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Vesta's Corner
 Replica of 1905 Wright Aircraft Damaged in Crash - Pilot Mark Dusenberry was unhurt but his handbuilt replica of the 1905 Wright Brothers Flyer III aircraft was damaged in a crash landing during a demonstration flight at Huffman Prairie, in Ohio, on Friday. The aircraft was airborne for only about 30 seconds when it started to porpoise, then banked, and a wingtip hit the ground, the Associated Press reported. Dusenberry spent seven years building the airplane and said repairs will take about two more years. Hundreds of spectators were at the field for the demo flight, which marked the 102nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first public flights of the original airplane at the same site. The 1905 model is widely regarded as their first practical airplane.  Among the spectators was Amanda Wright Lane, great grandniece of the Wright brothers, who told the AP that while the plane came to the ground "very unceremoniously," the flight itself brought tears of happiness to her eyes. She said her uncles had crashed many times during flight tests, and Dusenberry's crash made her even more impressed with what they had accomplished.Note: Click on image above for more photos. Also a great video of previous flights and a story is availabe if you click here. This weeks postcard - 29/05/2000 titled Couleurs et lumiere de France-Paris  Dear Vesta,This is another one of my preferred site in Paris-I'le de la cite, with Notre Dame cathedral, birthplace of Paris. Bookshops on the banks of the Seine river. And everywhere around you: beauty and history. A life style. I say that because we are just back from Val d'or 3 weeks visiting our son. Another life style. Regards, Jean Le Pottier. Note: for our new readers, I have been collecting postcards from our travelling NetLetter "family" for many years. If you are away and have a minute, I'd be delighted to get one from you as well. You can obtain my address by sending an email to From: Norma Morin Subject: FUNDRAISER FOR THE MONTREAL CHAPTERS DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT A bazaar/fundraiser will be held on Sunday, December 2nd for the Montreal Chapter of Dreams Take Flight. There will be at least 30 crafters selling everything from beautiful jewelry, handmade soaps, Xmas decorations, pashminas wraps, great for those Xmas gifts. As well there will be a large food court selling all kinds of foods. Please visit our website http:///yul.dreamstakeflight.ca click on" fundraiser activities" for more info. Shirlee Schacter sent us this notice - ATTN former Computer & Systems Services (C&SS) employees: Mark Sat. Nov. 17/07 in your calendar for the 6th Annual Friends of Front St. (FoFS) Reunion Lunch. It is being held at the Canadian Legion Hall, 948 Sheppard Ave. W. Toronto from 12 to 3. If you haven't received your invitation or need more details, please contact Shirlee Schacter at You can view pics of previous reunions at: http://imageevent.com/fofs/fofsreunions |
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Dreams Take Flight
Dreams Take Flight Calgary celebrated the 15th anniversary.
On Wednesday, October 24th, Dreams Take Flight Calgary celebrated the 15th Anniversary of making "Magical Memories for Special Needs Kids". A group of 167 adult volunteers - including sponsors, media and doctors - wore Calgary Stampeder Jerseys to chaperone the 138 children who were adorned in Calgary Stampeder jerseys to "Put a Stamp on Dreams". Chantal Baril, President and CEO, ACHGS and Marc Rosenberg, Vice President, Sales and Product Distribution, volunteered with the Calgary Chapter this year. Air Canada donates a B767-200 for this Magical Day! For more information, please refer to the website www.dreamstakeflight.org or phone 403.221-2607. |
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Air Canada and Star Alliance News
Passenger complaints about airline food usually fall on deaf ears but when a pilot and flight attendant joined the chorus about a Columbus family's choice of carry-on cuisine, it raised a big stink. Robert Blum told The Associated Press that a pilot and flight attendant threatened to throw him and his family off the United Air Lines flight from Denver to Columbus if they didn't get rid of the kosher fish dinner they were enjoying. Other passengers had apparently complained about the smell (remember, those vents just recirculate the air) and the crew members sided with them. |
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Air Canada - our 70 years
 1968
1969
  Pictured stamps issued by Barbados |
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Readers Feedback
