Terry Baker, our co-founder of the NetLetter, retired from Air Canada on December 31st, 1984.

On March 13th 1985, at the Glenmore Curling Club at Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, a "Remember When" party was held for the C & SS personnel who retired at the end of 1984. Terry Baker, Lyne Blais, Gilbert Gibson, Yvan Jutras, Guy Langevin, Reg Little, Andy McCready, Lois Morrison, Hans Parnigoni, Claude Remillard and Karel Stuut.

Here we have a photo of Terry listening to MC Joe Mallory telling the assembled crowd various tales about Terry's career, and a photo of Terry's response refuting the tales passed out by Joe.

1955 - Nov 1st - U.S. edition of Trans-Canada Air Lines timetable. (Pictured)

1967-Aug 22nd - Daily DC-8 Montreal-Toronto-Los Angeles service inaugurated, originally scheduled for July 5th but delayed due late delivery of aircraft.

Found in the "Horizons" magazine issue March 2008 (used with permission)

OASIS maintenance project launched.

OASIS will impact employees from all areas of Air Canada Maintenance & Engineering, Information Technology, Finance and System Operation Control, or about 1,800 employees in total.

Clearly, this means significant changes in operations and management.

This is a photo of the OASIS Project kick-off team January 2008. Unfortunately, the identities are under a cloud of secrecy – (Anyone care to identify anyone? - eds)

During his 1979 Federal campaign, Ed Broadbent chartered an aircraft with the following crew who are shown in this photo taken at Dorval. From the left: Supervisory Captain Al Henderson, Lucille Broadbent; Supervisory Captain Ejan Jensen; Louise Hainhault, Flight Attendant; Ed Broadbent; Sheila Moore, Flight Attendant; Deris Langlois, Purser and Charlie Brown, Operations Coordinator for the charter.

Some 65 retirees turned out for the first luncheon held at the Decarie Ramada Inn by the Montreal district of the Pionairs.

Organized by District Director Evelyn Desjardins, the successful event welcomed national President Joe Lorimer and Toronto District Director Nancy Walchuk.

The photo above has Joe Lorimer sharing a joke with two unknown retirees during the luncheon, and the photo at left has Evelyn Desjardins having a chat with four other unknown retirees during the luncheon.

(Perhaps someone would care to identify the unknown people - eds)

POLE VAULTER'S NIGHTMARE.

Bert Laing, Cargo Sales Representative Los Angeles, spied an item in the Los Angeles Times which he says represents something he has always "dreamed" of doing. It seems that, while travelling from Edmonton to Tucson, a Los Angeles pole vaulter, Ralph Haynie, was forced to switch from Air Canada to Pacific Southern Airlines. Unfortunately for Haynie, PSA did not have a baggage compartment large enough to hold his poles. No problem. The airline merely sawed the poles in half.

Found in the "CP Air News" magazine issued August 1984.

In 1984, Fiji celebrated the 35th anniversary of service by CP Air. The Nandi airport staff cuts the cake and uncorks the champagne. In our photo, from the left, we have: Dick Chambers, Veronica Gray, Jana Vyas, Anne Khan, Louisa Sandam and Subash Chandra. At the back are Peter Lum, Ralph Sharp, Mohammed Raliq and Ramandra Sahai.

The company has new ID cards, the new one shown on the left of this photo. The new card is in credit card format. The current cards were not durable and just large enough to be inconvenient for most wallets. The new cards were issued December 1984 by this trio in the photo. From the left: Denise Chisholm, Lynda Cooper and Simone Prince of the Benefits and Records Department.

This is where the payroll was done. These are the people who did it, from the left: Patti Simpson, Doreen Thompson, Mary Wong, Ann Templeton, Otto Wegner, Gerry Bayne, Bea Barber, Monica Lee, Elsie Tan and Esther Ayukawa.

The 11th staffer, Ev Erdman was on vacation. (Ev was on “paid” vacation no doubt<G> - eds)

Air Maritime was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastern Provincial Airways to operate its short haul feeder routes utilizing Hawker-Siddley 748 aircraft. All employees are EPA employees.

