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

Issue dated - December 1952
Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine.

The pre-inaugural flight for Dusseldorf left Montreal on October 27th to arrive on time at Dusseldorf under the command of Capt. R.M. Smith, Capt. A.S. Anders, in CF-TFQ fin 217. The pre-inaugural from Dusseldorf was with a party of the press corps. Overnight in London was spent at the Skindles Hotel in Maidenhead, outside London. Third oldest hotel in England, it used to be the second night stop on the stagecoach route to Bath a city in the west. After a visit to Prestwick, flight dropped in to Keflavik, that evening to flight continued over Greenland and a refueling at Seven Islands. 

A TCA  flight captained by R. G. Nixon was successful in locating a missing fishing boat in Maritime waters. Flight 403 of January 8 had been advised at Sydney of the missing craft, the Sara Morton, and had been requested to keep an eye out over the water.

Flight 403 was running about 15 minutes early and descended below cloud level, to notice a small light to the east over the water, passing over the boat, red distress signals were apparent. A fix taken showed the boat to be about 20 miles northeast of Glace Bay and just east of the Northeast leg of the Sydney range. This information was radioed to Sydney, where in turn it was forwarded to Air Sea Rescue, who had been searching for the boat. It was the RCMP cutter McBride that reached the stranded Sara first and towed her to port. The successful TCA effort was widely publicized in press and radio.

Issue dated - August 1996
Gleanings from the "Horizons" magazine.

United Airlines celebrates 80 years of the Flight Attendant profession. Eighty years ago on May 15, 1930, United's first stewardesses led by registered nurse Ellen Church took their initial flight on a Boeing 80A from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago, making a 20-hour journey with 13 stops, 14 passengers and cruising at 125 mph.

To commemorate this anniversary, United is honoring that historic flight on May 15. This year, a Boeing 767 will make a 4-hour nonstop journey with nearly 240 customers and cruising at approximately 530 mph. On this honorary flight, United flight attendants will be invited to wear vintage uniforms that represent different eras of flight and provide a time-line of glamour and style leading up to 2011, when all United customer-facing employees will dress in new uniforms created by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. (Source: Air Transport News/United)
 
Air India has delayed its plans to join Star Alliance, previously anticipated in the June-October period. "We are targeting internally to be a member in December, officially maybe in the first quarter of 2011," Chairman and MD Arvind Jadhav said.

Pionairs new web site announced
Air Canada Pionairs (who I'm sure most of you are familiar with) has just announced the long awaited upgrade of their web site at www.pionairs.ca The web site has had a complete makeover using "Joomla" as the CMS underlying the web site and is database driven.

With the upgrade comes the ability to allow all members to now have their own personal login.

Although the site is currently open to everyone, including non-members, after June 1, 2010 you will be required to log in to the site to access the ever increasing amount of information made available for Air Canada/CAIL retirees in respect to Air Canada travel, pensions, & coffee meetings, etc.


If you a presently an Air Canada Pionair member, visit www.pionairs.ca and click on the big Web Registration button to register for web site access.

---

If for some strange reason you are a retired Air Canada or CAIL employee and are not yet a Pionair, you can join them at: www.pionairs.ca/en/join-us.html

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

Issue dated - April 1998
Extracts from the "Canadi>n Flyer" magazine

Jack Stephens has sent us this email together with an email he received from Jim Bruce -

Gentlemen.....from Jim Bruce, who is one of our Site artists (At The Blast Fence).  Jim is a renowned Canadian wildlife and aviation artist, and has provided us with some great photos over the years. Take note of the rates of pay, relating to the Viscount, Vanguard and DC8 service, on the last page. Have a look at the rest of Jim's aviation art at: www.jim-bruce.com you will not be disappointed. Jim worked at the Winnipeg Overhaul Base, during the time of the Viscounts.
Cheers! Jack Stephens Canadian researcher, www.vickersviscount.net
Here is Jim's email which accompanied the photos.

Clearing out some old files and found this which may raise a touch of nostalgia. And a feeling of...what were they thinking?

New UK government rejects third Heathrow runway

The UK's new coalition government indicated it will cancel plans for a third runway at London Heathrow and refuse additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted, stating that it is committed to implement a full program of measures to fulfill our joint ambitions for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.

