JOIN DANIELLE…and cheer on the Toronto ARGOS!
This FRIDAY in Winnipeg!!
8 PM Eastern Standard Time–
REMEMBER, "Mr. Automatic" Mike Vanderjagt, the NFL's all-time best kicker, is back again THIS SEASON with the mighty ARGOs.
Danielle, pictured above, had the honour of dancing for the Pope, in Toronto, on World Youth Day 2002.
Diane……UNCHAINED.
Complete with TAILHOOK.
One of only 266 T-28 Trojans built for the venerable, and irrepressible, U.S. NAVY.
WE AIR FORCE types, and brats, salute ya!!
…she's ready to fly AND she'll be flying soon.
Red tape only, now.
AND WHEN SHE takes to the air…she'll be the only other AIRWORTHY Lysander in the whole damn world.
This "baby" a WESTLAND Lysander Mk IIIA (serial no. 2361) is owned and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. Painted in No. 400 "City of Toronto" RCAF Squadron markings, she was also MADE IN TORONTO in 1942!
AWESOME WORK Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum!!
You keep continuing to amaze us!
Look to see her fly at CIAS, this year, as the last minute, MYSTERY GUEST~
AND TOMORROW…I'm gonna tell you another secret.
WITH AVIATION FUEL PRICES skyrocketing out-of-control …and with Canadian and US Governments adopting a do-nothing approach…only Porter airlines will be in business by this time next year.
PORTER AIRLINES flys the Bombardier Q400 exclusively which of course sips gas from a “sippy cup” and therefore should be able to survive through the present GAS COST CRISIS.
Never Was An Arrow II was able to reach, T.O. Tal Lybogus, Director of Aircraft Acquistion for Porter Airlines, for comment, on the present gas crisis facing the airline industry.
“Currently, Porter has a fleet of 7 aircraft. We are consulting with our investors and Bombardier Aerospace to begin the purchase process to aquire an additional 1,000 Q400 aircraft within the next 5 years! We have space limitations here at Toronto Island Airport and can currently only “house” 17 total aircraft.
Still, we can’t worry about that now, as we expect to be picking up routes all over North America, as legacy airlines drop like flies…unaided by their respective Federal governments. Their loss will be our gain. We’ll just have to assume their footprint at the various airports.
The Q410 “Snowbillian” while presently in the experimental testing stage, will be needed shortly to service northern and Arctic destinations. The aircraft is outfitted with snowmobile-like treads and there have been some issues. We have asked Bombardier to get the “lead out” and fast track the airplane through to certification because we really need those five damn “snowgoers” by this time next year…when we calculate Air Canada will finally collapse as a northern sector provider.”
“Tal” certainly seemed to be a man under a lot of pressure.
From his chair, he used a lot of hand gesturing to get his points across.
He was sweating profusely the whole time, pausing only to "dab" himself periodically with a beach towel. A beach towel! As he talked about “having to” assume United and American routes when these airlines finally buckled, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out. Twice.
I don’t think it ever occurred to him that Porter could just stay as it was.
It was certainly the most intense interview I had ever participated in.
I really hope he makes it through…to the end of the week.
AIR CANADA Cuts 2,000 Jobs!!…and for once I can’t blame Air Canada for something!
Or ANY AIRLINE.
They "be" the victims this time.
In a perfect world, this is how we would deal with the present gas cost crisis. I have often thought of creating my own political party just because I could deal with these real life issues so much better, AND FASTER than the existing parties have, either Stateside or here in Adanac (that’s Canada, spelt backwords folks).
This universal (worldwide) price action by the oil companies, whatever their country of origin, to highjack our cost of gasoline, by sending it through the stratosphere and already poised to go even beyond…is simply unforgivable.
If I was ”running” Canada, I would dispatch the RCMP to throw all oil company executives on Canadian soil into internment camps. Yesterday. Canada has several, not in use since WW II, so we might as well bring’em back into operation and put' em to good use.
Under my government…we would need'em.
And those cavalier dummies could stay there, and rot, until they ALL so decided to revert pricing back to… say, about 80 cents a litre. Even then, I'd leave them "on ice" for a couple months, time enough for them to work out a consumer refund strategy!
We should never, ever, ever, be paying more than 80 a litre.
Raising the PRICE PER LITRE by over 40%…in a little over 1 year…is simply an act of treason and consumer hostage taking.
It should be punishable by death.
9/11 threatened to shut down the economy, but the present GAS COST CRISIS will actually achieve just that!!!
And soon!
THERE IS no rationale for such an outrageous price increase over even a decade, let alone a single year…except corporate greed, market tampering, lack of government monitoring and the perception the public is too complacent to react and fight back.
40 % in a year, CAN ONLY BE “market fixing” and blatant consumer robbery!
This price fixing action by oil companies, working in global unison (as a racket) is a real test of individual governments and their ability to respond effectively to this horrendous and imposing economic threat.
GM of Canada cut 2,500 jobs two weeks ago. Now Air Canada, 2,000 today. Soon your company will have to balance the books.
When will YOUR GOVERNMENT rise to the challenge and take REAL action against these price fixing bastards?
Who knows?
I just know my uncertain and indecisive government hasn’t–
THERE THEY ARE…still lost, wavering…and without a clue–––
REMEMBERING the war dead in Preston, Ontario where I happened to be, the other day.
INSCRIBED in the memorial are the names of those, from this community, who gave their lives…for OUR FREEDOM today!
Yep, that’s a CHIPMUNK, created right here, in TORONTO, in 1946.
