Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Air Canada - our first 70 years

Air Canada's latest fleet reduction has led to the retirement of the fleet of B767-200's. We were one of the launch customers for this type, the first to be delivered fin 601 C-GAUB c/n 22517 on October 30th 1982. The last revenue flight was YVR-YYZ on November 2nd 2008 with C-FBEM. It flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico for storage at Roswell International Air Centre on November 3rd, thus ending 26 years of flight operations.

TCA/AC People Gallery

Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier "Horizons", should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazines

Issue dated June 1965
Things to come.

Here we have this photo of the second DC-9 under construction for Air Canada and due to be delivered during August.





The Prairie and Lakehead District Sales Managers held a two day seminar in Winnipeg.

We have this photo of the attendees.










"Those were the good old days" is the caption for this photo . Taken in 1942 in Winnipeg during one of the earliest Lockheed 14 Maintenance Training courses. This was a two week course, compared to the six week for the DC-8.
These are the identities.
Left to right are Leo Bourbonnais, Bill Sansom, Earl Johnson, Harvey Stone, Harold Critchley, Pat Damskov, Las Story, Ken May. Dick Green, Sid Willis, Al MacWilliam, Ernie Antilla, Jack Douglas, George Myers, Jack Hardman, Stuart Hay, Bart Stephens, Phil Muncaster, George Taylor, Hank Griffith, Norm Dennison.

These eight employees in this photo graduated as Flight Attendants, but each of them worked for the Company in another capacity prior to remustering.






The Power Plant Shops at Winnipeg had a meeting.

Here is a photo of the supervisory group honoring Charles Jones, Assistant Foreman who celebrated 25 years service. A total of 321 years service is represented here.

Air Canada News

Air Canada and Spanair expand service between Canada and Spain. Air Canada and our Star Alliance partner Spanair today announced we have entered a codeshare agreement that expands our networks between popular business and leisure destinations in Canada and Spain. This follows our re-introduction on May 1, 2009 of non-stop flights between Toronto and Madrid, the only scheduled service between Canada and Spain.

Air Canada Vacations resumes flights to Cancun, and adds capacity to some destinations.ACV announced Friday that it will add capacity to the following destinations:
Toronto to Punta Cana, Fridays - May 15 to August 28, 2009
Calgary to Varadero, Saturdays - May 16 and 23, 2009
Calgary to Santa Clara, Sundays - May 17 to October 18, 2009
Operations to Cancun will resume on June 6, with the exception of service from Vancouver, which resumes on November 7, 2009.

Alan's Space

I found an very interesting and unusual post on the ACFamily Network last week. Seems an Aircraft Maintenance Technician was doing a routine storage check on an Airbus A320. As part of the check, he had to inspect the tail of the aircraft where the APU exhaust is (the Auxilary Power Unit is a small jet engine in the tail of the aircraft used to provide air and electrical power to the aircraft on the ground). He must have had quite a surprise when he looked up the tail and found an owl nesting.

Here are the photos he posted (click on them to enlarge)

Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People

Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier in-house magazines, should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.

From the magazine "Change is in the air" magazine issued January 1999.












The Canada goose, an internationally recognized symbol of Canada with a long history at Canadian, is coming back home after a 30 year hiatus. Canadian's family history, dating back to 1925, pays homage to this symbol and the entrepreneurial spirit it represents.

The unique talents and drive that our bush pilot ancestors carried with them into dozens of fledgling airlines have combined to create the Canadian Airlines of today. Those ancestors chose the Canada goose as their symbol because of what it represented. Western Canada Airways was the first to choose the Canada goose more than 70 years ago. The company wanted a bird native to Canada to symbolize endurance and nationality. A symbol that would help a growing number of international customers relate to the Canadian identity. Leonard Watson, the father of PWA President Don Watson, designed the logo. Western Canada Airways joined with four other airlines to become Canadian Airways in 1930, and the Canada goose was retained as the company logo.

Company aircraft were painted with a dark blue fuselage and orange wingtips and adorned with a flying goose insignia on their tails.
Canadian Pacific Air Lines purchased Canadian Airways in 1942 and the goose appeared on the new livery in the early years. It was gradually replaced by the Canadian Pacific corporate shield. Many employees, however, didn't want to say goodbye to their beloved symbol and surreptitiously kept it alive on airline documents. Another Canadian symbol, the beaver, was used as the airline's logo, but only for a few years. In 1951, the Canada goose regained its honored position after a Hong Kong based maintenance crew flippantly asked for help in restoring a damaged 'rodent' on one of the aircraft. The translator interpreted the word as 'rat'. Horrified, President Grant McConachie banished the beaver and restored the goose as the company symbol.

