We have welcomed 248 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, Air BC, Time Air, Quebecair, Calm Air, NWT Air, Air Alliance, Air Nova, Air Ontario and Air Georgian 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!

The Air Canada Pionairs AMM will be held Thursday, October 22, 2020 at the Hilton Hotel, Winnipeg Airport at 11 a.m.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, attendance will be limited to 50 people, barring any further changes to Manitoba requirements. Appropriate social distancing will be in place and attendees are encouraged to wear masks.

With the restrictions on attendance, completing your Proxies is critical. Some of you will have received those in the mail and they will also be available through the Pionairs' website. 

Please be sure to complete and submit your proxy along with your spouse/partner’s proxy as soon as possible.

Air Canada guest representatives will still pre-record up-to-date information on Pensions, Benefits, Travel and Insurance.

If you have questions for our Air Canada guest speakers, they should be sent along to our President, Barry Hoeppner.

Barry will pass those along to the appropriate guest for them to address in their recorded presentation, or as a follow-up to their presentation.

All presentations will be posted on the Pionairs' website along with a video of the Annual Members Meeting as in the past.

(Source: Pionairs Alliance Newsletter # 54)

Subscriber Françoise Cohen has a request:

Hello everyone and thank you so much for the letter!

I was part of the May 1973 - BC/YVR Canadian Pacific Airlines class under Françoise Roger then from YUL.

I am not nor do I wish to be on Facebook. Could you please help me reconnect if possible with everyone?

Louise Gauthier, Carole Rivest, Helena Vartanian from Finland and Martin Tarjuelo with whom were spent flying beautiful years.

Any info would make me so happy.  I now live in Northern California and could fly to reconnect almost anywhere.

Editors' note: If you have any information for Ms. Cohen, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we pass along your info to her.

Another Dorval snowstorm memory. This from Hildegard Sachs in reference to Marty Vanstone's article in NetLetter #1445.

I am writing to tell you about my experience of the day of the blizzard in Dorval in 1971; it really was something.

My husband Georg Sachs, did not come home from his job at the Maintenance Base. With the roads blocked, the boys spent the night on an aircraft, parked near the Base.

Walking was also impossible, though we lived almost adjacent on the other side of that famous Dorval Circle en route the 2/20 highway, leading into Montreal. It took several days for life in Dorval to get back to normal.

I remember it quite well now at 95, and am amazed to learn how they got that flight ready and off the ground.

Hildegard

In NetLetter #1446, under "Submitted Photos", Mary Ellen Harrison sent us a photo of the terminal at Sydney (Nova Scotia) Airport. Unfortunately, the photo had some Sellotape damage partly obscuring the terminal.

When Don Weaver spotted this he sent us this information -

Hi......enjoy your Netletter. Retired from Air Canada in 2004 as Captain on the B-767. Mary Ellen's picture is so great. It had suffered some pixel damage so decided to 'fix' it up with photoshop. I've attached the modified picture.

Thank you, keep up the good work, 

Cheers, Don Weaver.

Mary Ellen Harrison (Wilson) has sent us this T.C.A. postcard from her scrapbook -

Celebrating Christmas 1957, we have this menu (below left) and a postcard (below right).

Ken Starnes of Kelowna B.C., retired from Air Canada Warranty and Contracts, Dorval Base in June 1993, sent us these photos.

Hi, we did two RV trips and discovered these for our readers. Enjoy.

Most were found in far out places up North. Small communities had photos from the past. This was 10 years or so ago. Dawson City, Whitehorse and Watson Lake, visitors' centres and the like.

There were no copyright infringements posted or notices not to take a picture of a picture. We are not using them for commercial purposes.

Think our group would be interested in seeing this historical material. We are all aviation buffs.....it’s all positive.

CF-CPE Lockheed Lodestar.

Editors' note: c/n 2489 built 1943 allocated to CPAL by USAAF on July 5, 1943 as fin #263 photographed at an unknown location. Ken Pickford advises that the photo location is (now closed) Edmonton Municipal Airport (YXD). 

