Air Canada - our first 70 years

1959
The first DC-8 Jetliner for Trans-Canada Air Lines fin #802 was flown at Long Beach California and is due for delivery on July 23rd.






Viscount service between YYZ and Tampa commenced October 28th.
And between YYZ and Florida commenced December 1st.

1971
A new customer concept called "Sun Living" was launched replacing the Club Calypso theme for the Southern destinations.










The Vickers Vanguard is gone. The flight 458 of October 31st YYZ-YUL was the last scheduled flight for an Air Canada Vanguard. Captain Steve Davis and  F/O Lorne Dyck were in command.







The ca$8 million ten-story structure was under construction at YVR.









1972 Sept - Terminal II at YYZ now used exclusively by Air Canada.






During mid-summer, the in-house magazine "Between Ourselves"

was renamed "Horizons".

TCA/AC People Gallery

Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier "Horizons", should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

Musings from "Between Ourselves"

Issue dated September 1971

Here is a photo of a group of Winnipeg based Stewardesses who formed a softball team. Billed as "Air Canada Super Stews",








Issue dated October 1971

In 1946, September 3rd,  a group of ex-RCAF pilots joined Trans-Canada Air Lines and celebrated their 25 years anniversary with the company. Here they are.








London England becomes the first station to offer passengers automated check-in using an internal system developed by a Company team. The project team was chaired by Sandy Grant, Customer Service with members Don Demeza, George Arena and Bob Hogg of C & SS. Lloyd Morrison and Nick Karalovas of Customer Service were also involved.

Here we have this photo of the equipment - no sign of the afore mentioned people tho'





Issue dated November 1971

The New York Secretarial staff took a fam trip to Montreal. Here is a photo of the happy group.














Cleveland employees gathered together to celebrate 25 years of service at Cleveland. Not theirs but the company's inaugural DC-3 flight recalling the first non-stop scheduled service from a foreign country in 1946.

Here we have this photo of the staff.








Issue dated April 1972
This group pause next to our first L1011 during a tour of the Lockheed facilities.

Bill Norberg kindly supplied the following identities.
Left to right: 1. Don' know 2. Ken Chapman 3. Face hidden???
4. John McGill 5. John Wilde 6. Bill Norberg 7. Kent Davis 8. Bill  Benson 9. Ken Rutledge 10. Bob Christie...our rep. at Lockheed

More musings from "Between Ourselves" donated by Robert Sedlak

Issue dated August 1959

T.C.A. North Star flight 851 landed at Gander Airport May 12th to become the first operational flight into the new terminal.

Here we have a photo of the crew.











Gleanings from "Horizons" -

Issue dated  September 1972

200 years of company service by this group photographed during the presentation of their 25 year pins and annual passes at Heathrow (LHR).

This and That

100 years ago, on February 23rd, was the date of the first manned flight in Canada recently re-enacted at Baddack, N.S. The man on the ground at that time was Alexander Graham Bell. Under the banner "Flight Dispatching - Its early beginning, its History and Introduction to TCA" in the "Between Ourselves" Sept 1959 issue, is an item which tells us that, after the first successful flight, J.A.D.McCurdy was anxious to try again.

Bell suggested no more for this historic day and so the following flights were cancelled! Bell thus became the first airplane dispatcher in Canada to cancel a flight!

American Airlines is the official carrier for the Snowball Express, an organization that hosts families of US military personnel who have died while serving since September 11th 2001. Aircraft are donated for charter flights and volunteer crews spend time with the families. Other airlines that support Snowball Express include AirTrans, JetBlue and Southwest.

Quarter Century in Aviation Club Richmond, BC.

The Quarter Century in Aviation Club meets on the 3rd Tuesday in the following months: October, November, January, February,March and April.

The next meeting of the club is on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. The club includes airline employees from all areas of aviation meeting as friends to share their experiences and memories. If you wish to join the club, you must have 25 years in aviation (any airline, any job) and the membership fees are $15/year. (Guests are welcome, so you are not required to join the first time you attend)

When: March 17, 2009
Social - 17:00 hours
Dinner - 18:00 hours

Dinner: Chicken and Schnitzel Buffet Dinner is served and the cost is $19 per person. (Includes salad, chicken and/or schnitzel, desert and coffee, gratuities included).

