The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
January 7, 2013 - Issue 1236
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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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| 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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Robert Arnold has sent us these photos from his collection:
I thought I would take some time out and send you and your readers a couple photos from my TCA collection showing a North Star sharing the ramp with an RCAF DC-3, during a stop over in Winnipeg in what looks like spring 1958.
In one photo, you can see what I believe to be an oil can in place on top of the port inner engine. In another photo you can see the old RCAF hangar line in the background with what appears to be three DC-3's, two B-25's, a Beech 18 and a couple RCAF North Stars. I am sure these photos will bring back a few memories to some.
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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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1938 - Sept 19th - TCA inaugurated Air Express flights between Winnipeg and Vancouver.
1939 - April 1st - TCA began carrying passengers between Vancouver and Montreal with intermediate stops.
1941
- Service was extended to Halifax in April and to New York, from Toronto, in May.
- Operation of the Vancouver-Seattle service was discontinued.
- The hangar was completed at Montreal's new airport at Dorval.
- Shops and facilities at Winnipeg and Toronto were further extended.
- Maintenance and overhaul of aircraft used in the Atlantic return ferry service was undertaken. (source 1942 annual report)
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 1942 - CF-TCU Lodestar at Montreal Dorval airport.
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 1972- April - The company attained 25 years of service. Here is the front cover of the souvenir "in flight" magazine.
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We show the front page of the 1986 Annual Report which is full of photos.
Carol Moffette, Flight Attendant, Montreal; Al Croome, Station Agent, London, ON; Ahmed Tauquir, Snr Passenger Agent, Frankfurt; Line Delisle, Customer Sales & Service Agent, Montreal; Jane MacGregor, Cargo Strategy Planning Manager, Montreal; Jean Rivet, Project Manager - Marketing enRoute Card Inc. Montreal; Marilyn Martin, Secretary, Thunder Bay; Al Rach, Manager, Charlottetown; Bob Bateman, Station Agent, Saskatoon; Jonathan Chan, Sales Agent, Hong Kong; Carol Kleisinger, Secretary, Regina; Tim Stephens, Customer Sales & Service Agent, Halifax; George Smith, Customer Sales & Service Agent, Calgary; Nadja Kasperczyk, Passenger Agent, Frankfurt; Patti Mason, Sales Agent, Toronto; Raoul Harvey, Station Attendant, Val D'Or; Owen David, Baggage Service Coordination, London, England; Kimberley Lawton, Flight Attendant, Montreal; Beat Haldimann, Station Agent,
Geneva; Ron Willett, Baggage Agent, Winnipeg; Zelda Melanson, Customer Sales & Service Agent, Saint John; Fernando Smith, Station Agent, Toronto; Ken Meek, Manager Community Programs, Montreal;
Ralph Dyke, Captain, Winnipeg.
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Issue dated - April 1962
From the "in flight" magazine -
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TCA began carrying passengers between Vancouver and Montreal. The return rate was $255.10 and one way was $144.65.
In 1940 service was extended to Moncton to provide air service between the east and west coast of Canada.
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Issue dated - May 1995
Found in the "Horizons" magazine -
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In the fall, this group of London, England reservations staff will move to Radius Park, near LHR. (Unfortunately, we have no names - eds)
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 While we are in LHR, we have these photos.
Here are 3 of the 14 chefs from left: Clifford Tongue, James Skerritt and Patrick Prince.
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 Colin Williams and Paul Dutton are two of the flight dispatchers.
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 These three are responsible for the weight and balance of the aircraft. From the left we have Howard Lewis, Linda Townley and Eddy Gibbons.
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 Jack Morath, London, England retiree mentioned a visit they had made to view the Concorde manufacture facility and sent this photograph. We searched and found this article and photo of the group which we extracted from the "Between Ourselves" magazine issue dated August 1969.
Some of the members of the London England chapter of the ACRA visited the Filton Division of the British Aircraft Corporation. During the tour they were shown the third prototype Concorde supersonic transport, the full-scale mock-up and various systems, rig and test facilities.
(Sadly, there was no names attached to the article - eds)
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| lan's Space - by Alan Rust |
 RUSS-L39 Arkhangelsk Show
(Submitted by Alan Watson)
Super precision flying and photography. Just WOW !!
Tremendous video... If you'd like to experience what it's like in the cockpit, then watch this!
This is the ONE of the BEST videos of a civilian jet team that we've seen. A very professional HD presentation by Artur Sarkisyan of the Russian Jet Team in L-39's at the Arkhangelsk Show this past summer. He uses a lot of GoPro cameras and is a master editor of film. The inflight shots are just fantastic.
This video is from the aerobatic team RUSS (www.www.russ-pilot.ru) doing a show in Arkhangelsk, Novodvinsk, Severodvinsk, 28-29 July 2012. Best viewed full screen.
