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Vesta's Corner
 This weeks postcard is from Ross Smyth  Humanity's survival in the nuclear age depends on acceptance of the rule of law, rather than the rule of military force by all nations. World Federalists are working to strengthen global institutions of law and justice.Montreal April 2002. Hi Vesta Too bad for the World we WF's are not getting anywhere fast. The INT. criminal court a good step, Bush opposed, Regards, Ross Smyth for more info: World Federalists, 46 Elgin St., #32, Ottawa, Ont K1P 5K6 613-232-0647 Great Spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. Albert E. |
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Star Alliance News
 United Airlines parent UAL Corp. suffered a massive $537 million loss in the first quarter, widened precipitously from a $152 million deficit in the year-ago period, and said that it will "fundamentally overhaul every facet of our business," starting with the grounding of 30 aircraft and the laying off of 1,100 employees. |
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Air Canada - our first 70 years
1951 - Trans-Canada Air Lines had a permanent presence in Iceland with a staff based at Keflavik airport. The staff included Cub Phillips - Station Manager, Al Johnson Assistant Station Manager Mac Caverhill maintenance Brynjulfur Thorvaldsson a native of Iceland doing ramp duties. The accommodations include a pair of Nissan huts with is a rest place for tired TCA flight crew on their way from the UK to Canada. 1989
 We have this picture of Barbara Baerg and Diane Bourdon.
Here we have the fourth installment of "The Viscount years and the Winnipeg spirit" started in NetLetter nr 1017 Remember the busted spar cleats and something called trailing edge "falsework"? How many times did we have to repair or change those auxiliary gear box drip trays, and then out the best repair came in a bottle-fibreglass? Then there were always special inspections or campaigns that the teletype machine would spring on us about Friday at noon. Impossible, we said when they told us we had to X-ray the complete belly skin for corrosion. The biggest thing we had x-rayed prior to that was a tire bead. We learned fast. The scrap pile was like a rubber mountain' The electricians will long remember the aluminum wires and there terminals and the "earth" bondings. Then there were the mysteries of spill valves, outflow valves, chock heat valves and corrector motors with datum all sent to try us. The Viscount wing has 20 individual rubber fuel cells. Each has been known to cause leaks. Tracing and repairing the offender is enough to make a person cry. When an airplane "cold Soaks" outside for a day, the smell of kerosene weeps from anywhere. The fuel, water and hydraulic systems ensured plumbers of lifetime job security. The Viscount had huge cabin windows, almost like picture windows, ten on each side. Can you imagine, they even had curtains. The quiet, smooth airy cabin made it a passenger's delight. True, the two lavatories had pretty basic facilities. There's no need to mention "honeybuckets" here. Beyond a doubt, the biggest re-manufacture of the aircraft came in the early 60s.Vickers in England advised that the single lower spar boom of the inner wing required replacement due to metal fatigue. (Still more to come next time - eds) Touram, headquartered in Montreal, was first incorporated on December 1st., 1972. From "Horizons" issued September 1988 we have these two photographs - unfortunately, "Horizons" did not see fit to identify the employees - but perhaps some of our readers can.  The Montreal staff The Toronto staff |
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TCA/AC Events & People Gallery
October 31st 1988 saw our inaugural flight from Toronto to Madrid and Lisbon. Flight 884 under the command of Capt. Bill Elliott and Capt.Gus Logan. We have these pictures of the front and back end crew.   During 1990 service to Madrid and Lisbon was withdrawn. We have these pictures of the staff.  Musings from "Horizons" Issue January 1989 - Under the banner of "Air Canada fetes France" a group of Reservations and Passenger Sales employees volunteered for the World Trade Travel Market in London England. We have this picture.  Cargo retirees get together at Vancouver to celebrate the company 50th. An idea by Ken Horton and Fred Pope for the get together. We have this picture to capture the moment  Issue June 1989 Air Canada Customer Care Hall of Fame instituted. We have this picture of the charter members  The Pionairs held their 12th AGM at Anaheim and we have this picture of the newly installed executive.  Issue dated December 1990. The network redesign on October 28th saw a realignment of our flight schedule into banks of arrivals and departures. We have this picture of those involved.  Issue dated February 1991 Terminal 2 at YYZ had recent renovations. We have this picture of some staff.  In 2007 Terminal two was demolished. |