The airline employees at Fredericton with a dual identity - they're Eastern Provincial when the jet comes in and Air Maritime when a turbo-prop arrives. From the left: Jim Kendall, station manager; and customer sales agents Clyde MacDonald, Sardy Brewer, Jerome Cyr and Shirley Trenholm. (Although the photo has six employees, only five are identified, but which five? - eds)

Something to smile about in Tel Aviv.

From the left: Elen Fisher, relief ticket agent; Joe Binder, accountant; Gideon Thaler, manager; and Nissim Sagis, relief ticket agent; with the new Pegasus terminal. Tel Aviv had the system installed during October and came on line December 1984.

First Aircraft to fly the Rondel

In NL # 1325 I incorrectly identified Fin # 817 (pictured on right) to have been the first aircraft to sport the Air Canada Rondel.

I was corrected by NL reader Ken Pickford who advised that the aircraft was actually Fin # 809 (see NL # 1327) as identified in Bill Norberg’s excellent article in NL # 971 regarding the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Canada in 1964.

However, I remained curious because in the image here (provided by Terry) the last digit appears to be a ‘7’. So in our last issue I thought I would throw it out to our readers again in an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity.

Thanks to Ken Murphy who sent us a link to a National Film Board documentary (Follow this Link) on Her Majesty’s visit that clearly shows “807” (pictured below) on the nose gear door as the camera pans the aircraft at the 19:30 point in the video as the narrator states that this is the first aircraft to wear the new Air Canada emblem.

Besides clearing up a minor mystery; I enjoyed watching this video as it takes place at a very interesting time in Canadian history.

Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's minority governments from April 1963 to April 1968 introduced universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada and, of course, the Flag of Canada.  In retrospect, this was a period of asserting our Canadian identity and pride. The Air Canada Rondel became a symbol of that. It also seems completely appropriate that Canada's largest airport be named for Mr. Pearson. 

As Her Majesty has reached her 90th birthday and Canada is approaching its 150th next year, it seems like a good time to reflect on the last 50+ years and the evolution of the airline and the country. For myself, it feels good.

Ken Pickford has sent us this information regarding the North Star photos in NetLetter nr 1340 -

The 3 North Star photos at the factory correctly identify the aircraft as CF-TEK in the text, but on the photos themselves the registration appears as CF-TEC which was a TCA DC-3, in service 1946-1958. (Our archival copies have been corrected - eds)

CF-TEK was the first of 6 unpressurized North Stars intended for the RCAF but temporarily operated by TCA while waiting for their own pressurized North Stars to arrive.

Speaking of DC-3 CF-TEC, found some photos. It was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force as a C-47 in 1943 and was transferred soon after to the RCAF where it spent the rest of World War II before being among the many military C-47s converted to passenger DC-3s. It was delivered to TCA in 1946. In 1958 it went to the Canadian Department of Transport and was registered CF-DTB. It spent over 30 years there until the late 1980s. It was acquired by Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways in 1995 and I believe has been used for parts for their other DC-3s. It's still registered to Buffalo Airways today and a fairly recent (2014) photo shows it stored at Red Deer, Alberta, still in faded Transport Canada livery.: Our photo has the caption "Edmonton, late 1940s "(CF-TEC c/n 12597 Fin 376 was delivered to TCA on May 17th 1946 sold to DOT on March 19th 1958 having flown 21,315 hours for TCA – eds)

In NetLetter nr 1341, we had a photo of a CP aircraft in distress and we asked for any information from our readers. 

Well we got inundated with information. Tom Grant was working on the day of the incident and took these photos.(You can see other non-related photos from Tom Grant at: www.thosgee.com - Alan)

The incident involved a Leased Boeing 707-138, on ‘wet lease’ from Standard Airways of Seattle, USA. The Pilot crew were from the USA. Only the Cabin Crew were direct CPAL employees.

The aircraft was registered as N791SA. The CPAL fleet number was 791, and the aircraft – in CPAL colours, was called “Empress of Sydney’. The accident occurred on 7/2/1968, as the aircraft, coming from the South Pacific, landed at Vancouver International airport in conditions of dense fog. The aircraft left the runway and struck ground equipment and a terminal building on the south side of the airport.

