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 - July 1997
Extract from "Horizons" magazine

 

 

Issue dated - March 1954
Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine

 

 

 

 

Lockheed Martin F-35 Takeoff, Hover, Vertical Landing STOL
Below is a great video clip of the F35 with takeoff, hover and vertical landing capabilities.

 

  

F35 STOVL Aircraft

From time to time we receive enquires from subscribers that are looking for former colleagues and friends. Although we don't provide names or email addresses directly to those asking, we will forward this information to the person that is being searched for and let them decide if they'd like to respond or not. We realize that some people don't want to be found for various reasons a respect that decision. 

 

 

Barbara Hunt in New York is looking for Elizabeth Smith-Bordeleau (married to Jean Pierre Bordeleau) who worked in AIr Canada administrative or Human Resources around 1995 in Dorval or Montreal. Her last know address was 2240 de Lomdres Ville, St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada.

 

If you are Elizabeth or know where she is, please respond to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will provide further contact information.

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 - August 1998
Extracts from the "Canadi>n flyer" magazine -

From the left: Lisa Hu, Silvia Chen, Debbie Yang.

A Canadian Airlines B747 takes flight over a crowd of spectators gathered along the harbor in Hong Kong to witness the last planes depart Kal Tak airport on July 5. CP 8, which departed at 2 p.m., was actually CDN's second-last flight out of Kal Tak. The last flight was CP 28 at 7 p.m., as CDN began flying twice daily service to Hong Kong in early July. Capt. Peter Andreasen. F/O's Doug Goldie and Ross Forman, S/O Terry Alexander, and Check S/O Paul McDougall were at the controls of the DC10. The In-flight Crew consisted of Gerry Kroon, Lars Sjoblom, Sherry Sands, Phyllis Hamilton, David Sandelands, Denise Patrich, Wanda Chenier, Peter Van Pelt and Tong Zhao. "It was a truly nostalgic take-off for CP 28 that day," said Capt. Andreasen. "After so many years of flying to Kai Tak, it was really sad to be leaving."

In March 2001, we received this email from Captain George Steven Serviss, Vancouver Base

Captain George Steven Serviss joined Canadian Pacific Airlines on October 4, 1965 with a total of 4000 hours flying experience. Since that date, he flew an additional 21,500 hours on DC3, DC6, DC8, DC10, B737 and B747 aircraft. George will be retiring effective April 30, 2001. George recalls the most memorable moment of his career as: "doing the last landing of a Canadian registered aircraft into Hong Kong's old Kai Tak airport". In retirement, George plans are to complete the construction of, then fly, his home built aircraft.

 

George Brien has sent us this information -:

In NetLetter nr 1123, Brian Breathnach sent us this memory -

This prompted Murielle St-Germain to counter with this memory - 
 

Allen McKenzie sends us this memory -
My father, Hec McKenzie started his airline career with Canadian Airways at God's Lake, Manitoba.

Many years later when he was based at Moncton (YQM) he met Ron George (again)  From this point onward I am relying on some faint memories, probably not very accurate.

Ron George was a native of Sackville, N.B. and I think that he had flown with Canadian Airways, later joining T.C.A.  I do remember visiting the George Farm as a youngster.  We, the McKenzie's, had gone there to visit with Ron and his wife Ann while they were home from California.  As I remember it, Ron George had joined K.L.M. as "their man in California" while they made the decision to purchase the Constellation. There may be a connection to the Connie's galley arrangement in there somewhere. I can't verify its accuracy Maybe it will jog the memory of a Pionair or a writer.   
Regards, Allen

 

Colin Bailey, now living in St. Catherines, Ontario sent us his memories of the incident. Colin was part of the maintenance crew on duty that night, and his email reads as follows:-
Re the Cabbage Patch Incident, I was part of the maintenance crew on duty that night, and as was customary, two people remained on for an hour after the departure of the flight.  It was my turn to remain that night along with Andy Cunning. When the call came to the Romney Hut re the accident, I told Andy, and in his fine Scottish accent he replied "awaa wi' you mon, you're pulling ma leg", and it took several minutes before I could convince him that it was indeed true. When we got to the scene, the crew were just leaving the cockpit and the Captain, "Mickey" Found, jokingly remarked that he had written the "snag" into the log book. My wife heard about it on the radio and to this day insists I didn't go home for two days. Not too many of us around now that were involved, but I'm sure it will always be remembered by those who were, as one of the big incidents in their Air Canada career.

Thanks for that Colin.

During an exchange of emails with Jack Stephens, your co-pilot mentioned the Vanguards which were parked at YUL, with the props removed, and how we informed the newer employees that they were VanJets.

 

This is Jack's response - more history -
Terry your story about the Vanguards parked at UL, brings back a memory much the same. I believe it was 1960 when eight of us were transferred to the Overhaul Base. There just wasn't the same amount of work on the Viscounts, but more on the Vanguards and the DC8. They were having problems with the prop control unit on the Vanguard, so a couple of us were put to work on that unit having a few years experience on the Dart prop control unit.  The shop looked out on part of the tarmac, and there were several Vanguards parked waiting for the very units we were working on. Not hard to imagine the monies involved.

So there was lots of pressure, and quality control guys hovering over us and our foreman, who kept asking, "When will this one be ready?" Seeing those Vanguards as we worked added to the pressure.The overtime, was attractive but in the end the Mudguards were in the air again. I was at Dorval for a few months, then transferred back to Winnipeg, and worked on the first interior refurbishing of the Viscount. I believe this was in 1961. But that is another story.

Cheers,  Jack

 

 

 

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Jack and Aureen Morath are two UK Pionairs who are instrumental in arranging various events for the local Pionair population, i.e. London walks, day trips to the Continent and, in the past, an annual trip to a north American city.

Here, from the UK Pionairs monthly newsletter for June 2010 is a continuation of their recent trip report which we started in NetLetter nr 1120 -

 

Our Far East Adventure:  (Jack and Aureen Morath)
We returned to Bangkok for three days before flying on to Hong Kong for our cruise. We found the Cha Da hotel very good with its modern design having 300 rooms and also they gave us a very good deal as airline people. After the discount we were paying around £26 for the room per night with breakfast extra in their restaurant.

 

The hotel website is www.chadahotel.com  We left some of our baggage at the hotel as we were returning there after our cruise. Staff in the hotel were most helpful. To be sure of getting to Hong Kong for the cruise, we used the low budget airline Air Asia for the 2.75 hour flight from Bangkok. There is a connection between Air Asia and Virgin Atlantic Airlines, and also both wear the same uniform and both have won awards for their services. We were limited to l5 kilos each and so the hand held scales we take on our trips now proved very useful! If you wanted refreshments on the flight you had to pay for it.

 

Our flight departed from Bangkok airport at l6.30 - an A320 Airbus) and arrived on time in Hong Kong at 18.l0pm. After passing through formalities at this new excellent airport (which is on an island) we asked at the tourist desk the best way to get to our hotel which was on Hong Kong Island close to the harbour front. We were advised at the desk to take the Al0 bus from the airport bus station, and its first stop was only a few yards from our hotel, and after about 45 minutes in a modern bus.

More another time.