We have welcomed 114 new subscribers so far in 2021.

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

Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.

We invite you to visit our website at www.thenetletter.net/netletters to view our archives.

Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.

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: Trans-Canada Air Lines, 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, Air Georgian and all other Canadian based airlines that once graced the Canadian skies.

Please feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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

Thanks!

Alongside other major aviation events, the annual National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) is returning to an in-person format this year.

Scheduled for October 12 - 14, 2021, the show will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Source: nbaa.org/events

Dave Shore sends this comment after reading NetLetter #1465 -

One of my favourite columns in transportation magazines, be they air, rail or ship, is the trip report. I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise ship story by Terry Baker. Don’t think I’ve seen one before in NetLetter. Maybe you can include some more in future issues.

Dave Shore,

Richmond, British Columbia

Regarding the brooch that John Rodger inquired about in NetLetter #1465 -

Lawson Tremellen responded:

This item was a sales "Give Away" used by districts and others in sales promotions. There were also matching earrings.

At one time in my career I had responsibility for a catalogue of AC identified gifts and this was one of them.

Posted by Don Buck on the Nordair Facebook page.

I don't think any of us in Nordair maintenance realized how fortunate we were to have four or five all-expense-paid 28-day vacations at that highly sought after, all-inclusive vacation destination Hall Beach.

Beautiful Arctic gravel prairie, frigid Foxe Basin, not a tree for a thousand miles, and lets not forget the resort itself. Those magnificent battleship grey buildings, all painted institutional green inside. Now throw in a couple of Fairchild FH 227 aircraft operated by the tour operator.

Who could want for anything more! Suffice to say we found ways to amuse ourselves. 

The November 1992 issue of 'Horizons' included the picture below with the following caption:

Happy trails.

There's no golf green in the future for this retiree. November 21, 1992 marks the last day of flying for Air Canada's B-727 fleet, which has been sold to Federal Express. It was 18 years last August that the airline's first B-727-200 rolled off the assembly line. The aircraft started out as the one-class, 144-seat backbone of Rapidair.

Steve Bradley, B-727 Captain, Toronto, was the captain of the last revenue flight and sent in the following letter published in the January 1993 issue of 'Horizons'.

A better send off.

It was a great picture of the '27' in the November issue but I think an aircraft as good as the B-727 deserves a better good-bye.

The B-727 came to Air Canada in 1974. At its peak, the AC B-727 fleet totalled 39 aircraft. The B-727's ruggedness and superb reliability earned it the nickname "Maytag" from maintenance and pilots.  As well as Maytag, the B-727 was also known as the 'three-holer', the '27' and, less complimentary, the "truck" or the "water wagon".

Our 27's were officially retired October 25, 1992. Almost as if the 27's knew it was too soon to go, the remaining few were kept quite busy after the official retirement, filling in for their high-tech successor.

The end finally came however with the last B-727 revenue flight November 26, 1992. I had the honour of being the captain on her last two revenue flights, and indeed, she went out in style.

The agents in both Montreal and Toronto advised boarding passengers about the fact and, on both flights 435 and 424, an appropriate announcement was made when airborne. Any thought that our Rapidair business people could care less about these noteworthy flights soon dispelled, as with each landing a round of applause was heard. On deplaning, normally hurried business people paused to shake hands, pat the bulkhead, and have me autograph and put the flight and aircraft number on their souvenir B-727 seat pocket safety card.

On November 28, aircraft fin #418 was ferried to Winnipeg to await the beginning of its new career, flying packages with Federal Express. Aircraft fin #418 and the rest of the 727 fleet served us well, and appropriately, her last flight arrived five minutes early. The comments written in fin #418's logbook sum it up:

"So long 27's, safe flying with Fed-Ex. We'll miss ya!"

Steve Bradley, B-727 Captain, Toronto.

Horizons Editor's Note: The crew on flights AC435 and AC424 included: Steve Bradley, Tim McCullagh, Dahl Manthorpe, Nicole Miles, Danielle Martel, André Deslauriers, Jean-Claude Doumit, Francine Picotte, Danielle Riendeau, Francine Poitras, Louise Lamerre, Jeanne Layzell, Loraine Nantel and Mary Wayland.

Editor's Note by Ken Pickford: Found this interesting YouTube video of the same aircraft (N265FE) on its final flight in 2013 after 20 years with FedEx.

Donated to a museum and training facility at Lakeland, Florida, about 45 km east of Tampa. The video includes two low-level flypasts before its final landing, then speeches etc. 