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Bytes and Pieces
 There's a lot of good PowerPoint Slideshows going around on the Internet lately. I get a steady stream of great presentations from my friends through email. (Thanks Rob) I decided to look at a way to share some of them with you from time to time and I think I found a solution. If you click on the image below it will take you to a site in order to view the slideshow. Make sure you click on the "Full" button after you are on the website in order to see the full screen mode of the presentation. To see some great photos of restored bi-planes, click on the image below. TTYL, Alan  |
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Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People
We would appreciate borrowing any copies of in-house magazines which we can scan and extract information for this section of the NetLetter. Mailing costs will be reimbursed - thank you. From the Canadia>n Flyer issued February 1998,  Buenos Aires staff were in hot pursuit of 100 per cent OTP. The service is with a B767-300 aircraft that fly Toronto-Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires and return daily.Here is a picture of the staff.  Under the heading "Employees love the "warmth" of the North, we have this picture of the staff at Norman Wells |
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Readers Feedback
 From: Dan HolmesSubject: April 20th Netletter(n/l 1019) Good morning everyone, To add a little snippet to Alan's item on spelling. This is true and fun to try on people. However, this research only holds true for people have a solid command of the language and reading it. People who are fluent and at ease, reading do so "automatically" or unconsciously. I have used this subject in Human Factors training as a bit of a demo of the fact that we often see what we expect to see and don't notice errors or deviations. One day I had a learner in class who was of Chinese origin and who was still struggling with English. While as in Alan's article, the problem was evident to everyone else, this woman struggled to read English. While she could read and understand technical manuals in English, she had to consciously read everything and concentrate to understand what she was reading. The result in my little test was that the paragraph full of errors made absolutely no sense to her. I have come across this situation often since then and the results are always the same. Keep the interesting tidbits coming guys. Dan Holmes (Alan - Tknahs so mcuh for the fcedeabk) From: Janet and Alan Lock Subject: Vickers Viscount The articles on the Viscount takes me back. Perhaps other retirees might be interested and perhaps it will stir other memories. About me! I started working for TCA as an Office Boy at the Winnipeg Maintenance Base on Stevenson Field in 1950. I only worked for a short time before enlisting in the RCAF. After basic training in London, Ont. at Crumlin Airport I was selected for and received Pilot training at FTS #2 in Gimli, Manitoba. In 1955 I rejoined TCA at YWG at first working on the ramp and then transferring into Reservations. All this time I was waiting for my call to join a "Co-pilots course". Sadly, for me, that never happened - too many applicants and too few openings. While in Res. in YWG, at the time I write about, the Viscounts were a fairly new aircraft with 40 seats. Winnipeg, as you know, is in the middle of the Continent. So flights leaving Toronto or Vancouver at convenient times in those Cities always arrived in Winnipeg during the middle of the night. At that time our primary aircraft were the North Star and the DC3. One night while working the midnight shift, about 0100, I received a call from Payload Control (PC) in Toronto, over the Land Line, (does that take anyone back) advising the Viscount flight from Winnipeg to Calgary would have to have additional fuel due to weather conditions. As a result the maximum passenger load from Winnipeg would be 25 passengers. Needless to say we had a full load of 40 passengers booked. The flight, arriving from Toronto (via Fort William/Port Arthur) was scheduled to depart YWG at 0415. YWG Res. in those days had two employees working the midnight shift - one male agent and one female agent. Our job then was to deplane 15 passengers via telephone!!! It is not too pleasant to call someone at 0115 - 0230 and tell them, "Sir, shut off your alarm clock and go back to sleep, you're not going on the 0415 Viscount". However one passenger amazed both of us. I called him, woke him up of course, and explained the situation. He said, ":OK, whatever you say!" I couldn't help