The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
March 5, 2013 - Issue 1244
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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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 John Rodger sent us this photo with some of the names of some of the participants identified.
Attached is a photo from Keith Kelly's collection. It was a 1973 Maintenance Management Training at Mont Gabriel QC. With the help of Dick Hovey & Keith we were able to identify most. Back row left to right: Zanee Baricki, Craig MacArthur, Keith Kelly, Gord Harris, Gord McAuley, Rene Parris, Tom Woodhouse, __?__. Front row: Ken Mitchel, Gerry Hirose, __?__, ____ Hebert, Guy Belanger, Lucas Torrious, Ray Dupuis and ___?___.
Cheers John
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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.
Note: We do realize that some of the photos we publish in our NetLetter are over 50 years old, but perhaps members of families may be interested - eds.
1946 - January 5th - City Ticket Office in Regina opened under the charge of J.A.MacLean.
- February 1st - Inauguration of Lethbridge - Winnipeg service.
- December 1st - Inauguration of Lethbridge - Vancouver service.
Charter Class fares introduced to France & Germany on November 29th 1976, and for Domestic on February 1st 1977.
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Issue dated - February 1946
Dragged out of "Between Ourselves" magazines -
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 Here we have this photo of the Windsor airport in 1946. The Station Manager was Gary Munro.
The first DC-3 to arrive at Windsor airport was CF-TDK fin 58, later renumbered 358, c/n 6319 crewed by Captain R. Leek, Stewardess Cora Donahue and Captain L. Weatherall. |
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Issue dated - March 1946
Found in "Between Ourselves" magazines -
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 To commemorate the inauguration of the fourth daily service across the Prairies and the Rockies linking Winnipeg, Regina and Lethbridge to Vancouver, a special plaque was created which, in 1946, was hanging in the Winnipeg passenger waiting room. (Is this plaque still around there now? It is a pity that the company's title was misspelled several times - eds)
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 Our four stewardesses lost no time in demonstrating that nylons are anything but under-rated in the 1946 photograph, location unknown. Left to right: Monica Gillis, Eileen Howard, Helen Saisbury and Betty Hemingson. (Despite the distraction, the two guys were a dedicated team - eds)
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Issue dated - October 1976
We found this in the "Horizon" magazines -
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 The 1976 Montreal ACRA ladies softball champions are, front row from the left: Lorraine Cook, Marilyn Bocking, Helen Bain, Pat Poitras and Lois Cotton. Standing from the left are: Evelyn Ross, Nicolle Garratt, Beverley Cotton, Karin Hock, Patricia St. Germain and Susan Barber.
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 The second place finishers in the successful season are, front row from the left: Valerie Mahar, France Laporte, Donna Cotton and Barbara Lukeman. Standing from the left are: Monique Frezza, Francine Snell, Lynn Anderson, Cathy Owen and Jessie Bonner.
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 The new cargo terminal was opened at Mirabel October 5th, 1976. Shown at the reception are, from the left: Marc de Fraguier, Public Affairs Manager; Don Richardson, General Manager, Cargo; Eastern Region V.P. Pierre Jeanniot; Pierre Laforest, General Mgr. Montreal Airports; Jean Dozois, Cargo Service Mgr. Dorval; Louise Courtemanche. Mgr., Product Support; Claude Constantineau, Cargo Terminal Svcs. Mgr., Mirabel and Gerard Areault, Regional Public Affairs Director.
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In 1996, approximately 9,600 employees were members of the 14 Air Canada Recreational Association (ACRA) across the System located in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Ottawa, Halifax, Saint John, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Chicago, Los Angeles and London, England.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
 Alan is 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. Just a gentle reminder about the upcoming Whitehorse and BC District Reunion 2013. When: September 20-22, 2013 Where: Quality Resort Bayside Resort, Parksville, BC Cost: $75.00 per person (Event detailed in NetLetter nr 1243.) The Quality Resort Bayside is a lovely hotel located on the beach in Parksville ( http://www.qualityresortparksville.com). There are rooms blocked under the name YXY Reunion and rates at $99 for ocean side and $89 for inside. Please book your rooms directly with the Quality Resort Bayside, as soon as possible to acquire these rates and be guaranteed to find space. Included in the $75.00 cost are events such as "The meet and greet" on Friday night, the social on Saturday night, and the brunch on Sunday morning. The $75.00 per person fee should be sent as soon as possible to hold your spot, by cheque or money order. Cheques should be made out to Marlie Kelsey and mailed to: Marlie Kelsey, 3332 Cook Street, Chemainus BC V0R1K2. The correct email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. |
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Issue dated - October 1969
Extracted from the PWA "Keeping Posted" magazine -
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At Fort Smith, N.W.T. on February 1969, PWA moved from the old terminal to the new terminal.
