A British pilot flying across the U.S. to commemorate the nation’s airmail pioneers crashed her Stearman in the Arizona desert recently, halting the journey until the biplane is repaired. Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who earlier this year flew the 1942 Stearman from the UK to Australia, said in a Facebook post she’s determined to get her aircraft, Spirit of Artemis, flying again and continue the route from Seattle to Boston, perhaps next year. Curtis-Taylor and a passenger walked away from the crash, which occurred after a fuel stop in Winslow, Arizona.

Curtis-Taylor cited high density altitude as a factor in the crash, as Winslow’s elevation is 5,000 feet. In an interview with the CBC, she said she had just flown through the region and over the Grand Canyon, “so this was nothing untoward.” However, the Stearman lost power soon after takeoff and “started to sink,” she said. Turning left to avoid power lines, she landed the biplane on the sand, but rolled over a thick bush that ripped off the right gear and the aircraft cartwheeled. Repairs will take place in Hungary, where the original restoration of the Stearman took place.

• Air Canada is about to equip its long-haul wide-body fleet with Gogo's 2KU satellite-based connectivity system. All narrow-body aircraft already have this connectivity. It promises 2Ku data transfer rates of up to 73Mbps, eventually raising to 100Mbmps.
  
  
• CHORUS (Jazz Aviation) ordered five 76-pax CRJ900s for 1H17 for operation as Air Canada Express. (source SpeedNews apr 29/16)
  
  
• Air Canada has selected Montréal-Trudeau Airport as the site for Canada's 3-year Biojet Supply Chain Initiative (CBSCI) that brings together 14 stakeholder organizations to introduce 400k litres of sustainable aviation biofuel into a shared fuel system.

Air Tarantula

Catherine Moreau was watching a movie on her iPad on a flight to Montreal when she felt what she thought was a wire brushing against her. "I brushed [it] away and it started tickling me again. That's when I noticed the tarantula," Moreau told CBC News.

"I hit it to get it off me before it bit."

Now Moreau is asking Air Transat for a partial refund over her encounter with the spider. The tarantula that climbed her leg was one of two on a Montreal-bound Air Transat flight from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on April 18, 2016 the airline and the union representing its flight attendants have confirmed.

Passengers screamed and stood on their seats after learning they shared the cabin with the eight-legged critters.

Julie Roberts, vice-president of Air Transat's flight attendant union, said flight attendants "did what they could to calm people down." "They gave first aid to the person who said that a spider climbed [her] legs," she said. Flight attendants also asked passengers to put on their shoes and cover their ankles.

Lockheed L-1011 - TriStar

The Lockheed L-1011- 1 /15/150 series was added to the Air Canada wide body fleet in the summer of 1973 to serve routes where less capacity than the B-747 was needed. A total of 12 aircraft in this series flew in Air Canada livery bearing fin numbers 501 to 512 (see NL 1326 for my article on the -500 series).

Powered by three Rolls-Royce RB-211-22B engines they were considered to be high maintenance aircraft and are rumoured to have paid off several mortgages of aircraft technicians. I do seem to recall frequent engine changes on this fleet from my early days in Toronto Stores.

Two of the aircraft (Fins 501 and 503) were leased from Haas Turner Corporation and alternated between Air Canada in the summer and Eastern Airlines in the winter for several years. David Varnes, Secretary Treasurer for IAM Lodge 764 in Richmond B.C., has written a very detailed article that features the history of these two aircraft. Click here to read David’s article beginning on page 3 of the December 2013 issue of the Snag Sheet.

After leaving the Air Canada fleet in the early nineties all of the aircraft were leased to other airlines, usually for charter service. I count seven that flew for Air Transat, two for Royal Airlines (now defunct), two for Gulf Air and one for Cathay Pacific. Click here for my list.

