The Air Canada Pionairs (Quebec District) still have a few seats left for this event. Join them for a trip back in time to the early 70’s and an unforgettable Dinner/Show experience with Elvis at le Capitole Theater in Québec City, August 26th, 2015

Open to non-Pionair Members as well!

Cost is $250 per person

Includes:

• Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - Bus trip from Montreal to Quebec City.
• Overnight Accommodation at the Chateau Repotel.
• Dinner
• Elvis Show
• Thursday, August 27, 2015 - Continental Breakfast at the hotel.
• Open afternoon with optional tour.
• Return trip to Montreal.

CONTACT: Guy Masse - 450-472-2158 OR
Bernard Yansouni - 514-684-6821

For full details please follow this link.

Cora Thomson sends in these two photos
Here are the pictures I promised which were taken on May 25th., 2015, when the “Empress Wings” gathered at the Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver for our semi annual luncheon.

The “Empress Wings” is a group of former CPA stewardesses, most of us having to take compulsory retirement when we were married. Our group have done a lot of charity work for “Families for Children”.
We had fashion shows and various fund raisers and this is still going on by some of the ex CPA stewardesses that are still flying with Air Canada. We meet twice a year for a luncheon in Vancouver and often there are 25 of us attending. The group was started in 1960!!!

The names on this picture are from left and clockwise: Cora (Bethel) Thomson, Alison (McKay) Smyth, Nancy (O'Brian) Chambers, Roberta Stitt, Gerry (Meyers) Adams, Shirley (White) Laidlaw, Suzanne Green, Dorothy (Meyer) Randall, Katie Hill, and Evelyn (Donnelly) Curran.

The second picture: Joan (Scott) Van Stone, Violet (Hubner) May, Barbara Barnes, Dorothy Randall, Yvonne (McGillvary) Wiley, Lorraine (Nichiguchi) Elliott between the Olsen twins.

(I am recalling the names as best I am able and possibly mispelled a couple).

Cora Thomson

1966 - November 1st - Inaugural flight Montreal - Moscow.

1939 - timetable from the private collection of Bjorn Larsson. (Pictured)

1959 - Oct 28th - Viscount service for first time between Toronto and Tampa Florida. This was the first time TCA offered first-class turbo-prop flights on its southern routes.

Extracted from the "Between Ourselves" magazine issue dated November 1959.

Probably the biggest ticket ever created at the TCA ticket office in North Bay is being displayed by Passenger Agents J.A.Moore, V.M.Mittelstaedt and P.D.Laframboise.

The ticket is made up of 52 coupons and the itinerary covers a circle trip around the United States, with a side trip to Mexico.

(Just one e-mail would do for this ticket today! – eds)

The four top passenger agents in the Toronto District are shown with District Sales Manager E.J.May at a luncheon held in their honor. The agents were chosen during a competition among Telephone Sales records, City Ticket Offices and the Airport Counter to determine the four top people considered to be giving customers the best service. 

From the left: V.Graskaufmenis, A.Crinkley, E.J.May, M.Salieris and E. Ellen.

Flight Simulator Technicians from the company completed an eight week course at Link Aviation, Inc., Binghampton, N.Y. Also on the course were two members of the staff from Japan Airlines.

Shown in our picture seated from the left: Larry S. Burke, Simulator intenance Supervisor, TCA; Link Instructors Gene Davidson, Dick Selrette, Heb Heisler; Hugh Rombough, Senior Technician, TCA.

Back row: Kasaku Shibata and Kenji Chnuna, Tokyo Instruments; James Ayerst Senior Technician, TCA; Joseph Clarke, Technical Assistant, TCA; Hector Brannington, Technician, TCA; Des Callihso, Technician, TCA and Ed Grcynovicz, Instructor, Link Aviation.

Prestwick airport, Scotland's famous control tower was once the home of James Dairymple, Lord of Orangeville, and an early patron and lifelong friend of Robbie Burns. The original mansion was built between 1720 and 1834. Parked in front of the historic building is one of TCA's Super Constellation in 1959.