After reading the information in Odds & Ends in NetLetter nr 1118, Kenneth Mitchell would like to add the following comments :
 
A brief history covering the actions of the 436 R.C.A.F. Dakota Transport Squadron one of the Canadian Squadrons that served in the South East Asia Command (India and Burma ) during World War Two years 1944 and 1945 flying Dakota (DC-3 ) aircraft of which I was a member. The Squadron arrived in India / Burma in 1944 for crew training etc. and in actual operations starting January 1945 through to July 31 1945.

A brief operational record is as fallows :

   Month                  Total flying hours            No of Sorties          Tonnage
January                       2366.15                           825                     2464.0
February                     4319.45                           1550                   3851.0
March                         3946.25                           1143                   3941.0     
April                            3789.05                           1157                   3738.3
May                            4416.55                           1217                   3888.8
June                            4767.30                           1366                   3953.7
July                             4834.45                           1301                   3734.0

Total weight carried January-July 31  25,554.4  Tons
Total Mileage flown same period 3,970,000  Miles or equal to 1,600 times around the world.

Submitted by Kenneth Mitchell - Pointe Claire, Quebec

As of May 1, 2010, all Canadian citizens over age 2 are required to present a valid Canadian passport to travel to Bermuda.
 
As of May 1st, 2010, the Cuban government requires that all visitors to Cuba, including Cuban nationals living abroad and persons residing temporarily in Cuba, obtain traveler's medical insurance as a condition for entry into Cuba.
 

Del Horn sends us this warning and advice -
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU TRAVEL.... And remind your elderly parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and anyone you know who travels. But especially the older generation, as they are more likely to fall for something like this.

It seems that the schemes to cheat people never stops and it won't!  But keeping people informed is a key to helping prevent this from happening to your friends and relatives so please forward to all of yours. Can't be too careful these days!

This so simple, and reading this, anyone could be caught.

You arrive at your hotel and check in at the front desk. When checking in, you give the front desk your credit card, the charges for your room. You get to your room and settle in. Someone calls the front desk and asked for (example) Room 620, which happens to be your room. Your phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says the following, 'This is the front desk. When checking in, we came across a problem with your charge card information. Please re-read me your credit card number and verify the last 3 digits numbers at the reverse side of your charge card.

Not thinking anything you might give this person your information, since the call seems to come from the front desk. But actually, it is a scam of someone calling from outside the hotel/front desk. They ask for a random room number. Then, ask you for credit card information and address information. Sounding so professional that you do think you are talking to the front desk.

If you ever encounter this problem on your vacation, tell the caller that you will be down at the front desk to clear up any problems. Then, go to the front desk and ask if there was a problem. If there was none, inform the manager of the hotel that someone called to scam you of your credit card information acting like a front desk employee.

"Life As A Con" is the heading for a series of articles. Here is the one from the "Horizons" magazine issue August 1996  by Annette Malvar -

My adventure at Frankfurt's airport would qualify me to compete in Atlanta's Olympic pentathlon. Between marathon and sprint running, high jumping over fellow travellers, dashing over endless hurdles, and weight lifting luggage, I should have made the Canadian Olympic team. All this because FRA has a Hall A, B, & C in Terminal I and a Terminal 2.

My troubles began after my friend and I arrived from Air Canada's flight in Frankfurt's Hall B. Then we went to stand-by for a flight to Athens with Lufthansa in Hall A. Such as our luck, we didn't get on, again. Then, we remembered that there was a flight ten minutes later with Olympic Airways, but didn't know from where it departed. We sprinted to the TV screens to check out that information and of course, Olympic Airlines was located back in Hall B. So. we then ran from Hall A down a corridor which seemed as long as a runway, only to stand in line behind hundreds of other people and go through security in Hall B.

The next event began with dragging our suitcases-on-wheels they hit our heels, carrying our heavy coats, and wearing "con clothes" while dodging and jumping over at times the young families and senior citizens in our path.

We arrived at Olympic's gates panting and totally stressed when we realized that we didn't have ID9O's for their flight. We sure were relieved when the Olympic staff calmly accepted our LH ID9O's and assigned us our seats on their flight. We pulled the Olympic in-flight magazines out of their pockets and frantically fanned ourselves. And to think, some people actually believe those magazines are for reading!