From your co-pilot - Last month, American Airlines "Flagship of Detroit" touched down for a visit at YVR. The completely restored DC-3 delighted onlookers as big-band music played softly in the background.From: "Robert Giguere" < Subject: RE: The NetLetter #993 As always the Net Letter is a great read. It is always interesting and informative. I noticed that the Boeing SST is wrongly identified in the caption as the Concord of course the Boeing SST was never delivered into service while the Concord was. Also the picture of the Torbay building Is actually Winnipeg in fact the picture is an excellent one of the current Western Canadian Aviation Museumoffice and hangar. Keep up the great work. Rob Giguere  (We picture the correct Torbay which we missed in NetLetter 993 - eds) George Trussell <Subject: An AC Caravelle George found this picture on the Museum Caravelle at Le Bourget, Paris, very recently painted up for a movie, Regards George Trussell From: "Peter Baldry" < Subject: Re: The NetLetter #993 Reading the date AC ordered Concordes I have a metal model of that aircraft in AC colours - 1000 models were "struck" and the guy who placed the order with Corgi Toys came to the UK (he was a regular traveller whom I had got to know) to finalize details. On the day he was returning from Heathrow he asked for me (I was a Passenger Agent at that time) asked if my wife had yet produced our first baby - Martin had been born the week prior - he said "I have something for him " and reached into his bag and presented me with the model of AC's Concorde. Being a good father I still have that model which stands in our study - our son who is now 40 is allowed to look at it !! Our local employees on a day off also visited the Filton plant at Bristol on a coach outing where we were hosted by the UK manufacturers (as AC had placed options on 4 aircraft )and we were given the grand tour of their factory - as I recall the aircraft we were shown over was a wooden version of the real thing, complete with seats etc - one would not have known it was wood if they had not told us. We naturally stopped at a pub on our way back to Heathrow. Cheers Peter From: "JAMES CULLEN" In your Newsletter # 993 under "Terry's Travel Tips" I read and I quote: "Why in transit passengers have to endure another security check after having been screened at their airport of departure defeats me!" It brings to mind an incident my wife and I encountered in LHR in September of this year. I pass it on for the benefit of my fellow AC travelers. We departed YYZ on one of the overnight flights to LHR and then on to BHD (Belfast) While onboard the YYZ-LHR flight I purchased, as I normally do, some items from the duty free. Among these items was two bottles of Vodka. I have done this a few times in the past and normally pack these bottles into my checked luggage for the return trip home. We got to LHR and received our boarding passes right away for our British Midland flight to Belfast. This does not happen to often but it was kinda nice to get our seats right away which removed the usual worry as to whether we make the flight or not. However, we decided to relax a little and go get a snack at one of the cafes in Heathrow before boarding. With about 30 minutes to departure we went to the gate where we encountered the security people who's first question was "Do you have any liquids in your carry-on" I think you could hear my jaw hit the floor as the realization hit me that things had changed since my last trip home. I know, I know, I should have known. Even showing the receipt from the duty free did not help. I hurriedly tried to put both bottles (with the help of security who provided some newspaper to wrap the bottles in) into one of my carry-on bags and tried to check it in but, alas too late. The guy at the ticket counter could not accept it as it would not make the flight so I left the two bottles with him and wished him good luck. He did tell me that in circumstances like this the bottles go to a holding room and a few times a year those items are auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity. Lesson learned. I bought another two bottles on the return flight to Canada. Yours tearfully, Jim Cullen Guelph, On. Retired. We have yet another great memory from Bill Norberg - Memories of the Boeing 747 fleet It is hard to realize that it was 36 years ago we took delivery of our first 747 aircraft. Having them long gone from our fleet is almost as hard to accept. They made a major change to the airline and its operations as resources were developed and acquired to deal with its special needs. It was a huge aircraft then and it still is a large aircraft from many viewpoints. When people visited the Boeing plant in Everett Washington during its construction, they were overwhelmed by its sheer size. It was often referred to as The aluminum overcast. There were other descriptive phrases used as well, but I will decline to mention them here. We had built special hangars to accommodate this leviathan of the air at Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver as well as a new power plant shop and test cell in Dorval to meet the needs of our future wide bodied fleets of B747 and L-1011 aircraft. The Montreal wide bodied hangar was baptized not by our first B747, but by a B747 belonging to Air France. It was a windy stormy Friday night in January 1971, when an Air France B747 from Chicago to Paris via Montreal was landing on a windy icy runway at Dorval just after dark. The pilot lost control of the aircraft on the icy runway and before he could