Click the image below to view the video posted by J. Martin.

July 6 News Release

- Air Canada Continues to Rebuild its Global Network with Service Resuming to Key Destinations Around The World.

• Resumption of year-round service between Calgary and Frankfurt.
• Unique non-stop service between Montreal and Cairo, Egypt.
• Book with confidence with Air Canada's new travel policy.

Air Canada has been busy updating its YouTube channel with Olympic themed videos.

Click the image below to view members of Canada's Olympic team boarding flight #003 from Vancouver to Tokyo.

Delivering the signal that airline travel is storming back (at least domestic leisure travel), United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sent an email message to customers announcing “the largest aircraft purchase that our industry has seen in a decade.”

United placed orders (terms not disclosed) for 270 single-aisle jets, 200 Boeing 737 Max-series and 70 Airbus A321neos.

He also said that every new aircraft would have United’s “signature interior” with improved seats, upgraded entertainment systems with power outlets and seatback screens for every passenger, and larger overhead storage bins. Kirby added that United would retrofit existing aircraft with the interiors, updating two-thirds of the fleet by 2023 and 100 percent by 2025.

Source: www.avweb.com/aviation-news

Here is the cover of the enRoute magazine issue May/June 2021.

Singer/songwriter Jill Barber and author/broadcaster Grant Lawrence with their children hiking near their cabin in Desolation Sound, British Columbia.

Click the image to view the full issue.

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Bye-Bye Irene.

LaGuardia Customer Sales Agent Irene Bye was the centre of attention when she announced her retirement after 25 years of service.

Wishing her well are, from left to right:

Renée Heiser, Customer Service Agent (kneeling); Barbara Cronin, Secretary; Customer Service Agents Maria Vocilla, Nancy Porterfield, Regina Geber, Suzanne Cummings and John Ring, Airport Manager.

YWG achieves perfect record.

Congratulations to the Winnipeg Phase Check Crews, who had recently achieved two consecutive months without any delays on A320 work events.

The proud crew shown here, from left to right:

Collin Latta, Don Mazur, Rob Meyer, Mike Clarkson, Willy Degner, Dave Brulotte, Len Kardashinski, Harold Sledgers, Jim Lucas, Len Evanchyshin, Walter Tataryn, Paul Campbell, Jeff Chisholm, Mark Harris, Mike Melnyk, Dennis Mackay, Gerry Hunt, John Nero, Kerry Gluck, Rolly Gauthier, Jeff Gervais, Dave Rowe, Brian Alderdice, Randy Dodson, Bill Schaefer, Dale Zikman, Marty Macri, Dean Hallman, Dave Gillis, Peter Styles, Dave Guille, Tom Kay and Robin Williamson.

LAX celebrates silver anniversary.

The City of Los Angeles recently presented Air Canada with a commendation congratulating the airline on 25 years of service to the city. The ticket counter staff at Terminal 2 proudly show off the official document.

In our photo we have, from left to right: Berit Vickter, Adrienne Everakes, Chantal Sullivan, Jeannine Berger, Diane Kelly, Linda Shipke and Laurice Messih.

YEG service anniversaries add up!

These Edmonton employees are proud of their combined 150 years of service. Celebrating 25 years each with Air Canada during 1992 are, from left to right; Customer Sales and Service Agents
Shirley Shapansky, Lavina Lychuk, Dennis Haskell, Deanna Carter, Cliff Oatway and STOC Coordinator Tom Milloy.

Team effort results in top performance at YUL.

The Auxiliary Power Unit (APC) section and the support groups in Dorval's Power Plant Shop achieved a 100 percent spare engine availability during 1992, an Air Canada first. "This resulted in the least amount of disruption to airline operations and contributed to the company effort to make the '92 plan work," said Ray Fournier, Manager, Power Plant Production.

Here are some of the members of the APU team taking time out to pose for a picture, from left to right are:

Raymond Fournier, Tom Fodor, Graham Geraghty, Hans Muller, Raymond Charron, Edward Sarvis, Gaston Denault, David Cordery, Oliver Martins, Louis Beauchemin, Philip Constantine-Garrett, Francis Ruest, Raymond Mayer, Jacques Dionne, Allan Plamondon, Alain Godbout, Allison Weidlich, Denis Sauvageau, Richard Hum, Carl Olynyk, Geza Horvath, Les Lovasz, Peter Zeigler and Peter Ratcliffe.

