Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Larry Milberry has put together a blog which can be followed at canavbooks.wordpress.com. We have permission from Larry to publish some of his stories & photos.

Cold weather trials for the A220-300.

Yellowknife had a rare visitor and another chance to feature itself as a centre for cold weather trials. On January 12, 2020 an Airbus A220-300 (C-FFDO) landed there from Winnipeg to undergo some special testing. On taxiing in at Yellowknife. "FDO" parked beside the Buffalo Airways Lockheed Electra, whose captain, Tony Jervis took the great photo below. What a contrast in air transport history, right!

That afternoon Yellowknife had a temperature of -45C, so no one could complain about conditions. 'FDO' sat outside being 'cold soaked (sitting outside with all aircraft power turned off).

Apparently, this testing was about increasing the A220's certified cold weather operations limit from -35C to -40C. On January 14, 2020 "FDO" was, by then, thoroughly cold soaked and made a 49-minute local flight.

Ground testing continued until January 18, 2020 when it departed for the base at Wichita via Calgary and Kansas City.

'FDO' was manufactured in Montreal in March 2016 as a Bombardier CSeries CS300. Designated 'Flight Test Vehicle 8', until January 20, 2020 it had logged 77 flights / 207.46 flying hours.

Additional info: aibfamily.flights/A220/55002

Editors' Note: Air Canada received its first A220-300 on December 20, 2019 - C-GROV fin #101. See NetLetter #1428.

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Issue dated December 1998

It's now easy to get to 'The Big Easy'.

Here we have the crew which operated the A319 inaugural service between Toronto and New Orleans.

Left to right: In-Charge George Mitterer, Flight Attendants Patty Vlachos and Diane Thibault, Captains Dave Glazier and John Bradshaw.

Here we have a photo of the ramp area at Vancouver Airport in 1959 with TCA's Super Constellation, North Star and DC-3's.

Issue dated November 1999

Stamping our mark.

By Georgia Johns, Corporate Communications Coordinator, Toronto.

Did you know two of Air Canada's aircraft are featured on commemorative postage stamps?

In 1996, the postal service of Barbados issued stamps with a "Links with Canada" theme. The $0.90 and $1.00 stamps, both currently out of circulation, portrayed an Air Canada B-767 and A320 respectively.

Fifty years ago, Trans-Canada Air Lines provided the first scheduled air link between this Caribbean island and Canada with a North Star aircraft.

Our 50th new route links North America's two capitals.

On August 3, 1999, flight AC354 touched down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, marking the start-up of non-stop CRJ service between Ottawa and Washington every business day.

Posing with the Canadian flag are, left to right: First Officer Patrick Molotchnikoff and Captain Jean-Jacques Podrez.

Plane pull helps raise money for Special Olympics.

On September 12, 1999, 24 well-muscled teams gathered outside our Montreal wide-body hangar to compete in the first ever B-767 Challenge. Organized by Aéroports de Montréal and MUC Police Neighbourhood Station 5, the event raised funds for the Quebec Special Olympics. Each 20-member team of Arnold Schwarzenegger-types tested his/her mettle by pulling an Air Canada B-767, weighing 86,000 kg (190,000 lb.), over a distance of 4 m (12 ft.).

In the category of fastest pull, our team of Ramp Rats finished second with a time of 8.94 seconds; the Mohawks of Kahnawake came in first at 8.74 seconds. Two thousand people turned up to watch and $22,000 was raised for the athletes.

Who were our Dorval Ramp Rats?

Station Attendants Mike Leonarrdi, Patrick Le Formal, Alain Cloutier, Serge Legault, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Thomas Dunn, Sebastien Marcoux, Jean-Sebastien Canuel, Frederic Poirier, Charles O'Donnel and Pierre Turcotte.

Station Leads: Jean Constantineau, Don Dupré, Frank Greco, Louis Frappier, Graeme Roussac.

Mechanics: Kenneth Goodfellow, Steven Cowie, Douglas Black and Marc Rouette. 

It took an international cast of characters to kick off our service to Taipei.

On July 6, 1999, our inaugural flight from Vancouver to Taipei was a success thanks to the contribution of many employees from across the system.

Pictured, left to right, is the start-up team:

Kneeling: Jannet Tricarico, Training Instructor, Customer Sales and Service, Vancouver and Regent Dussault, Manager, Operations Control, Weight and Balance, Toronto.

Standing: Stephen Sun, Station Attendant, Vancouver; John McManus, Training Instructor, Aircraft Services, Vancouver; Kerry Laverty, Cargo Agent, Vancouver; Raymond Chang, General Manager, Taipei; Gary Cheung, Manager, Commissary and Catering, NA West and Pacific Rim, Vancouver; Marc Rosenberg, Vice President, Sales and Product Distribution, Toronto; Robert Perreault, General Manager Asia and Pacific, Hong Kong; Gary Cameron, Manager, Customer Service, STOC, Vancouver; Vincent Tsai, Airport Manager, Taipei; Victor Liboiron, Technician, Advantis, Vancouver and Frank Shettlesworth, Manager, Training and Development, Europe and Asia, London, UK.

Missing: Joanna Goh, Customer Sales and Service Agent, Vancouver.