but ask him, "Was he not angry?" He said, "NO - whenever TCA wants to take me off the flight it's OK with me." Obviously I was astounded to say the least and asked him, "WHY?" He informed me he had earlier been booked on a TCA flight from YVR to YQR - a North Star. When he had arrived at the Airport in YVR he saw the aircraft starting engines and screamed at the Agent to stop the flight so he could get on. He told me he really made a terrible scene at YVR. The Agent, of course, could not stop the aircraft. Later that evening the man learned that the flight had crashed on Mount Slesse killing everyone on board. That is why he said I will always fly TCA but when you want to take me off, I'll gladly do what you say. So our 15 mid night 'phone calls deplaning passengers from a Viscount taught us a little about human nature!! I started in Winnipeg transferred to Seattle to Montreal to Toronto to Montreal to Los Angeles to New York to Honolulu. Really enjoy your newsletter please keep it up! Alan B. Lock Station Manager - Honolulu (Ret'd). We continue with the thoughts from Bill Norberg which we started in NetLetter nr 1019 - Our technical team gathered at the Dorval Base and plans were made to provide the technical assistance required by the Department of Transport team set up to investigate the incident. We were in the early years of our In flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder installation program. We immediately determined the descriptions,model and serial numbers of the recording units installed on the aircraft so the team at the crash site could locate them as quickly as possible. They were located by 5:00 PM on the same day and brought to the Dorval shops for examination. These systems were so new that the Department of Transport did not have playback facilities and the facilities at the Air Canada Maintenance Base were used. The playback of the voice recorder from a fatal incident was a first for Air Canada. It was also a first in Canada and probably the industry. We were able to play back the voice recorder tape at about 1:00 AM which was about 17 hours after the occurrence of the incident. The tape was around 30 minutes in length and covered the last minutes of the flight from its approach to Toronto airport until the ultimate destruction of the aircraft. The few personnel allowed in the playback room were either directly associated with the investigation team or responsible to operate the playback equipment as well as several senior Maintenance managers. As we listened with a feeling of concern and sadness, it took us only a few minutes to determine what had happened to cause loss of the aircraft and all aboard. The sense of loss was worsened knowing some of our close working associates were among the lives lost this day. While I was listening to the pilots voices as they approached Toronto, I had the feeling I was an intruder in those final personal moments of their lives. I almost felt I had no right to be there, yet it was our responsibility to do our utmost to seek any information that would help us to determine the cause of this tragic incident. With a great sense of relief we knew the fleet was not in danger. We did not have a mechanical defect that would be a concern for the rest of the operating DC-8 fleet. We had experienced an operating procedure problem of limited exposure which gave us a great deal of confidence in our operating procedures. The tragedy should never ever have happened, but at least we knew what we had to do to ensure ongoing operations were safe. I have never ever put in such a frightening 24 hour period in my life. To go from that terrible early morning phone call to knowing the cause of the tragedy in less than 18 hours however gave me great confidence and satisfaction that our flight data and voice recorder program was successful. This sad event took place almost 38 years ago but the emotions of that day and those times, are vivid in my mind to this day. The year 1970 was quite a year in many ways. Bill Norberg (Thank you Bill for the past contributions of your memories working for Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada - eds) |
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Found on the Internet
It's an overlooked issue that gets little attention, but one that demonstrates how excessive regulatory requirements can cause tremendous hassles for airlines, airports and passengers: Why does a checked bag screened in Vancouver or Toronto have to be rescreened before being placed aboard a connecting flight in Minneapolis or Chicago? |
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Terry's Travel Tips
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Smilies
 With the cost of fuel spiraling, we thought this cartoon from "Horizons" issued December 1990 would be appropriate.  |