#1054 - January 31st, 2009

Vesta's Corner

Why not allow the NetLetter be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC etal. and share your experiences with us!

Air Canada - our first 70 years

1970 - Construction commenced on a new test cell for YUL, due for completion in April 1971.

- New freight stop at Windsor. The new service is non-stop from YVR enroute to YUL.

May 23 -

Last of the DC-8 fin 879 was received, the first, fin 804, was delivered on February 7th, 1960.

Dec 15 -

Dorval Base celebrates its 10th birthday. Inaugurated on this date in 1960, here we have this photo.

1988 - Exchanged service to Portugal from Canadian Airlines International for service to Munich.

Where are they now!
BAe-146-200 fin 209 C-FBAQ c/n E2111 returned to BAe and sold on to Minden Air who will convert to a water tanker.

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 June 1970
The company's first non-stop YUL-YVR left June 1st under the command of Capt.Bill Irving.

Stewardess Anne-Marie Maidich was named Miss Transportation - here she is.

The London England commissary came up with a better way to perform the tedious job of bagging cutlery.
Here is a photo of the project team.

Issue dated July 1970
After 29 years in "temporary" quarters at New York's JFK airport the company moved into a new passenger terminal on June 30th.
DC-9 fin 727 CF-TMB was the first arrival to use the new facilities.

First appearance of an Air Canada prop jet freighter at Los Angeles during June.

Here we have this photo.

When Viscount fin #651 rolled out of the CAE Aircraft Industries hangar on May 6th, it marked the end of a major modification program to the Viscount aircraft. The program began back in
1958. Portions of the lower spar boom had to be changed on all the company Viscounts and was known as the "Spar Mod" .

Here we have this photo of the crew at wind-up time.

Issue dated October 1970

First meeting of all managers in the Southern Region was held in Toronto during September 1970, and here we have this photo.

Bytes and Pieces

Coach Class vs First Class

Seems that you get what you pay for, even in a disaster!

The image below wouldn't be amusing at all if it weren't for the fact that everyone escaped relatively unharmed.

Note - I figure that the airline contingent passengers are still on board up to their waist in water.

Click on the image to display a larger one. Or click on 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.

Pickings from the "CP Air News"

Issue dated May-June 1986
A salute to the DC-3 was made at Expo-86 on June 7th. One of the CP Air's DC-3 was amongst the DC-3 armada, the largest rally ever staged to mark the 50th anniversary of the DC-3's entry into commercial service. CP Air operated 17 of the examples.

Before CP Air obtained the DC-3, they gained experience with the DC-2 which were briefly loaned from Canadian Colonial Airways of Montreal.

On April 30th 1986 the service Vancouver to Shanghai was successfully launched, under the command of Capt. Bob
Weatherley. The route had been in a state of suspension since CPAL began its first international service in 1949.

May 19th saw the restart of non-stop service between Vancouver - Ottawa continuing on to Halifax and Charlottetown.

Perusing the "FLASH INFO" bulletin -

Issue dated April 8th 1987 -
Order placed for six B-767-300ER aircraft with options on another eight.

Issue dated April 23rd 1987
Under the banner of "Airport fanfare to herald Brazil launch" - we have the information that the inaugural flight was May 2nd 1987 YYZ-Rio-Sao Paulo fin # 912 "Empress of Lisbon" under the command of Capt. Bob Weatherley, Capt. Alan Clark, Ron Watson and S/O Bob Anderson.

On May 1st, a new in-flight magazine entitled "Canadi>n". replacing publications "Empress" and "Skyword".

The first aircraft with the new "Canadi>n Airlines International " livery was Fin #912 on Mar 31st 1987 a DC-10 on route YVR-YYZ.

Issue dated April 27th., 1987
Joint announcement with Air Canada to merge Pegasus and ReserVec to form a single reservations company. President and CEO is Paul Nelson of CAIL and Anne Bodnarchuck as the new company's chairman

Issue dated June 4th., 1987
CP Air Holidays and Pacific Western Holidays merged into Treasure Tours which was established in Montreal in 1927, and purchased by Nordair in 1975.

In conjunction with Time Air, Burrard Air of Vancouver began providing connecting service Jun 1st for Canadia>n Airlines between YVR and Campbell River, Powell River and Nanaimo
utilizing Piper Chieftain aircraft.

Selection from "INFO Canadi>n" magazine dated September 10th, 1987

Two B-737's fitted for Pope's one-day visit. Pope John Paul II with his 80 person entourage for the flight from Edmonton to Fort Simpson N.W.T. on Sept 20th. Then back to Edmonton where
a TWA B-747 will take the party back to Rome.

Here is a photo of the crew for the 1987 charter.

For the Papal 1984 tour, PWA provided backup aircraft for the Air Canada B-727 scheduled to fly the Papal party. Unfortunately, the Air Canada B-727 suffered a mechanical and the PWA aircraft was utilized.

Issue dated October 6th, 1987
Air Canada service to Munich has been exchanged for our service to Portugal.

Quebecair, Nordair and Quebec Aviation become the airline's Canadi>n Partner in Quebec under the name of Inter-Canadi>n.

Issue dated October 15th 1987
A skunk climbed into a cargo pallet Sept 29th, at Val d'Or causing a one hour delay for the flight.

Employees finally lured it out of the pallet with a crew meal.
(Makes one wonder what the crew have been feeding on in the past, however, the skunk seems to have survived - eds)

John Anderton retired CPA'er has donated a number of 35mm slides.

Amongst them is this photo of a Pacific Western Airlines Avro York CF-HIP at YZF during 1956

Vic Rivers sends us this information -

This is an interesting historical link pertaining to CP Air's DC-8-43 aircraft #602 which was flown supersonically by Douglas test pilots in 1961 during flight tests on a performance improvement modification to the wing leading edge.

