 The NetLetter
For Air Canada Retirees
May 29, 2010 - Issue 1122
5586 Subscribers
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First published in October, 1995
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Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson, Victoria, B.C.
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Co-pilot - Terry Baker, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Flight Engineer - Alan Rust, Surrey, B.C.
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Ground Technician - Bill Rowsell, Londesboro, Ontario
To contact us, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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| About us |
Terry, Vesta & Alan Pionair's AGM 2007
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The NetLetter Web Site
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| Sponsors |
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| ACFamily Links |
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| Greetings! |
Vesta Stevenson
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We welcome you to allow the NetLetter to be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC etal. and share your experiences with us!
The NetLetter is an email newsletter published every weekend and contains a mixture of nostalgia, current news and travel tips. We encourage our readers to submit their stories, photos and/or comments from either days gone by or from present day experiences and trips. If we think that the rest of our readers will enjoy it, we will publish it here
We also welcome your feedback in regard to anything we post here. Many readers have commented with additional information names and personal memories from the photos and articles presented here.
The NetLetter, which is free, is open to anyone that wishes to subscribe but is targeted to retired employees from Air Canada, Canadian Airlines and all the other companies that were part of what Air Canada is today. Thanks for joining us!
Vesta & your NetLetter Team
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Zoe Dell Lantis
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Named the First Lady of Aviation, Zoe Dell Lantis Nutter has helped make air travel practical and popular for over 70 years, as a pilot, promoter, business executive and philanthropist.
Click here for YouTube Video
Photos: Click here for photos...
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| Our first 70 years - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 1997 - First three DC-9 aircraft of 20 for sale went to CEBU Pacific of the Philippines.
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Star Alliance News - Compiled by Terry Baker
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Star Alliance
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Lufthansa, on May 19th took delivery of its first A380-800 in a ceremony at Airbus's Hamburg facility. The Trent 900-powered aircraft is the first of 15 A380s that LH has on order. It expects to receive three more this year and four in 2011.
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| TCA/Air Canada People Gallery - Compiled by Terry Baker |
 Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine, an Air Canada publication from years gone by.
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Issue May 2003 the "Horizons" magazine was re-titled as "New Horizons"., then reverting back to, and re-styled "Horizons" again with issue dated April 1st 2005
Gleanings from the "Horizons" magazine
Issue dated October 1995 -
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AirBC Reservations - 1995
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July 29 marked five years since the AirBC Reservations team Joined forces with Air Canada at Vancouver. Shown here after receiving their 5-year Air Canada pin are:
Front kneeling: Joyce Chow, Kim Floritto, Aletta McLafferty, Mona Raouf, Betty Staughton;
Standing: Lisa Walkley, Karen Newberry, Kathy Waters, Suzie Ong, Caro Clark, Linda Daigle, Connie Rock, Pat Van Dyke, Nancy Goudy;
Back: Janine Crocock. Missing from the photo: Tracey Bushell, Judy Bylander, Jaydee Collins. Maria Nicol, Marc Gaqnon, Annie Hiekel, Sharon Mason, KyIn Nowroski, Brian Stuski, Kathi Szaabo
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Eleanor Kokotailo & friends
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At Vancouver Flight Attendant Eleanor Kokotailo receives congratulatory wishes from her colleagues on her 30-years of service.
From left to right: Flight Attendants Danielle Dunn, David Siu, Eleanor Kokotailo and Dennis Kim; Jan Wegman, Manager, In-FIight Service, Purser Andy Noll and Flight Attendant Shirley Hill.
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Eugene Chomlak & friends
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A few of the Ramp and Cargo employees in Edmonton got together to wish Lead Station Attendant Eugene Chomlak a happy retirement after more than 23 years of service.
Back row, left to right: Station Attendants Randy Ries and Brent Bates; Lead Station Attendants Ken Guthrie and Ron Boa; Station Attendants John Christensen, Randy Demskie, Ken Gummcr, Paul Baker, John VanRaamsdonk and Borden Mytrunec; Layne McDougall, A/Customer Service Manager and Ron Stroud, Station Attendant;
Front row, left to right: Station Attendants Harry Henke and Kevin Briand and the guest of honor Eugene Chomak (seated).
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Bill Johnston & friends
1996
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Cargo Customer Service Agent Bill Johnston at Los Angeles celebrates his 30th service anniversary with his colleagues.
Back row, left to right: Howard Wargo, Warehouseman; Barbara Emerson, Cargo Agent; Bob Mawhinney, Lead Cargo Agent; Bill Johnston; Bob Lane, Cargo Agent and David Burke, Manager, Customer Service;
Kneeling, left to right: Richie Meier, Warehouseman; Linda Shipke, Cargo Agent and Bob Fuhrmann, Customer Service Manager.
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British Heart Foundation
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The Commissary Department at Heathrow (LHR) put up a team of cyclists for a good cause. They raised over a total of gbp 1,000 for the charity British Heart Foundation. The distance is 58 miles and attracts some 20,000 cyclists each year.
from the left: Brian Copper, Pat Prince, Russ Baldwin, Jayne Clinch, Steve Bignell, Jane Hodges, James Skerrit, Dave Clinch, Ralph Jones.
