Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

• Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson, Victoria, B.C.
• Co-pilot - Terry Baker, Nanaimo, B.C.
• Flight Engineer - Alan Rust, Surrey, B.C.
• Ground Technician - Bill Rowsell, Londesboro, Ontario

In this section we provide selections from the "Between Ourselves" magazine (an Air Canada publication from years gone by) as well as various articles from "Horizons", a later Air Canada publication.

Should any photos prompt a long forgotten memory, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

 

Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazines.

Issue dated December 1950

Issue dated January 1951

Betty Davidson takes over full editorship of this magazine.
 
In 1944 in a small room off a Winnipeg hangar, the seeds of what became known as the Printing Bureau, in the following 6 years the bureau has grown with the company. The bureau moved to the Gazette Building in Montreal during the 50's. The bureau turned out regulations, manuals, maintenance manuals and company forms. Head of the printing bureau was Morris W. Rothwell, seen here behind the desk. Fortuitously, the entire staff was in his office then this photo was taken.

Gleanings from the "Horizons" magazine

Issue dated May 1993
Air Canada B747 and a 30 member team of pilots, in-flight personnel and maintenance supervisors left Toronto during mid April on a contract with Garuda Indonesia Airlines to provide 44 round trips transporting some 10,000 on their religious pilgrimage.

National Geographic Channel
I don't watch television a lot during the daytime but usually watch the 6:00 PM news and have the TV on while I'm working on web sites until the wee hours of the morning.

Last Christmas I finally broke down and upgraded to a satellite dish from Bell (more on this below) and a new HD TV. I also subscribed to the National Geographic Channel and have enjoyed watching various programs on it. I'm sure many of you also experienced the excellent programming on that channel.

Tonight I watched a great program called Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections about Hong Kong International Airport. It houses the fifth largest international passenger airport in the world - yet before it was built in the late 1990s, its site was no more than a featureless expanse of water.

Richard heads east to learn how the airport was built from scratch on a specially constructed island and reveals how this famous landmark connects with a World War II bomber, cold war spying devices, an 800 year old water pump, a vintage racing car and, oddest of all, a brass band...

Unfortunately, all I have is a preview to the show, but if you have access to the National Geographic Channel and you're interested in engineering I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

  

Hong Kong Airport

"To get service in English press 2 for French"
I've had excellent service from Bell for the installation and no problems with my Satellite Dish but in regard to billing, "not so much".

I had a very complex problem with three separate items on my invoice and although I know they are doing their best, their was a language barrier when attempting to explain my problems previously as I couldn't understand their accent.

My brother talked to a Bell technician at his house one day and told him about the same problem. The technician said that if you want an English agent, "that's simple, just call in and when prompted press 2 for French".

Seems that when you ask for French you stay within Canada with fully bilingual agents that speak both languages fluently.

I tried it, it worked! When the automated system answered my call their system asked if I wanted service in English (press 1) or service in French (press 2). I pressed 2 (if you don't understand French, press "0" a few times and you will get an operator) and spoke to a nice lady in Montreal. I know there are also many call centres in New Brunswick. She was quite amused when I told her why I called the French line and she fixed all my issues.

Alan

 

News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and its "ancestry" of contributing airlines.
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.


Perusing the "Info Canadi>n" magazine

Issue dated August 1996

Remember when?

July 13th 1949- Inaugural flight arrives in Nadi from Vancouver.

July 1957 - First tenders for aerial ferry work to the DEW
(Distant Early Warning). The Cambridge Bay airlift in the west was awarded exclusively to Pacific Western Airlines . Wheeler Airlines (later Nordair) and Forval Airlines were awarded the Frobisher Bay and Foxe Basin
.
July 14th, 1986 - Pacific Western Airlines , Time Air and Calm Air announced a joint co-ordination agreement to establish the Pacific Western Spirit program to serve communities in the west.

August 1946- Maritime Central Airways, a predecessor of Eastern Provincial Airways, put its first DC-3 into service on August 27th. CF-BZH was acquired from the US Armed Forces and went into service in its military configuration with side seating benches.

August 1st & 2nd 1978 - Wardair utilized a Dash-7 to fly the Queen, Prince Phillip and Prince Andrew when the Queen came to open the 11th Commonwealth Games at Edmonton.

August 1st- Wardair acquired its first Airbus A300 from South African Airways and registered it as C-GIZL. The first flight was YYZ to YVR on August 21st.
 
