The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
(Part of the ACFamily Network)
October 12, 2013 - Issue 1276
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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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| Air Canada News |
 Canada and China have forged a new and expanded bilateral aviation agreement that will allow for a threefold increase in passenger and cargo flights between those countries. Canada's transport minister Jean-C. Lapierre and international trade minister Jim Peterson announced the agreement. Air Canada and Air China have expanded their codeshare agreement on flights operated from Vancouver and Toronto to and from Beijing and Shanghai. With the expanded codeshare agreement, Air Canada will place its code on Air China-operated flights to six new destinations in China, enabling Air Canada customers to access via Air China's Beijing hub: Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan and Xi'An to the south and west of Beijing and Shenyang to the northwest. In turn, Air China will place its code on Air Canada-operated flights to six of Canada's major cities-Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. |
| 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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Shirlee Schacter
has sent these photos of some of the Pionairs at the Central Ontario Pionairs Annual FallFest BBQ at Hansa Haus which took place on Thursday, Sept. 12th 2013, with a record attendance once again. Good weather, good music, good "Wienerschnitzel" and the chance to catch up with old friends! A very popular event for members. The event organizer of the BBQ was Valdy Prieditis.
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Holding up the Pionairs flag are Alistair Robertson and Bob Newson.
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 Some of the Pionair members enjoying the day in the gardens. |
 Three former colleagues from C&SS Message Edit days are, from the left: Sue Bridges, Shirlee Schacter and Irene Hands. |
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 Playing some favorite ditties on his accordion was by Al Ditken. |
 Here we have the District Director, David McNeilly and Lynn. |
 Enjoying good food and good company is this foursome of Anthea and Dean McKinnon, with Jean and Peter Schofield. |
| 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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 John Rodger sent this photo from the Jack McDougall collection of the retirement of Clayton, Jack and Claude in 1985. John sent in the photo mainly because of the recent passing of Clayton Glenn who was 93 yrs. He passed away Sept 26th. John has put the obit in the www.acfamily.net site. Clayton with engineering and had quite a résumé. Left to right: Pierre Jenniot, Clayton Glenn, Jack McDougall, David Buchanan and Claude Taylor. Thanks, John |
 Happy 25th. A bunch of the boys whooped it up for 747 5/0 Supervisor Glen Cawker of Toronto on the occasion of his 25th anniversary with the company in 1978. He is shown center, being congratulated by Captain J. A. Webster, Chief Pilot 747, left and Captain R. A. C. Dennis, Flight Operations Director, Toronto, right. |
Queen for a day - Maizle Wyse, Passenger Agent in Agency Sales, Toronto, celebrated her thirty-five year anniversary with the company at her retirement party in 1978. Joined by Jack Callen, Vice President Central Region and a host of friends, Maizie reminisced about the good old days - all thirty-five years of them.
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 Four Vancouver employee came within a breath of winning the Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky International Curling Championship at Aviemore, Scotland. (Was the breath laced with whisky fumes? - eds). Hugh Wyllie, Harvey Ackerman, Lee Taplin and Gary Lawrence lost the final to a mixed rink from Calgary in a tense exciting ten-ender. During the preliminary qualifying round, the Vancouver quartet met teams from the United States, Switzerland, Scotland and Wales. The team trounced a Winnipeg rink in the quarter final and defeated a Scottish entry in the semi-final. Three of the Vancouver four had participated in the championship before Hugh and Lee in 1976 and Harvey and Lee in 1977. The 12-year-old competition had been won by Canadian team on five successive occasion. Shown with their prize are, from the left: Harvey, Lee, Gary and Hugh. |
 In a whirlwind visit to Montego Bay, Kingston and Nassau, President Taylor met with staff. Seen at Nassau are, from the left: Wilson Foote, District Manager, Nassau; Wilshire Bethel, Manager, Freeport; Freeport personnel Patricia Davis, George Ward and Leona Cumberbatch; Nassau staff Edison Rodgers, Rod Hall, Stephen Burrows and Donna Sherman; President Taylor; Nassau employees Fairie Kraft, Richard Neeley Jennifer Cates, Alvira Thompson, Noel Henderson and Jackie Duncombe, V.P. Pat Labrie, and Richard Christie of Nassau. |
 Shown at Montego Bay are, back row, from the left: Jim English, District Manager, Jamaica; Lillian Taylor, Secretary; Pat Labrie, V.P.; Passenger Agents Myrtle Thelwell and Jean Morrison; President Taylor; Passenger Agent Hazel Tenn-Black and Neville Fong, Manager, Montego Bay. Kneeling, from the left, are: Jerome Miles, Airport Customer Service Supervisor; Operations Agents Nat Brown, Hansen Coates and Neville Walker, Passenger Agent. (We have 12 names but 13 people - anyone identify the missing name, probably the lady partially obscured in the centre - eds)
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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. |
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Issue dated - September 1981
Items from the "CPAir NEWS" magazine -
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 C4 is a Cargo Computer Control System, the implementation of which was one of the largest automation project ever under taken, at the time, by CP Air. Planned for the spring of 1982, training got underway at Toronto and Vancouver in January and February, 1982, with the training of some 275 employees. Training is going to be fun, judging by the blackboard. From left: Joi Szeto, programmer; Barrie Ditson, supervisor, cargo automatlon; Sandy McGeachy, librarian; Garth Padley, supervisor, cargo automation; and Mark Wilkins, programmer.
