We have welcomed 175 new subscribers so far in 2020.

We wish to thank everyone for your support of our efforts.

We always welcome feedback about Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) from our subscribers who wish to share current events, memories and photographs.

Particularly if you have stories to share from one of the legacy airlines: Canadian Airlines, CP Air, Pacific Western, Eastern Provincial, Wardair, Nordair, Transair and many more (let us know if we have omitted your airline).

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We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.

Thanks!

Neil Burton sends this information from a "VIA NORDAIR" newsletter -

These women, I believe, were at WACA events of the late 1970's.

Fourth Molson Trophy win for Nordair.

Nordair stewardesses take all prizes in Montreal Interline Beauty Pageant.

Montreal - Scoring a clean sweep over all other airlines entered, Nordair stewardesses finished first, second, third and fourth in the 10th Annual Montreal Interline Beauty Pageant held in Schofield Hall, Town of Mount Royal, on Saturday, May 8, 1976.

The Winner, Christine Guida (below left), will go on to compete against representatives of most of the world's major airlines in the 'Miss Interline International' pageant to be held in Miami, Florida on May 22, 1976.

First runner-up was Danielle Perrault, who was also voted 'Miss Congeniality'. Francine Vincent was second runner-up and Myrian Smith third runner-up (below right).

In addition to the Molson Trophy, the fourth time it has been taken by Nordair, Ms. Guida won an expense paid TAP trip to Lisbon, Portugal, and a colour television set. Ms. Perrault won a trip to Portugal on TAP and each of the four top girls was presented with a personal Molson trophy.

Neil Burton, May 2, 2020.

Clarence Ash sends us two photos of Kamloops (YKA) and Kelowna (YLW) airports from his time as a relief passenger agent based at Kamloops airport in 1960.

The monument in front of the Kamloops Airport photo (below) is a plaque commemorating John Fulton, 1st commander of famous RCAF 419 Squadron in World War Two, for whom the airport was named.

This memory was posted to Facebook by Marc Gagnon of Nordair January 2, 2013.

Funny story goes with this license. Nordair was one of the only Canadian airlines requiring their dispatchers to have an FAA certification. This required a 6 hour written exam followed by another 6 hour oral exam in Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).

The day of my oral exam coincided with the freeing of the 6 American hostages from Tehran.

The news broke during the lunch break, so the afternoon of the exam was spent in a bar with a dozen FAA inspectors shoving beer down my throat and I was driven to the ramp in an FAA vehicle and poured into the cockpit for the flight back to Montreal (YUL).

Needless, to say, I passed the exam with flying colours. 

(Source: www.facebook.com)

Below are photos of a group of mechanics changing a nose wheel on fin #302.

(Editors note: it seems that Magnus was a tad reluctant).

Left to right: Dick Shannon, Magnus (Blondie) Thorsteson, Frank Hingston, Carman Teed and Brian Hotel. 

Photo on the right, squatting around the nose wheel for fin# 302 are left to right: Carman Teed, Jim Stevenson, Brian Hotel and Dick Shannon. 

Flight AC80 landed on June 3, 2020 in Tel Aviv, from Toronto.

This marks 25 years of service between Canada and Israel and our first passenger flight connecting these cities since March 16.

(Source: facebook.com/aircanada)

Ottawa joins courier network.

Ottawa has officially become part of the courier network, operating a regularly scheduled Kelowna Flightcraft all-cargo Convair 580 that will carry Purolator, Same Day and Priority Post mail traffic and will be jointly handled by Aircraft Services and Cargo personnel.

Shown in photo from left to right are: Station Attendants Mike Brisebois, Pierre Turgeon, Raymond Therien, Luc St. Amand, Denis Chartrand and Yvon Legault; Cargo Service Supervisor Tony Dewan; Station Attendant Frank Van Den Weghe and part-time Station Attendant Andy Dintinger.

Hello from Quebec.

Our colleagues in Quebec City were very happy about the arrival of the first B-767 of the 1990-91 winter schedule to Fort Lauderdale.

Seen here from left to right are: Mario Belleau, Michel Deschesne, Sylvain Dufour, Denis Moisan, Pierre Rochette, Jean-Frangois Savard, Marcel Bédard, Line Robinson, Richard Poliquin, Michel Tétreault and Thierry Raynard.

Farewell to Madrid and Lisbon.

With the recent suspension of services to Madrid and Lisbon, dinners were held in these two stations to thank staff for their efforts during two years of operations.

A special commendation went to each individual for the spirit of care they displayed especially during the difficult time of downsizing the stations.

The photo shows the Madrid Sales, Reservations and Airport Personnel.

