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 - May 1954
Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine

Issue dated - February 1999
Gleanings from the "Horizons" magazine.

Jean Vouillon - Virtual Cockpits
I found a site created by a person with a true passion for both photography, aviation and graphic arts. He describes himself as a "Pixel Manipulator" and CGI 3D artist. I'm quite impressed by his work.

Jean Vouillon is a member of the CAHS (Canadian Historical Aviation Society) and has contributed photos to them and has also created a selection of Virtual Cockpits from the Western Canada Aviation Museum.

Below is an image from his "Virtual Tour" of the cockpit of CF-TCC in Winnipeg. Once you get to his page, you can select one of 13 aircraft that are displayed at the museum. Just click on the image below to visit the "Virtual Cockpit" site.

PS - if you get a message to download the "PangeaVR" viewer, most of you can just select "continue browsing" to visit the page. Also, this site may only work with Internet Explorer.

  

L10A Virtual Cockpit

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 - Novenber 1998
Extracts from the "Canadi>n Flyer" magazine

Bud Liversidge has sent us this information -
The attached coverage of the Super Constellation flight in 1958 will be of great interest to many. That's 52 years ago. It brings back pleasant personal memories when I was asked to escort 15 travel agents from Calgary to London, Eng. with a side trip to Stratford-on-Avon to sight-see and witness a performance of a Shakespeare play while there.

The trip was sponsored by the British Travel Authority and it must have been in October because our group was missing the Thanksgiving holiday being celebrated back home. The BTA picked up the theme and treated us to a delicious roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings in a medieval castle setting restaurant!

Back in Calgary, I had performed the lead part of Tim in the first musical comedy to play in the new Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. It was called "Salad Days", a popular British musical and my role included performing with a British accent throughout.

At the time,  I was employed by T.C.A as a passenger agent and worked in the ticket office across the street from the Palliser Hotel.

For the return flight to Canada I obtained permission to familiarize our group with first-class trans-Atlantic travel on the Super Constellation. Needless to say it was super and hopefully the travel agents continued to present T.C.A. travel in a most-favourable light!

After a return to Air Canada following university there, I worked as a Reservations Sales Supervisor in Edmonton where I now reside. I retired in 1983 and am now 77.

I hope you are able to present this British Pathe vignette salute to the Super Connie.

1958 TCA Super Connie flight into YVR & nostalgic look at YVR http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=826

Bud Liversidge. 

The UK government decided to postpone a decision to replace the country's current Air Passenger Duty with a "per plane duty." The UK Government has found a lucrative revenue stream to fund their budget deficits, what will happen when other Governments in Asia and Africa sees the same opportunity? The airlines will be hard-hit and you will be surprised how much the cash-hungry gov'ts in LDC will charge.
 
 

Continuing the story of our recent cruise started in NetLetter nr 1125 -
West Coast cruise May 8th to 15th 2010.LAX to YVR
Sunday May 9th,
At Santa Barbara we had to use the tender. The seas were quite rough with swells several feet. With the tender going up and down, one elderly lady missed her seat, when the tender was on the downward, and she fell into the aisle. She was rather large and awkward to hoist up, particularly as she had recently had knee surgery and could not get purchase under herself. She said she was OK, and that the Princess would hear from her - what they would hear we were not quite sure as it was not the fault of Princess. That she fell. Why physically challenged people attempt such trips makes one wonder. We are lucky not to be in such a situation, and doing all our travels while we are healthy.

The tender pier is about ¼ mile from Stearn's Wharf and the same distance to the town centre. There was an electric shuttle trolley in operation for us$0.25, but the line up was too much to bother to wait, so we continued to walk about.

We walked along the shoreline, which was lined with artisans plying their paintings and crafts..

We returned to the ship for lunch, enduring the bouncy trip on the tender again. We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool.

Monday May 10th.
Today we visit San Francisco, and we had breakfast while going under the Golden Gate bridge and a view of the Alcatraz prison. We were booked for a city tour as the Alcatraz tour was sold out.

We had to assemble in the theatre in groups according to the tour, and let out in groups of 50 on a first come first served. Very orderly until those going down to deck 4 by the stairs met up with those arriving by elevator, when things got rather crowded. We managed to locate our coach and settled in. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge to a park on the north side for a photo op and the facilities. Then back into the city for a drive around viewing the different Victorian homes, the different architecture was quite amazing. We drove through a park and had a viewing of the Japanese gardens.

There was no time allotted to pay any visits, just a twenty minute stop. Our day started off overcast, and gradually deteriorated culminating in a cloud burst during a thunder storm. During this storm we were passing through a select and high priced shopping area, Macy's, Neuman's, Tiffany's for example, and the guide suggested a stop for an hour as there was good shopping and restaurants. But the guide had a rebellion on her hands, and everyone voted to return to the ship, by which time the rain had stopped.

After lunch the skies cleared and the sun came out, so we took the free shuttle to Fisherman's Wharf pier 35 and checked out the stores, before we walked back to the ship, just before the heavens opened again. We spent the rest of the day reading and lounging about and socializing.

(More next time - eds)