Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter
Since 1995
Sunday, 12 May 2024
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Dear
Welcome to The NetLetter, established in 1995 as a dedicated newsletter for Air Canada retirees.
We have evolved into the longest running aviation-based newsletter for Air Canada, TCA, CP Air, Canadian Airlines and all other Canadian-based airlines that once graced the skies.
The NetLetter is self-funded and is always free to subscribers. It is operated by a group of volunteers and is not affiliated with any airline or associated organizations.
The NetLetter is published on the second and fourth weekend of each month.
If you are interested in Canadian aviation history, and vintage aviation photos, especially as it relates to Trans-Canada Air Lines, Air Canada, Canadian Airlines International and their constituent airlines, then we're sure you'll enjoy this newsletter.
Please note: We do our best to identify and credit the original source of all content presented. However, should you recognize your material and are not credited; please advise us so that we can correct our oversight.
Our website is located at www.TheNetLetter.net
Please click the links below to visit our archives and for more info about The NetLetter.
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 We have welcomed 43 new subscribers so far in 2024.
We wish to thank everyone for the continuing support of our efforts.
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 Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.
Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.
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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.
We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.
Thanks!
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Submitted by Peter Pihach,
I was employed at Air Canada at that time and my position was Flight Crew Routing and Day of Operation in Vancouver.
Hearing the chatter on the Dispatch Radio Frequency I started to think about a possibility of crew replacement. After the second departure failed I, with my assistant started to find another replacement crew, both Pilots and Flight Attendants.
Aircraft and the desired amount of crew was ferried to Calgary. This was all done in 2 hours from call out to departure.
My wife Audrey as a Flight Attendant was working in First Class and was hearing all the commentary.
Thanks,
Peter Pihach
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Gentlemen, you do a great service to the entire Air Canada and other Canadian airlines/employees.
My name is Robert Fuhrmann and I worked for Air Canada from 1967 until retirement in 1999.
I started in Chicago working on the ramp. I took time off when I was drafted into the US Army in September 1967.
I served in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969, then returning to Chicago and then transferring to Los Angeles in 1969 where I spent the rest of my career; 32 plus years total.
My grandfather, A. C. Gardiner, served as the Chief Auditor for CN Rail for 50 years in YWG and YVR. (CN then the overseer of Trans-Canada Air Lines).
One of my uncles, Bruce Gardiner, also spent 50 years with CN Rail. Another uncle, Harley Reed served in the transportation department for the city of Vancouver for 50 years, leaving as the Director of Transportation.
Adding my 32 years, that totals 182 years in service to Canadian transportation. Don't know if that is a record, but that is a lot of years of service.
Respectfully,
Bobby Fuhrmann
Menifee, California
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Jack Morath sent in this comment on Terry's UK passport item from NetLetter #1529 -
Good afternoon Terry,
I read with interest your item about your Passport, so I got into my family History and a bit of research and came up with the following:
Here attached is a picture (below) of my grandfather's passport issued in September 1926 when he was a Chauffeur driving for a millionaire. He drove a Rolls-Royce for nearly twenty years for him and his family.
The passport was issued during the reign of George V. My passport next to it was issued in 1952 and issued in the reign of George VI.
All the best
Jack
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Maureen Otway contributed the following mementos of her career in aviation -
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BOAC Constellation at Bahrein in 1957. My brothers and I were coming back from Doha, Qatar where my Dad was Chief on the UK Police force there.
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Matsapa, Swaziland - me (left, ground staff) with the captain and hostess, doing an advertisement for Swazi beer.
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| Sydney at the Qantas simulator. I was down there on a sales conference and we all got to sit on the plane. |
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In front of the famous 'Rock Wall' in the ticket office for Qantas in the Hotel Vancouver. When we left the office I had tried to save it but it was demolished for the jewelry store coming in!
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Most of the Qantas Airways staff at YVR to meet the new B-747 plane to arrive on the new route from Sydney. Previously the flight used a B-707 via Tahiti. The new one was via Honolulu and Fiji.
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Air Canada Inaugurates Newest Pacific Route from Vancouver to Singapore.
Air Canada's much anticipated route launched from its Vancouver (YVR) Pacific hub last night (April 3) and arrived this morning in Singapore, marking the inaugural of the airline's newest international route and the only non-stop flight between Canada and Singapore. Stretching 12,818 kilometres (7,965 miles), the route is the airline's longest flight measured by distance with a flying time of up to 16 hours and five minutes.
"Air Canada is thrilled to welcome customers onboard our newest route linking Canada and Singapore from our Pacific hub in Vancouver. These new Singapore flights are part of our strategic expansion at YVR, which together with an efficient and seamless in-transit connection process, further position the airport as the preferred North American gateway to Asia," said Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President, Revenue and Network Planning at Air Canada.