They are from left to right: Antoine Mousa, Miguel Angel Martin, Rocio Sandovall, Juan Manuel Borja, Hans Schuett, Ma Cristina Fernandez, Carlos Lopez, Director Gral Euroair, Peter de Sisto, Manager. Spain and Portugal; Graham Edwards, Regional Manager Administration, Europe & Asia; Mar Rusz, Miguel Angel Ayuso, Isobel Mateo and Jose Diez.

And in the Lisbon photo are the Sales, Reservations and Airport Personnel.

Left to right (seated): Gracinda Bastos, Mize Nero, Cecilia Alves, Henriqueta Rodrigues and Margarita Gil.

Left to right (standing): Jose Almeida, Evelio Arnorin, Eurico Morass, Ana Maria Cabrita, Ernesto Alves, Peter de Sisto
and Joao Oliveira.

Maple Wings AGM.

The Canadian Maple Wings, an association of former TCA stewardesses and present day Air Canada flight attendants, held their AGM and mini-reunion in Vancouver on April 19 and 20, 1991.

They organized a full schedule, starting with a get-together Friday at the Hyatt Regency.

An early start was made for Saturday with a full breakfast before the AGM and the afternoon left free for shopping and sightseeing. Casual dress was the order of the day for the evening sit-down dinner cruise aboard the "Britannia". Special rates had been negotiated with the Hyatt.

Found in the "Between Ourselves" magazine issue September 1948.

A change in our tariff regulations now makes it possible for children over five years and under twelve to travel the length of TCA's system, Domestic and Atlantic, without an adult companion.

The only condition is that the child be accompanied to the departing airport by a parent or responsible adult and met upon arrival by similar persons.

Consequently, TCA has introduced something new in airline service, and becomes the first North American carrier to do so.

A seasoned traveller at five is blonde, bright-eyed Diane Ford, shown here as she completed a 6000 mile journey with TCA from London, England, to Vancouver.

Diane travelled unaccompanied to live with her foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kingshott (left), in the coast city.

Stewardess Emily Doree brought her over the last leg of the journey.

Reliving history... 45 years later.
(From "Horizons" magazine issue September 1993)

When five-year old Diane Ford stepped off a Trans-Canada Air Lines plane at Vancouver Airport on July 26, 1948, photographers scrambled to take her picture.

Billed by the airline as "the first child in the world to fly the Atlantic unescorted", Diane got the VIP treatment from TCA.

Photographers had tracked her progress across the Atlantic from England to Gander, Newfoundland through Montreal and Toronto to Vancouver— a journey which took a total of three days.

Diane Ford Thompson recently flew back to England aboard Air Canada for the first time in 45 years. The trip was her 50th birthday present from her children.

Captain Stan Kruger (left) made Diane's trip a little more memorable by inviting her to visit the flight deck before take-off. 

Items found on the Nordair Facebook group page.

News from Nordair.

(donated by Don Murphy October 27, 2019)

Here we have this photo. 

Part of the text reads as follows:

Nordair extends its scheduled flight service north of the Arctic Circle.

By order # 2229 issued by the Air Transport Board on June 23, 1959, Nordair has been authorized to serve Cape Dyer, N.W.T., under its Class 2 license.

This new point will be served by Nordair as an extension to its flight 41N/42D leaving Montreal, every Thursday morning with return on Friday morning.

Fare one way Frobisher-Cape Dyer $57.00 round trip $114.00.

Fare one way Montreal-Cape Dryer $186.00 round trip $372.00.

Nordair was acquired by Canadian Pacific Air Lines in mid-1986 and was formally merged in 1987, shortly before Pacific Western Airlines acquired Canadian Pacific Air Lines, becoming Canadian Airlines International.

This image was posted on Facebook by Wayne Hamidy on November 6, 2007.

Posted by John Desramaux on January 2, 2013.

Stunning photo courtesy Jacek Romanowski. Notice the aircraft has the original clam-shell thrust reversers. The target reversers were installed in November 1969.

In fact, in this photo and when the aircraft was delivered to Nordair in November 1968 it had a nose wheel ski but was not gravel certified.

From left to right Flight Attendant Anita Barr, Boeing Representative Bob Bogash, Purser Hugh Valence (deceased),

Captain Paddy Szrajer, Flight Attendant Pat Kelly, unidentified Transport Canada Inspector, Flight Attendant Andre Chadourne and Chief Flight Attendant Glorys Valois pose with C-FNAB in March 1969 at Frobisher Bay airport (YFB), now Iqaluit.

Canadian Airlines discontinued B-737 service to Kelowna, Fort St. John, Sandspit and Smithers.

Canadian partner Time Air commenced turbo-prop service coincident with Canadian’s withdrawal, providing aircraft size and frequency that more closely matches demand.

Canadian's withdrawal and Time Air's commencement of service to Kelowna will begin January 13, 1991 and to Fort St. John, Sandspit, and Smithers in April, 1991.

