Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter
Since 1995
Tuesday, 5 November 2024
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CF-TOA after return from lease to Global International Airways
Photo by Brian Harris taken at Dorval - November 6, 1984
Used by permission of George Trussell |
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Dear Welcome to The NetLetter, established in 1995 as a dedicated newsletter for Air Canada retirees.
We have evolved into the longest running aviation-based newsletter for Air Canada, TCA, CP Air, Canadian Airlines and all other Canadian-based airlines that once graced the skies. The NetLetter is self-funded and is always free to subscribers. It is operated by a group of volunteers and is not affiliated with any airline or associated organizations. The NetLetter is published on the second and fourth weekend of each month. If you are interested in Canadian aviation history, and vintage aviation photos, especially as it relates to Trans-Canada Air Lines, Air Canada, Canadian Airlines International and their constituent airlines, then we're sure you'll enjoy this newsletter. Please note: We do our best to identify and credit the original source of all content presented. However, should you recognize your material and are not credited; please advise us so that we can correct our oversight. Our website is located at www.TheNetLetter.net Please click the links below to visit our archives and for more info about The NetLetter. |
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 We have welcomed 46 new subscribers so far in 2024.
We wish to thank everyone for the continuing support of our efforts.
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 Back issues of The NetLetter are available in both the original newsletter format and downloadable PDF format.
Restoration and posting of archive issues is an ongoing project. We hope to post every issue back to the beginning in 1995.
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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, Maritime Central Airways, 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.
We will try to post your comments in the next issue but, if not, we will publish it as soon as we can.
Thanks!
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The Canadian Aviation Historical Society is pleased to invite you to our annual convention in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Wednesday, June 19 to Saturday, June 22, 2024, held in partnership with the RCAF History and Heritage in recognition of the RCAF's 100th anniversary.
Full details at:
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 Central Ontario Pionairs announce their upcoming Members Appreciation Luncheon on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at the Mandarin Flagship location in Brampton.
The cost per member is $15 with the balance subsidized by the Ontario District in appreciation for the continued support of their members.
Further details can be found in the April edition of the Pionairs Ontario District Newsletter.
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Pionairs President, Larry Johns, sent in the following report on their AGM held May 2 in Winnipeg -
Once again the event was a success with 125 people from across the country and even from the UK, joined by an online contingent of about 35 to engage with guest speakers from Air Canada, Manulife and Johnson Insurance.
The conference provided an opportunity to ask general questions, and visit the information desks to ask more personal questions as well.
Of course, the conference also presents a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. As the survey in April highlighted, Pionairs really enjoy opportunities to meet face to face, see the photos below!
Save the date for the Annual Fall Information Session in Edmonton, Alberta on October 2, 2024.
See you there!
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Submitted by subscriber Philip Port -
Thank you so much for managing this wonderful newsletter dedicated to Canadian airline history - I've shared the link with other aviation enthusiasts' over the years, and always look forward to receiving the latest edition.
My reason for contacting you is to inquire about your source of the DC-6 image attributed to my long-time friend, Michael Ody.
I had known Mike and his wife Marion since 1966 and also his interest in aviation, especially DH Canada (as a Cockney he was "the bee's knees" on this subject). He was my best man at our wedding in 1970, and our family members still keep in contact after his death some years ago.
Another character to research is Brian Harris who worked at Nordair in Montreal in flight operations. In the period from about 1966 until 1984 Brian would spend time in the Arctic at Hall Beach, Frobisher Bay, Fort Chimo, Cape Dyer, Resolute, etc. and wrote many articles on this airline and others for Air Britain, Flight magazine, etc.
I would love to hear from any of your readers, any anecdotes of these two gentlemen.
Thanks,
Philip Port
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Editors' Note: We sent Mr. Port's request along to George Trussell who had given us permission to use the photo referred to.
Mr. Trussell replied:
I am also an old friend of Mike Ody. We lived about a mile apart in South London and met at the Air Cadets. We used to cycle together, after doing our school homework, to Croydon Airport to hang over the fence with a bunch of like-minded youngsters. We emigrated at the same time to Canada in April 1967 and started on the same Air Canada Reservations course.
Just prior to his passing, on his behalf, I was uploading images from his collection to the Air-Britain site (we had been members since 1955). Those early images had the copyright 'Mike Ody Collection' (and that cannot be changed once loaded). The CF-CZZ image at LHR was one of those.
Following his passing I changed his email contact on those records to my own to answer any such requests as yours.
When I later restarted loading more of his collection I changed the copyright to 'Mike Ody Collection via George Trussell' in order that inquirers would not be surprised when getting an email response from me!