The aircraft was eventually sold to C.H. Babb Inc., Glendale, California on August 8, 1950.

CF-BLV Barkley-Grow T8P-1.

Editors' note: c/n 3 built 1939, photographed at an unknown location. Acquired from Yukon Southern Air Transport by CPAL on December 22, 1943, as fin #212. Sold to H.R. Peets, Edmonton on November 29, 1949, eventually scrapped at Peace River, Alberta in 1960.

Additional note from Ken Pickford: This aircraft was named "Yukon Queen" while with Yukon Southern. It is now at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton (on loan from the Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary which has another Barkley-Grow on floats).

CF-BLV crashed near Peace River, Alberta in 1960 while with a subsequent operator but was later resurrected and rebuilt for museum display (not airworthy).

Several photos here:
www.albertaaviationmuseum.com/otw_pm_portfolio/barkley-grow/

Interestingly, although only 11 Barkely-Grows were built, 3 still survive, all in Alberta museums. The first one built is at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, 70 km south of Edmonton.

CF-BTX Barkley-Grow T8P-1.

Editors' note: c/n 11 built 1940, photographed at an unknown location. Acquired from Mackenzie Air Service on December 2, 1943, as fin# 215. Damaged beyond repair at Lake Porcupine, Alberta due to engine failure at takeoff on October 19, 1945.

Famous DC-3 workhorse for Canadian Pacific now a gate guard at Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport.

Editor's note from Bob Sheppard: Erik Nielsen was the brother of actor Leslie Nielsen who appeared in the 'Airplane' movies.

CF-AAM a Fokker Super Universal aircraft.

Editors' note: The Fokker Super Universal was an airliner produced in the United States in the late 1920's.

An enlarged and improved version of the Fokker Universal, fitted with cantilever wings and an enclosed cockpit. It was subsequently also manufactured under license in Canada.

A restored Fokker Super Universal is at the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The full story of CF-AAM is available at:
www.explorenorth.com/library/aviation/cfaam-fokker-2001

And finally, a photo of two unidentified gentlemen standing in front of "Yukon King".

Editor's note from Ken Pickford:

The aircraft is a Barkley-Grow T8P-1 operated by CP predecessor Yukon Southern Air Transport. It was registered CF-BMG and named "Yukon King".  You can see part of the name on the fuselage.

Additional Info: Damaged beyond repair after overturning at its mooring in Port Alberni, B.C. February 1, 1947.

Source: Canadian Pacific Air Lines Its History and Aircraft by D. M. Bain.

Also see NetLetter #1362 for Wayne's Wings article about Yukon Southern Air Transport.

Here is a memory that Jack Morath, Social Director for LHR Pionairs, sent to the members -

Today's picture shows a Trans-Canada Air Lines DC-8 which was introduced in 1960 (the Vickers Vanguard was introduced in 1961).

I remember when the company brought over the DC-8 to London (LHR) on a trial flight, and we were asked for volunteers to take a ride for an hour to the North of England.

I was working in the Import Cargo area at the time on the North side of the airport, and as it was only a short distance from home, I used to cycle each way.

When I went home at lunchtime I told Mum and Dad about my flight as I didn't know about it before I left in the morning. After flying in a propeller aircraft, the flight was so smooth we couldn't believe it. I remember placing a three penny piece on the seat table and it didn't fall over.

Amazing!

Alan Evans, living in South Africa, sends this memory -

Here is a grand old picture of a Hawker-Siddeley 748 demonstrator at beautiful DF Malan airport in Cape Town in 1969. Great aircraft on which I flew 3000 odd hours way back in 1960-70 in the West Indies. It was a close replacement for the DC-3, a real work horse. 

Editors' note: the Viscount on the ramp and the backdrop of Table Mountain.

I sent these pictures to Terry Baker because he was with LIAT, formerly known as Leeward Islands Air Transport Services.