Five A310's left the fleet as planned and six B-737s were sold. This continued to lower the average age of the fleet. Canadian already operated one of the youngest, most fuel-efficient fleets in the world.

Neil Burton contributed this article -

Pacific Western Airlines Sweepstakes – Promotion valid from November 15, 1982 – May 15, 1983.

(The promotional sheet shown in the photos had no year in it but was finally matched to an article, in which a photo of Lorne Perrin, Customer Service Manager, Kamloops, is seen scratching a boarding pass – Kamloops Daily Sentinel – Nov. 9, 1982, Tuesday – page. 13.)

The airline was wanting to win customers away from the competitors. There were 14 major prizes offered:

Seven trips to Las Vegas, included airfare, accommodation, and $1,000 spending money, or 7 books of Quick Tickets, good for 10 one-way or 5 return trips to anywhere on P.W.A.’s scheduled route system.

Total value of the scratch and match instant win and sweepstakes game was said to be over $1 million.

Passengers were given a combination boarding pass/playing card before boarding their flights.

The idea was to match the image on one side of the card to see what they might win. Then, scratch one square on the right side of card to try to match image.

Besides 14 major prizes, P.W.A. was offering hundreds of instant prizes. There were weekends for 2 at selected Westin Hotels, Budget Rent-a-Car rentals, cash, Boeing 737 model kits and inflight vouchers.

The program was said to be brought about because of the decline in air traffic.

Las Vegas was one of the destinations offered through P.W.A.’s charter operations.

Neil Burton,  May 18, 2020.

Neil Burton also sends us this information, as posted at www.pwareunion.com -

The Convair Story -- 1967 - 1978 - by Ruth Cowan.

(Pacific Western Airlines Ltd. – “Speedbird” publication – Vol. 6; No. 2; August 1978)

Attached is a story of Ruth Cowan of the last scheduled flight of P.W.A.’s Convair 640 – C-FPWU, aircraft fin# 642, from Vancouver to Powell River and Campbell River, before returning to the ramp at Vancouver on June 10th, 1978.

I’ve attempted to re-create the published photos as best I could by scanning and then photographing.

The story is being published in June as it will be 42 years since that last scheduled flight.

Below we have a photo of Convair 640 - C-FPWU in 1978. 

Kathleen Palmer posted this memory on Facebook

I remember how we used to chalk the nose gear wheel into 6 sections, put money into the kitty and whichever number it stopped on at the gate / designated spot, the person that had that number won the pot.

Liz Chaston replied - I remember the nose wheel roulette very well, maybe with captain George Brown? All of the district guys were great.

Jetlagged comic by Kelly Kincaid who posted this on Facebook,  May 31, 2020.

Happy International Flight Attendant Day!

If you're on leave, retired, still working or facing furlough, remember that you are still part of an amazing, supportive community of people. Make it a great day no matter what!

Kelly

Our first video comes from the RCScaleAirplanes YouTube channel.

Gigantic 10 meter large Concorde - maiden flight.

Otto Widlroither brings his giant homemade Concorde in the air for the very first time.

Ralph Quick sends a link to this video -

Time for something light-hearted in these days. If you ever flew in a Beaver aircraft you will enjoy this. That’s if you can still hear !

Editor's note: Original video posted by Kevin Thompson and is accompanied by the "Beaver Song" performed by the Fretless Bar Girls.

Airliner graveyard.

Old airplanes go to the deserts of Arizona and California to die, and the graveyards are getting more and more crowded as the economy languishes.

Aircraft storage yards report a big spike in the number of planes. Some of them have been mothballed by airlines struggling to manage the double whammy of volatile fuel prices and the tanking economy, and the odds are good many of them will never fly again. Call it a sign of the times for the beleaguered airline industry.

One place seeing a bump in business is Evergreen Maintenance Center at Pinal Air Park in southern Arizona. There are 185 aircraft there now, and company president Jack Keating expects another 27 by the end of the year. He says he hasn't seen numbers like that since the months after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Once parked, a lot of the planes get Canyon Ranch spa-like treatment. The crew at Evergreen drains the fluids then covers the windows, engine inlets, tires and landing gear with Mylar. Planes are towed around the lot once a month to keep the tires in good shape. It's a similar drill at the military boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

The engines are filled with heavy oil to protect them, and all the openings are sprayed with a white latex-based coating called Spraylat to deflect some of the heat and keep the wind, dust and vermin at bay.

We're probably all lucky that some of the old birds sitting in those graveyards aren't being pressed back into service. But for those of us who love aviation, there's something a little bit sad about row after row of aging aircraft sitting in the desert, all but forgotten.

(Source: www.wired.com/2009/03/airplane-gravey)

Canada's Aircraft Industry.