All the best,
George
P.S. My AC heritage' airlines goes back to 1957 when I worked for Maritime Central Airways at LHR for nine months. Even did a couple of monkey charter flights to YUL and YYZ as an animal attendant.
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Mr. Port, in turn, replied,
Many thanks for the prompt response, also from George Trussell.
Mike Ody, after a short period with Air Canada, moved to Alitalia where he served as Cargo Manager. His life and interest after family was aircraft. He managed a huge computer database of all DHC aircraft, which after his passing some years ago, I assisted the transfer of the records to the National Archives in Ottawa.
As mentioned, if any readers have any recollections of Brian Harris and Nordair, I would be most grateful.
Cheers,
Phil
Editors' Note: By coincidence, while researching material on CF-TOA (Air Canada's first B-747), I found the image in this issue's header taken by Brian Harris at Dorval.
Once again, George Trussell has graciously given us permission to use the photo. See my article below for more.
Wayne
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Submitted by Stephen Desroches -
 I enjoy your newsletter. I am not a former Air Canada employee but I love travel and aviation.
I also have a small collection of vintage Air Canada items. I have acquired them when visiting thrift stores. Here is a sample.
All the best,
Steve Desroches, Ottawa
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2003, Canadian Elite Operation.
Air Canada has unveiled plans to launch yet another offshoot, this time in the business sector. The airline says the operation, dubbed 'Elite' wiII offer an exclusive class of service with a fleet of Airbus A319's configured with only 40 seats, rather than the typical average 124 seats in the type from mid 2003.
Operations will begin with just two or three aircraft serving key runs like Toronto - Vancouver, although subject to the initial success of the venture, up to ten aircraft could be introduced by 2005 and international services launched.
Elite is the fifth new subsidiary of Air Canada, following Jazz, Jetz, Tango, and Zip.
Editors' Note: 'Elite' never did become an official brand of its own, instead evolving into a customer loyalty product.
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August 1998 - Bill Norberg sent us this memory -
The arrival of our first B-747 was a major event in the early spring of 1971.
We in Maintenance had been preparing for its arrival for a long time and felt we knew quite a bit about them. However when you come face to face with the first B-747 you will be responsible for maintaining you feel a little humbled. It was a huge aircraft and so much was to depend on its performance and reliability. We had no practical back up for a B-747 flight at that time.
The aircraft arrived at Gate 22 of the Dorval terminal after its delivery flight. We moved it to our new B-747 sized hangar for training and modifications. We tended to treat the aircraft like fine china as no one wanted the unenviable reputation of having "dinged" our first B-747.
We had two bays in the new hangar at Dorval and one was completed in time to accept this first B-747. As the construction work had just been completed on this bay we wanted to be sure there were no tools, pieces of construction material or other foreign objects that could fall off the beams and walkways in the ceiling area of the hangar and hit the aircraft below. We had our facilities people check all these areas the day before and felt comfortable that all was well.
The aircraft was finally placed in the hangar. Not long after a construction worker's safety helmet was to fall directly on the top of the B-747 damaging the SATcom antenna, for which we had no spare as it was not in use at that time.
We recovered the helmet but were never able to identify its owner. No doubt a worker from the unfinished bay was curious and came across the walkway to have a look at this marvellous new huge aircraft.
There is an old saying..."If it can happen....it usually does".
We eventually were to become good friends with the B-747's and realized that the sky did not fall if we had a technical problem with one of them. We just had to take it on as we did with every other aircraft. As I remember it we had 38 days of the operation on the Miami flight before we had our first maintenance delay.
The honeymoon was over.
Bill Norberg.
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Photo by Garth Pritchard - Montreal Gazette
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Violet Milstead Warren was a Canadian aviator, noted for being the first female Canadian bush pilot and one of only four Canadian women to work in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during WWII.
With over 600 hours of flight time during the war, she was the longest serving female Canadian ATA pilot. She worked as a flight instructor at Barker Field in Toronto, Ontario, and her students included commercial pilot Molly Reilly and author June Callwood.
She is a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, the Order of Canada, and the Bush Pilots Hall of Fame.
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See also:
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Air Canada Inaugurates Motorcoach Service Linking Hamilton and Region of Waterloo Airports with Toronto Pearson
Air Canada has begun offering residents of the Hamilton-Wentworth and Waterloo Region more convenient, one-stop access to the airline's global network and a world of travel possibilities.
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 for the latest posts at the Air Canada Media Centre. |
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 Click the logo to open the Air Canada YouTube channel. |
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SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK) will no longer be a member of the Star Alliance after August 31, 2024. Starting September 1, 2024, the airline will become a SkyTeam member.
