Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Issue dated October 1977

House league champs.

Montreal's Power Plant A's pulled a surprise upset getting into the Men's House League fastball finals by defeating the A's from Base Stores which, all season long, had been virtually unbeatable and unflappable.

Then the Power Plant team took on the real pros in the finals - the Jet Jockeys - last year's champions and beat them to pull off the championship.

The proud Power Plant team is shown, back row, from the left: Jack Dones (Coach), Al Clattenburg, Ken Smith, John Oliphant, Bob Delaney and Les Davidson.

Kneeling from the left are: Jean-Luc Crouhen, Bill Ostap, Brian Coote, Michel Cyr and Gary Jones.

Missing from the photo are Ron Dunham and Dave Ward.

Ten years old. Los Angeles celebrates.

The Montreal-Toronto-Los Angeles route has come a long way since it began just ten years ago September 1967.

From a single daily short DC-8 operating round trip, capacity has increased to two daily L-1011 flights, offering a total of 514 seats in each direction. Freight capacity has grown from 32,000 pounds in 1967 to today's 160,000 pounds.

Dubbed the 'Galaxy' route, the Los Angeles service developed a reputation for superb food almost overnight. Partly as a result the company has always attracted more than half of the air travel market between Southern California and Toronto / Montreal.

During its first ten years of operation the service carried 1.5 million passengers and led all major U.S. cities served by the company in passenger traffic growth with a 36.8 per cent increase in passenger hoardings. With these Impressive numbers, the L.A. station had every reason to celebrate by holding and luncheons for representatives of the business and travel trade in the California city.

Our photo has Gord Gaffikin, District Manager, Los Angeles in 1967 chatting with the then company President Gordon McGregor, right, during inaugural activities. 

Regina celebrates company’s 40th.

In keeping with the general theme of the company's 40th anniversary celebrations, Regina District also got into the act with a cake and coffee party at both the downtown and airport locations.

Shown in the photo at the downtown location are, from the left: A. Frolick, Customer Relations Representative; Passenger Agents S. Lessard and K. Dorsett, District Manager Bob Danaher; Passenger Agents Edy Bell, F. Bernard, K. Timm and L. Whipple.

At the airport, are from the left: Airport Customer Service Manager, Cliff Dobson; Lead Station Attendant, W. Willet; Passenger Agent, C. Stennes; General Clerk, E. Wise and Station Agent D. Morris.

Is this a record?

Air Canada challenges anyone in the world to show that they know of someone who has crossed the north Atlantic more times than Al Blackwood who was a Toronto-based pilot flying B-747's on Trans Atlantic Air Canada Service.

Al joined TCA / Air Canada in February 1939 as a Radio Operator in Vancouver. He began flying across the Atlantic in 1942 on loan to BOAC as a Flight Radio Operator and, in 1943, was in at the beginning of the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service (CGTAS) operated by TCA. He achieved recognition for 100 crossings in 1945 and has been at it ever since until his retirement.  From Radio Operator he changed to Navigator, and then to pilot.

A check of the records of Air Canada, PAA and TWA, and comparison with other flight crew members shows that no other individual can match his record, which climbed beyond 2,200 crossings by August 1977.

This challenge met with the approval of J.L. Rood, a retired Vice President, Flight Operations of the airline, who himself had built up a creditable number of crossings, and by C.H. Simpson, who was Vice President - Flight Operations.

In this photo, Al Blackwood, right, was a Radio Operator when this photo was taken back in 1945 when he had made his 100th crossing of the Atlantic. Captain George Lothian received a gift from the late president H.J. Symington on the occasion, and Navigator Harold Thomae (Air Force) and Al Blackwood both received tokens.