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 Air Canada: Inaugural flight to Singapore on YouTube |
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 for the latest posts at the Air Canada Media Centre. |
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Click the logo to open the Air Canada YouTube channel. |
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From "Regional News' magazine
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Issue dated November 1984
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On a visit to New York Pierre Jeanniot, President & Chief Executive Officer, took time out from a busy schedule to appear in the photo with Bert Chapman, General Manager, South, and his Managers.
Left to right, back row: Jean-Marc Trottier, Manager, Haiti; Mr. Jeanniot; David Burke, District Manager, Barbados.
Front row: Leslie Nanton, Manager, Antigua; Mano Gibbons, Manager, Trinidad; Mr. Chapman; Guy Delahaie, Acting District Manager, Guadeloupe and Martinique; John "Buch" Buchanan, District Manager, Jamaica; David Young, District Manager, Bermuda.
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LGA handles packages.
The company opened a 'Small Package Acceptance Counter' at the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport in New York. A reception, at which light refreshments were provided for current and potential customers, was held to mark the occasion.
Below left to right: Eileen Riska, secretary to Ed Parisi, Regional Cargo Sales & Service Manager, U.S. & South, New York (not in photo); Joe Pareti, Passenger Sales Manager, New York; Dudley Porterfield and Frank Cangialosi, Customer Service Agents, Cargo; Maria Poswinski, Secretary; Henry Fleming, Lead CSA; Bill Walsh, CAS-Cargo; George Hoban, Cargo Sales & Service Manager, JFK; and Janis Blake, secretary to the General Manager Northeast U.S.
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Halloween in New York.
In celebration of Halloween, many strange creatures appeared in the New York reservations office. At the request of our wandering photographer some of them took time out from their duties to pose for this photo taken against a background of cobwebs and ghosts.
Left to right, back row: Adrienne De Winter, Donna Langer, Alex Holub, Suzanne Cummins, Cathy Mackenzie, Maryellen Kein, Maria Vosilla, Bill Rodgers (who won first prize for his costume), and Diana Yngstrom-Bugge.
Front Row (standing): Valu Kauke, and (kneeling) Irmgard Hofmann (who works at the ticket office on Madison Avenue), and Lorraine McNichoIas; all are Customer Service Agents.
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CP Air / Canadi>n People Gallery |
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This is a serialized story about a DC-6 with permission from the 'Propliner' magazine 2017 annual issue.
Due to its length we will run it through to NetLetter #1538.
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Douglas DC-6A, registration N9056R, touches down at Fairbanks on June 30, 2011 at the end of another routine Everts Air Cargo schedule in Alaska.
There comes a time in the career of every commercial aircraft when it is no longer "fit for purpose". No matter how modern and 'state-of-the-art' it may be when first delivered, each year of service renders it slightly more obsolete and increasingly tired, which no amount of maintenance can cure.
As its rivals upgrade to more modern equipment, which advances in technology will have made more efficient, its operator feel the need to replace it. It may be a whimsical example, but British Airways would not have its prestigious place on North Atlantic routes today if it were still operating former BOAC Stratocruisers, no matter how much readers of this publication might wish otherwise! The once-pristine airliner will be relegated to secondary routes, disposed of to a charter company, converted to a freighter or otherwise slip down the rankings. In time it will be scrapped or become a museum exhibit, its flying career over.
The best hope of a prolonged life lies in remote places, where the special attributes of the aircraft make it perfectly suited for the job, which perhaps more modern types cannot match, thus, we have a handful of DC-3's at Villavicencio continuing to supply the jungle settlements of Colombia, and a variety of piston-engine airliners serving the Alaskan outback, summer and winter.
In time, these too will fall by the wayside, but for now they have nothing to equal them. That said, it is rare to find a commercial aircraft still going strong more than 58 years after delivery, and this story features the quite remarkable career of a Douglas DC-6, which is doing just that.
Our subject is Douglas DC-6A/B msn 45498, which was delivered new to Canadian Pacific Airlines as CF-CZZ (see rzjets.net) in July 1958 just as the production line was running down.
Editor's Note by Ken Pickford: The A/B indicates passenger / cargo convertible model, built with main deck cargo doors front and rear. All cargo model is DC-6A, all passenger DC-6B.
In the CP photo (below) in that item can just make out the outline of the forward cargo door around the 2 windows in forward cabin. Similar door in rear fuselage next to the normal passenger door. CP only ever used it as a passenger aircraft as far as I know.
To be continued in NetLetter #1532 (April 27).
