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Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter Since 1995

Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Since 1995



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T H E                    _| TCA |_
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N E T L E T T E R   >  CANADA   <
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( For retirees of the new Air Canada family)


Number 474  April 22nd, 2000,  We first Published in October 1995


Chief Pilot  - Vesta Stevenson   -    Co-pilot  - Terry Baker


<NEW>   e-mail address is:    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


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. Message from Saville Hambleton - President of Air Canada Pionairs -
Hi All;
I am pleased to announce that for the first time, the National Executive
Board of the Pionairs will meet their Canadian Airlines Central Executive
Board counterparts, face to face, in an informal get together next Wednesday
April 26th. This is just another step in a longer process that has been very
successfully started with contacts at the social level through Pionair
District Directors and CAIRE Chapter Presidents.
On the 26th with the assistance of Doug Lovat, Director of Pensions and
Employee Benefits, we will attempt nothing more than a meet and greet
session with discussions between all parties on the possibility of setting
up a further series of meetings that will ultimately result in both our
organizations joining as one. One must caution that, that moment is still
well in the future but, the result will be a 9000 member organization that
won't just 'represent' Canada's commercial airline heritage, we 'will be'
Canada's commercial airline heritage.
Best Regards, Saville Hambleton President Air Canada Pionairs


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. Don't forget the Annual General Meeting 'PARTY2000' being held April 28-30th
in Vancouver B.C.
The Pionair Executive promises this to be the best this century!


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. Michael Power sends us his bio -
I retired on May 1st. 1984 and at the time of my retirement was Manager
Special Sales in Toronto. I was a young Irish immigrant(ex Aer Lingus,
Shannon) when I joined TCA on Jan 15th. 1951 and spent my entire TCA/AC
career in Toronto - Reservations, Personnel, Sales Rep./Mgr.
Very pleased to have already received a note from a Toronto fellow employee,
now  residing in Texas, whom I haven't seen or heard from in many many years.
Regards - mike.  <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>


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. News from the districts.
Don Hancock - Director of Vancouver Pionairs sends us this update -
YVR PIONAIRS SPRING LUNCHEON MARCH 22nd 2000.
YVR Pionairs enjoyed a Spring Luncheon at the Quilchena Golf and Country
Club on March 22nd.
Special guest speaker, George Reeleder, AC General Manager Customer
Service BC and Pacific Rim was most interesting as he spoke at length of
the ongoing merging of AC and CP flight schedules, the challenges and the
opportunities, the new routes, new destinations, and the exciting outlook
for the future both within North America and Internationally.
Special guests were introduced including Pionair Jack Dyment, and visiting
from Victoria, National Executive 2nd V/P Kay Napolitano and husband Syl,
Margaret Cantwell, Bruce Gibson, and Nancy and Mervin Walchuk.
Also special guest Mike Evans Chair of YVR District CAIRE
(Canadian Airlines International Retired Employees), who spoke of the
goodwill, friendship, and cooperation developing between Pionairs and
CAIRE and that expectations for the future should involve the merging
of the two organizations at the earliest possible time.
A special occasion was recognized in that Estelle Laing was celebrating
her birthday on March 22nd.
Many beautiful prizes were drawn for including a beautiful hand painted
ceramic bowl in memory of Ken Cantwell, a longtime AC employee at
YVRA. Background music during the meet and greet happy hour and during
the luncheon was provided by Pat McEwan and Shirley Lee. This added
much to the occasion.
The importance of the upcoming AGM was stressed and the availability of one
event tickets was well received.


Pionairs Coffee Clubs have been established in four locations and meet
once per month at 1000am.


White Rock 1st Tuesday Whitespot152ns St at 16th Ave,


Tsawwassen, 2nd Tuesday Whitespot, 12th St at 56th Ave.,


Richmond, 2nd Wednesday, Whitespot, # 3 Rd at Save On Foods,


Ladner, 4th Tuesday, Rickys Restaurant, Trenant Park Shopping Centre,
Ladner Trunk Road.