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From the "Horizons" magazine issue dated August 1996 -
Air Canada Industry Travel announced a new program called "CHIP" (Card Holder Information Profile) for employees and retirees to take effect during the Fall of 1996. This will be a corporate data base containing all the personal travel related data. Employees and retirees were sent a pass eligible family information for confirmation and return.
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Pionair's Assistance
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To assist in this major task, the Pionairs volunteered their time to assist in this endeavour.
From left to right: Patrick Kavanagh, Joan Muir, Fraser Muir, Evelyn Cryans, Margot Lesperance.
Note: in the photo, everyone has a bag of potatoe "chips".
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Flight attendants - 1997
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Air Canada In-Flight Service team achieved a milestone by training last May over 1,000 Flight Attendants in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Where are you?
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L10-a & CRJ
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From past to present.
The Lockheed 10-A CF-TCC flies in tandem with the newest addition to the Air Canada fleet, the Canadair Regional Jet.
For 30 years the DC-9 has been serving Air Canada. 20 are up for sale and the remaining 15 will undergo a major upgrade.
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Peter Newell - 1997
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On May 28th, at a special dinner in Montreal to honour the Award of Excellence winners. Three awards for bravery were presented. Here is the story surrounding the award for one of the recipients - Peter Newell, CSA New York.
Here is the story: Last winter at LaGuardia Airport, Peter went to investigate the source of smoke on the ramp. He saw that a Continental de-icing truck, parked against the terminal building, was unattended and on fire. He immediately dragged a 150 lb. fire extinguisher and started spraying the truck. He was the first one on the scene before any fire or emergency trucks arrived. He battled the fire with the smoke and extinguishing foam blowing on him for what seemed to him to be "forever." As a consequence he ended up at the hospital for medical care. His timely action gave Continental time to get a plane out of harm's way and prevented the fire from spreading to the terminal building, which incidentally had to be evacuated because of the smoke.
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| Alan's Space - by Alan Rust |
Alan Rust
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Great Video of Air Travel in the 30's
Submitted by Ken Bjorge
Early American Airways promotional film with twin engine Curtiss Condor airplanes showing plane interiors and passengers, airport facilities, pilots and cockpit, map with destinations at that time, chart showing passenger growth from 1928 to 1933.
As it says in the film, the year is actually 1933. American Airways became American Airlines in the late 30's
Oh, those days when flying was fun, meals, pillows and even cigars! All dressed up in coat and tie, everybody in first class, and you never had to take off your damn shoes. Has aviation really progressed?
It's about 20 minutes long, but it's very interesting to watch the whole clip.
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ACFamily News - Obituaries
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Obituaries
It is the policy of the NetLetter as well as of many other online news sources to not post obituaries as a general rule. We just wanted our readers to be aware that although obits aren't usually posted here, the ACFamily Network has created an area on the web site where any "reported" deaths are listed and can be viewed by anyone at anytime. You can also submit obituaries if you know of a recent death. This allows the posting of the passing in time for friends and former colleagues to attend the service if they wish. To visit the "Obits" pages on the ACFamily Network please follow this link.
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Canadi>n/CP Air/PWA, Wardair, etc. People & Events
- Compiled by Terry Baker |
 News and articles from days gone by gleaned from various publications from C.A.I.L. and it's "ancestry" of contributing airlines. |
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Issue dated - June 1998
Extracts from the "Canadi>n flyer" magazine
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Chek Lap Kok Airport
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On July 6th, Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport (CLK) officially opened after eight years of construction and expenditures of more than us$20 billion.
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Hong Kong Team - 1998
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Here are the key members of the Hong Kong airport team l to r: William Koo, Dana Wong, Gwen Wu, Tammy Cheung.
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Some new services were started: Daily service to Beijing, May 8th. Daily non-stop between YVR - LHR June 1st. Service started between YVR - San Jose June 1st.
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Bangkok Team - 1998
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The entire team from our Bangkok operations gathered at Country Doreen Hazell's home recently. Employee groups represented Maintenance Sales and Reservations, Cargo and Messenger.
Here's our fun-loving Airport staff:
Chockckai Deepermpornying, Narvebol Kitviria, Wisuttichom Khruawan, Chidkhwan Puttong, Nuanlaor Trakarnpairoj, Kannipa Eksakul, Wachiyalak Teeupama, Kriengsak Warunnsin Usawadee Sangpum, Prateep Inlert, Thammanoon Arampongpun.
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| Reader's Feedback - Compiled by Terry Baker |
Every week we ask our readers for their stories or feedback on what they have read here in previous issues. Below is the feedback we have received recently.
In the NetLetter nr 1120, the story in Alan's space about the Super Constellation CF-TGE probably prompted Andy St-Laurent to send us this memory to share -
I worked on the S/C overseas in 1954 and for us flight stewards , the seating configurations over 4 different class of service in 4 difference cabins made it very difficult to provide a good service to our paying customers, reason being that all of the food for the 4 classes was stored in one refrigerator.