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| RUSS-L39 Arkhangelsk show |
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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. |
 In December 1987, a booklet titled "Meet the Canadians" was issued containing photos of the North American Sales Group, here we have the eighth page. |
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Issue dated - October 1981
Items from the "CPAir NEWS" magazine -
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Stamp collectors unite was the headline to announce the inaugural meeting presided by Ray Smith at the YVR Ops Centre. (Is this club still in existence? - eds)
SALES staffers in Tokyo, clockwise around table, Noriki Hatta and Yukio Isomoto, passenger sales reps; Kentaro Ishikawa, cargo sales rep; Masakazu Kimura, cargo sales and service manager, Japan/Korea; Derek Hood, manager, Japan/Korea; Hideo Date, passenger sales manager, Japan; Shogo Kushiya, passenger sales supervisor; Sam Akiyama, manager, administration, Japan; Takeshi Iwamoto, manager, city ticket office and reservations sales. Standing, from Left, Toshiharu Togo and Masashi Aota, passenger sales reps; Ichiro Ohi cargo sales rep.
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TOKYO ACCOUNTING staffers, from left: Masakazu Ichikawa, accounting clerk; Masamitsu Ishimori, accountant, Tokyo; Masanob Abe, senior revenue accounting clerk; Junya Fujiwara, accountant reports; and Hajime Taguchi, senior revenue accounting clerk, who is using a Japanese abacus.
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 SERVING PASSENGERS in Tokyo is the duty of these airport employees. Sitting, from left: So Shlmazu, senior passenger agent; Hiroshi Edagawa, airport service rep; and Takeshi Otaka, passenger agent. Back, from left: Nobutaka Kawakami, passenger agent; Yukio Hashigulchi, airport service supervisor; and Naoaki Deki, senior passenger agent. Altogether, 38 employees were based at the airport.
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CARGO AGENT Norie Handa, in Tokyo, uses a bicycle to carry air cargo documents between the airport post office and the offices of other airlines. Of CP Air's approximate 800 non-motorized vehicles system-wide, ranging from baggage carts to a rickshaw, this is believed to be the only bicycle in service.
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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.
Jim Griffith sends this for us, in reference to NetLetter nr 1231:
Reading the response to my honeybucket story made me realize two things. First, I really am getting dotty. I'd forgotten the Viscount had a toilet in the rear and so maybe the Brits weren't quite so unimaginative in their aircraft design after all. Except of course the Brits designed their electrical switches to operate in the exact opposite sense to American manufactures. Quite a nuisance for pilots in TCA who were certified dual-competent to simultaneously fly Viscounts and North Stars who had to decide which was off and which was on. It does raise the question, however, about the desirability of almost all manufacturers of placing toilets right next to the galleys creating a noxious bouquet for the pleasure of the galley slaves.
The photo accompanying the story was taken on a quick visit to Winnipeg last February on Viscount THS at the WCAM. I went primarily to get a couple of cockpit shots for a story titled, Goosed in the Cock pit, and to try and solve a peculiar incident I was involved with back in the day, concerning de-icing procedures on the ramp in Edmonton and Calgary sometime around 1970. The airstrairs were only at the front entrance and I'd got my cockpit shots so I never even ventured back to the tail.
Ron Lingwood has sent us this story after reading about the honeybucket in NetLetter nr 1231:
The humorous article in letter #1231 regarding the emptying of on-board toilets reminded me of an incident that took place at Gatwick Airport sometime around 1966-67. I was currently working for British United Airways and among our fleet were some Bristol Britannia 100 and 200 aircraft. The toilet dump valve was of a very unreliable design in that the valve seal would frequently clog with all sorts of nasty stuff and a mechanic would be required fix this before flight mostly on the ramp at the last minute. This usually required scraping the seal ring with some kind of made up tool (everyone had their own design).
Fortunately for us, we had the services of a nuggety little Scotsman who went by the name of 'Jock the Turd Burglar'. This brave soul, who was not very tall, would climb up on the Honey Cart and use a well sharpened finger nail to clear away the offending detritus. On one occasion he was busily doing his best to clear the seal in his usual way when he felt some warm liquid coursing down his arm and on under his coveralls to appear on his boot. Jock thought this odd at the time because he had drained the toilet. Soon however a flight attendant appeared at the aft door to say that he had better stop as a lady had just entered the toilet. Unperturbed Jock carried on and cleared the offending seal just in time for an on time departure. Where we be without these individuals? Ron Lingwood
Bill Norberg sends this comment:
Re: the question by Norman Hogwood in Netletter #1234 regarding high usage of some parts of the Viscount aircraft. I would suggest that the reason for this high usage rate could be due to the high frequency of landings per flight hour by Viscounts operated by TCA/Air Canada. I believe it was the highest in the industry for this type of aircraft Sincerely, Bill Norberg
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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All prices in us$
Call 1-800-422-3727 www.airwaysvacations.com
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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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 Taken from the "CPAir News" magazine issued December 1981. Cartoon of "The Captain and Mandy" by Steve Kell.
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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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