We have welcomed 38 new subscribers so far in 2022.

We wish to thank everyone for your support of our efforts.

Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.

We invite you to visit our website at www.thenetletter.net/netletters to view our archives.

Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.

We always welcome feedback about Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) from our subscribers who wish to share current events, memories and photographs.

Particularly if you have stories to share from one of the legacy airlines: Trans-Canada Air Lines, Canadian Airlines, CP Air, Pacific Western, Maritime Central Airways, Eastern Provincial, Wardair, Nordair, Transair, Air BC, Time Air, Quebecair, Calm Air, NWT Air, Air Alliance, Air Nova, Air Ontario, Air Georgian and all other Canadian based airlines that once graced the Canadian skies.

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We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.

Thanks!

Farnborough International Airshow returns July 2022

The Farnborough International Airshow will resume its position as the pinnacle aerospace and aviation event in the industry as it returns July 18 to 22, 2022.

Additional Hockey photos from John Rodger  -

Chuck Taylor sent me these a couple of days ago. He played on the YYZ teams but he didn't mention the name of the team. These photos are from 1963. That was the year I had my knee operation so I am not in uniform. I am in street clothes on the left in the photo below.

Editors' Note: We found John's submitted photos along with the trophy presentation image (below) in 'Between Ourselves' issue No. 256 from April 1966. 

Toronto's International Terminal - New Concept in Service Efficiency

No longer does Toronto International Airport mean a crowded clapboard terminal and long walks through draughty sheet metal corridors. Instead, there are tunnels under the aircraft ramp, a circular 'Aeroquay', a sunken plaza, a three-legged control tower, reflecting pools, treed interior courts and $150,000 worth of fine art from Eskimo route markers to a Riopelle mural.

But underneath the glamour there is efficiency and functionalism according to a master plan. Everything not directly connected with travellers has been taken out of the terminal and moved into specialized buildings. 

The terminal is reached via a tunnel under the aircraft ramp and aeroquay. Emerging from the tunnel, motorists have a choice of ramps leading to the departures lobby, the arrivals lobby, short-term parking or the parking garage. 

Open observation decks (left) for visitors or passengers are located between the departure rooms on the second floor of the aeroquay. Facilities and equipment for the servicing company aircraft are located under the observation decks (left) in the aeroquay.

How Jenny Tung brings an expert’s touch to Air Canada. 

Airliner lavatories clog up more often than you think. Just ask Jenny Tung, an aircraft maintenance engineer with Air Canada, based in Vancouver. She is intimately familiar with the toilets in the air and it is her responsibility to ensure they keep on flushing.

Jet lavatories – along with headphone jacks, seat-back adjustment buttons and entertainment system screens – are among the most touched, and most frequently used items aboard any commercial aircraft, she says.

Jenny Tung’s job requires that she travel with the Air Canada jets she maintains. Tung is qualified to fix everything from loose wires and clogged toilets to leaky engines.

She is a plumber, mechanic, carpenter, technician, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) engineer, electrician and cleaner, all rolled into one. Call her an aircraft whisperer.

“I don’t feel like I go to work every day,” says Tung. “I feel like I’m going out to play with the airplanes.”

Source: FlightGlobal.com

Zara Rutherford becomes youngest woman to fly the world solo.

Teenage aviator Zara Rutherford has become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo.

The 19-year-old, who has dual British-Belgian nationality, landed at Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium on Thursday January 20, 2022 , completing an epic 41-country journey spanning over 52,000 kilometers (32,300 miles), and broke two Guinness World Records in the process.

She is also the first Belgian to fly around the world alone. However, the teenager's route to glory hasn't been without its challenges.

When Rutherford departed on August 18, 2021 in a bespoke Shark ultralight aircraft, she believed her aerial escapade would take about three months.

Refer to our article in NetLetter #1469 under 'Women in Aviation' which tells of the preparations for this challenge. Mission completed, but she was plagued by setbacks, including month-long delays in both Alaska and Russia due to "visa and weather issues," pushing her schedule back eight weeks.

Source: CNN Travel

Montreal, February 8, 2022  - Air Canada has today unveiled an aircraft with a themed livery and other surprises for its customers in celebration of the highly anticipated release of Disney and Pixar's Turning Red, an animated film that is set in Toronto and directed by Academy Award™ winner and Canadian Domee Shi.

Air Canada will be promoting the film Turning Red through a themed livery that will fly across the country on a Canadian built Airbus A220. 

Star Alliance Named World's Leading Airline Alliance.

Ten Member Airlines Claim a Total of 25 World Travel Awards. Air Canada was included in the award as North America's Leading Airline Brand.