Bill Cameron

B707 leased (with pilots) from Standard Airways in CP livery. Feb. 7, 1968 at YVR.
You can find more here:
YouTube "Tag Along with Chet" video
GenDisasters.com

Malcolm McRae sent this -

I believe the accident was in YVR and it involved a 707 under wet lease. I was working at YVRFFCP at the time. The crew attempted to land at YVR in fog rather than diverting to YXX. The aircraft landed on the taxiway, clipped a MOT building, when across the ramp where normally a AC Freighter would have been parked (it had diverted) and came to rest with the nose inside another MOT building. Sadly we lost a CP Purser who was crushed when the overhead collapsed. No other serious injuries.

Included was the information from www.aviation-safety.net. I have attached a picture I took shortly after the aircraft came to rest.

David Edward forwarded this e-mail he received from Captain Russ Brown, CPA/Canadian retired -

I was there and I have / had a few B&W photos that I can't find at the moment. We, C.P.A.L had wet leased a B707 from Standard Airways ( Boeing) to fill in on Hawaii.

The Standard crew drove from Seattle early morning, flew YVR - HNL - YVR and arrived early morning at YVR on no rest and into heavy fog. I believe that a TCA DC-8 took off just ahead of their attempted landing, dissipating some fog, leaving them a clear path to a possible visual landing. As they touched down the fog rolled in and they attempted a go around and lost it. I also heard that it was a two captain crew (struggle over decision?), no first officer. They had a Standard flight engineer and a CPAL Navigator, an acquaintance of mine.

The aircraft, likely under T/O thrust, crossed the infield onto the terminal ramp demolishing several light planes, clipping a TCA DC-8 wing tip and just missing a fully loaded CPAL DC-8. It then hit the MOT ramp shack killing the ramp supervisor, and then hit a belt loader that penetrated into first class and killed the CPAL purser, that I knew slightly. It continued across the ramp and into the terminal admin. wing. The navigator on board had put his head down and slept after landfall and was still sleeping through most of this ride from hell!

After the 707 stopped one engine continued to run and a mechanic had to open the cowl and shut it down with the main mtc. fuel shut off valve! Both pilots and the F/E evacuated through the cockpit windows. Our navigator told me that he thought that he was having a nightmare but then he dismissed that premise and evacuated out the F/O window onto a desk, for a moment he again thought "nightmare". He then walked out into the hall and out of the building.

I was on F/O DC-8 reserve and was called out to do the Hawaii flight planned later for the 07 but that was cancelled. We operated a day later.From my log.

Cheers, Russ
(We have a few more memories in NetLetter nr 1344 – eds)

My first flight was on a DC3 from Moncton to Shearwater to go to a graduation dance at the Lord Nelson with Jim Gawley who I had met at a swim meet in Moncton's YMCA. It was in 1945 or maybe 46 and cost $15 one way. My next flight was to Toronto a number of years later when it was $90 return. I can't remember the year, but I remember that I missed the flight home because I called the taxi to the wrong City Park Apartment building.

Betty Morgan.

 Caz Caswell wishes to share his fine work - 

Being a former Wardair person I was naturally interested in Mike Martins reply to Alan Evans.

The attached spreadsheet was done more for my own enjoyment, and contains all Wardair aircraft ever operated and those not taken up in the International Fleet and Northern Ops. The last known operator will have changed on many as I did this in 2009. 

The attached image of C-GIZN I took on its arrival at YYZ August 30th, 1986. 

Click here to view Caz's list of the Wardair fleet.

Caz - Wardair Purchasing 1978-1989

Click the links to view Caz's Photo Gallery or Flickr page. 

We found an excellent documentary on the Wardair story at Canada's National Film Board site.

Bob Barry send along a fond memory -

Gentlemen:

Thank you very much for the article on the Air Canada DC-9. In the 17 years that I flew the DC-9 for Air Canada, I amassed 11,394 hours in the front end of this beautiful aircraft. It actually brought a tear to my eye when I read the demise of so many of our wonderful planes.

The wording 'Broken up' showed a very definitive end to some of them, but at least we still have one here in Winnipeg, #712 (which I see occasionally) at the Red River College, and one of which I flew many times. Keep up the good work!

Most sincerely,
Bob Barry.

Furniture Created From Aviation Parts.

An inside look at the stories behind aviation furniture and art. Check ww.aeroartshop.com out.

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On a flight from Panama City, Florida to Asheville, North Carolina, ATC was heard asking another aircraft if his transponder was on — to which the reply was: "We're putting quarters in the slot now."