Missing from the photo are: Garth Chapman, Gilles Vaillancourt, Gilles Bouvrette, Réal Roy, Jean-Pierre Dupaul, Al Coull, John Charles Geall, Raj Chawla, Luc Parent and Ken Ashton.

Twenty-five years is a piece of cake for Regina Lead Station Attendant Glen Hansen.

In this photo, Glen Hansen (far right) shares his anniversary cake with some of his co-workers.

From left to right are: Station Attendants Currie Stephenson, Pat Grandy, Shawn Engel, Rob Heenan and Bernie Wagner.

Canadian Airlines International accepted delivery of its first Boeing 767-300ER (extended range) in Everett, Washington.

C-FCAB (fin #631) began its career on flight # 131, Vancouver-Los Angeles, on April 17, 1988. It was renumbered fin # 681 during the Canadian/Air Canada merger in 2001.

It retained the same registration during its entire 30-year career, retiring in October of 2017. 

As per planespotters.net, it was stored at Marana Pinal Airpark (MZJ) until broken up in December 2018.

Larry Milberry has put together a blog named 'The Great Lockheed Twins' and can be followed at www.canavbooks.wordpress.com (scroll down the page for the full article).

We have, with permission from Larry, some of the photos and story of those aircraft which ended up at Canadian Pacific Airlines. We will present these over several NetLetter issues.

Excepts via Larry Milberry below.

Ex-RAF Hudson CF-CRJ is one of my earliest Lockheed Twin photos. Here it is in a standard 3/4 front view at Malton Airport on October 9 (year unspecified).

Originally USAAC 41-23631, it was transferred to the RAF under lend lease to become BW769. It was delivered to RAF 45 Group (Ferry Command) at Dorval around October 1942, but some accident ensued. It then was acquired by Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1946, repaired and registered CF-CRJ.

CPA added six such Hudsons, but I know little about their use. Perhaps they were spares for CPA's small fleet of L14's. In 1949 CPA sold its Hudsons to the Photographic Survey Corp., which was more commonly known as Kenting Aviation Limited of Oshawa (base) and Toronto (offices).

My earliest copy of the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register (CCAR (1955)) listed CF-CRJ 'K and 'L. These served through the 1950s and early 1960s from the Canadian Arctic to South America, even distant Ceylon on aero-survey contracts.

By good fortune, in 1967 "CRJ” was donated by Field Aviation of Toronto to some history-minded Newfoundlanders headed by A.J. Lewington, DFC. Thanks to this foresight, it survives today in wartime colours at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander, Newfoundland.

Editors' Note: Our records indicate this aircraft was a Hudson 111, c/n 6448 registered at Canadia Pacific Airlines on May 15, 1946 fin # 241 and sold to Photographic Survey Corporation in May 1949.

(Source: CPAL Its History and Aircraft by D.M.Bain) 

Found on the Eastern Provincial Airways Facebook page

Posted on December 23, 2015.

Posted on December 31, 2016.

Yuletide season at Charlottetown.

A special effort was made by our staff to put "Our customers above all" and to capture the holiday spirit. Janet Anderegg and fellow staff employees were responsible for the attractive decorations at our counter. All female staff donned a Christmas corsage, and everyone participated by trying to do a little extra for our customers. As you may note below, we expressed our thanks and holiday message via an insert in the local newspaper.

Pictured from left to right are: Claude Goodwin, Joe Basha, Richard Chaisson, Helen Cox, Paula Kenny, Marilyn Norris, Libby Cox, Janet Anderegg, Janet MacKenzie and Paula MacKenzie.

Missing from the picture are: Marilyn Johnston, Carole Ellis, Terri Cheverie and Don MacCallum.

Posted on January 8, 2018.

In our last issue, we posted a few short videos of Fin #853 which has been painted in special Olympic livery.

Montreal videographer Mark Brandon has recently posted an excellent new video (runtime 9:28) of arrival and departure at Trudeau International Airport on YouTube.

Don't forget to check out Mark's full video library after viewing. 

Slovakia-based Klein Vision successfully flew its AirCar roadable aircraft prototype from Nitra to Bratislava this week. The 35-minute flight marks the first time the vehicle has travelled between two cities.

Described as a “dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle,” the AirCar is equipped with a 160-HP BMW engine and features an automated transition time of less than three minutes.

To date, the two-seat AirCar Prototype 1 has flown for over 40 hours, reaching altitudes of up to 8,200 feet and a top speed of 190km/h (103 knots).

Click the image below to view the video on YouTube.