I, as Terry might recall, was with them for 6 years. We went bankrupt in 1974. Here is an HS748 in LIAT colours. 

Editors' note: We checked and found this information -

Failed LIAT To Be Reborn As LIAT 2020 Ltd with US $15-20 Million Investment.

The airline (officially registered as LIAT (1974) Ltd) which carried a debt of EC $12 million (US $4.4 million) in 2019, finally reached the end of the road as Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that the airline would need to be liquidated, but insisted that a new airline would need to take its place to maintain connectivity within the Caribbean.

(Source: www.gatechecked.com/liat-2020-ltd-3185)

In NetLetter #1444 we published details of the commemorative stamps issued by the East Canada Section of the Ninety-Nines in order to celebrate Canadian women pilots representing various flying careers.

Please note that these stamps cannot be purchased at Canada Postal outlets but are available at:

www.canadian99s.com/stamps

Canadian Forces — Issue Release July 15, 2018

Lufthansa Group will put all of its Airbus A380's and 10 of its A340-600's into long-term storage, only to be reactivated in the event of an “unexpectedly rapid market recovery”, and will permanently remove the remainder of its A340-600 fleet from service. 

Source: flightglobal.com/news/airlines

Thai Airways opens diner for customers craving in-flight meals.

More than 100 diners craving in-flight meals after months of travel restrictions flocked to Thai Airways International offices recently to try a new pop-up restaurant and get a reminder of the forgotten flavours of onboard dining.

The national carrier, which has for months grounded most of its planes, has transformed the cafeteria of its Bangkok headquarters into an airline-themed restaurant and opened it to the public.

It is decorated with airplane parts and seats to lend it an authentic aircraft feel.

Source: www.weforum.org

1995 Events

• May 1 - Inauguration of daily service between Ottawa - Washington, D.C.
• - Air Ontario inaugurates service between Toronto - Columbus, Ohio  and Indianapolis, Indiana.
• June 4 - Air Alliance new service between Montreal and Hartford, Connecticut and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• July 31 - Launch daily service between Ottawa - Chicago, Illinois with CL-65 jets.
• October - New service planned between Calgary - Houston, Texas.

Jack Morath, the long serving Social Director UK Pionairs has been sending nostalgic information on a regular basis to members of the UK Pionairs since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the most active Air Canada Recreation Associations (ACRA) in the Company was the one formed in London, England in 1969. At that time, the club boasted almost 300 members, with more employees joining every day.

Sports and Social Committees were formed and a number of activities were planned to take place before the end of the year. In April, 1979, 80 members visited the West End Show "Fiddler on the Roof" and in May, 40 members had a tour round the Concorde Factory at Filton, Bristol and a further group made a tour in June, 1979.

The picture below was taken at the Filton factory, near Bristol, U.K., where the Concorde was being built. Jack tells us this was one of the most popular ACRA events we organised.

Two coach trips the first time and we had to do another coach trip to enable everyone to go. Look closely to see many younger faces!

The photo was published in "Between Ourselves" magazine issue August 1969, with the following caption:

"Some of the members of the London Chapter tour of the ACRA visited the Filton Division of the British Aircraft Corporation. During their tour they were shown the third prototype Concorde supersonic transport, the full-scale mock-up, and various systems rigs and test facilities."

Found in the “Horizons” magazine

The YYZ Dream Team for 1995. 

Toronto's 1995 'Dreams Come True' flight on May 4 was dedicated to the memory of Terry Kelly, an Air Canada Flight Attendant who had passed away earlier in the year.

Following Terry's passing, friends collected $1,500 in his memory, enough to send seven children to Disney World.

Volunteer In-Flight crew members not only worked the flight down and back but many were group leaders who organized pre-flight activities and chaperoned children at Disney World.