Aviation Week & Space Technology 100+ Year Archives, April 1, 1938

The Canadian aircraft industry is being groomed to become once again an important source of supply for Great Britain in case of a European war. Once before the mother country relied on Canada to supply the wings of war.

During the World War hurriedly assembled airplane manufacturing plants at Toronto produced 2,900 two place fighters for European war zones. This summer practically every one of the 10 Canadian airplane manufacturing companies will be starting production of entire or parts of military airplanes for the British Air Ministry and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In the summer of 1938, a British Air Mission toured Canada and conferred with aircraft manufacturers, financiers and the Canadian government. As a result, initial orders have been placed with individual companies and with a specially formed syndicate for the production of fighting airplanes to ascertain how speedily the Canadian aircraft industry can build military machines.

If production this year and next comes up to expectations, orders for more advanced airplanes are expected.

(Source: aviationweek.com, April 8, 2020

Additional Reference: www.veterans.gc.ca)

Arrow Airways Limited was a small airline acquired by Canadian Airways Limited.

Here we have the timetable issued November 1,1939. 

(Source: from the collection of Bjorn Larsson)

AeroTEC and magniX successfully conducted the first flight of their eCaravan all-electric Cessna 208B Grand Caravan on Thursday, May 28.

The 30-minute flight took place at the AeroTEC Flight Test Center, which is located at Grant County International Airport (MWH) in Moses Lake, Washington. According to magniX, the eCaravan is currently the world’s largest all-electric commercial aircraft.

(Source: avweb.com June 1. 2020 and www.aerotec.com)

DHL, the freight carrier, says thanks as it supports the National Health Service of the U.K. in its fight against COVID-19.

(Source: flightglobal.com Note: Registration required to view archives)

More info at DHL.com

Air Canada Recreation Association (ACRA)

It has been a challenge for the past few months to find a positive topic to write about.

Terry has been looking around Facebook lately and found a picture that reminded me of a very happy time not long before my retirement.

I was the treasurer for our local 'ACRA' chapter in Vancouver for the last 10 years of my career. On a beautiful day in July 2015, we had a picnic on the Spanish Banks beach on English Bay (photo in header and below).

I think that the acronym  'ACRA' may bring back fond memories for many of us.

An ACRA registration card was included within the paperwork provided to new employees when I started my career in 1980. The first event that I attended was an 'Octoberfest' party later that year and it was where I began to feel that I was a part of the 'Air Canada' family.

The company actively promoted and supported ACRA across the system and all events and activities were open to everyone. Management and union personnel got together in the spirit of companionship and it was a wonderful boost to morale. ACRA was part of the 'Awards and Recognition' group and was managed by volunteers for all departments. 

Unfortunately, support of ACRA by the company ended during the difficult years of the early 2000's. I have always thought that it was a mistake for the company to discontinue its involvement. 

ACRA continues today at a few of the larger stations with each managing their own groups.

Hopefully, they can keep the 'family' atmosphere thriving. 

Here are a few links to ACRA stations:

YUL Website

YYZ Website

YYC on Facebook

YVR on Facebook 

YVR ACRA Beach BBQ Spanish Banks July 2015.

Among the attendees are ACRA organizers Tiffany Smitz, Susan Lee and Sue Sitter.

Also attending were (in no particular order): Kellye McPhee, Bina Kapahi, Shannon Donoghue, Patrick Masse, Moira Connelly, Betty Shewchuk, Malindi Zitko, Melissa Wong Hance, Danny Pierson, Michiyo Sonoda and myself.

Can you spot me among the group? Click the image to find me.

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Steve Cosgrove of Interline Travel sends this information -

Medical Workers and First Responders can get a Free River Cruise to use through 2021

As a gesture of appreciation for their dedication and sacrifices during the coronavirus pandemic, AmaWaterways is offering complimentary future cruise certificates to front line medical professionals and first responders.

The certificates can be used for any AmaWaterways river cruise in Europe or Asia through December 31, 2021 and can be redeemed within 90 days prior to sailing date.

The certificate must be used with one paying guest in the same stateroom.

Contact info:

Telephone: 817-481-8631 / 800 766-2911,

Open 7 Days a Week,
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Monday to Friday
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Saturday
12 p.m. to 5 p.m. - Sunday - Phone Only

Address: 2325 East Southlake Blvd, Southlake, Tx 76092 USA

(Source: travelandleisure.com)

Answer for the mystery airline in Odds and Ends.

Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac), Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area.

It is the fifth largest airline in the United States when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and number of destinations served.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Early aircraft interiors - Early Economy Class

An elderly passenger sleeps in his airline seat in the late 1940's.

Photo: Getty Images.

(source: aviationweek.com,  May 13, 2020)