Where: The Austrian Vancouver Club, 5851 Westminster Highway, Richmond.

See: www.quartercenturyclub.ca for more information.

Bytes and Pieces

Beaver "Piece of Cake" Landing - Contributed by Bill Marr.  "This spectacular crash was included in the 1982 movie 'Mother Lode', starring Charleton Heston.  There is a neat story that goes along with this accident. We knew the pilot who was doing the flying for the movie and thought he'd be doing it all. However, the director knew a guy in California who flew for the movies and was also an aerobatic showman. He used to do an act with a man standing on his wing."

"Unfortunately, the pilot wiped him off one day during a performance but apparently this mishap didn't affect his ego or his reputation as a pilot and it was he who the director called upon to do this scene.

Lake Lovely Water is about 4,800 feet elevation between Squamish and Whistler, BC, and it's a well-named small lake tucked into a high cliff with a spectacular waterfall at one end that billows and makes rainbows and has a steep drop-off at the other. Malcolm, our friend, was asked to run the Hollywood pilot through the technique needed for this landing for the scene."

"Mr. Hollywood pilot had no float plane time and wouldn't accept that flying an aircraft on floats was very different than flying wheels ... besides he was an aerobatic pilot with thousands of hours. Malcolm said the guy would not listen and dismissed him with a 'yeah, yeah.' 

The bizarre 'landing' was so spectacular that they left it in the film. This film has been used at many a MOT instructional seminar The water landing is at the very beginning of the movie."

Please click on the photo or follow this link for the video.

If you have a high speed connection you can also download a better version of the video using this link.

Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People

Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier in-house magazines, should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

In 1987 the Flight Attendants base in Lima was closed down.

Joseph Moniz sent us these photos from the "Contact" magazine nr 148 dated Sept 20th., 1996 -
The occasion was the Employee Charitable Foundation Campaign '96" held in Toronto on August 29th 1996.

Here is Bill Currie Supvr Mtce Admin Toronto demonstrating the fine art of roasting corn. 
















Here are some of the attendees.













































Perusing "INFO Canadi>n" magazine -
Issue dated April 28th 1988 -

Canadian Forces Band from Lahr in Germany was on hand to welcome the Canadian Airlines inaugural flight to Frankfurt on April 5th.








Special issue dated May 1988 -
April 26th marks the first anniversary of the new airline identity

Issue dated May 1988 -
Fort Nelson bid goodbye to Canadian Airlines service during April/ The service will be operated by Canadian Partner Time Air effective May 1st.

Under the headline "How times change" was this photo of four Noorduyn Norseman owned by Canadian Pacific Air Lines forty-five years previously.

The photo was taken at  Cartierville Airport in Montreal and submitted by Wayne Weston.




And we have this photo of the crew on board Canadian's April 21st B-767 flight service between Vancouver and Los Angeles.  

It seems that the cyberspace gremlins interfered with the first two items in NetLetter nr 1059, so here we go again -

Hilton Whittaker sends us this information from the "CP Air NEWS" magazine  issue dated July 1984 -

Memories the way it was in '84.














Here we have another set of photos contributed by John Anderton
Avro York of Pacific Western Airlines CF-HIP at YZF in 1956.

Andre Tison sent us several photos, here are some -

Cail B747 over Vancouver.










Viscount CF-THI with a caption which read "seven in a Viscount" -
(We don't know which seven are involved here - eds)











Your co-pilot found this photo of the first flight from Hounslow Heath England after 27 days, 20 hours and 20 minutes elapsed time to Darwin, Australia on November 12th 1919. The Vickers "Vimy" stands poised to leap into the air after what looks like a bumpy runway!





Doug Moberg sends us this information following the photo printed in NetLetter nr 1059 under "Last overhaul" -
In the photo, to the left of Sam Purvis, I believe is Bill Baggely, who was the Hangar foreman, while I worked there, 1966-1969, when CAE took over.