Standing are: Bugs Bunny, Jean-Stephane Dufresne, Michel Dallaire, Claire McKenna, Lorna Holmes, Terry Van Leeuwen, Graziella Ciarrochi, Lise Pujo, Suzanne Chiasson, Mark Adams and Marc Richard.

Kneeling are: Suzy Untch, Yves Precourt and Vida Kairys.

Ottawa Brings Washington On-Line.

"We expressly designed our new service to allow customers to fly between Ottawa and Washington and do business - all in the same day", said CEO Hollis Harris as Air Canada went all out in celebrating the beginning of service between capitals on May 1.

There were no shortages of smiles for the start-up service to the U.S. capital.

Ottawa staff involved in the inaugural included Dave Macdonald, Manager, Customer Service, Ottawa; Robert Gravel, Station Attendant; Bonnie Drouin, Customer Sales & Service Agent;
Eric Duncan Lead Station Attendant; Bill Armitage, Area Sales Manager; Captain Bob Deane; Linda Downes, Customer Sales & Service Agent; Al Liimatainen, Lead Station Attendant; Captain Jim Mason, Sterling Lesniowski, Customer Service Manager; Paul Sabourin, Station Attendant; Garry Smith, Customer Sales & Service Agent and Luc Charron, Acting Customer Service Manager.

Class of '95 Earns Wings.

Here is one of three groups of new Customer Service ln-Flight graduates:

Back row, left to right: Angela Franz, Instructor; Balkar Singh-Gill, Juan Carlos Mejias-Davila, Craig Stinson, John Miller, Robert Ruel, Instructor; Natalie Pasieka, Jonathan Simpson,
Annika Melasor, Jae-Mi Suh, Tuvia Schwartz, Guillaume Leduc, Instructor; Frank Bernard,  Instructor; Nicole Soussan, Kenton Karvitz, Coordinator; Luke Samson, Rogerio Vidal and Caroline Bedard, Instructor.

Front row, left to right: Michelle Séguin, Simona Jateram, Maria Vasilopoulos, Cynthia Rajnai, Kari Morris, Simona Tabok, Josee Szabo and Silvia Todorovic.

Done Deal!

Maintenance Clinches New Five-year UPS Contract.

It was a signing ceremony marked by a lot of smiles and celebration, and for good reason. Dorval's Power Plant team completed an initial three-year contract with UPS (United Parcel Service) and were now gathered to witness the signing of a new five-year, multi-million dollar agreement for the continued maintenance of the international courier company's JT9D engines.

Here is the photo, unfortunately no names provided, but they will know who they are.

Issue dated April 1989.

Canadian Airlines and Japan Air Lines signed a commercial agreement to jointly operate nonstop air service between Toronto and Tokyo effective May 1, 1989.

The agreement covers operation of three weekly joint flights with Canadian DC-10-30ER equipment.

Big DC-10 brake job.

Aircraft mechanics Bill Cooper, Reg Hogg and Mickey McGuire with a DC-10 brake. Each DC-10 has 10 of these brakes.

Other mechanics involved in this major job were Bill Arnold, Wayne Desimone, Way Hutchinson, Andy Law, Ben Nault, Ted Warne and Al Watson.

The Canadian Airlines ski team placed 15th overall in the Todd Brooker Ski Challenge at Ontario's Blue Mountain.

The event raised $103,000 for Ronald McDonald Charities of Canada, plus $20,000 for 'CHAMP' - the War Amputation of Canada Child Amputee Program.

From the left: Scott Weiner, Toronto Res; Helene Desehenes, Montreal Inflight; Mike Casey, Canadian Partner First Officer; host Todd Brooker; team captain Sue Malara, Toronto
Sales; and Richard Carret, Commercial Services North America.

Wardair acquisition gets final approval.

PWA Corporation confirmed that the acquisition of Wardair Inc. has received the necessary regulatory approvals and that the offer to purchase all outstanding Class A and Class B shares will be completed by April 28th, 1989.

An individual copy of the advertising supplement "We're twice the airline you thought we were", was sent to each Canadian employee in advance of appearing in major daily newspapers across Canada.

