~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S >_./|\._< for P I O N A I R S | Your crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker tm number 117 date January 19th 1997 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . Welcome to Al Foster in Dartmouth NS who retired Jun 91 after 34 years in Customer Sales & Service, now at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Bernice Horsman - Director Okanagan District sends the following - The second Annual Pionairs Golf Tournament will be held on June 17/18th at the Penticton Golf & Country Club. There will be a Male & Female low gross & nett trophy. Cost is CA$60 incl's North Star box lunch social on 17th, prizes, golf and banquet on the 18th. CA$22 for box lunch and banquet for non golfers. Limited carts available at CA$26 per cart. Cost of practice round on the 17th at CA$25. A block of accommodations reserved at the Sanman Inn until Apr30 at CA$51 per room per night + tax. The Inn is 300 metres from the golf course. Contact Inn direct at 1-800-726-3626. Cheques made out to Canada Pionairs in trust mail to Don Graham, #109 - 801 Comox Street, Penticton, B.C. V2A 8G8. ~-=o0o=-~ . After reading the item about he AC Ham net in Netletter nr 114, Bob Robbins sends this - Thanks for another great issue. I enjoyed your message passed on from Norm Stoddard about the Tuesday morning ham radio group. This reminded me of a message from a very dear friend, George Heron that was on my answering machine a few days ago, and reminded me to call him back this evening. George, Charlie Mackie and Ralph Thomas were long-service employees who joined the company in its early-TCA days (George in 1938 and Ralph in 1940). Before that, in the early thirties they got their ham licenses and became very active on the air. In 1977 George and Charlie were living in Sidney BC, and Ralph Thomas had recently moved to Ottawa. They decided to keep in regular touch with each other and started to schedule a once-weekly get-together on an agreed-on frequency. This group rapidly expanded as other Air Canada employees and retirees joined in the fun. (George tells me there are now 300 members of the Air Canada Ham Net.) Early in the game it became necessary to have someone act as traffic coordinator. Individuals wanting to participate in a day's session first checked in; then the coordinator would call on individuals in turn to transmit while the others listened. Of course often two or more individuals would want to interact more than would be appropriate in the large-group "gathering", so would quickly arrange to meet on another frequency after the weekly session ended. I gave up my ham radio activities after joining TCA in '40, but often was at Ralph Thomas' "radio shack" on the Tuesdays. Ralph continued to be the eastern coordinator until his death in '92. George Heron, now 86 lives in a senior's residence in Abbotsford, and is unable to operate a powerful ham station in the building (--TV interference). Despite living in a wheel chair he's gradually building a leading-edge HF ham station in his (Air Canada Captain) son's home seven miles away. He'll be able to operate it from the seniors' residence, and soon will be able to rejoin the Air Canada net's scheduled contacts. In the meantime I'm sure that he'd enjoy hearing from his friends via Ma Bell's system - 604-859-1909. Cheers! Bob Robbins, Nepean, Ont. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The above reminds Vesta of her early days and send this - When I started in Telecomms at Transat Dorval, George Brinks was in charge of the TransAt teletype (ULX) and I believe Ralph Thomas was in charge of the Radio Operators, that was in 1953. Then later Domestic and Transat moved over to the Intl terminal. Bob Robbins responds to Vesta - I was the International Terminal Station Operations Manager at Dorval from 1948 to 1952 or 53. George Briggs was my Operator-in-charge of the radio and teletype operations on the Station. Ralph Thomas was I think responsible on a Systemwide basis in Telecommunications Headquarters. I didn't get to know our teletype and radio folks at the Station as (in retrospect) I think I should have. We had lots of problems on the ramp and in air freight, and I became often too immersed in them. I'm trying to remember the names of those communications people - can you (anyone) help me out? Bob ~-=o0o=-~ . Found on the Internet COMAIR CRASH PROBE FOCUSES ON UNEXPLAINED "EVENT" NTSB investigators looking into Thursday's crash of Comair Flight 3272 say the CVR revealed "an event" about a minute after the Embraer EMB-120 "Brasilia" leveled off at 4,000 feet while on approach to Detroit's Metro Airport (DTW). But they won't yet say what the event was. Whatever it was, the 30-seat turboprop departed controlled flight shortly thereafter, plunging near-vertically into a field in Raisinville Township, MI, some 20 miles southwest of DTW. BRANSON'S BALLOON BREAKS, CO-PILOT SAVES DAY Flamboyant British businessman Richard Branson's bid to circle the globe in a balloon went bust January 8th when the craft crashed near Bechar, Algeria. The uncontrolled descent was slowed at the last possible moment when co-pilot Alex Ritchie climbed out on to the roof of the balloon's capsule in pitch darkness and managed to release two ballast tanks to lighten the balloon's load. Whew! NEXT TIME, CHECK HIS TICKET! A Northwest Airlines flight was delayed nearly two hours after a man became angry with a pilot for not checking his ticket and landed a punch before even taking off. The pilot suffered a black eye during the confrontation while the punchy passenger was arrested by airport police. PAX PROTEST POTTY PARITY: As if airlines didn't have enough to worry about, a survey by Consumer Reports Travel Letter found that the number of toilets per passenger can vary wildly from carrier to carrier. In economy class, some planes allocate one for each 19 seats (JAL B-747) while others have only one per 100 (USAir and UAL B-737s). With carriers flying about 70 percent full on average, this can mean a mightly long line for the loo. American Airlines may be hit by a pilots strike mid February. SHORT FINAL... From the "squawk sheets": (Maintenance problems!) Problem: "Left inside main tire almost needs replacement." Solution: "Almost replaced left inside main tire." Problem: "Test flight OK, except autoland very rough." Solution: "Autoland not installed on this aircraft." Problem #1: "#2 Propeller seeping prop fluid." Solution #1: "#2 Propeller seepage normal." Problem #2: "#1,#3, and #4 propellers lack normal seepage." Problem: "The autopilot doesn't." Signed off: "IT DOES NOW." ~-=o0o=-~ . Interline stuff. The latest version of the Air Canada timetable is available at http://www.aircanada.ca effective from Jan 13th to Oct 26th. ~-=o0o=-~ . Smilies found by Vesta On a Polish hotel menu: Salad a firms own making; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country's own fashion. Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs. In a Bangkok cleaners: Drop your trousers here for best results. In a Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation. ~-=o0o=-~ . That's it for this time, please we need your input, send comments and email addresses of any others who may be interested to Vesta with a copy to Terry. -!- Landing on an Island in the Pacific. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <<<>>> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................
