Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Tony Walsh has sent us this information -

Readers not closely familiar with the procedural sophistication of large 'De-Icing Centres' in general & related Air Canada cockpit procedures specifically, may be interested in this fairly fresh (March 13, 2019) JustPlanes episode in their cockpit video series titled “Air Canada Winter Operations / De-Icing From Cockpit”.

It is an in-cockpit live flight presentation by the pilots on how the de-icing procedures work before takeoff as the Embraer-190 flight AC1121 – Toronto – Saskatoon taxis to the YYZ De-Icing Centre & it and an AC B-777 flight ahead on the pad are de-iced.

Steve Davis sends the following:

About two years ago a close ex YVR CP Air colleague, Al Ridgway, introduced me to your Net Letter which, given my own airline background, I've been enjoying ever since. I came to Canada in 1974 having worked for a major freight forwarder at LHR for eight years. In 1975 I joined Philippine Airlines in Toronto as a passenger Sales Rep and also took on cargo sales.

In 1980 Wardair was granted a licence to carry full belly load cargo by Joe Clarke's Conservative Government. Prior to this they had been hamstrung by the protective and restrictive single entity regulations imposed on Canadian charter carriers. In 1981 I was approached by WD and appointed as their first Cargo Sales Manager, staying with them until their takeover by CP in 1989. WD cargo grew from a team of six people in 1981 to around 30 of us in Canada, the UK, Europe, HNL etc., by the time of the takeover, and revenues of around $30 million annually.

In 1982 I was presented with two copies of a 642 page limited edition booklet entitled * "Gentlemen Adventurers of the Air", produced originally in 1929 by the National Geographic Magazine and reprinted (with permission) by Wardair in November 1981 and dedicated to the Pioneers of Canadian aviation who opened up Canada's vast northern arctic territories over the last 100 years. I presented my second copy of this booklet to my son who is now right seat on AC 787's but thought you may like to publish some of the very interesting Canadian historical information contained in the pages of my copy.

Regards,

Steve Davis.
Ex WD YYZ & now happily retired!

* Unfortunately, the article "Gentlemen Adventurers of the Air" is still under copyright of the National Geographic Society and we have not been able to find legal excerpts available on the internet. 

For those who have interest in reading the material to which Mr. Davis is referring, copies of the original National Geographic magazine may be purchased from eBay. 

Subscriptions and access to archives may also be purchased directly from www.nationalgeographic.com.

The NetLetter Team