Nic Roggeman, Director Advertising and Promotion, recently met with the staff of the Vancouver mail distribution center to work on details of the task.

From left, Dave Walker, Senior Mail Clerk with Mail Clerks Barb Welk, Dan Wiebe, Judy Temple and Nic Roggeman.

On December 16, 2019, Danny Bereza posted this photo:

Four ex-Nordair employees at the 2019 Air Canada Pionairs Christmas dinner in Comox, BC.

From left to right are Paul Peron, Mike Stambois, Danny Bereza, and Mike Fox.

Editors' Note: Mike Stambois also previously sent us this picture which appeared in NetLetter #1428.

We wish to thank Yves Brunelle, Retired AC Flight Service Director, for sharing this video with The NetLetter.

The video shows flights of the Lockheed L-10A CF-TCC around the island of Montréal from inside the aircraft with descriptions of the surrounding areas plus some footage outside the aircraft.

Due to the excessive noise inside the aircraft, the video sound was added later with Air Canada music in French and English.

The pilots on that day were Jean Corbeil and Denis Chaput. The president of Dreams Take Flight YUL was Brian Roscoe.

Airbus rolled back the curtain on its three-ship ZEROe program, intended to bring “zero emissions” aircraft to service in just 15 years. At the heart of these three concepts is hydrogen power, and show it deployed in a conventional turbofan twin, a turboprop twin, and a futuristic lifting body transport.

“This is a historic moment for the commercial aviation sector as a whole and we intend to play a leading role in the most important transition this industry has ever seen. The concepts we unveil today offer the world a glimpse of our ambition to drive a bold vision for the future of zero-emission flight,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO. “I strongly believe that the use of hydrogen—both in synthetic fuels and as a primary power source for commercial aircraft—has the potential to significantly reduce aviation’s climate impact.”

According to Airbus, one of the two more conventional designs seating 120-200 passengers and resembling a modern turbofan airliner will have a range of 2,000+ NM and be “capable of operating trans-continentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen, rather than jet fuel, through combustion.

Source: avweb.com/aviation-news

What Happened To Air Canada’s Boeing 747's?

If you haven't already, I would like to recommend visiting SimpleFlying.com and subscribing to their daily newsletter. 

Recently they published a story detailing the fate of all the Boeing 747's that have flown in the Air Canada or Canadian Airlines fleets. I have written about B-747's a few times but I always enjoy re-visiting them for up to date information on where they are now. 

Surprisingly, there remains one aircraft still in service. Original registration C-GAGM (Fin # 342) is still registered with Dubai Air Wing / Royal Flight under registration A6-COM for VIP service and is approaching 30 years of service. 

The Simple Flying article accounts for 14 aircraft but does seem to omit one; registration C-FCRA (Fin # 882) delivered to Canadian Airlines in February of 1991 and named for F. R. "Russ" Baker. The aircraft shows as being stored in the Mojave desert since 2013.

References and additional Information:

Simple Flying article

Planespotters.net lists all 15 aircraft. 

My other Boeing 747 NetLetter articles:

Boeing 747-100 "The Classic" - Issue #1323

Boeing 747- 400 - Issue #1340

Delivery of C-GMWW – Canada’s first B747-400 - Issue #1392

Dubai Air Wing / Royal Flight -registration A6-COM

Photo by: RHL Images

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

Answer for the mystery airline in Odds and Ends.

The flag carrier of Kenya, Kenya Airways was founded in 1977 and are headquartered in Nairobi. The airline has been a member of SkyTeam since 2010, and the African Airlines Association since 1977.

Kenya Airways is a leading African airline flying to 56 destinations worldwide – 46 of which are in Africa – and carrying over four million passengers annually. It continues to modernize its fleet, with its 36 aircraft being some of the newest in Africa. This includes its flagship B787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Source: www.skyteam.com/en/about/kenya-airways

Additional Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_Airways