Issue dated May 1995
Comprehensive code-share agreement signed with
American Airlines effective April 3rd.
 
Issue dated May 1993
Canadian Holidays introduced pay bar policy on its flight beginning June 1st. Cost ca$3.00 for liquor and ca$2.00 for beer. Non-alcoholic drinks free.
 
Air Cargo launched a "Fly-by-night" service June 14th.two B737 are permanently dedicated to all-cargo service.

Extracts from the "Canadia>n Flyer" magazine

Issue dated April 1997

We are happy to receive feedback and comments from our readers. If you would like to comment on anything you have read in the NetLetter, please don't hesitate to send it to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will post it here if applicable.

Betty Morgan sends us this query together with a copy of a "Between Ourselves" page with a photo of some of our V.P.'s  -

"Just wondering where all the rest of these VP's are now?"

This is a 1970ish copy of Between Ourselves or Horizons.

Jack's 90's birthday is July 15th.

Just curious.
Betty Morgan

Trev Trower has sent us this memory prompted by an article in NetLetter nr 1114-

Another case of memory recall when I read the article on Air Cargo. Many years ago, just at the last moments before departure, as the purser on the flight, i would sometimes receive a small ( one gallon size) cooler, which i would put in the f/c frig and hand off to an agent at the next or subsequent airport. in the container would be human eyes or other body parts needed urgently for transplantation.

There was another type of shipment which i was to carry in the cabin, called Value Shipments. one shipment being one thousand watch working movements addressed to Bulova in YUL, this package was given to me in LHR.

In those days we were always proud to take on any responsibility to help the airline prosper.

Trev Trower In-Flight Service YYZ
Georgetown, ON

Nationair, privately owned company, went into bankruptcy protection March 22nd 1993. Saudi Arabian Airlines, which had chartered 3 B747's and crew  to fly Muslims to Mecca, has canceled the arrangement.
 

British Airways B777 crash at LHR
The basic details are strikingly similar but the outcomes for the captains of two airliners that crash landed without loss of life couldn't be more different.

On one hand, there's Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, sometimes called the Hero of the Hudson, who ditched his A320 in the Hudson River in Jan. of 2009. Sullenberger was able to retire early from an industry of which he was sometimes openly critical.

Then there's Capt. Peter Burkill, the senior officer aboard British Airways Flight 38, which suffered an uncommanded dual engine rollback on short final and crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport in 2008. Burkill recently broke his silence on the crash and has written a book on the topic. He says he resigned from BA due to persistent malicious rumors about his actions during the crash. He's now on welfare.

We received this information from Harry Sulley, who is not a travel agent but he's a retired AC employee who organizes two or three trips per year and has been referred to us by John Shea (Ret. AC-Yow).  - My name is Harry Sulley and I am a retiree of Air Canada- Ottawa. I would appreciate if you would again kindly inform all of our retirees and active employees, our upcoming Interline Tours to beautiful Tuscany, Italy, scheduled for June and September 2010.   

We have chosen a lovely resort, which I have personally inspected and can highly recommend, 'PARK HOTEL Colle Degli Angeli SPA & Resort' www.anghelhotel.it in Monte Amiata, near Arcedossa, which is in close proximity to the famous Montalcino, Pienza, Cortona, Montepulciano and Siena. This will surely suit every employee and retiree's needs for a lovely week in Tuscany at a very reasonable cost.
 
Future tours- 2010:
Tuscany June and September: come join us on one of our tours to beautiful Tuscany, either June 6-13th. or September 04-11th. we have an awesome resort, park hotel 'colle degli angeli' spa & resort up in Monte Amiata waiting to spoil you. cost for each week is an amazing low $699.00 usd pp/dbl. for more info visit our webpage www.airlinestravelclub.com or phone 613 521 3091.
 
'RB IV' memorial golf tournament, July 10-13:  this is always a great event... you've heard about the newfie hospitality now come see for yourself!! being held at the Terra Nova golf resort . Special prices for non-golfers.
 
Christmas shopping in China: We are returning to Beijing or Shanghai again in October so you can shop 'till you drop. bring along an 'empty' bag- you'll need it! Pick up gifts at Tiffanys, the pearl market, silk factory and all those children's clothing markets, not to mention the deals on golf and ski equipment- of course we'll take you to visit Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and-, the Great Wall of China- we may even take a cruise down the Yangtze river!!
   
"Fly, while you still have wings"

H.F. (Harry) Sulley
www.airlinestravelclub.com
613-521-3091

As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.