A YVR Pionairs BBQ is scheduled for August 10, followed by the fall
Luncheon in late October and a Xmas Red Hat Luncheon in early December.
For  further info E Mail Don Hancock This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


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. Michael Evans President Canadian retirees Vancouver chapter sends this update -
Elections today 2000/2001 board of CAIRE chapter 1 YVR as follows:
Reelected Mike Evans  - President,  Al Yallouz - Treasurer,
John Smerdon - 2nd VP.
Elected Ian Becket/ Lois Dickenson equal first VP's,
Nina Morrison - Ssecretary,  Social Sec tba .
Meetings at  Scottish Cultural Centre (after seeing Braveheart movie I know
Scottish and cultural make oxymoron)  Hudson & 73 in Marpole,
Vancouver.
Meetings September thru June, on the third Thurs day of month,
coffee at 0930, meeting starts at 10.30,.
No meetings July and August.   All welcome even Scots!
CAIRE Annual lunch June 6 at Bayshore Inn Hotel, Vancouver.
tickets $20 per head.
"michael evans" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>


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. CF-TCC (update) - from Alan Rust, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Last month we announced that the AC Family Network is hosting and
maintaining a web site dedicated to CF-TCC. The 2000 spring/summer
schedule is now Online listing all the stops TCC will be making on it's
annual "Trans Canada" journey for Dreams Take Flight starting on
April 26, 2000.
Visit the web site to learn about the history of this "Classy Lady" and its
work with the "Dreams Take Flight" program.
We have exclusive photos provided by Al MacLeod among our collection
of over 80 photos and movie clips taken on its annual cross Canada trips.
The web site is available off our main page at: www.acfamily.net
(under "Our Family") or directly through this link: http://www.acfamily.net/tcc/


Alan MacLeod follows with this update -
Subject: Lockheed CF-TCC


For your information I am going to get the Lockheed out of storage from
the Western Canadian Aviation Museum next week. The maintenance
engineers have been busy doing some work and it is going to be ready to
fly on the 26th April.
Same pilots as last year will be operating again this summer.
Capt. Ken Patry, Capt. Ted Dodds , Capt. Gerry Norberg, Capt. Harvey Reid
and yours truly.
The summer schedule, for those interested on the Netletter, has been
posted on the CF-TCC website along with some interesting movies of the
aircraft. It can accessed from: :  www.acfamily.net/tcc/
Thanks to Alan Rust for posting and maintaining this interesting site.
Regards for now,  Al. MacLeod  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


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. One of our Pionairs from Vancouver Island has recently returned from a cruise with his
wife and two buddies.
Ken and Anne Flach has sent us some stories of the cruise which may interest you.
The cruise was with World Cruise Co arranged through Interlining Plus
(Was Canadian Interline).
Starting in Athens Greece, the following countries were visited -
Tunisia, Morocco, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Brazil, Argentina, Falkland Islands,
Antarctica, Chile, Pitcairn Island, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Fiji, New Calendonia,
Australia, Indonesia, Maldives, Seychelles, Kenya, Eritrea, Jordan, Egypt and Israel.
As you can guess this was not a 7 day'er but took 127 days! The cruise, on the
m/v Ocean Explorer,  departed November 20th and returned to Athens March 26th.
The visit to the Falkland Islands was by zodiacs to look at colonies of penguins and
the nesting area of the Black Browed Albatross, which has a wing span of some 7 foot.
Several types of penguins were observed, including the unique Rock Hopper.
2 days at Christmas was spent in the Antartic, and the Millennium in Santiago, Chile.
Being an inaugural trip, there were a few problems, most of the crew were Greek and
there were problems with communication. No point in asking for help as it was better
to do it oneself. Ken learned how to fix the pressure toilet. Duct tape and flashlight
were a must! Rooms were so cold he had to plug the vents with towels, and the
port holes leaked in rough weather.
To move the 600 people off  the ship was by zodiac. It was a first time using this kind
of transport for so many people into area where rocks and ice chunks are a hazard to
the props. The zodiacs  were organized and operated with people belonging to
Northern Explorations from  Victoria on Vancouver Island, and are used for whale
watching.
On the positive side, the staff really tried hard. The food was the best, and Ken
rated the cruise at 8 out of 10.
While in Santiago, the ship was chartered by the Young Presidents Club of America.
A qualification of this club is to be under the age of 40 with a company which grosses
24 million a year. They were a very demanding group, and so they should be having
to pay $2,000 per day for 7 days.
More next time.