The MAIDEN FLIGHT of the DHC-1 Chipmunk, "the first indigenous design of the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd*", occurred on May 22, 1946 from the runway directly in front of this example, at RCAF Station Downsview, now, Bombardier Aerospace Toronto.
It surely became Prince Philip’s first love. He took his VERY FIRST flying lesson in one in 1952. However, the British Chipmunks lacked the "cool" teardrop canopy the Canadian version had, opting for a multi-paneled canopy instead.
Suprisingly, only 217 would be built in Canada.
The Chipmunk design was mass licensed for British production and Great Britain built almost a 1000 “Chippies”! SIXTY-SIX were also licence-manufactured in Portugal by OGMA (Oficinas Gerais de Material Aeronáutico, at Alverca).
A total of 1230 Chipmunks were built worldwide.
Approximately 130 still fly today, but now in civilian hands, which is a strong testimony to the aircraft’s continuing popularity.
© * Wikipedia
…we have the technology.
The MIGHTY LANC is being rebuilt at TAM.
THIS LANC was used by the RCAF to give OPERATIONAL ASSISTANCE to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
…can I go too?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02ehhup0Og&feature=related
That's the change in lyrics I'd make.
1,400 Hurricanes like the one above, but NOT the one above, were built in Canada for the war effort!
WW II, that is.
At the Canada Car and Foundry in Fort William, Ontario.
1,400, did I say 1,400?
1,400.
Canada, did I say CANADA?
Yes…C A N A D A .
Not all of them…but two of them.
I truly believe they were entirely unaware of the havoc their beauty wrought upon defenceless boys who before their arrival were quite content to play hockey, toss around a football or hoist weights.
THOSE YEARS are gone forever…for sure, but not the wonder of those years ~
Go Tigers, to the very end!
(featured are Casey Pope and Sue Snarr)
It would be later that I would discover female beauty came in many forms and not only the physical.
STREETSVILLE…on the run in 81!
MY YEARBOOKS are missing in action.
I snagged this photo, from a yearbook on display…it shows the inside cover of that yearbook, which was from my graduating year (Grade 13) .
The STUDENTS carve out SSS, which, of course, is short for Streetsville Secondary School!
This past Friday and Saturday I attended THE Streetsville Secondary School: 50th Anniversary Reunion to reminisce…to relive and to recapture visual memories of days gone by.
Had a great time.
Two of my three old girlfriends were there. Hey Nancy!. just missed you May, I think– And let's not talk about the other one. Met my former wrestling coach. And I posted three pictures in the 80s Decade room that got a strong response!
And nope, I am not in the above photo.
:::The Canadians:::1948
The De Havilland DH-100 Vampire was the RCAF’s first operational jet fighter.
Developed in 1943, it went into production shortly after WW II. Canada purchased 86 of these odd looking “beasties”, only after an F MK 1 Vampire was rigorously tested at the Winter Experimental Establishment in Edmonton in 1946.
The Vampire was taken on strength by the RCAF, on January 17, 1948 at the Central Flying School in Trenton.
“Although this Vampire is a MVI, it is restored in the colours of the RCAF and markings of an F-3 (fighter, Mk, III) flown by 400 (City of Toronto) Squadron, based at Downsview (North York), Ontario.”
Vampires saw action against Communist belligerents in Malaysia (Malayan Communist Party, Malayan Races Liberation Army) beginning in 1948.
“3,268 Vampires were built. 15 versions.
Even a twin-seat night fighter, trainer was crafted. Carrier-based Vampires became known as “Sea Vampires”.
Because the engine on Vampires was so close to the ground, Vampires could not stay stationary for too long, as they would very quickly begin to melt the tarmac!
The Vampire became:
• The first RAF fighter with a top speed exceeding 500 mph
• The first jet to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier
• The first jet to set a new world altitude record of 59,446 feet in 1948
• The first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. (From Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, to Keflavik in Iceland, and then to Goose Bay at Labrador, before going on to Montreal to start the RAF’s annual goodwill tour of Canada and the U.S.)
THEN.
Flight 621.
Arriving at YYZ (Toronto) from Montreal, didn't make it.
It crashed here in Castlemore (now Brampton) instead.
Here's how it looked the DAY AFTER the crash.
109 people dead, mostly Montreal residents and Americans.
July 06, 1970.
NOW: See Below
(from a slightly different vantage point)
TOMORROW…2008 yields from the 621 field!
…happened right here in 1970 on an Air Canada "Stretch 8" arriving from Montreal.
AND PLENTY is afoot right now!
Follow the NOTES.
That’s it!
Well, there is MORE: homepage.mac.com/friendsofflight621/Menu2.html
On July 5, 1970 while Air Canada “California Galaxy” Flight 621 passed over the threshold of Runway 32, at Toronto International Airport, the First Officer, Donald Rowland, inadvertently deployed the speedbrakes (spoilers) while the “Stretch 8” was only 60 feet above the ground.
An excessive sink rate was the immediate result and Pratt and Whitney Engine Number 4 struck the runway, and was immediately torn off. Captain Peter Hamilton unaware of the engine loss, and the subsequent wing fire, initiated a go-around.
Airborne for three and a half minutes, CF-TIW suffered three explosions that were recorded on the CVR tapes. Engine Number 3 was then lost at this time. With the aircraft’s structural integrity finally compromised, flight could no longer be sustained. Now seven miles from the airport, CF-TIW crashed nose down, left wing high into a farmer’s field in Castlemore, Ontario (now a part of Brampton) at 400 mph, only one hundred and fifty feet from the occupied Burgsma residence.
All 109 passengers and crew perished as Flight 621 became Toronto's worst air disaster. This was also the first hull loss of a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 series.