correct the problem, it veered off the runway and embedded itself in the deep snow banks. This was bad enough, but the nose wheel oleo strut had also sunk into the soft ground almost up to the bottom of the fuselage. This had the effect of raising the tail section so high in the air the rear escape chutes could not reach the ground. They merely flapped in the high wind. I was advised of this event by Slim Munson who arranged for a radio controlled vehicle and we headed out to the aircraft to see what assistance we could offer. We met with the local Air France Manager and offered our resources to him. He was pleased to accept as the aircraft was blocking an active runway as well as putting one of their top aircraft out of service. We also saw this as a good learning opportunity for us as well before we received our own B747's. Arrangements were made immediately for our B747 nucleus crew to assess the problem and set about getting the aircraft off the runway and over to our new B747 hangar. The windy stormy weather continued throughout the next two days making the recovery program more difficult than it would otherwise have been. The main problem was getting the nose wheel out of the ground without further damaging the fuselage of the aircraft. Large air bags were obtained to lift the fuselage high enough to extract the nose wheel from the mud. The problem was that whenever they raised the aircraft high enough, the force arising from the wind hitting the large fin of the B747 would shift the aircraft off the air bags. This happened a number of times before Slim Munson brought his ever-present ingenuity to bear on the problem. He suggested they get 2 inch wide double- sided masking tape and place a number of rows between the bags and the lower fuselage. This added friction component was enough to keep the bags in place long enough to extract the nose gear. The aircraft was then towed to the Maintenance base for further examination.   Pictures show employee show time.  Lufthansa B747 retired and mounted at a TechniKl Museum in Speyer, Germany.(We have more in the next NetLetter issue - eds) |
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TCA/AC Events & People Gallery
 From "Between Ourselves" January 1945 - Pictured the traffic staff at YOWHarmon Field alias Stephenville In December 1942, TCA made a fam flight into Harmon Field and set up the arrangements for using this base as an alternative airport with a TCA radio station. Present on the flight were S.S.Stevens, W.W.Fowler, R.M.Heald and R.D.Smith who remained to take charge of the station until December 1943 when Nick Kosowich from Gander was the replacement. The staff consisted of Nick, J.Willy Spence and Myron Zegarchuck. Keith Howard and Bruce Bettinson spent time at the station during this period. |
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Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, etc. Events & People
In 1990 with delivery of the B747-400, lay a story regarding the registrations.
More people from the December 1989 "Contact" magazine loaned by Bill Woods -  Andre Decarie - Lead Cleaner at YUL. Richard Deslauriers - Ground Support Equipment Mechanic - Mirabel. Ross Garlick Avionics Technician & Peter Irving Aircraft Mechanic at Vancouver. Clarence Gill - Aircraft Mechanic & Cynthia Perley Flight Attendant inHalifax.   Pictured stamps issued by Barbados |
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Terry's Travel Tips
On a British Airways A319 flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow in economy each passenger was served a boxed lunch with a choice of tea, coffee or soft drink. On each seat was a pillow, blanket and a pouch containing a pair of sockettes, eyeshades and a travel toothbrush c/w paste supplied free. Conversely, the next day a trip on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Montréal on a B767, in economy, there was no pillow, blanket or boxed food supplied free. Oh yes, there was tea, coffee or soft drinks supplied free. As I was aware that food was available at cost, I purchased a foot long from Subway at a cost of $7.04 prior to boarding. The passenger I was sitting next to purchased the same type of food from the flight attendant, except it was 6 inches long, and cost $7.00. The duration of the Air Canada flight was 4.5 hours and the British Airways flight was a whole 100 minutes!!!! EUROPE'S AIRLINE PAX PROTEST CELLPHONES ALOFT Forget security and safety-of-flight concerns -- airline passengers in the U.K. are worried about their sanity if cellphones are allowed in the cabin in flight. "It would drive me absolutely mad if the person next to me was using his phone," Gwyneth Dunwoody told the London Telegraph. The newspaper has been spearheading a campaign to keep cellphones out of airline cabins. So far, over 3,000 people have signed an online petition to protest the proposal. In the U.S., the FAA has dropped any plans to consider allowing cellphone use aloft. But the European Aviation Safety Agency has given the OK to new in-flight mobile technology that allows devices to operate with less power and avoid possible interference. |