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. Charles Mackie sends us this update -
Subject: Re CAHS Meeting Apr 11
We had a successful meeting on April 11th, first a group of us
had Luncheon at Marys Coffee bar and held our third meeting of the
Canadain Aviation Historical Society  at the BC Aviation Museum at
Victoria Airport in the Norseman Room .
I rushed through the dull stuff like minutes etc to let our
speaker Jim Brown from Pender Island give his slide presentation re
Eddie Hubbard of Boeing Aviation
Jim showed us slides of the early pioneer days of Eddie Hubbard
who was one of the first pilots that Boeing had
in Seattle and influences Boeing to produce the first Boeing B1 a flying
boat, and in many other early models of Boeing aircraft.
Hubbard flew the first airmail flight Between Seattle and
Victoria on October 15 , 1919. and flew for 7 years between Seattle and
Victoria and never missed a flight despite the foggy weather over the
Straits of Juan de Fuca.  He also convinced Boeing to bid for the mail
and passenger route from San Francisco to Chicago in 1927 .and
influences them to resurrect a 1925 Mail plane  to fly the route and
Boeing built 25 of them called the Boeing Model 40 .
Jim Brown had a great selection of slides of the early flying
boats and of the First Airmail flights to Victoria. He also has an
extensive collection of First Mail Covers included those of the first
flights to Victoria.  He also has a collection over over 12 Thousand
stamps related to Aviation and called himself an "aerophilateist.
.Jim Is also the author of "Hubbard, The Forgotten Boeing
Aviaton" on which he did extensive research and received rave reviews of
his book.  For anyone interested the Book is ISBN 0-89716-651-5.
--     Our next Meeting with be June 13th at the above location and I
have lined up a speaker Elwood White who is very well versed in all
sorts of different aircraft that have flown up and down the BC coast
over the years.
Hope to see you at our next meeting
Best Regards
Charles J. L. Mackie, Pres of Vanouver Island Chapter of the CAHS
<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>


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. Terry's travel tips.
Linda Reverchon  sends this for accommodations near Vancouver -
The Executive Inn (formerly Howard Johnson's) on Bridgeport Road, in
Richmond, BC (Near the airport) was quoted  $59.00 plus tax
and including continental breakfast. The rate originally quoted was
higher, but she lowered it when I said I was an AC retiree. My husband
and I stayed there for a good price a couple of years ago and found the
accommodations satisfactory. During the years I worked in Passenger
Service at YVRTRAC, we often used the Executive Inn on Westminster
Highway for "inconvenienced" passengers, getting a rate there.
Linda R. <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>


Travelling to London, England?
Air Canada customers boarding the Heathrow Express can save 25%. Until
May 30, customers who present their Air Canada boarding pass at the
Heathrow Express ticket booth prior to hopping the Heathrow Express
from Paddington Station to London's Heathrow International Airport can
save 25% on the fare.


Visiting Sydney? That's down under!
Devere Hotel,  44-46 Macleay Street,  Sydney, NSW Australia 2011
Phone +61 2 9358 1211  Fax +61 2 9358 4685    Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: http://www.devere.com.au
The Devere Hotel is a 3 star, 100 room boutique style hotel.
The Devere is situated in the trendy bayside suburb of Potts Point.
Only 2 km from Sydneys CBD   and 10km from the airport.
Reservations in advance by phone, fax or email.
Rate of AUS$79.00 (plus 10% State Government tax per room per night)
single or double occupancy offered to active and retired airline employees.
Based on availability. Must show valid id at check-in.


Jamaica Dream Villas, Columbus Heights,  Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Phone 770-4360416 or 7704365676   Email:     This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Regular rate $1500.
Pos space Airline rate us$699 -  7 days 6 nights for 2 adults & 2 kids
RATED BEST AIRLINE DEAL ON 1ST CLASS GROUP OR
FAMILY VACATION (added adults $200 each daily.)


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. DID YOU KNOW?
That you can read or retrieve back issues of  "theNetLetter" ?
Just visit our web site at:
http://www.acfamily.net/netletter
and click on the "Archives" button.
This area is only open to "the NetLetter"  subscribers and you will
need the following password to enter -
User Name: netletter  Password: vesta


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