All but two have now been broken up. Fin # 501 (C-FTNA) was leased by Air Transat in June 1988, subleased to Air France in June 1989 and then returned to Air Transat in February 1991 where it remained until July 6, 2001 when it was damaged beyond repair after being hit by a hailstorm on takeoff at LYS. Visit Aviation Safety Network for the complete report on the incident. The aircraft is now preserved at Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. (View at Airliners.net). 

The most interesting fate of an aircraft from this fleet is certainly Fin # 510 (C-FTNJ) (pictured). It was parked by Air Canada at Marana, Arizona in November 1990 and then pulled out of storage by Orbital Sciences Corporation in May 1992. It was then registered as N140SC, renamed “Stargazer” and modified to launch Pegasus rockets (View Wikipedia page).

Karen Skinner referring to "Readers Submitted Photos" in NetLetter nr 1343 sent this comment -

Hi. I noticed in the latest newsletter that Brian said the blue uniforms worn by 2 flight. attendants in the picture were from 1960. These uniforms date after 1968. They followed the green winter uniforms & later they introduced patterned dresses. These blue ones were one of three colors, white, red & blue & they were a fortrell sponge type material that were supposed to be non flammable. I worked from 1968-1993 & was very involved with the uniforms & anything concerning IFS. Thought I'd pass this bit of info along.

Cheers, Karen

(The mention of non-flammable reminds me of the time when a friend of mine working for British Airways in the uniform Department. BA had just placed an order for uniforms in a wool blend. At the time the war in the Falklands was in progress and the UK warship “Sheffield” had been hit by an Exocet rocket. Many injuries were due to the uniforms worn were not non-flammable. Upon learning this news, BA immediately changed the order – eds)

In NetLetter nr 1341, we had a photo of a CP aircraft in distress and we asked for any information from our readers. This is a continuation of the responses we had in NetLetter nr 1343-

Mike Nash came through with this information -
This aircraft had a checkered history prior to overshooting the runway on landing in fog at Vancouver Airport on February 07, 1968: View the aircraft' history at wwwaussieairliners.org

Perhaps the most pertinent bit of information to the question was a further link in the first web reference to a summary report (Click here) of the accident:

This wasn’t the first fatal accident of a CPA 'Empress of Sydney' aircraft; the first being the first major Comet disaster that occurred on take-off in Karachi on March 3 1953: Click here for a report of that incident from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Bob Hanna provided us with this -

The picture you have in Netletter 1341 of the CPAL a/c is the Standard Airways flight that hit the south terminal in Feb 1968. Click here for a link to Henry Tenby's story on the incident. 

Regards Bob

Wayne Brazier sent this memory of the event -

I believe the aircraft in the picture is the one described below. If so, I was returning to YXJ as a Passenger Agent that morning, and offered my services if they could use me. I was immediately tasked with interviewing and offering CP's assistance to the travelers who were brought into one of the YVR lounges.

One of those I assisted was Captain Tom Lamb of Lamb Airways of Flin Flon, MB. Having been born and raised in Flin Flon, I was well familiar with Captain Lamb and his airline, and my father knew him well.

Wayne Brazier.

Lyle Gibson, David Hart and David Townson also responded with details of the incident.

Marty Vanstone sent in his recollection -

Further recall reminds me that the investigation named pilot fatigue as one of the factors. The pilots were based in Seattle, had driven up to Vancouver for the evening departure. During the night, they then flew approx. six hours down and, after a ground stop of unknown length, another six hours back.  By any measure, a very long and fatiguing duty period.  The following links provide more info and pictures. Click here for a YouTube video on the story or Click Here for another report on the story. 

Marty Vanstone

And we have to wrap this up now with a memory from Bill Wood -

Flight was landing at YVR on a foggy morning on the old runway 26 [heading east] . A discussion between the crew members as to whether a landing was feasible occurred – the result was that they missed the runway on the south side. The A/C slid across the field and struck a MOT building [shack] killing the employee inside. It then struck some light aircraft parked nearby some of which were ingested in the engines on the R/H wing and also caused the nose gear to fail.

