~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |\^/| _| TCA |_ B E T W E E N O U R S E L V E S _|\| AIR |/|_ N E T L E T T E R > CANADA < >_./|\._< for Air Canada retirees | Our crew is: Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson Chief Navigator - Terry Baker number 148 date Apr 20th 1997 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "What's Going On and Where!" from April 24 to May 3,1997. Thursday April 24, 1997 VanIs ComoxValley Lunch OLD HOUSE Courtenay Friday April 25, 1997 YOW KoffeeKlatsches Family Carlingwood Shopping Saturday April 26, 1997 ACRA Photography London ENG Sunday April 27, 1997 VAN IS, Fairwinds Golf 'Prestwick Closed" Tuesday April 29, 1997 NB Spring Lunch @ Quality Inn, Sussex @ 1230 Wednesday April 30, 1997 TOR BuffetLunch Murder Mystery@ the OLD MILL Thursday May 1, 1997 ACRA Squash Boca Raton,Fla YUL Lunch Chenoy's Pte Claire Friday May 2, 1997 YOW KoffeeKlatsches Family Carlingwood Shopping ACRA Squash Boca Raton contd YYZ Aviation & Aircraft show Saturday May 3, 1997 ACRA Squash contd YYZ Aviation contd ~-=o0o=-~ . On April 30th 1972, Air Canada introduced the daily shuttle between YUL and YYZ called 'RAPIDAIR' . On May 1st 1947, T.C.A.(Atlantic) Ltd assumed responsibility for the operation previously provided by C.G.T.A.S. ~-=o0o=-~ Reminiscences by Terry your navigator - One November evening, in 1963, while watching the 'tele' at home, I got a phone call from my father. My father was a Chief Customs Officer at Heathrow, London England, in fact the very first Customs officer after WWII when Heathrow was made 'commercial'. The subject of the call was 'One of your DC8's aborted within the last few minutes and crashed through the end of the runway - no injuries but I thought you would like to know before you see it on the 9 o'clock news'. Naturally I was stunned - our airline having such an incident. Well, that incident was the start of what you may call a career change - almost right angles for me. I was the Office Supervisor in the Purchases and Stores office under Tom Carr Hodgson. The next day, the whole office was atop the Queens building looking for the crash site which was at the end of the runway which paralleled the Bath Road and, in fact, ended up in a field of cabbages, hence the name 'Cabbage Patch'. Several days later, from our perch ontop of the Queens building, we watched as the damaged aircraft was dragged, supported by large airbags, down the runway to the B.O.A.C. Maintenance complex and into one of their hangers. The B.O.A.C. Maintenance complex was one huge building with 4 bays separated by workshops and could house several Britannia and Comet aircraft at one time. Trans-Canada Airlines - in those days - was obliged to insure the complete complex together with several aircraft and issue a 'hold harmless' clause to B.O.A.C. for the period of time that our DC8 was being repaired. A team of approximately 50 mechanics was flown in from the Douglas plant headed by John Cook, known as 'Big John'. Danny Sweetman and Ted Rogers from Dorval were seconded to London for a period. My role was to arrange for shelving to completely surround the DC8, on which the mechanics would place the various units removed from the aircraft. Those units declared unserviceable would be recorded and reordered from Dorval, while the unserviceable unit was shipped back to Dorval by Wally Evans and Ted Dean. All the time accurate records of the movements had to be kept as the area was declared a customs bonded zone to avoid duties on the various units. One highlight was the arrival of the under belly and wing panels in a huge C5 Galaxy aircraft which was manouvered around the various maintenance hangers, guided by a navigator who had his head out through the top of the aircraft, similar to a tank commander. This aircraft was huge. The day finally arrived when the aircraft did its test flights successfully and returned to service. Eventually, fin 813 was lost at Ottawa during a training flight in May 1967. As a result of this episode of my career, I was invited to move, on a company transfer, to Dorval, arriving on January 2nd 1965. ~-=o0o=-~ . Found on the internet - BOEING ASSEMBLES FIRST 777-300 Boeing last week began major assembly of the newest member of its 777 airplane family -- the 777-300. At 242 feet, 4 inches (73.8 meters), the new airplane will be 33 feet longer than the 777-200, and carry 20 percent more passengers. AIRLINE PAX HELP LOCATE SURVIVORS Passengers on Aloha Airlines flight 404 Thursday helped locate two people floating in a raft after their twin-engine plane crashed in the Pacific. The Aloha flight remained in the search area 28 miles offshore for a half hour and did not leave until the Coast Guard arrived, said airline spokesman Tom Yoneyama. ALITALIA'S EYE