For 42 years, the Canada goose had played an important role in the identity of the airline. In 1968, it was retired. A renamed CP Air developed a new logo - a triangle, part of a circle, a square and a bright orange color. The triangle symbolized forward motion, the circle indicated a global company and the square meant corporate stability.The livery changed again in 1986 when the color scheme changed. The logo retained the half circle but now came with five rectangles representing the five continents the airline served.

In 1987, PWA, Nordair, CP Air, Eastern Provincial and later Wardair, joined to form Canadian Airlines. The Company retained a slightly altered CP Air logo which symbolized  "wings across five continents". Over the years, the Canada goose played an important role with our partner airlines as well. PWA used a Canada goose as its emblem during its formative years before turning to the distinctive wings logo. And Eastern Provincial Airways, purchased by CP Air in 1984, used a Canada goose on its tail. In 1991, Canadian Regional Airlines was formed as a separate company to manage Time Air, Ontario Express, Inter-Canadien and Calm Air and CRA's new logos reflected the parent company.

Perusing the "Info Canadi>n" magazine
Issue dated October 1992

Here we have this photo of the Canadian's sales team in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe.

This n That

When Air France and British Airways ended passenger service operations with Concorde in 2003, they donated the airframes to museums across the world.

Here is a listing of where they are located.

Air France suspended service in June 2003 and British Airways in October 2003. Concorde hold the longest golf putt in the sport's history. Jose Maria Olazabal hit a ball along the floor while enroute from London to Boston in 1979. The ball traveled the 150 foot cabin in 26.17 seconds and landed in the cup first time. With the speed of Concode 1,270 mph the ball traveled 9.2 miles.

Since it opened for commercial service, Heathrow (LHR) has never enjoyed a day when they could say construction was completed. The key piece in completing the world's largest integrated baggage
system is underway, with the start of boring on a 1.8km-long tunnel
underneath Heathrow Airport's airfield. The new gbp260 million tunnel
will provide a vital link between all of the airport's terminals, enabling Heathrow to handle 110 million bags annually by 2012. BAA is investing gbp4bn across Heathrow over the next five years in order to transform the airport for its passengers and airline customers. Heathrow's facilities will be completely redesigned, rebuilt and refurbished, with Terminals 1 and 2 replaced by a new, world-class facility: Terminal 2A.

Carol Bell, retired AC employee sends this information.
I was just reading over the netletter (1067) and noticed that you have incorrectly named someone. The AC NDT team of Frank Murphy and Frank Lovat, I believe that Mr. Lovat's first name was Doug. I worked with Al Rust on the Dorval Ramp for a time before he transferred to YVR. My last name then was Folkes. Just wanted to say hello and ask you to please keep up the great work.
Thanks,  Carol

(Was your father Bob Folkes? - Alan)

Stan Callaghan sends this observation.
I may be wrong, but, the date 1964 of the New Victoria's (YYJ) Terminal opening perhaps is incorrect? The sign that Jim Carnie is holding shows Air Canada's name! I joined TCA in April 1960 as an agent in Payload Control, in the fall of 1963 I went into Reservations Records, then approximately  18 months later I transferred to Telephone Answering Service - (TAS). I do recall the standard 'Salutation' to a customer's call received was -"Good morning/evening, TCA,  Callaghan speaking" And yes, some month's later,  TCA changed it's name to Air Canada. Again, I could be wrong, however, I don't believe so. Whatever, you All do a fantastic job Well Done.
Thank You Stan Callaghan.
(In reply to Stan , we sent off a copy of the whole page regarding the YYJ terminal from "Between Ourselves" issue September 1964 - eds)

Shirley Sywulych has these comments regarding the article in NetLetter nr 1068.
Hi - First of all I would like to say how much I enjoy reading all of the news that comes through on the Net Letter. I thank all of you for the hard work that you do. Next I would like to comment on the red stewardess uniform modeled. There are two main discrepancies.

1. If we ever wore them that short we would have been called into the office so fast our bootie would be falling out of our miniskirt. The shortest we could have them was 2 inches above the knee.
2. We never wore a hat with that uniform - I have no idea where they came up with that one but it wasn't correct. We had very ugly stupid little hair bows in coordinating colors that we HAD to wear any place on our head, but it had to be there to match the sweet little clip on bows for our shoes - lol.......

Once again thanks for all of the interesting articles and pictures.
I keep telling myself I am going to get out my albums and send a few pictures i.e. the first Vancouver crew to operate the Bombay flights.