 Here is a photo of the old terminal.
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 And here we have the new terminal. |
And working there were Dwight Denton, after a 38 hour shift, and Gil Beloin.
 
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OPENING OF 108 MILE LANDING STRIP
The landing strip at this 108 Mile Real Estate development in the Cariboo, B.C. was officially opened September 1, 1969 by Allorney-General Los Peterson. PWA participated in this by sending up a Convair Turbo-prop, 5O passenger capacity which drew an enormous amount of attention. It was the first large plane of its type ever to land between Abbotsford and Williams Lake Airports. The turbo-jet crew consisted of Capt. Carl Muller, FO Vic Sideroff, Purser Kenneth Merren, and Stewardess Miss Elizabeth Sutherland wearing the new smart blue & white Stampeder uniform. Vice-President and General Manager W.R. Harris, was on board in addition to Mrs. E. Ouellette and Mrs. Venita Bethune, two attractive Sales Representatives from PWA VR. A very notable occasion, indeed.
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Issue dated - August 1988
From the "Info Canadi>n" magazine -
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 Welcoming the Hong Kong installation of SCEPTRE, the maintenance and engineering computer system, are (left to right) Wal So, Base Engineer; Rick Nesplak, Coordinator - Data Services; Chin Por Lee, Mechanic; and Hung Yung Hoh, Mechanic.
SCEPTRE goes international. Hong Kong became the first international location to go online with SCEPTRE, the maintenance and engineering computer system, July 8th, 1988. The system, used primarily to control aircraft maintenance and component inventory, was also installed in Honolulu on July 14th. Amsterdam is expected to be online by the end of August. One of SCEPTRE's most impressive benefits for international operations, is its time-saving factor; all SCEPTRE bases worldwide are linked to Canadian's mainframe computer centre in Vancouver's Lansdowne complex.
(The SCEPTRE system was the brainchild of Republic Airlines, sold to numerous airlines worldwide including Air Canada. Terry Baker, your chief pilot, together with Aron Charad and Brian Ward all of the Air Canada Computer & Systems Services based at YUL, were instrumental in the testing and the implementation of this system, into the Nordair organization within a two week period in 1983. - eds)
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 It was official! The airline's new City Ticket Office in Rome was opened for business. Among those participating in the opening ceremony in 1988, from left: Ed Valka, General Manager, Italy; Jack Miles, Senior Vice President, International; Lia Manclantl, Reservations Agent, Rome; Claude Charland, Canadian Ambassador to Italy; and Amedeo Cimarelli, Supervisor -Sales, central/southern Italy.
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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.
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Here is the continuation of the founding of the Canadian Maple Wings Association which we started in NetLetter nr 1243 from information supplied by its founder Gretchen Aird Dawson:
Whoops! An error in our NetLetter nr 1239 re the start of the Canadian Maple Wings Association
SO--- a few years later in 1977, I asked my fellow stewardess friend and neighbour (Helen Nelder McEwan), to help me contact Pilot Roy Harris's wife Liz (Kovacs) Harris through his pilot's mailbox at the airport. We put a letter there to Liz, and I requested any lists of the attendees from that wonderful day back in the spring of 1973 that might still be 'kicking about'. "Could I please have anything she could give me" - indicating my intentions of considering a large scale "Reunion" - to be planned for several years down the road. I felt we would need all the time we could have to find as many former stewardesses and pursers who flew with TCA from inception (1938) through to the end of 1964 (when TCA became Air Canada Jan. 1, 1966). You see, we were working with "maiden" names, as no one could be married until 1966 - only the male pursers! In 1965, the company officially changed it's name from TCA to Air Canada.