CANDY: Italy's cash-strapped national airline, Alitalia, painted one of its 747s to look like a tube of Baci chocolates, a Nestle confection that translates as "kisses." Nestle paid between two billion lire and 2.5 billion lire (US$1.2 million and US$1.5 million) for the flying advert. CANTANKEROUS CAMBODIAN WOUNDS BOEING: Problems with airline schedules and lost luggage are not Western phenomena. As evidence, we offer the case of a prominent Cambodian businessman who shot at a tire of a parked airliner at Phnom Penh airport. No one was injured. Continental Airlines bid for 20% of Aerolineas Argentinas. Delta Airlines is changing its aircraft livery - 1st time in 35 years. Airline TAT and Air Liberte, French units of British Airways cancelled 3/4 of their weekend flights due to strikes by pilots. A group of investors plan to start Swiss World Airways to fly Geneva to US destinations. Due to a strike by Indian air controllers, 3,000 passengers were stranded at Singapore, 800 at Hong Kong and more at Bangkok. Air China, largest modern civil aviation company in China launches its Beijing - Hong Kong - London England air route. ~-=o0o=-~ . Interline stuff From Carol Ann McDevitt My Dad is an Air Canada retiree, orginally based in Dorval but now living in Toronto. He doesn't have internet access, but has asked me to try to find out something for him. My Mum and Dad are planning a trip to Hong Kong in May. The hotel prices are very high, and they are trying to find out if any of them give a decent airline rate for retirees. I tracked down all of the leads and couldn't find any such list (like the booklet we used to get with all of the hotels where we got discounts). Do you know where I can find this information? You can email Carol at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (We would be interested in any replies too - eds) Alan Rust has responded - My wife and I tried to find reasonable rooms as well in October 96 with no luck. We faxed many hotels and searched the WWW for deals. They seem to be able to get away with the high prices due to the fact that there are a lot of business people in for conventions, etc all the time. Also since the change over is July 1/97 I think a lot of business deals are being made. We even tried the YMCA and it was booked solid. I think you can show up and take a chance though. Some of the cheap hotels are supposed to be dives that you really wouldn't want your parents to stay in. I hear that if you book out of town it's cheaper. We ended up going to Hawaii instead. If your parents have never been to the "Big Island" of Hawaii, it's facinating to see the volcano and I'm sure they would enjoy it. Good luck - Alan Rust. ~-=o0o=-~ . Smilies - SHORT FINAL... We're not sure if this actually happened, but we thought we'd share it anyway... According to Reuters, the dazed crew of a Japanese trawler was plucked out of the Sea of Japan earlier this year clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. Their rescue was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors on their ship's loss. To a man they claimed that a cow, falling out of a clear blue sky, had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes. They remained in prison for several weeks, until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield, forced the cow into the plane's hold and hastily taken off for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the Russian crew was ill-equipped to manage a frightened cow rampaging within the hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of Japan at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Some Headline news found in National newspapers - Farmer Bill dies in house. Iraqi Head seeks arms. Stud tires out. Soviet virgin lands short of goal again. British left waffles on Falkland Islands. Lung cancer in women mushrooms. Eye drops off shelf. Teacher strikes idle kids. Martin Wins on budget, but more lies ahead. Shot off womens leg helps Nicklaus to 66. Enraged cow injures farmer with ax. Miners refuse to work after death. Cold wave linked to temperatures. Deer kill 17,000. Astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft. Kids make nutritious snacks. Local high school drop-outs cut in half. New vaccine may contain rabies. Air head fired. Include your children when baking cookies. Vesta has a one liner for you - "Very funny, Scottie. Now beam my clothes down too." ~-=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. _____(~)_____ ! ! ! <<<>>> Air Canada Pionairs ~Between Ourselves-Netletter~ http://www.mortimer.com/acra mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ................................................... . GREETINGS FROM . . Vancouver Island . . BEAUTIFUL B.C. CANADA . ...................................................