The classes were as follows, first cabin at the front of the aircraft was Economy, second cabin was Tourist, third cabin was First Class, fourth cabin was Deluxe (aft of the galley).
It's interesting to point that the first class cabin was made up of 2 row of 2 seats only for a total of 4 sets. There was a curtain that could be drawn close for passenger privacy.
We had situations when two passengers completely strangers to each other were assigned seats side by side in that cabin. You can imagine that on a flight of 11 hours + coupled with a few drinks that the passengers who were strangers at the beginning of the flight had become very well acquainted and on many occasions asked the crew to draw the curtain and to not disturb them.
In those days the food was boarded in casseroles, one contained 8 portions of vegetables while the others contained 4 portions of the meat of the day (chicken or beef) The flight Steward would stand in the galley and line up 4 piles of plates placed on a table that hooked up to the front and back of the galley, the Purser and one Flight Attendant would stand outside of the galley, the Flight Steward would put one portion of meat on the plates and the Purser and flight attendant would add the vegetables, then the four meals would be served and 4 more plates would be prepared. You can imagine that this process was very time consuming but then not to worry, we had plenty of time to do the service.
The fact that the flights were so long (YUL-LHR) we had to serve two meals, dinner and breakfast. The problem was that we only had one set of meal trays for one service, therefore once all the meal trays had been collected after dinner, all trays had to be stripped, cleaned and reset for breakfast. Lets not forget that we also had to brew the coffee that we would need for breakfast.
I thought that this little story might bring a chuckle to some of the readers who might have been around in the early 50's.
Yours truly
Andy St-Laurent (retired 1988)
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 Bev May has had a peek at this photo we printed in NetLetter nr 1120, and gave us these identifications - I don't recognize the pilot on the left, but the guy in the middle is F/O Al Schmidt, and the gentleman on the right is Capt. Rod McNaughton. That's all I recognize.
Bev. May
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Belly Landing - 1961
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Jack Stephens received this email from Ed Jones, and sent us a copy, and the photos which will be added to the Vickers Viscount web site -
Still trawling through my photos, postcards and sent images to get them on to Excel and have come across these pics
273 CF-THM TCA BELLY LANDING AT DORVAL IN 1961
I can't remember if these originated from one of the team or not but they are interesting photos.
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Belly Landing - 1961
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Belly Landing - 1961
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Best Regards,
Ed Jones
(If anyone has any stories relating to this incident, we will be most interested - eds)
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Odds & Ends - Compiled by Terry Baker
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AIR FRANCE launches A380 shuttle.
Airbus likely didn't envision its super-long-range flagship A380 being used as a shuttle but Air France apparently thinks it can make money hopping across the English Channel with the giant airliner. The airline will begin summer weekend A380 service between London's Heathrow and Paris's Charles de Gaulle airports June 12. There will be one flight a day each way from Saturday to Monday for most of the summer and Friday flights will be added for July. Air France is launching the service with a seat sale and one-way tickets are about $275 on the reservations Web site.
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Volcanic ash damage
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Jim Griffith has sent us this information
Subject: Flying through an ash cloud
As reported by Rick Davis of Global Aerospace...an interesting pictures on what happens to an engine when it's flown through a volcanic ash cloud. This is a Cessna Citation Jet (CJ2) out of Germany a few weeks ago. Luckily the other engine kept running, although sluggishly.
This is what a volcanic ash can do to a turbine engine. You will notice how badly the titanium compressor and turbine blades are damaged.
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Ash damage
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Ash damage
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Terry's Trivia and Travel Tips - by Terry Baker
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Terry Baker
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Princess Cruise Lines says that alcohol (other than one bottle of wine or champagne per passenger) purchased in any port of call will be collected for safe keeping and delivered to your stateroom on the last day of your cruise.
Getting to YVR from Vancouver Island.
Now that the Canada Line is in operation, one of the ways from Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal was the 620 city bus to the Delta Inn, and then the 404 to the terminals. The 620 no longer goes to the Delta Inn, but stops at the Bridgeport station, where you would take the Canada Line into the airport.
European Union's updated regulation on civil aviation security that went into effect April 29 set April 13, 2013, as the final deadline for lifting the current restrictions on carrying liquids through airport security checkpoints in cabin baggage. As a preliminary step, duty-free liquids purchased at some third-country airports (US, Canada, Singapore and Croatia) or on-board third country airlines and carried in tamper-evident bags will be allowed as carry-on baggage to be screened normally at checkpoints from April 29, 2011, at the latest.
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Smileys - Compiled by Terry Baker
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As we surf the internet and back issues of airline magazines we regularly find airline related jokes and cartoons. Below is our latest discovery.
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Leg room?
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It really pays for seat selection.
On the YVR-LHR route it costs ca$50.00 and YVR-YYZ it costs ca$22.00.
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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the NetLetter, see you next week!
Sincerely,
Your NetLetter Team
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