Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

The Ottawa Flying Club – eastern Canada’s oldest flying club – has been in continuous operation since 1928 and represents a history of aviation accomplishment and an ongoing romance with flight.

From the early days when a group of aviators – dressed in goggles, leather helmets and boots – met at the sand flats beside the scenic Rideau River on a grassy field identified only with a solitary windsock, the Club has come to symbolize the ongoing romance with flight.

Located at Ottawa MacDonald Cartier International Airport.

(Source: www.ofc.ca/OFCHistory)

Executives from Air Transat say the company's rapid European summer expansion is part of a long-term strategy to remain competitive in transatlantic markets.

The airline will add 15% more seats into Europe this summer - and do so with wide-body aircraft that executives concede are not ideal for the job. But starting next year, Transat will begin defending its newly-acquired turf with an expanding fleet of Airbus A321LRs,

(Source: Flight International June 28, 2018)

The Squadron

Air Canada acknowledges that the weather at St. John's, Newfoundland is probably worse than anywhere else on the system. Sometimes, your airplanes don't get in.

Ace McCool's airplanes always get in!

McCool is President, CEO and Chief Pilot of Down East International Airlines, based at Moncton, New Brunswick, where the weather is no great shakes, either. But what sets DEI apart from other airlines is that it doesn't exist - except in Air Canada Captain Jack Desmarais' imagination and the back page of Canadian Aviation, Canada's National Aviation Magazine.

And, not only are there DEI and McCool, there is Pete Braddock, T.l. (for Totally Inept) Jacobs, The Smarts, Cowboy McCloskey, Red Starr and Churchy Laflamme, "de bes' co-pilot of dem all."

Stew Jane is a flight engineer, Mile-High Millie and Crazy lris take care of things in the cabin, and Phil Lister keeps the airplanes mechanically fit.

That's "The Squadron" and it has become something of a legend since the McCool stories began in 1971. And we think you would enjoy reading about how not to operate a responsible airline.

"Ace McCool The hilarious collection from Down East International" by Jack Desmarais. available from Amazon.

 (Source: AC "Horizons' magazine issue January 1984)