Star Alliance has been named the World’s Leading Airline Alliance in this year’s World Travel Awards. The annual awards cover multiple categories and are awarded based on a worldwide poll of qualified executives working within travel and tourism, and the consumer travel buyer.

The awards serve to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.  

Source: StarAlliance.com

The Air Canada Story

DVD available for purchase.

For a six month period, the 'Wings Over Canada' crew was given unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Air Canada. The result would be a first-ever one-hour TV documentary on the history and future of Canada’s oldest and largest airline.

$18.95 CAD for 1 DVD at $18.95, $14.99 for employees of Air Canada (AC) plus shipping & handling (plus applicable taxes). 

Source: wingsovercanada.ca/store_special

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Issue dated December 1999

Last flight.

On July 10, 1999 Captain Stirling Lush flew his last overseas flight, AC876, to Frankfurt. For the celebration, the crew decorated the galley.

Back row, left to right: In-Charge Flight Attendant Paul Escott; Flight Attendants Monica Chang, Simona Staronova, Lisa Lacroix, Sophie Palanbo, Diana Christie, Christiane Fehr, Hilary Bell, Genny Fraser, Jennifer Ferguson and Ahmad Elkadir.

Front row, left to right: First Officer Rob McCrimmon and Captain Stirling Lush.

Finance's Interline Accounting in Winnipeg celebrated Halloween on October 29, 1999 with costumes and a smorgasbord.

Back row, left to right: Finance Agents Kathy Kristjansson, Chris Balzer, Cam Marshall, Marla Rochette and Garry Guttek; Manager, Refund Services, Theresa Dudar; Finance Agents Marilyn Robin, Victor Nhan, Karen Dugan and Lorraine Strelezik.

Front row, left to right: Finance Agents Cheryl Santilli, Joanne Feldvari, Marina Paterson, Kim Jolicoeur and Terri Van Nest.

Also, in celebration of Halloween on the same day, much fun was had by all at the Toronto Call Centre.

The best costume winner was Pauline Hodge.

Back row, left to right: Customer Sales & Service Agents Pauline Hodge, Lynne Kirton, Chloe Moreira and Alan Harris.

Middle row, left to right: Customer Sales & Service Agents Jennifer Castellino and Lesley Huether; Call Center Coach Counsellor Mary Manni; Customer Sales & Service Agents Audrey Dedombal, Michele Dedombal, Sheila Kavanaugh, Mark Kossecki and Sean Kinsella.

Front row, left to right: Call Center Coach Counsellors Charlene Shaw, Colleen Sauson and Guylaine Luchman; Customer Sales & Service Agents Diane Knoefel and Carla Cameron. 

Issue dated September 2000

Commissary employees and retirees get together.

On June 24, 2000 active and retired employees, some travelling from Victoria, Kelowna, and Toronto gathered for a BBQ and lawn party at the Benson cabin in Libau, Manitoba to reminisce.

They renewed old acquaintances and shared memories of their time together. A donation on behalf of the group was made to 'Dreams Take Flight'.

Back row, left to right: K. Batt, J. Hreckosy, D. Hamm, B. Pawlyk, K. Watson, B. Alexander and M. Benson.

Middle row, left to right: M. Jarvis, P. Tilbrook, R. Picken, B. Waugh, T. Rutherford, M. MacDonald, B. Ewanika and D. Hannaford.

Front row, left to right: D. Shute, C. McCarthy, W. Steiner, M. Livingstone, C. Homeniuk and D. Mikalajek.

Welkom to Amsterdam.

Flight AC838 links Canada and the Netherlands.

On July 3, 2000 Air Canada launched daily non stop Boeing 767-200 service between Toronto and Amsterdam, Europe's fourth largest travel market. To mark the occasion, renowned diamond cutters from Amsterdam and New York were on hand to certify that 'seeing is believing'.

Before boarding the flight, customers were offered a glass of champagne. Each glass contained a stone, in fact each contained either a cubic zirconia or a diamond. Our experts certified that two stones were diamonds and the rest were cubic zirconia. Two lucky customers boarded our flight with the real thing; authentic quarter carat diamonds, certified by our experts. 

Pictured, left to right: Captain Bob Adamson; Jan Zandboer, President, Netherlands Board of Tourism; Carrie McPhadden, In-Charge Flight Attendant; Guy Lesser of Gassan Diamonds; Steve Markey, Vice President, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs and Captain James Guild.

Here we have a pictorial of historic Wardair fleet.

Source: Air Canada 75th anniversary book.

Bristol Freighter CF-TFX Wardair.