Rgds,  Doug Moberg

Bill Norberg shares this memory -
Your pictures and note in the recent Netletter nr 1057 about the 747 employee recognition flight once again brought back some wonderful memories of the good old days.

You keep coming up with them!

After I saw the efforts put forth by so many base employees resulting in the outstanding success of out 747 public viewing weekends, I felt we should do something special to recognize them. What could have more significance than to have them be on the very first flight of our first 747. I worked with Guy Chiasson and arranged a wine and cheese party which was held at the Dorval terminal prior to boarding the flight. Each person was given a special invitation and a  boarding pass was developed to recognize the special nature of the flight. It was a very special occasion for us all. I still have my boarding pass which is completely covered with  autographs of as many people as I could contact during that flight.

Capt Wendy Reid was in charge....who better to be in charge of that special flight? They were the good old days!

Regards  Bill Norberg

John Bell picked up on a piece of misinformation in NetLetter nr 1058 which stated: 1971 -Sept 16th - Inaugurate scheduled service between Thunder Bay and Fort William/Port Arthur with 10 passenger Lockheed L14 aircraft from Lakehead Airport.

The story was from "Between Ourselves" issue October 1971 and was titled "Thunder Bay marks its 25th" The inaugural flight of the L14 service was September 21st 1946 and indicated the flying time was one hour and 15 minutes with a fare of $22.50

John commented -
Always enjoy the News from the past--but I think you should have saved the above till Apr 1st<G> Well--L14 (Lockheed 14) last flew in the late 40's (maybe the early 50's)--was certainly a dim memory when I joined in 56--Lakehead was the name usually given to Fort William & Port Arthur, which were 2 separate Cities (Towns)--Thunder Bay was the body of water which they were on (a part of Lake Superior). The Name of the amalgamated FW & PA was designated "Thunder Bay"

Another comment from John -
Sorry to be a pain--but ye, I see that 1946 is the date and the
service was from Toronto to "The Lakehead" (or Fort William/Port
Arthur) not from Lakehead to Fort William etc. I flew the DC-3 and
Viscount on that route, starting in 1956.( Jeez, that was a long time ago) Its my opinion that the Flying time quoted (One hour 15 minutes) is much too short. My recollection it that YZ--WG  was well over 4 1/2 hours--Lakehead was more than half way--We also flew to and via the Soo (Sault Ste Marie), originally landing at "Kinchloe" a US Air Force Base in Sault Michigan (Later Kinross). We seldom flew directly to Thunder Bay in the DC-3, usually stopping in the Sault--both ways-- and my fading memory is that it was around 1 hr from Toronto--slightly more westbound--ditto the Soo to Lakehead. I won't stand by those figures--but I imagine schedules exist if one really wants to know.

Terry's travel tips

Ryanair confirmed  that it plans to close all airport check-in counters by Oct. 1, forcing all passengers to check in online. Are you looking for ideas on where to go and when?

Then you need to visit our new site Interline Travel News.com This is a new site we built to give you easy access to the vast number of stories and travel news we get on a daily and weekly basis. Ideas that can help make your interline traveling a lot easier and a lot more fun.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert cautioning against travel to Mexico due to infighting among the drug cartels.

The Mexican Customs Office has issued a policy change concerning checked baggage, which will now include the baggage belonging to in-transit and connecting passengers landing in any international airport in Mexico. Travelers may still check their baggage to their final destination, but airlines must now deliver all luggage to the owners so they may go through the customs check at their first port of entry. To expedite the process, it is important for all passengers to have already filled out the Customs Declaration Form. Once the customs check has been completed, passengers will leave their luggage in the connecting-flight conveyor belt area (in Mexico City) or at the check-in counter.

It went into effect this Feb. 1st for flights arriving from Canada, Europe and Asia and on Sept. 1, 2009 for flights from the USA. (Source - InterlineTravelNews)

Smilies

US Airways Going Through Town
Robert MacKinnon sent us a string of photos, which appear on the internet, of the US Airways A320 which ended up in the Hudson River, was retrieved and makes its way to a repair facility.


Here is one such photo, and imagine, if you will,  how your boss would react when you arrive late for work and blame a traffic jam due to an aircraft on the road.