Ten Things you may not know about Air Canada

Early Quebecair timetable found on the internet. (Pictured)

PWA Corporation sold two A310 Airbus aircraft to the Department of National Defense. One delivered November and one in December 1992 and the third in March 1993.

Total cost was $150 million.

Following the lead by Air Canada who implemented a cash bar for domestic economy passengers August 1st 1992, Canadian implemented a cash bar on September 1st, 1992. Complementary bar service continued to be available in business, international and charter flights for both airlines.

Extracted from the "Info Canadi>n" magazine issue dated September 1992.

Biking for Britain.
Cargo employees from London and Canada braved the famous London to Brighton Bicycle ride in the aid of British Heart Foundation. The group raised L2,100. Biking on the seven and a half hour bum-numbing ride was,

from the left: Jamie Comport, Tim Stevens, Phil Gooders, Tim Hitchins, Simon Allsop, Mark Bowles John Auchie (Calgary), Paul Norris, Audrey Hollamby , Richard Ovenden, Peter Comport and Hugh Montgomery (Calgary). Missing was cargo agent Tiffany Smitz, who also traveled from Calgary.

(Perhaps Tiffany is still cycling - lost! - eds)

Larry Syret, an Air Crew Training Instructor in Vancouver, runs through the procedure with flight attendant Doris Loo for opening the B747-400 cabin door.

What was Canadian Airlines' most northern island in the Pacific? It was YPR of course - that's Prince Rupert, a deep sea port 800 kilometers northwest of Vancouver B.C. served since 1947 writes Herb Pond, Station Manager, Prince Rupert.

Not only is the city on an island, but the airport is on another island, with no road link. Passengers check-in at Canadian's downtown facilities which were located in a shopping centre. About a half hour before aircraft departure, the staff and passengers boarded a bus which, along with baggage and cargo carts, were loaded onto the local airport ferry. When the ferry broke down, a tug/barge combination kept the operation going.

In 1947, the service was provided by war surplus Canso Bombers before the runways were constructed in 1967, so the amphibious capability made them perfect for the job.

Betty Draper has located some more information of the early days in aviation in Canada.

From the Leader-Post issue March 1st 1938. Regina, Saskatchewan

Through fog at three miles a minute.
For the first time in eight years a mail truck met a mail plane at the Regina airport on Tuesday March 1st 1938. The photo shows the "big" Lockheed Electra towering above the truck.

(Notice the registration at CF-AZY and the Trans-Canada Air Lines emblem on the nose - eds)

This photo shows the arrival of Regina's air mail on Tuesday March 1st, 1938. At the left, a mechanic is shown unloading bags from the plane, while George Bennett, postal employee, holds two bags. At the right is shown Leo LaBelle, Regina postmaster, with Herbert Seagram, centre, and Robert M. Smith, youthful pilots who flew the machine from Winnipeg to Regina and westward.

Plane Circles Regina 45 Minutes in Fog As Mail Tests Start.
A big silver plane nosed through a hole in a fog bank over the Regina airport on Tuesday morning March 1st, 1938 to deliver the city's first air mail in eight years. For a time it looked like Regina would be robbed of its place as a port of call on the first air mail flight over the west as the big Lockheed plane circled the city at 110 miles an hour for 45 minutes before the fog cleared sufficiently to enable the crew to land.

Previously arrangements had been made for the crew to bring the plane down at Moose Jaw, where visibility was good, in the event the fog did not lift over Regina. After delivering two sacks of Winnipeg mail to Regina postal authorities. pilots Herbert Seagram and Robert M. Smith took off at noon sharp for Lethbridge with visibility unlimited the entire distance.

Other planes turn back.
The weather, however, played havoc with the eastbound flight out of Vancouver and pilots Bruce Middleton and Malcolm Barclay were forced to return to Vancouver because of fog over the Fraser canyon. The eastbound flight was subsequently cancelled.

The westbound machine flew into Regina along the radio beam emitted from the old radio range station on Dewdney Avenue. When the new station south on the no. 6 highway was in operation the beam will guide the planes right into the airport doing away with delays occasioned in landing.

(To be continued in NetLetter nr 1326 – eds)