With this transition, SK says SAS EuroBonus members can look forward to experiencing loyalty benefits similar to those currently offered by Star Alliance airlines but now with most of SkyTeam's airlines. SAS EuroBonus members will have access to 19 new airlines and over 1,060 global destinations.
SAS will be the first of the five founding Star Alliance members (also Air Canada, United, Lufthansa and Thai Airways) to leave the alliance.
Sources:
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Issue dated April 1972
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Cargo Specialists -
Mike Scullion, Regional Cargo Sales & Service Manager, U.S. chaired a meeting in Los Angeles, attended by cargo managers and representatives of Manchester Liners with whom we signed an Air/Sea agreement for the carriage of fish.
Standing from the left are:
Pat Labrie, Vice President, United States; Tony Bateman, Manchester Liners; Jim Oprey, Cargo Sales Rep, Cleveland; Jack Smith, Regional Cargo Supervisor, U.S.;Cargo Coordinators Ron Bourgeois, Toronto and Joe O'Neill, Montreal; Leo Paquette, Sales Rep, Boston; Hugh Burgoyne, Cargo Sales & Service Manager, New York; H. B. Akin, Personnel & Administration Manager, U.S.; Cliff Stobo, Airport Customer Service Manager, Tampa and Mike Scullion.
Seated from the left are:
Moe Weir, Cargo Sales & Service Manager. Chicago; Gene Stockett, Customer Service Supervisor Cargo, Miami; Bob Tribe, CS & SM, L.A.; Bob Ackerley, and Leslie Castlemain, Manchester Liners.
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Our photo of the Toronto Air Freight soccer team from 1971.
They represented the company in the Airport Soccer League. Unfortunately, no names were supplied.
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Colour in the kitchen.
 In 1972, a bright dash of colour had been added to the wardrobe of Stewardesses-in-training in the form of a smock to be worn over their clothing while on training flights.
Designed by Phyllis Amoruso, Fashion Coordinator for the Company. Modelling the new smock is Stewardess-in-training Paulette Couture, Winnipeg with Carol Larmour, Instructress, Montreal.
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CP Air / Canadi>n People Gallery |
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Life with Wardair
Wardair will need little introduction to readers. Its dynamic founder Max Ward built up a thriving bush operation based out of Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories, with such types as the de Havilland Beaver and Otter and Bristol Freighter. He decided to diversify into operating passenger charters, and for this purpose Wardair took CF-CZZ on lease from Canadian Pacific.
Before its passenger work it was used from March 1962 onwards, during the late winter and early spring of that year, on a freight operation in the High Arctic under contract to the Polar Continental Shelf project. The main freighting operation was out of Resolute Bay to the weather stations at Isachsen, Eureka, Alert and Mould Bay as well as Thule Air Base in Greenland.
One of the stipulations of the lease contract was that Wardair would make the aircraft available to CPA if it was needed to help with the repair of any CPAL aircraft. Just such a requirement arose during April 1962 when a CPAL DC-8 went unserviceable in Honolulu and required an engine change. While CF-CZZ was busy freighting in the frozen wastes of the High Arctic, the call came that its services were needed in sunny Hawaii.
After two trips to Isachsen on Ellef Ringnes Island, CF-CZZ departed Resolute Bay on April 19, overnighted at Yellowknife, and then flew via Fort Smith and Edmonton to Vancouver.
The spare Rolls-Royce jet engine was loaded and flown to Honolulu, after which the crew "hit the beach" for the day, before returning to the frozen wastes of northern Canada, their job done.
When the freighting operation ended in the spring, Wardair commenced its programme of passenger charters with CF-CZZ. As Max Ward wrote in his autobiography: "Our first overseas charter came on June 22, 1962 when we took a group from Edmonton to Copenhagen with stops at Frobisher Bay and Prestwick.
During that summer we completed eight overseas charters out of western Canada to the UK and Europe, and lost money on every one of them." One of these charters was to London, where CF-CZZ was noted at Heathrow on July 16 and 18, 1962.
Perhaps due to the harshness he himself had endured as a pilot in the bush, Max Ward was determined to treat his passengers well. He was the first to serve all passengers a filet steak on Royal Dalton bone china that was the hallmark of Wardair's renowned cabin service. CF-CZZ may have been "relegated" to a charter company, but it was still flying in considerable style.
When the summer charter season ended in September 1962, Wardair could not find any work for the DC-6, and so it returned the aircraft off lease to CPA, who made use of it that winter and for most of 1963. Grant McConachie, CPA's president, is reported to have said that he made more money leasing it to Wardair than he could have made flying it.