Shirley Sywulych - 59905
Jan. 1967 - July - 1994

Here's a memory from Dave Welham
A cheery (ex-) Victorian greeting to the 3 of you! Your entry under "...our first 70 years" in NetLetter #1067, entitled 1967 - July 21st
about the opening of the new terminal at YYJAP brought back some great memories for me. I was born and raised in Victoria, but unfortunately I was unable to attend, being busy earning my UVic fees while working at the White Spot. But we were able to see the
Flxible (yes the spelling is correct) or Scenicruiser buses, driving out the Pat Bay highway for each TCA flight. Operated by C & C Taxi, this "limo" service was luxurious even by today's standards. At that time I had no idea of pursuing an airline career, but looked forward to the day when I could be among those passengers. My Dad helped to build YYJAP.  He operated the heavy equipment that widened and
lengthened the runways early in the 2nd World War before he joined the Navy.

My earliest memory of the old pre-1964 terminal was when the whole extended family drove out to Pat Bay 50 years ago to meet my Auntie Mabel (you have to say that with a Tyneside accent), from Newcastle. Perhaps someone can remind me when "over-the-pole"
LHR-YVR service commenced, but anyway, Mabel took a more tortuous route for an old lady: NCL-LHR or PIK, a stop at YYR (Goose Bay), then YYZ, connx to YVR, finally connx to YYJ.  In those days the final leg was on a venerable DC3, which meant Mabel had to walk downhill from her seat to the aircraft rear door.

With numerous extensions and improvements, Victoria International (still Pat Bay to oldtimers) is hardly recognizable from its 1964 days.  Islanders are grateful for this portal to the world, operated continuously through 7 decades by AC.

My wife and I return to the City of Gardens at least twice a year.

Cheerio!  Dave Welham
(Can any one tell us when the "over-the-pole" LHR-YVR service commenced? - eds)

Terry's Travel Tips

Checking web site www.flightnetwork.com which will search for the cheapest fares, we arbitrarily checked YVR-LHR May 24th returning May 31st. and this is what we found.




Only two airlines, Air Transat and Air Canada seem to operate that day, with the Air Canada routing all points West!.




Need a letter of confirmation as an active or retired employee in order to book your cruise or interline travel plans?  It just got easier! You can now instantly produce your own letter through the Portal.  ACaeronet. With a printer and Adobe Reader 7.0 or higher, you can download a letter on Air Canada letterhead confirming your employee number, service date and status. Just go to My Travel > Automated Letter of Employment, or search on keyword "Letter of Employment".

Here we have the first installment of a trip report by Aureen and Jack Morath from LHR-

After a few months of planning, we took off on our latest travel experience which would involve flying a total of l6,525 miles, cruising 4746 miles and traveling l,249 miles by train. The main part of the trip was to connect with a cruise from Sydney to Singapore which we booked through Dargal. Although we checked out the price for the same cruise with TIS, it worked out a lot cheaper with Dargal even allowing for the dollar exchange rates.

This cruise was a repositioning cruise, and these tend to be cheaper than the normal cruises. This was on the Holland America Line starting in Auckland New Zealand and making its way through the Far East to finish up in Vancouver after 65 days, and would start the
Alaska cruises from there. You can book various sectors, and we chose this one although it meant that we would complete the last stage of our journey from Bangkok to London in the middle of the Easter period.  But as this cruise only happens one day of the year,
we decided to take the risk. We obtained tickets on Thai and we also bought back-up tickets on the other airlines operating from Bangkok to London, ie Eva Air, Qantas and British Airways.

We traveled to Bangkok on Thai which had over fifty empty seats on the lunch time departure. There is a lunch time and an evening time departure every day. We stopped in Bangkok at our usual hotel for three nights before flying to Sydney on British Airways. Our hotel in Bangkok is a five-star hotel, and we had a rate of around £38 per night including a buffet breakfast, which is an airline rate. The recession is really affecting Thailand now, and since we last stayed at the hotel in October last year, out of eight hundred staff, five hundred have been put off and the rest have had their salary cut.  Some of the floors have been closed and the newspapers and English cable TV have been stopped. The staff were still exceptional.

We hadn't booked a hotel in Sydney for our two days there prior to boarding the cruise ship, as we planned to use the hotel booking desk at the airport which we have used before and which worked out very well.  Local hotels, wanting to fill up their rooms, offer cheap prices for that night.   We were able to get a good hotel at a good price in the centre of Sydney and not far from the quayside from where the ship sailed. Australian customs are very strict with food items coming into the country, and we were pulled up by an officer after our bags had gone through the machines on arrival. They had picked up a couple of items in our bags ie biscuits and sweets which we had not declared. They were not illegal, but we had ticked on the entry card that we did not have food stuffs with us. He said that he could have fined us, but would not on this occasion! He advised that any foodstuffs which go in the mouth should be mentioned.            
(More next time -eds)

Smilie.

Ever wonder where, in India, your request for assistance with your reservation or a problem with your computer ends up?














On a recent boat trip, your co-pilot spotted this notice, and we wonder how the passengers got off of the cabin if this exit is for STAFF ONLY!