-ordinate the effort in the Traffic Department and maintain liaison with Operations, while in Ottawa, L.D. Palmer, District Traffic and Sales Manager, has kept close contact with Col. Laval Fortier, Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. TCA is capable of handling 6,400 immigrants during 1951 if the $160 figure was maintained. It is valid at the moment only until the end of March. At this time the government and the Company will review the situation. And it is possible that the scheme will be extended to the end of the year. The figure of 6,400 immigrants to be carried by TCA is based on 85 second sections,
plus seats available on regular flights.
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 It was an all-traffic affair in Montreal when six TCAers received their ten year pins at a special party. Shown with the happy recipients and making the presentations are Anson C. McKim, and W. Gordon Wood, From left: A.E. MacKay, G. Denmon, Gordon Wood, Miss E.H. Coxon, Secretary to the General Traffic Manager and the first woman in TCA to earn the award, Anson McKim, W.G. Rathborne, R.E. Deyman, and J. Lone.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
 Alan is still on vacation!
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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. Vern Swerdfeger has passed us this information: We have been informed that the 2013 recipient of " The Belt of Orion" award, from Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame - will be Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Limited. Our Airline will be inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame at an Induction dinner in May, 2013 - location TBA. I initiated the nomination process and submitted the 'justification' documents in May, 2011. Gerry Manning seconded the nomination, and there were four or five individuals and organizations that provided 'letters of support' for the nomination. CPAL came into existence in 1942 - 70 years ago, and ceased to exist in 1987 - 25 years ago. An appropriate time for the honour. It is gratifying to finally have the Company given recognition for 'substantial contributions to the advancement of aviation in Canada'. The official CAHF announcement to the public will take place in October, at an ATAC meeting in Vancouver, so we have been asked to keep the word 'low-key' in the meantime. But I thought you guys should know. Cheers, Bill Cameron |
Extracts from the "CP Air News" magazine
Issue dated May 1983
CP Air's last four DC-8s, all Series 63 "stretch" models, were sold earlier this month to Worldways Canada of Toronto for use on that company's charter routes. The DC-8s had been parked in storage on a Nevada desert since last spring when they were retired from service. CP Air is repainting all four aircraft in Worldways' colours and is performing B maintenance checks on two aircraft in Toronto, and a C check and a mid-D check on the other two in Vancouver. This work has resulted in the recall of 64 maintenance employees in Vancouver and an additional 10 in Toronto, mostly aircraft and sheet metal mechanics. The first two aircraft were delivered on May 10, and the others will follow May 28 and June 8. |
 BUENOS AIRES was the scene of the Latin America marketing meeting, where delegates from Vancouver, Mexico, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo discussed strategies for 1983. Front, from left: Willy Macklnson, Buenos Aires; Oscar Alberti, Uruguay; Olga Partridge, Buenos Aires; Betzabe Jimenez, Lima; Carlos Aceves, manager, exico/Central America; Raul Hudson, manager, Chile; Rodolfo Roggero, Lima. Back, from left: Marcelo Parrell, Santiago; Alberto Newman, Buenos Aires; Ian MacDonald, Buenos Aires; Bill Morgan, Buenos Aires; Pete Dowding, manager, Brazil; Raul Cifuentes, Caro Salers Manager Latin America; Dick Hulsman, Vancouver; Ralph Bradley, manager, Argentina/Uruguay/Paraguay; Bob Connor regional director, Pacific/Latin America, Vancouver; Ken Pickford, Vancouver; Angel Bracesco, manager Peru/Bolivia/Ecuador; Felix Yep, Lima; and Alejandro Ozaki, Lima. Also In attendance was Claus Ritter, Vancouver.
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 This group was part of a Sales blitz assigned to Toronto and ready for the charge. From left: Luc Prud'homme, Montreal sales; JoAnne Saran, CP Air Holidays; Ken Malley, first officer; Ellen Peers, passenger service director; Ray Tai, passenger agent, Toronto airport; Marisa Baraldin, flight attendant; Roger Cuillerier, Montreal sales; Peter Dinn, Edmonton cargo.
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 Photo by CP Air, B-737 Capt. George McNutt, of the Vancouver Ops Centre. Taken from his own aircraft. McNutt is an accredited aerial photographer. |
| 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 NetLertter nr 1218, Robert Arnold sent us information regarding the BAe146 jet. This prompted Norman Hogwood in New Zealand, to relate this memory:
Regarding the stories about the BAe 146. I thought you may be interested in this excerpt from my memoirs:
Airbus Industrie in Toulouse in France hosted the Executive Committee of the Air Transport Section - US National Safety Council in June 1983. Once again, I decided to take some leave in order to attend and Cary was able to join me. We paid a quick visit to my sister and the family en route and then flew from Gatwick to Toulouse. This particular flight was my first in a British Aerospace 146, which was a relatively recent addition to the skies, and was made on a now-defunct airline, Dan Air.
The aircraft was being marketed as the "Whisper Jet" on account of its quiet external noise 'footprint' and was being targeted at airlines operating into noise sensitive airports. One had recently been on a sales tour of New Zealand where it was demonstrated to Mount Cook Airlines and a couple of weeks before we left home, Mount Cook and announced that they would not be buying it, although that was based on performance and had nothing to do with noise factors.