The Aircraft now slid onto the old South Terminal Ramp with a slightly curved to the right motion. The left wing tip struck a United Airlines A/C [DC8?] parked on the ramp in its normal overnight position. These impacts turned the A/C to the right away from running into the old South Terminal.

There was normally an Air Canada DC 8 Freighter parked on the south side on the Terminal Ramp but it was delayed by weather [fog]. The Aircraft then came to a stop when it ran into a building. The building was concrete block with Steel I-Beams. As the nose gear had collapsed the cockpit went under the steel 'I'  Beam and the top of the fuselage struck the Beam which then stopped the Aircraft. This beam cut the Engine Control cables so that the Engines could not be shut down. They were shut down by an Air Canada employee who gained access to the cables in the cockpit [not too sure of the exact details of this]. There was also a hole made in the left side of the fuselage ahead of the wing when the fuselage went into the building. A flight attendant was seen through this hole and was later found dead. The running engines made it difficult for passengers exiting via over wing Emergency exits and sent them tumbling on the ground.

One of these passengers was Bert Field from Technical Training who was on a pass with his wife to/from HNL. I was volunteered later to go on board to the rear of the aircraft to get the recorders. Every seat in the cabin was soaked with FUEL! Using a large fork lift the aircraft was towed around behind the CP hangers by the River for disassembly. A large number of CP Mechanics were involved in this on their days off.

Regards Bill Wood

Murphy's Law applied in NetLetter # 1343 -

Terry had sent me an image of Fin # 817 that he scanned from the October 1964 issue of Between Ourselves in response to my curiousity concerning the first aircraft to fly in the new Air Canada livery. I used the image in my Wayne's Wings article but did not identify it as the aircraft in the picture as I did for Fin # 807 at the bottlom of the article. Alan does the final edit of each issue and adds an image to the header before sending it out. 

Alan chose to use this image for NL # 1343 but misidentified the aircraft as Fin # 807. The next step in the process is to send out draft copies to Terry and myself to check for obvious errors before sending out the final. We missed it but a few readers caught it ...quickly.

Ken Pickford wrote - 

The DC-8 in the opening photo can't be Fin #807 which was a Rolls-Royce Conway-powered DC-8-43, CF-TJG. The one in the photo is definitely a DC-8-54F combi with Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofan engines. The engine nacelles are very different from the R-R Conways. Can also see the wider spacing between the two windows under the "C"and "N" in "CANADA" which are within the main deck cargo door. It could be Fin #817 (CF-TJQ) which was one of the -54F combis, in case the 807 reference was a typo..

Regards,
Ken

Peter Varty wrote - 

The header photo in NetLetter 1343 is fin 817 not 807. I spotted this right away as the aircraft is a 50 series DC-8 as identified by its P&W engines. The 40 series had RR Conways. AC had 53 & 54 series 8's but the only one whose fin ended in a 7 was 817, a 54. These aircraft had a cargo door, but at various times they were operated as all passenger or all freight or combi configurations. For clarity fins 801-811 were 40 series,fins 812-819 were 54s, and fins 820-822 were 53's. Great work nonetheless... I enjoy every issue.

Peter

Thanks for your help guys, Wayne

We received this request from Brian Wallace –

I was very interested to read about the radio shop and those connected to it in NetLetter #1341. I am indeed a licensed radio ham ( G7 MVN ) and I wonder if you could tell me if the radio shop is still at Dorval and if so please could you tell me more about its workings of the present time.

Brian Wallace. G7 MVN. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Retired Air Canada personnel #93833, London, England.
(Can anyone help here? Eds)

June 8, 1968: James Earl Ray, an American criminal convicted of assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr, was captured while trying to fly out of the United Kingdom using a false Canadian passport. At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on the fake passport, Ramon George Sneyd, was on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police watch list. The United Kingdom quickly extradited Ray back to the United States where he was to have his trial in the US state of Tennessee, where Dr. King was assassinated.

Cartoon by Don Rice found in the “Contact” magazine March 2000.