Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

In NetLetter #1490 we asked if anyone had memories of a tour of Britain for CP Air Employees to share.

Janet Sinclair, YVR District Director for the Pionairs, submitted the following:

Reading your article on a Drummond and Dixon tour brought to my memory a tour with Mike Dixon to Yorkshire.

We walked the Yorkshire Dales section of the Pennine Way in May. It was an eclectic group of employees, spouses and one parent, my mother.  As Mike was a friend, my mother and I flew to Amsterdam and connected on a commuter flight to Britain, with Mike and his wife Linda, a few days before the tour was to start. We were able to spend some time with Mike’s parents, seeing the sites of York, Harrogate and the surrounding area.

Mike mentioned that just the year before, it had been a warm sunny May in Yorkshire, however, this year it was cold and damp. We met our group in a pub and were introduced to the retired army officer who was to be our guide. The first day we took off, with our heavy backpacks, and soon discovered that the way was uphill and our guide walked very quickly.  Some of us lagged behind, out of breath. 

It was a great relief when we reached our first overnight stay at a lovely old pub.  We had a great meal and an entertaining evening.  The next morning my mother organized a taxi to the next pub to carry her backpack. Everyone, except our guide, put their backpacks in the cab. The guide was a bit chuffed that we were such “sissies”.  

Without our backpacks the trek was much more pleasant.  Even though it was cold, muddy, and raining the scenery was still beautiful.  Rolling hills, many sheep, we even saw one being born.

There were many of these ponds and we had to be careful not to slip into one. We were a fun group and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Each night in a different pub, always with great food and, of course, we learned to like 'Old Peculiar' the local beer. 

Yorkshire is quite amazing, many small farms and mixed in with barren land.  Near the end of our trek we reached the 'Aire Gap', the lowlands which form a geographical corridor between the South Pennine and Yorkshire Dales.

There were huge granite stones we made our way across. Elsewhere, it is rolling pastures and flat riverside walking.  On our final day the sun came out and we only had to walk up lovely grassy hills although, by this time, we were all in great shape for hiking.

Gilderdale Burn Looking northeast (downstream) from the Pennine Way towards the River South Tyne.

Photo by George Tod @ commons.wikimedia.org

Re: NetLetter #1490 - Airport Codes

Karen Jenson Wales asks:

Why is Bathurst city code ZBF?

Ken Pickford responds:

Regarding the ZBF IATA airport code for Bathurst, New Brunswick, I expect the question is why it starts with Z and not Y. At least 20 Canadian airports have IATA codes starting with Z.

A few examples - Boundary Bay, BC (ZBB), Faro, Yukon (ZFA), Bella Bella, BC (ZEL), Masset, BC (ZMT), Fort McPherson, NWT (ZFM), Bromont, QC (ZBM), High Prairie, AB (ZHP), Grand Forks, BC (ZGF).

Excerpt below is the explanation I've seen, from an aviation forum discussion on the subject a few years ago. Whether it's correct or not I don't know. The Z codes were apparently used for airports that didn't have an official weather reporting station.

A few Canadian airports also have codes starting with X, e.g. Bearskin Lake, ON (XBE), Lac Brochet, MB (XLB).

The 4-letter ICAO code used for operational purposes (flight plans, air traffic control etc.) for most Canadian airports is the IATA code preceded by C (e.g. YVR, CYVR). However, that's not always the case. For example, while the IATA code for Lac Brochet, MB is XLB, the ICAO code is CZWH.

See the last sentence in the forum excerpt below re the Z and X codes.

Canada used two letters for identification of a weather reporting station. Additionally, preceding the 2-letter code, was placed a Y (meaning "yes") where the reporting station was co-located with an airport, a W (meaning "without") where the reporting station was not co-located with an airport, and a U where the reporting station was co-located with an NDB. An X was used if the last two letters of the code had already been taken by another Canadian ident, and a Z was used if the locator could be confused with a U.S. three letter ident.