Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Issue dated - May 1968
Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine -

Issue dated - July 1968

Issue dated - November 1968

Air Canada redesigned the Pitot Master and equipped its entire fleet of aircraft with alcohol fluid de-icing vanes on the front of the pitot static masts to prevent false airspeed and altitude readings when flying in icing conditions.

Air Canada was the first airline to equip its fleet with alcohol de-icing nozzle ahead of the windscreen to obtain de-icing coverage of the complete windscreen.

Air Canada also introduced electric de-icing of aerodynamic surfaces.

The Birth of a Jet - sent to us by Bill Wood

This is a 13 minute vintage '50's documentary video extolling the virtues of the DC-8 when it first flew. There is some footage of the Long Beach plant before Boeing and the Douglas Airpark. It's a great video on the DC-8.


Ah, the good old days.  Turn on your sound and enjoy some aviation nostalgia.

Birth of a Jet

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





Below we have a couple of photos found on the www.acfamily.net/photopost, and brought to our attention by Deanna Wong who said she would pass these photos onto her friend Ronnie Pun, retired CP Sales Rep. HKG. Ronnie now lives in Vancouver and he'll be so pleased. Methinks he wants to share these happy photo memories with his former HKG staffers
 

Bill Bartlett sends his comments regarding the mystery photo in NetLetter nr 1131 and John Ohlsson information in NetLetter nr 1132 -

I agree with John Ohlsson, it does look like Johnny Robulak (I'm fairly sure of my spelling) and Herve Lesage.  I'm not positive but in front of the "M" could be Wally Rowan and to his left Gord Sanders (respectively, not necessarily at that point in time but at least later, from YYC and YQV).  Some other faces look somewhat familiar but names escape me. Perhaps it was a Station Managers meeting.

With all due respect to John, my memory is that Western Region HQ had moved to YVR by 1950 as it was there when I started with TCA as a YVR temporary Station Attendant on the midnight shift April 14, 1950 and John was my first boss. I think his title was Station Controller (and I really enjoyed working for/with him).  Please pass my best regards and good wishes to John via Dave.

Thanks.
Bill Bartlett

Roy Mendes has sent us this information -

I have just read your article on the Netletter #1130 as well as #1128, regarding the woman who tried to open the aircraft door with the aircraft pressurized. The article on issue #1130 states that aircraft doors are plug type and therefore cannot be opened when the aircraft is pressurized. This is true if you are referring to the West Jet aircraft which is a B737. Those doors are plug type doors. This however is not true for the door example picture you featured on said article. Having spent the last 20 years as a Technical Instructor for Air Canada, and having conducted courses on both Boeing and Aircraft doors, I can assure you without a doubt that, because of their design and door opening movement, all Airbus doors can be opened with the aircraft pressurized up to approximately 1psid. 

Boeing doors must move inwards first against pressurization before they can be opened. It stands to reason that you have to work against pressurization, in order to open the door and that is impossible.

Airbus doors however are designed to slide upwards then outward parallel to the aircraft. All that you have to overcome is the friction of the door stop fittings against frame stop fittings as the door slides upward and as soon as these clear the door will open.

Air Canada had an incident in Winnipeg the 1990s where a Maintenance Engineer opened an A320 aircraft door with the aircraft partially pressurized and he was seriously injured. I also read of an incident in Miami where a flight attendant tried to open an Airbus door in and emergency situation and once again the aircraft was pressurized and he was thrown from the aircraft and died. Airbus doors can be opened with the aircraft pressurized.

There is even a pressure light on the window sill of all doors that will flash if the door is disarmed and the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the aircraft is greater than .00362 psid.

Please see the article at: www.iasa.com.au

Roy S. Mendes
Retired Technical Instructor

Dave Micheals has sent us information of a short video called "Flying the Connie", which you may enjoy viewing and which may bring back some memories of the past.

Flying the Connie

Jim Griffith sends us this information -

Newspaper article on Earth Angels Rising from Vancouver Island newspaper "TODAY".
 
Cowichan war-time radioman part of a dying breed Earth Angels Rising chronicles the heroes of the Ferry Command Wartime exploits of unsung Cowichan war hero Gordon Stemson, and other Ferry Command flyboys, are chronicled in Ted Beaudoin's forthcoming book Earth Angels Rising.

The illustrated 400-some pager is due by summer's end from the Welland, Ont. writer/radio man Stemson, 96, has several claims to fame after helping deliver bombers over the Atlantic to Churchill's imperiled England.

He explained. "Stemson's one of the few (Ferry Command vets) left in the world," Beaudoin told the News Leader Pictorial that featured Stemson in a 2007 exclusive.

"Also, from the transcript he sent (Montreal war veterans rights lobbyist) Louis Lang, it looks like Stemson was the first to spot the Bismarck, but someone else got the credit for it."

However, Stemson told the Leader he didn't find the infamous Nazi battleship before it was sunk in 1940 by Allied ships after it destroyed Britain's beloved battleship Hood.
"I never did see the Bismarck," Stemson said Aug. 13.
But not for lack of trying.
"We looked in the Greenland region," he said of his crew delivering a four-motor B24 across the pond. "We were 19 hours looking for it the first day and 16 hours the second day.
"They stripped our plane down to carrying gasoline to look for the Bismarck, but we didn't find her."

Some historians claim an American pilot spotted the Bismarck first.
Aviation author Beaudoin, 69, simply wants to set the record straight by writing about guys like Stemson and the Royal Air Force Transport Command's Ocean Ferry.
"I just want to finish these books before these veterans die."
The Ferry Command flew 9,442 aircraft to England over waters swarming with German U-boats that paralyzed wartime shipping.
"Ferry Command pioneered flying over the Atlantic in the middle of winter, and that hadn't been done before," said Beaudoin.
'Without these civilians, we'd have a different world today.
"These were unarmed civilians flying unarmed aircraft over enemy waters."

Earth Angels Rising is the second book in Beaudoin's aviation trilogy Walking on Air.
"This book is a long-overdue tribute to nearly 3,500 civilians from 22 or more countries who played a key role in rescuing the Allied Armed Forces and helped save the world from the ravages of German and Japanese invasions of Europe, Africa and much of China and the Far East," he said.

Between 1938 and 1943, brave, smart volunteers such as Stemson helped man the Ferry Command for the Allied Armed Forces.
"It was an incredible world-wide and civilian-driven airplane delivery method which military giants would imitate by the end of 1943 - creating their own unique aircraft delivery fleets under a variety of names - all with some form of the words Ferry Command."

Those plane couriers included the United States Army Air Force Ferry Command, and transport commands of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force.

Beaudoin's sources span photos, archives, veterans, letters, vets' families, government staff and much more for his fact-loaded trilogy.

Folks with Ferry Command facts can call Beaudoin at 905-714-1788.

- Peter W. Rusland, Cowichan News Leader

Shannon Airport said in late August that it will increase its "passenger charge" by €1.58 ($2.03) to €6.32 per passenger, the first pricing increase since 2004.

 

• Chief Pilot - Terry Baker
• Co-pilot - Alan Rust, Surrey, B.C.
• Flight Engineer - Bill Rowsell, Londesboro, Ontario