Cary and I had seats in the first row and the first thing we noticed was the engine noise in the cabin, especially where we were with the number 2 engine abeam of us. In fact, we found the noise level to be very loud by modern standards. During the flight, I introduced myself to the senior cabin attendant and asked if it would be possible to visit the flight deck (those were the days!), and I was duly ushered in. The captain was a Dan Air pilot and the pilot carrying out co-pilot duties was from British Aerospace. He had been on the demonstration flights in New Zealand and said how sorry he was that Mount Cook Airlines had decided not to proceed with a contract. He also asked me how I found the aircraft especially its quietness. I said I believed that British Aerospace had found a way of reducing the external noise by channeling it into the cabin! I explained where Cary and I were sitting and told him we found the noise almost intolerable. He reluctantly agreed that there were a few problems in that area and that they were working on them!
How typical it was for the UK aviation industry to ruin a great tradition and leave the entire market to the Americans until the Airbus concept came along. Cheers, Norm
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 Bob Ayotte sends us this information and photo: In NetLetter 1217, an article referred to an article in Netletter 1213 regarding CPAir's first DC10 direct flight to China on October 26, 1985 - Vancouver to Hong Kong. This article referred to several training/check pilots as being on-board to check-out first hand, the approaches and departures at the Hong Kong's old Kai Tak Airport. The check-out included several approach and landings (touch & goes) for each pilot, flying the DC10-30 (ER) C-GCPI. The photo is of the training/check pilots that were on board which included a MOT inspector. Left to Right: MOT Inspector Sid Quickfall, Capt. Bob Ayotte, Capt. D.C. Clarke, Capt. Nev Usher, Capt. Jim Mcpherson and Capt. Harold Cronk (squatting).
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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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Alan Evans has sent us this comment along with a photo:
The new guys have got it good. I remember when it was just 2 caves at the back on the B747 100 cockpit, with very little chance of sleep as the general cockpit noise and traffic was a major problem. Then there was the B74 200 with the cabin behind the cockpit. It had a bunk and a sleeper chair. Captain got the bunk, snoozed and the lowly second officer got the chair. The best I ever had was with THAI as the captain - had a bunk above the stairwell on the left side. Cozy and sort of quiet.
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 Inside the Boeing 787's funky crew rest 'loft'. |
 The crew's snooze zone is at the rear, with six bunks.
The 787 can have two rest areas, although neither is standard fit out on the Dreamliner. A rest area dedicated to the pilots is located just behind the cockpit and sports one seat and two bunk spaces (below). We can't help but wonder how long before an airline asks Boeing if they can install more of these bunks and start selling them to passengers as a space for group travel and private parties?
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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 Andre has sent us this information:
After complaining to Air Canada that they did not let RETIRED employees "join" the contest , it was confirmed (by HR CONNEX) that it was "accidentally omitted and that the case has now been resolved." Please submit to all concerned. After all, Positive Passes are a welcome bonus these days. Regards, Andre
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Recently, Aureen and Jack Morath from the U.K. took a cruise, here are their comments:
European Cruise on MSC Opera
This is an Italian Cruise Line and the fourth largest in the World, catering a lot on cargo liners as well. Aureen and I recently traveled on this ship out of Southampton which is only an hour drive from where we live. It was an 8 night cruise and for a very special price booked through TIS (Travel Industry Services) based in the UK. The price was only £350 for an outside cabin with balcony. We left a rather cloudy dockside and our first stop the next morning was at Ijmuiden in Holland. Tours could be taken to Amsterdam, but we decided not to do this as we had already explored that city. We decided to take a local bus to Haarlem about an hour and a half drive away. We walked around the old area and the markets before returning to our ship. Haarlem in New York is named after this town. Our next stop was Guernsey, a new place to visit for us. We called in at the local tourist office for advice, and they advised taking the local bus for one pound which took us all the way round the island. After a walk around the capital city of St. Peter Port, we came back to our ship.
A whole day at sea before arriving in La Coruna on the Spanish Coast crossing the Bay of Biscay which was very calm for a change! The area is famous for its many fishing villages. We explored the town on foot before walking back to the ship for a 4.30 pm departure. Next day our stop was in Bilbao, a city on the Spanish Coast. The weather was much better now and the sea was still calm. It is an Industrial port and in the city are many art galleries. La Rochelle on the French coast was next. A very picturesque University town. You could get a real taste of the true France here. It is one of the most attractive ports in France, and we sat for a while along the quayside watching the many tourists. Lots of yachts in the harbour to look at while we ate our excellent ice cream. Our second day at sea before arriving in Southampton having completed Immigration formalities on board during the day at sea, the Immigration officers having stepped on board in La Rochelle after flying out from Southampton. All the places we stopped at were new to us which we liked. One unusual thing about the cruise was that at each port a few hundred people got on and a few hundred got off. Just like a bus service. It was our first cruise on MSC, and felt that it catered more for the European market as far as the food and entertainment was concerned, but was popular with the guests because they liked the idea of getting on and off from their original embarkation point.
Jack and Aureen
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Laszlo Bastyovanszky has come across this interesting information:
Instant Upgrades While Queuing for Your Flight
This autumn, budget carrier Easyjet will be testing "Halo" devices - tablet computers that are connected wirelessly to the airline's reservations system and enable the airline crew to walk among passengers in the terminal and process simple transactions without being confined to their podium's desktop computers. These transactions could include upgrades, such as priority boarding or more leg room, and the airline is testing the technology at airports in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel, Edinburgh and Geneva.
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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.
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 A Dave Mathias cartoon from "Between Ourselves" issued September 1943.
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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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