For its most recent flight see:
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From Passenger to Cargo: The Transformation of Evergreen's DC-8-63F (N819EV)
Histories of Airliners posted the video below of the history of a DC-8-63 originally delivered to Air Canada as CF-TIV and its conversion and extended career as a freighter.
See Wayne's Wings for more on this aircraft.
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History of a DC-3.
Built as Douglas C-47 Skytrain (registration 43-48029) and delivered to the US Army Air Force on 7 July, 1944, it was diverted as a lend-lease transport to the Royal Air Force as Dakota III (registration KG746).
It was delivered to the RAF via No.45 Group at Dorval, Canada on July 20, retained in Canada with No.118 Wing on December 6, 1944, returning to No.45 Group on June 21, 1945.
The RAF records disclose that this Dakota was returned to the USA on February 28, 1946, while other sources indicate it stayed in Canada, but not with the Royal Canadian Air Force. On 1 May, 1946, as CF-BZN, it was sold to Doris Yellowknife Gold Mines of Toronto, and it went to Canadian Pacific Airlines on May 8, 1946.
Trans Labrador Airlines bought the DC-3 on October 19, 1956, and Les Ailes du Nord (Northern Wings) of Sept-Îles, Québec on February 22, 1963.
It was written off after an incident while flying for Transfair Inc. of Longue-Pointe-De-Mingan, Québec on February 28, 1989.
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CF-TIV Air Canada DC-8-63
I always enjoy the opportunity to write about an aircraft with which I feel a personal connection. At the beginning of my career, in Toronto in the early 1980's, one of my assigned jobs was to pick up incoming aircraft part shipments arriving on 'Rapidair' flights from Dorval.
At that time, the 'Stretch 8's' (DC-8-61/63) were often used for "Rapidair'. One of these aircraft was C-FTIV, Fin #877.
These long, pencil-like, fuselages had only bulk baggage/cargo compartments and it could sometimes take 15 minutes (or more) for a small box with red 'AOG' tape to appear during the unloading process. I also remember flying on Fin #877 several times to visit family in Montreal before it was converted to cargo configuration.
I was very pleasantly surprised to watch the 'Featured Video" included in this issue and learn that Fin #877 actually continued quite a long career after leaving Air Canada in 1988.
It went to Evergreen International, Airborne Express and ABX Air in the United States and then HeavyLift International Airlines in the United Arab Emirates (registration A6-HLC) in 2008.
It seems that its lifecycle ended with Kam Air Cargo of Afghanistan (registration YA-VIC) during the mid 2010's. As mentioned in the video, its actual storage location has not been confirmed.
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CF-TIV at Glasgow - Prestwick - April 1976
Photo courtesy of Bob Woolnough
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N819EV at Shannon Ireland - July 2, 1989
Photo courtesy of Fergal Goodman
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YA-VIC at Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates - November 16, 2011
Photo courtesy of Tamas Vekony
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Terry's Trivia
& Travel Tips |
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 Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.
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Massive Aircraft Designed To Carry Wind Turbine Blades
A Colorado company is planning to build the world’s largest airplane to allow a major advance in green energy.
Radia wants to build a 356-foot-long four-engine jet to carry wind turbine blades. 'The WindRunner' would deliver the 320-foot blades to land-based wind farms.
The aircraft will be designed to land on austere landing strips built in the wind farms and the massive blades, which will weigh 80,000 pounds, will be extracted and installed right from the aircraft.
Each flight will carry two blades. The aerial delivery is necessary because the big blades can’t be moved by truck or train. The turbines using the big blades are said to be much more efficient than the current turbines, which use blades that are 100 feet shorter and can barely be accommodated by the highway and railway systems.
As for the plane, it will be loaded through a tilt-up nose and support all that weight on multiple trucks of gear assemblies. It will pick up the blades at manufacturing hubs and fly them at airliner speeds and altitudes to the wind farms with a range of 1200 miles. In terms of cargo volume, it’s seven times bigger than a C-5. It’s shown with four jet engines but the manufacturer and type are not included in the specs.
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From 'CP Air News' January 1980. Cartoon by Dan Fallwell, passenger agent Terrace, British Columbia.
Caption reads:
"Howdy folks! Nobody but nobody over-discounts John's! Just check out our air-conditioned special for only $9.99 daily."
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Wayne, Ken & Terry
Richmond, British Columbia - December 2019
(Bob Sheppard was not available for the photograph)
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Wayne, Bob & Ken
Richmond, British Columbia - December 2023
(Terry Baker was not available for the photograph)
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We wish to honur the memories of
Vesta Stevenson and Alan Rust.
They remain a part of every edition published.
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E&OE - (errors and omissions excepted):
The historical information as well as any other information provided in the "NetLetter" is subject to correction and may have changed over time.
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