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| Remember when! Employee charter fares introduced September 1981 - CP Air Holidays announced a major expansion of its winter 1981 charter program to the U.S, and had invited CP Air employees and their families and pionairs to sample its services at special rates. Parents, brothers, sisters and in-laws were also eligible for the special rates when travelling with an employee. However, when travelling alone they were eligible only for the standby fares, but was confirmed 24 to 72 hours before their flight, subject to space. |
 Here we have photos of some employees working in Hong Kong. Three mechanics who work a 21 hour shift to handle flights are, from the left,: C. H. Chan, W. B. So and K. H. Tsui. |
 In this photo are a group of Airport agents from the left: Senior airport agent R. A. Fereita, agents William Koo, Helena Hsu, Maria Yeung, Kinny Wong and supervisor Alfred Yeung.
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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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Ken Pickford picked up this error in NetLetter nr 1274 -
Re the photo of the CP DC-8 simulator sold in 1981 and the caption reading: "In operation since 1966 when It was purchased for 51.5 million..." That number is much too high. You could buy a new DC-8 for $7 or $8 million
in 1966. I'm guessing the first 5 in that number should perhaps be a $ sign, making it $1.5 million instead of 51.5. - Ken
Vic Rivers also took us to task -Are you sure that the $51.5 million for the cost of the DC-8 simulator is correct given that a DC-8-43 cost approx. $4 million and the entire Ops Center built in 1967-69 cost $26 million. Sounds way too high. Slipped decimal maybe? Vic Rivers
(On referring to the original article, the price should have read $1.5 million - eds)
We received this story for one of our readers - Any idea how fast the EAGLE was flying in France ?... just kiddin'!... another true story however: while in Ottawa, 5 Families planned a trip to the UK, two from Nfld, and 3 residents of Ottawa. We gathered regularly over a three year period and agreed on the route we would take; the pre planning with mulled wine, cross country skiing, etc was and is still memorable.
It was 1978 and the IAMAW were threatening 'STRIKE"; I pleaded with my Boss to let me take my Vacation because of the numbers of OTHERS involved! He said "If you get out of town before the strike is declared, then I will be unable to get in touch with you!" We went and for the most part had a wonderful time... however, the strike took place and a death occurred in our two different Nfld Families; being the only member of the group aware of Airline Systems, my time became fully occupied in trying to get families back home. We went to Air Canada's London Ticket office, which was full, full with distressed Passengers... I bought coffee and sweets for the staff on duty, emphasized, and made arrangements thanks to their SUPPORT. This is not the real story though! Back then, AC and CP were big time competitors; my neighbor, REMI, was CP's Ottawa Manager. Now it was time to get my own Family back to Canada! I went to the CP Ticket office, told my story, and four of my children were flown directly from London to Ottawa; not Mom and I though - not enough seats! I travelled from Heathrow to Gatwick, to Stanstead and was treated with the utmost of courtesy; we were eventually all accommodated by AC, BA, CP, and a Charter Carrier whose name I have forgotten. MAN OH DEAR: we work and have worked in one HELL OF AN INDUSTRY !
After reading the article in NetLetter nr 1271 regarding the CPAir cairn at 100 mile house, Glenn Jeffrey sends this information -
On 31 August at the village called 100 mile in the Cariboo area of BC an memorial cairn and plaque supplied by the local citizens was unveiled in the memory of crew and passengers aboard flight 21 enroute Vancouver to Whitehorse Yukon. The aircraft a Douglas DC6b when 30 miles west of 100 mile house had the complete tail assembly blown off which caused the aircraft to spiral to earth killing all 52 persons on board, on contact with the ground a large fire occurred. Investigation showed that an explosive device had been exploded in the aft lavatory which blew the complete empennage off the aircraft. This occurred in 1965 in daylight. So far no one has been found responsible for this tragic deed, but I understand that it is still under investigation. The aircraft was operated by Canadian Pacific airlines based in Vancouver BC. Captain Jack Steele was a good friend of mine and liked by all, I flew with him as a line engineer the day before the sabotage happened, CP engineers attending the ceremony of the memorial plaque was Jim Austin formerly based in Whitehorse Yukon, Murray Johnston based in YVR but now retired in 100 mile, myself retired in Lake country BC and flight attendant June Austin formerly based in Whitehorse. My wife Margaret took several photos. Many thanks to the citizens of the town of 100 mile house who had the idea of building the cairn and for which they themselves paid the cost. My sympathy goes out to all involved in this tragic incident.
Glenn Jeffrey, retired Maintenance Engineer.
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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 A couple of the many deals to be had from Interline Allstars.
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Diamond Princess
Australia/New Zealand
12 Nights Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Fiordland National Park, Dunedin, Akaroa Harbour, Tauranga, Auckland 1 departure date: Jan 28, 2014 Prices From: Inside $899 | Oceanview $999 | Balcony $1599 | Suite $2099
Silver Shadow
Singapore & Australia
6 Nights Singapore, Benoa, Darwin, Cooktown, Cairns, Hamilton Island, Brisbane, Sydney
1 departure date: Dec 04, 2013 Prices From: Oceanview $4000 | Balcony $4400 | Suite $11650
Call 1(800) 920-5411 x 1 to reach Gordon Froese www.interlineallstars.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.
Back in the early '80s, a pilot was making a living flying night-time aerial advertising with a "Skycaster" electronic moving-message sign that spanned the wings under the belly of my Cessna 172. Flying out of CMH, I would circle local communities with ads. My "low and slow," combined with horizontal distance, gave the appearance that the moving lights were traveling in an oval pattern. This would invariably produce calls to the airport that a "UFO" was circling overhead. One night I left the sign running when approaching to land. I called, "N123 short final." The tower replied, "UFO N123 cleared to land. Please don't cut any crop circles in our runway."
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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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