In 1957, Max Ward bought this sturdy Bristol Freighter for his airline based in Yellowknife, to attract freight business from mining and oil companies.

The aircraft later made history, on May 6, 1967, by being the first wheeled aircraft to land at the North Pole flying out of Alert, Nunavut (then Northwest Territories) in support of a scientific expedition.

The following year, it was donated to the city and made into a monument near the eastern end of the airport, honoring Canadian bush pilots.

Source: AirHistory.net

Pictured below: Edmonton airport scene c.1960 showing Wardair’s Bristol Freighter CF-TFX loading a Bell 47.

Happily, “TFX” eventually was saved for posterity. Today, it flies on forever atop its pylon at Yellowknife. 

Source: Larry Milberry blog at www.canavbooks.wordpress.com

From 'InfoCanadi>n' magazine.

Issue dated August 20, 1987

Canadi>n Partners say hello!

All of the employees of Ontario Express Ltd., our Canadi>n Partner airline in Ontario, were on hand for this photo which recently appeared in a Toronto newspaper.

Part of the company's Jetstream 31 fleet is positioned in the background. The company began operations on July 15, 1987.

Issue dated June 16, 1988

New jet-prop on Ontario routes

Canadi>n Partner began ATR-42 operations to Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie, Pittsburgh and Toronto on June 8, 1988.

Expansion due to the $155 million order for eight 48-seat ATRs, built by the partnership of Aeritalia and Aerospatiale, has boosted Canadi>n Partner's employee list to 189 people.

Sault Ste. Marie service will complement Canadi>n's jet operations to Toronto. For Windsor and Pittsburgh, introduction of the ATR-42 will provide additional seating on prime business flights.

Our 'Featured Videos' are of a group of flights of a variety of aircraft landing at Antarctica on a  'Blue ice runway'.

The first video is posted by Hi Fly Airline of their A340, registration 9H-SOL, in 'C24 / Preighter' configuration landing on a flight from Cape Town on November 2, 2021. 

A 'Preighter', also known as cargo in cabin, is an aircraft originally intended to carry passengers but which is operated temporarily as a cargo aircraft by loading freight in the passenger cabin. This flight was carrying supplies for a seasonal 'adventure tourism' operation. 

Our second video, posted by Extreme Aviation Iceland, is of an Icelandair Boeing 767-300ER landing and departing at 'Troll' ice runway in Antarctica in January 2022.

Our third video is a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Czech Republic-based Smartwings (now the largest Czech airline) landing and taking off January 26, 2022, also at the 'Troll' ice runway, serving the Norwegian research base. 

Found on the Air North Twitter page, November 25, 2021.

One of the most famous planes in British Columbia history, a Martin Mars water bomber used to carry and drop vast amounts of water on wildfires, is for sale for $5 million.

"The opportunity to purchase and preserve a unique part of aviation history is now available for the discerning buyer, or donor," says the listing from the California-based seller, Platinum Fighter Sales.

The signature red and white plane, beloved by many throughout the province, was brought into service in the late 1950's as a powerful solution to the province's wildfires.

The massive air tanker was built as a transport plane for the U.S. Navy in 1946, and is one of the largest fixed-wing water bombers in the world, with a capacity to carry more than 27,000 litres of water.

Historians say the U.S. Navy produced six of the planes as prototypes for large scale transport between the West Coast and Hawaii. But when aviation technology progressed, the planes were retired and put up for auction.

B.C.'s forestry industry came together to purchase and convert four of the planes into firefighting machines.

The one for sale, the Hawaii Mars II, is the only airworthy example of the plane left in the world. It last flew in 2016 and is currently in Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, B.C.

Coulson Aviation has another Martin Mars water bomber, the Philippine Mars, which is not airworthy and will most likely end up in a museum.

Source: CBC News

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract to Boom Supersonic aimed at accelerating research and development for the company’s Overture supersonic airliner model.

According to Boom, its Overture supersonic airliner is designed to seat between 65 and 88 passengers, travel at Mach 1.7 and have a range of 4,250 NM. Boom is targeting 2025 for its rollout of the Overture with entry-into-service planned “by the end of the decade.”

Source: AVweb.com 

First flights, for young and old.

The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association offers a fun opportunity for young children who may never get the chance to participate in general aviation, to “pilot” an aircraft. It is called COPA for Kids.

It happens across Canada completely free for participants and is volunteer run by local COPA flights, similar to EAA’s Young Eagles. I have participated in two events so far in my flying hobby and will continue to in the future.