In March 1963 Wardair bought a Douglas DC-6B from KLM to continue its charter programme, and this aircraft became CF-PCI. On September 6 1963 Wardair took another lease of CF-CZZ from CPA for an Arctic freight contract, but this work had barely started when disaster struck.
On September 15, 1963 CF-CZZ was on approach to Mould Bay, North West Territories, on a flight from Resolute Bay. The rear fuselage and tail hit a rock outcrop when white-out conditions were encountered, and an overshoot attempted. Four days later, CF-CZZ was ferried in its damaged state from Mould Bay via Edmonton to Vancouver, where it was returned off lease to CPA, who repaired the damage. That unfortunate incident brought an end to the aircraft's association with Wardair.
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CF-CZZ London-Heathrow circa 1963
Photo courtesy of Dave Welch |
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We would like to recommend that you check out 'Celebrating Aviation with Mike Machat' on YouTube.
His life-long involvement in Aerospace as an artist, author, historian, and pilot allows him to now share the wonder and excitement of aviation with the YouTube audience.
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Fokker passenger jet makes triumphant return to Lethbridge
An artifact of aviation history has made its way to Lethbridge following a long journey.
It’s approximately 85 feet long with 65 seats and now the Time Air Fokker F28-1000 passenger jet is back in the city it used to fly in.
It was bought by the Time Air Historical Society in 2019 from a company in Saskatoon and sat in that city for 22 years before it received a new home. “The aircraft itself is one of four that we currently own,” says Rik Barry, the chairman of the Time Air Historical Society.
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CF-TOA - Air Canada's first Boeing 747
The reprint of Bill Norberg's memories of the delivery of Air Canada's first Boeing 747 got me wondering the lifecycle of the first B-747 to enter service with a Canadian airline.
Line #104, MSN 20013 was delivered to Air Canada on February 11, 1971, registered as CF-TOA fin # 301.
I have only vague memories of seeing this aircraft and I know that I never had the opportunity to fly on it. I do recall a seeing a few aircraft with the patch of black between the windshield and the radome.
As per Planespotters.net, the aircraft remained in service with AC until leased Global International Airways of Kansas City in June 1983. It was briefly returned to AC (photo below) before being sold to Guinness Peat Aviation and going through a series of leases under various registrations until scrapped sometime around 1995.
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- N749R - National Airlines - July 1984, Malaysia Airlines - July 1984,
- EI-BPH - PEOPLExpress - February 1985, Middle East Airlines, Flying Tigers - September 1985
- N890FT - Flying Tigers - May 1998 (re-registration), Federal Express - August 1989, and finally, FSBU First Security Bank of Utah - January 1995.
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Original ad for the introduction on the B-747
Supplied by Terry Baker
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Leased to Global International Airways
Photo courtesy of Pierre Langlois
Taken at Montréal - Pierre Elliott Trudeau International
October 1983
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With Flying Tigers registration N890FT
Photo courtesy of Marc Lehmann
Taken at Frankfurt am Main
May 31, 1988
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| Terry's Trivia
& Travel Tips |
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Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.
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Some of the many aviation books available at Canadian Aviation Publishing. Larry Milberry of CANAV posts this information on his blog.
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Among a long list of Canadian aviation publications, another especially stands out: The Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal.
 Fans owe it to themselves to get a membership and keep it current year after year. I've been a member since 1963 and have a full set of those invaluable CAHS Journals to attest to my brilliant decision to join 52 years ago.
For a nominal annual membership fee you receive four outstanding journals packed with coverage of all aspects of Canada's fantastic flying heritage.
So no more excuses or procrastinating, folks, get on board with the CAHS.
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From the 'Horizons' magazine.
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Issue dated August 1993.
Cartoon by P. Avis
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Wayne, Ken & Terry Richmond, British Columbia - December 2019
(Bob Sheppard was not available for the photograph) |
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Wayne, Bob & Ken Richmond, British Columbia - December 2023
(Terry Baker was not available for the photograph) |
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We wish to honur the memories of
Vesta Stevenson and Alan Rust. They remain a part of every edition published. |
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Subscription Management
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E&OE - (errors and omissions excepted):
The historical information as well as any other information provided in the "NetLetter" is subject to correction and may have changed over time.
We do publish corrections (and correct the original article) when this is brought to our attention.
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We do not (normally) receive any compensation from any companies that we post in our newsletters. If we do receive a donation or other compensation, it will be indicated as a sponsored article or link. |
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