Several weeks later, Helen brought me a "shoebox" left in her flight mailbox, from the Harris duo. It contained about 300 names - some with addresses. It took me several weeks to sort the papers all out, and we actually could mail out about 150 "flyers" that we created - announcing our intentions and plans with a date set for spring of 1980!! With 300 flyers printed, the 150 got mailed, and the other hundred or so were taken to "flight crew rooms", at the bases across Canada, by my actively flying friend, Helen. There were many dead letters returned - wrong address - and the flyers were beginning to be filled in and sent to my home address in Ontario.
By December of 1977, we had a list of interested persons nearing 200, along with request coming to me for sending along extra flyers to the interested person to include in "her" Christmas cards being sent! In early 1978, a couple of long ago - can't say retired - former TCA stews, who lived in my neck of the woods (Guelph, ON), offered to come to my house and open "the mail" to record alphabetically all the names, addresses and phone numbers. Their enclosed $10 cheque to help us get started with this dream, I stamped and deposited into a special account at my bank "TCA Flight Attendant Alumni Reunion" - promising if the plans fell apart it would all go to the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto). The names poured in, the monies accumulated and Helen & I could reimburse ourselves for the cost of printing off the flyers and the postage for all mailings from us to them - now accumulating on our roster. My postman wondered what I was up to with all the mail he was delivering to me daily. We also contacted most newspapers across Canada to please put in a notice that we were looking for all persons who flew as stewardess or purser with TCA, and those results were astounding, along with the letters from the editors, themselves!
(More in NetLetter nr 1245 - 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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A Special Spring Lunch Presentation for AIR CANADA PIONAIRS and FRIENDS of Fiddler on the Roof
Rich in historical and ethnic detail, "Fiddler on the Roof" has touched audiences around the world with its humour, warmth and honesty. Its theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness.
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at Stage West
5400 Dixie Road, Mississauga (2 blocks South of 401 at Matheson Blvd.) (Free Parking)
Meet & Greet: 10 am
Lunch: 11 am - 12:30 pm (doors open at 11 am)
Curtain Time: 12:30 pm
Price: $43.00 (includes: Show, Buffet Lunch, Dessert, Coffee, Tea, Tax & Gratuities)
Seating: OPEN
Tickets: Time permitting tickets will be mailed, otherwise to be picked up at the box office on day of performance.
Registration Deadline: Friday, March 22, 2013
*District Refund Policy Applicable
*Chairperson: Valdy Prieditis 905-823-4846
FYI: Tickets for this special performance can only be ordered through Air Canada Pionairs.
The following information MUST accompany your cheque - please print clearly:
Name, employee #, email address, your address, city, and postal code.
If others are included to make up your party, we require spouse/partner name, other Pionair names, their employee #'s, and the names of any non pionairs/friends.
The total number of people x $43.00 = $
Please forward this information together with a cheque, made out to AIR CANADA PIONAIRS, prior to the deadline to:
Air Canada Pionairs, c/o Ed Storrie,
129 Shanley Terrace, Oakville, ON. L6K 2H7.
For enquiries call 905-844-4723 and not the NetLetter.
Tickets will be sent to you.
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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 Pre-Trip Checklist:
By Dargal Interline Worldwide
- Bring disposable underwater/waterproof cameras.
- Put house lights on a timer and rotate the location of lit lights.
- Arrange to have your mail picked up or held until your return.
- Check the dress code for your destination.
- Check the weather as you draw closer to the vacation time.
- Buy Travelers Cheques or carry an ATM Card or Credit card that is valid internationally rather than carry large sums of cash.
- Arrange your transportation to and from the airport.
- Have a small amount of the country's currency ready for small purchases and tipping upon arrival.
- Pack your passport, travel documents, medication, jewelry, travelers cheques, keys and other valuables with you in your carry-on luggage.
- Photocopy your passport, visa, and important documents in case of loss or theft and leave the originals in the hotel safe.
- Leave your passport and valuables in the room safe or in the hotel safe.
- If you have special dietary needs, make sure everyone is informed before the trip.
- Leave a copy of your itinerary with a relative or friend so they can locate you in the case of an emergency.
- Make sure all luggage is properly labeled in case of a mix up, remove old tags from your last holiday, and lock the suitcase.
- Read a book on your destination location.
- Buy medical and cancellation insurance before leaving.
- Make sure you have the medication you need.
- Take a calculator to ensure a fair trade when exchanging currency.
Now is the time to check out those interline deals:
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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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 From "Horizons" magazine issued October 1976. Always thought that standby passengers were being treated like cattle!
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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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