Living in Nova Scotia, the Summerside PEI COPA Flight 125 is the nearest COPA flight to me that offers this event. I volunteered my time in 2018 and again in 2021, and it is always a very rewarding day for me. To see the joy a short flight in an aircraft brings to a young person is uplifting to say the least. Safety is paramount and the kids and their families are allowed as close as safely possible to the operations on the ramp. They plan all year for it and it definitely shows.

The event is organized so that each child gets to fly right seat and, if comfortable, to take the controls to be a pilot. The children in groups are given a full airport safety briefing in a large auditorium in the airport to start, then get to view the aircraft from a safe distance. They are then assigned a ground person who escorts them to the aircraft and helps to strap them in and the fun begins.

After I brief my passenger on my safety features and put a headset on them, we taxi out for run-up. Most of them have never been in a plane before, let alone behind the controls of one. Off we would go for a brief 10-15 minute circuit over the local area around Prince Edward Island, with them having the opportunity to fly.

Source: airfactsjournal.com from an article by Bruce Spears.

Canadian North ATR 42 Fleet

With the integration of First Air and Canadian North on November 1, 2019, the fleet of 13 ATR 42's were among the aircraft rebranded as Canadian North equipment while keeping the First Air livery.

The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On November 3, 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and Aeritalia (now Leonardo S.p.A.).

The first of this model delivered to a Canadian airline was registration C-GHCP, delivered to Ontario Express in February 1989. It is the only aircraft of the original 6 delivered to Ontario Express acquired by Canadian North in the merger. It remains in service today in passenger / cargo configuration. This flexible combi model has the ability to carry all passenger, all freight or any combination in between.

Another two of the aircraft still in service, in passenger / cargo configuration (C-FIQR & C-FIQU), were originally delivered to Inter-Canadien of Dorval, Quebec. 

Click the image below to view a YouTube trip report of a flight from Inuvik (YEV) to Yellowknife (YZF), posted by QFS Aviation.

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Source: enroute.aircanada.com/en/magazine/

Rolls-Royce’s 'Spirit of Innovation' has officially become the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft with the recent confirmation of two speed records.

Now verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the aircraft was recorded at 555.9 km/h (345.4 MPH) over 3 kilometers (1.86 miles), 213.04 km/h (132 MPH) faster than the previous record-holder.

It also completed a 15 kilometer (9.32 mile) run at an average speed of 532.1km/h (330 MPH), breaking the prior record by 292.8km/h (182 MPH). 

Source: AVweb.com 

'Canada Flies' published in MacLean's, June 1, 1939

Excerpt from an article by Jack Paterson.

Westbound to Vancouver, via Lethbridge, our crew out of Winnipeg were Captain Jock Barclay, First Officer Ted Allan and Stewardess Margaret Beeber. We landed three hours later, at Sea Island, Vancouver.

Moored near by was the float-equipped Canadian Airways twin-engine Rapide, waiting to hoist mail and passengers across island-studded straits to Victoria on T.C.A. contract. Trans-Canada Air Lines own trip was ready for its noon hoist through to Seattle, a service pioneered by Canadian Airways and acquired by T.C.A. in September, 1937.

The return flight left after the passengers from Seattle and mail from Victoria had been stowed, was under the command of Captain Bruce Middleton (who later transferred to Imperial Airways service).

Our First Officer was 'Scotty' Moir and the Stewardess was Florence Shanahan. Our flight to Lethbridge was two hours and thirty-five minutes.

The continuing eastbound flight from Winnipeg to Toronto was crewed by Captain Kelly Edmison, First Officer Jim Follett and Stewardess Sheila Neil. Flight plan at 5,000 feet to Kapuskasing overflew Kenora, Sioux Lookout, Wagaming, Nakina and Pagwa.

Vancouver-Toronto on daily schedule in fourteen hours, Vancouver-Montreal in fifteen hours, including stops en route; mail and express hoisted days ahead. Sky magic, to be sure! A friend leaving Vancouver by train Sunday evening within minutes of your take-off time would reach Toronto Thursday morning, as compared with your Monday noon arrival. You could spend a business day in the East, fly back to the Pacific Coast, have an afternoon for business there and be back in Toronto or Montreal still eighteen hours before his Thursday morning arrival. Your office mail and express receives the same fast carriage.

EXPENSIVE, you say? Cost of flying Trans-Canada Air Lines is six cents a mile, ten per cent reduction when you purchase a return fare. Vancouver-Toronto by air, all first-class, costs $130.90.

Source: Maclean's Magazine Archives

Another cartoon by Dave Mathias which appeared in the 'Between Ourselves' magazine issue
February 1969.

The caption reads "Go ahead Ed, but I warn you, customer service isn't a strong point in this airline."