Check this web site -
http://www.dc-8jet.com/0-dc8-sst-flight.htm

Vic Rivers

We received this interesting article from Backwellmic -
Oldest Boeing Airliner In Flying Condition

This is as it should be - passengers in closed cabin, pilot in open
cockpit so he will stay awake. The airplane is in Spokane , WA , and is the oldest flying Boeing in the World.
After 8 years of repair and rebuilding and 8,000 hours of toil the Boeing 40C rolled out last winter as a finished airplane. They had to wait a few weeks for the snow to melt to fly this baby. They received their Standard Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA and completed the engine pre-oil and fuel flow tests for the first of the taxi tests.

Facts for the Boeing 40 project:
221 gallons of dope/reducer and 120 yards of 102 ceconite fabric. 12 gallons of poly urethane paint for the sheet metal. The wings have 33,000 individual parts in them.

The airplane weighs 4080 lbs empty, has a gross weight of 6075 lbs. It is 34 ft long and 13 feet tall with a wing span of 44 feet. Wing loading is 10 lbs per sq ft and power loading is 10 Pounds per HP.

It should cruise at 115 mph using 28 GPH, and 32 GPH at 120 mph. It carries 120 gallons of fuel in three tanks. 350 2-inch brushes were used to apply 6 gallons of West Systems epoxy, and 181 rolls of paper towels for cleanup. There were a total of 62 volunteers who worked on the project to some degree. 21 of the volunteers did a significant amount of work, and 9 of the volunteers worked continuously during the 8 year project.

We received this response from Marty Vanstone re NetLetter nr 1053 -

Regarding the item about the new CPAir DC-10 livery, I do not recall the term "Motionmark" but I was always amused by the logo on the 737 under which we flew for several years.
I believe it was called the"Multimark" and it was developed at great expense by some advertising firm in New York. Of course, when it was introduced, the airline was still owned by the CPR and that same logo was applied across the entire corporation.

In the hoopla surrounding its introduction, we were informed of three symbologies.

First, the circle was to show the global nature of Canadian Pacific's ventures.

Secondly, the triangle was symbolic of the stability of the company.

There was a third symbology that eludes my memory, but my amusement came from the fact that the circle, indicating global reach was only half there; and the triangle, indicative of stability, was balancing on one corner.

Later in this same edition, under discussion of DC-3s, there is mention of 'CZZ' as a former CP aircraft that went to PWA.
That may be a typo, I don't know, but CZZ (a/c #446) was a DC-6B that saw some service with Wardair and later, I think, with Conair as a water bomber.

Marty Vanstone
(Marty is correct regarding CF-CZZ for the DC-6, perhaps the DC-3 was CF-CRZ eds)

This and That.

In early 1970, a passenger was due to return from Europe to the U.S. via the B-747 of Trans World Airlines departing LHR. The flight was delayed by 4 hours and the 59 passengers were offered alternative flights on a TWA B707, which 58 of the pax accepted.

The lone pax, Joseph Bernard, was in no hurry to return home, so he sat it out and was the only pax when the flight finally departed.

Fourteen stewardesses, one purser, and one in-flight service manager helped make the trip comfortable, as did the lobster, martinis, shrimp, steaks, wine, two movies and a personal announcement from the Captain "Mr. Bernard, please fasten your safety belt".
(Now that's economy class travel - eds)

AeroExpo Europe London 2009
Being held at Wycombe Air Park, Bookery, Marlow, Bucks. Between M4, M40 and M25.
June 12 - 14th 2009
gpb5.00 with discount coupon or gpb15.00
Check www.expo.aero/london/visitor.asp for more details.

Terry's Travel Tips

Aureen and Jack Morath are two hard working retirees of the London, England Pionair district and they had the details of their recent interesting trip in the monthly Pionairs newsletter, which we reproduce here -

Aureen and I recently traveled to the Far East for a most interesting trip.

We flew to Bangkok which we made our base and used Thai Airlines there and back using standby tickets. There were a hundred or so empty seats each way. October/November and March/ April tend to be the best times for standby travel.

You can get a ticket that's endorsed for other airlines and you can then use this ticket for four or five airlines to Bangkok. After a few days in Bangkok we flew on Star Airlines (a low budget airline which is part of Qantas) to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as it is sometimes called. It was just over an hour's flight there and we stayed four nights.

This was booked through TIS (Travel Industry Services) who are based in Twickenham and now part of the Dargal organization, the largest travel industry organisation in the world.

TIS can book flights, hotels, cruises etc. and their phone number is 0208 607 3814.

The five-star hotel we used in Saigon was excellent and the hotel operated a shuttle bus for the twenty-minute drive downtown. Whilst in Saigon we did two organized tours which were very interesting, one half day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels which were used during the Vietnam War and covered over 200 kms and were around 75 kms from the city centre.

The day trip was to MyTho on the side of the Mekong River - a two-hour drive from the city.

We started off with a cruise up along the Mekong River and then a ride on a hand-rowed sampan through the water coconut trees to catch a glimpse of the daily activities of the local people and village life. During the tour we were able to taste coconut milk, seasonal fruit, honey tea as well as a lunch of local delicacies before returning to our hotel near Saigon Airport.
(There is more to come, which will be in the next NetLetter - eds)

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Smiley

Story in "Between Ourselves" dated June 1970 relates an incident regarding a shipmentof eels from the Maritimes to London England. Domtar, designer of the special octagonal container holding 33 pound of eels, forgot to label the boxes "This side up".
Yes, you guessed it!
An enroute stop was at Montreal and the boxes were given a quick check - unfamiliar with the new design, workers opened the boxes upside down and several hundred eels fell squirming onto the hanger floor.

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