An Alaskan airline says its rebirth will involve embracing electric short takeoff and landing aircraft to serve the far-flung communities of the rugged state.

Ravn Alaska has been flying for 70 years and has flown dozens of different aircraft types over the years, most recently Dash-8s. It serves more than 100 communities, many of which have short unimproved strips.

The company, which is coming back from a 2020 bankruptcy, announced last week it will buy 50 Airflow electric aircraft to fill its future needs.

Here’s a book for any avid aviation history fan and keen reader - The Canadair North Star.

Most of the Canavbook “regulars” know this one and treasure their copies. But some more recent readers may have missed out.

Lovely autographed copies are available for you at these all-in prices: Canada $60, USA CAD$70, International CAD$80.

You can order by paying straight to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by PayPal, Interac, etc. or by posting your cheque or money order to:

CANAV Books, 51 Balsam Ave., Toronto, Canada M4E3B6

Here’s your chance to pick up one of Canada’s grandest aviation books before the last new copies disappear. Also, The Canadair North Star makes the perfect gift for any relative, pal, employee, etc., who enjoys the best aviation history you can find on the printed page.

Source: canavbooks.wordpress.com

C-GDPW - End of 46 Years of Service 

Subscriber Vic Bentley contacted us to point out that a recent incident involving the ditching of Transair flight # 810 off the coast of the island of Oahu, shortly after takeoff from Honolulu, involved a Boeing 737-200C that was originally delivered to Pacific Western Airlines in October of 1975. 

Fortunately, the only souls on board the cargo flight were the two pilots who were both rescued.

(See: CBC.ca for more details about the incident).

Vic writes: "At that time it was fitted with a forward freight door and the ‘gravel kit' - a deflector on the nose gear and vortex generator probes extending under the front of the engine cowl. The retractable airstair passenger entry door was moved to the aft LH side of the aircraft".

Ken Pickford notes:

The name of the Hawaii operator is ironic considering the original operator, PWA, and their 1979 acquisition of a previous 'Transair', the Winnipeg-based regional carrier. The Transair name of the Hawaii carrier is a marketing name. The actual operator of the aircraft was Rhoades Aviation.
.
Boeing line # 427 (serial #21116) was delivered in combi configuration to Pacific Western in October 1975 and remained in the fleet after the creation of Canadi>n Airlines in 1987.

It was acquired by Canair Cargo 1995-97 and then to Montreal-based charter carrier Royal Aviation 1997-99.

It then was acquired by Transmile Air Services of Malaysia until 2014 when it went to Transair, a cargo operator of Hawaii.

At the time of the incident, on July 2, 2021, it had 46 years of continuous service; see the table below.

Additional Reference: www.planespotters.net

Editors' Note: The FAA has grounded Rhoades Aviation, whose Boeing 737-200 ditched off Honolulu July 2, and has also revealed that action against the operator has been in the works since last fall. 

Source: AVweb.com

C-GDPW

9M-PML

N810TA

Photo in transition livery from Pacific Western to Canadian Airlines, September 1987.

Courtesy of George Hamlin at Jetphotos.com.

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, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., has many deals from Interline Travel.

Here are some of them:

The cruise deals are pretty enticing such as 7-night European River cruises on Uniworld from just USD $879 pp.

For short cruises how about a 3-night cruise on the Celebrity Equinox from Ft. Lauderdale from USD $90 pp.

Royal Caribbean is doing 7-night  Alaska cruises from Seattle this summer for as low as USD $501 pp.

On the West coast, sail on the Majestic Princess for 3 nights from Los Angeles from USD $196 pp.

Carnival has 5 nights from Galveston starting at only USD $236 pp on the Cannival Breeze this November and 8 nights from just USD $392 pp on the Carnival Dream in September.

The point is there are plenty of hot deals for summer and fall and now is the time to book them.

One of the many interline deals offered by Interline Travel.

Amalfi Coast Tour –

November 2 – 9, 2021 - 7 nights from USD $1,099 pp.

Imagine a week on the Amalfi Coast staying at the 4 star Hotel Eden Bleu in Vico Equense which is a coastal town and commune in the Metropolitan City of Naples. An international breakfast buffet every morning is included in our price.

Explore the Amalfi Coast with first hand cooking classes, tastings and more.  Call us to book - 800 766-2911.

This tour is available exclusively from InterlineTravel.com

Our cartoon is by Dave Mathias appeared in the 'Horizons' magazine issue January 1974.

The caption "According to regulations Mr Finchley, I must assume all you checked in was a black suitcase handle".