Thank you Joy! I think I have maybe heard from your brother in year’s past. Maybe it was the son of Grant McConachie. You know my passion is our local airline and aviation history. I live in Vancouver so you if you have any old movies I’d love to present them so they can live on forever about your father and PWA. In addition to the Denny Ranson films I published about 15 years ago.
OMG! Henry, this video is pure gold. You have me in tears! From about 1961, when I was 12, I used to visit YVR frequently. I would take the Blue Bus from West Vancouver, to Downtown. Then a BC Hydro bus from downtown to a bus loop near YVR. And meet another bus to the YVR terminal. I even did this in the dead of winter in a snowstorm. The United Airlines aircraft would normally park right around the 90 degree angle of the observation deck. United did their check in and ticketing in the South Terminal which was used by TCA. As early as 1962, I believe, United did preclearance. After checking in with United, you would go out the doors which faced West, turn right, and follow a "tunnel", outside, directly under the observation deck. Part way along was US Immigration. You would then proceed to the right angle outside and board your flight. My first flight alone was in 1962, when I was 13. I took United from YVR - SEA - SFO. Both flights were on a 727. The photos of the Bristol Britannia are absolutely amazing! Fond memories travelling to AMS with my family. I wish I had travelled on a TCA North Star! This has to be my favorite airline video so far! Thank you so much! Cheers, Carl
Hi Carl, I am thrilled you enjoyed this effort. I was lucky to find this collection of old slides taken by the same person. Who they were will never know. My grandmother would take me on the bus too also via the Richmond bus loop.My early 1970s memories of that loop included a snack shop there and there was always long haired beer drinking delinquents that frequented the place. By this time we were visiting the open ons deck on the new airport. There was also a high end restaurant up there too, long since ancient history.
In the 50ths we were living in Dorval just across the street from the Montreal Airport and I had a lot of fun. It was great to see and listen to those old engines. The best was when our family went to Barbados on the North Star. I will never forget the sound of the Merlins. Thanks again.
Hi Michael, what wonderful memories you have!! I love Barbados and images from that airport. And Dorval had a huge obs deck too throughout the 1960s. Dorval was TCA Viscount and Vanguard City!! Being the HQ for TCA. For a Canadian aviation fan in the 50s and 60s living close to Dorval would have been a dream come true!
Thank you so much Roger I’m glad you enjoyed this video. Of course it holds a veey special place in my heart YVR back in the late 50s and early 1960s. I wish I had more content to make another video but it’s just so hard to find.
In May 1960 I was 8 years old and lived in RCAF PMQ's adjacent to the button of runway 26 (only one 26 back then). My father was likely working in that hangar across the ramp on the day these pictures were taken. Thanks for this awesome video!
Wow, that is amazing that you were there back in those days Gord period. If you find any old colour slides that your dad took back then please let me know as I woukd like to use them for a future show.
In October of 1958 our family moved from Canada to Australia for five years. I had just turned eleven years old. We flew from Toronto in a Trans Canada Air Lines North Star, and after a short distance the inside starboard engine failed. We went back to Toronto, and had to take another plane to make the trip. My first flight had some excitement. We stayed in Vancouver for a few days, and then flew on a United Airlines DC3 to Seattle, and made a connection to San Francisco. After several days there it was a United Airlines DC6B deluxe flight to Honolulu. The flight to Sydney with two stops to refuel was a Qantas Super Constellation with extra fuel tanks on the wing tips. I still have my Qantas Junior Flight Certificate signed by the Captain. The final flight to Melbourne and our new home was an Ansett ANA DC6. Our family moved from Ontario to Vancouver in August of 1965, and I took the Canadian Pacific Dominion passenger train from Toronto. The rest of the family had already arrived here. For a summer job in 1966 on a tug out of Victoria I flew in an Air Canada Viscount from the old terminal. One thing I remember clearly is the observation deck; at every airport I sought them out. In Vancouver's rainy weather there was a large bin with umbrellas at the departure gate, and after you climbed the stairs up to the plane there was a bin to put the umbrella in. The procedure was reversed for arriving in the rain. In the centre of the loop at the two old terminals there was a model rocket ship from the 1930s called The Spirit of Aviation. A new version of the original is on display at the South end of the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver.
Thank you for taking the time to share such wonderful wonderful memories of your travels as a child back in the 1960s. My very early memories of plane spotting were being taken to the observation deck on the YVR south terminal by my grandmother in about 1967. But I was only three years old at that time.
I grew up near Philadelphia, and PHL had outdoor observation decks on the roofs of each terminal. I remember it so vividly; the Eastern Airlines Connies and DC-7 Golden Falcons. Viscounts too, I remember. You could see it all and hear it all! You didn't have to have a ticket to go up there, either.
I appreciate the detail of having shared those photos so memorable for you, that like me, I love them because the 50's and 60's were very special decades for me and that I enjoyed being a child. Like you, I enjoyed visiting the international airport in my country with my father, and everything was very different from how it is now, but hearing your detailed narrative of this airport and how you continue to appreciate the details of everything you see in the photos and how We saw and remembered the special of those times, I do not doubt for a moment that you like me, we are one of the few who still enjoy the memory of those times! 👌😊 Btw ... has a beautiful and excellent collection of models! 👌 💪😊👍Especially the most vitages like the DC-7. DC-8 B-707 B-727 etc ...
Thank you for seeing the beauty in the details, that is what it is all about with these images. The amazing thing is so many people visited these decks and terminal buildings. But in a lifetime of seatching and asking peiple, these are pretty much the only such images I have ever found. When you ask 99 out of 100 people who were on these YVR decks they will say “oh I never took photos, I never had a camera, let me check my photos one day” .. that one colour slide taken inside the CPA terminal showing the check in counter is so amazing to me for this very reason. I wish I could see more inside.
I vividly remember the mother of a best friend recounting her experience of flying on a stretch DC8 of Air Canada, when they were first introduced. "The aircraft was so long, they even had us board by row number". In those days, they were still using the old south terminal. When you got a flight like that plus one or two others, the terminal was really crowded!
I can imagine Carl. Two DC-8s would be around 400 passengers plus or minus. Plus the greeters. Very different than a few Convairs and a DC-3. The new terminal was very much needed.
But that itinerary that he showed is impressive in the excellent condition it is in! As well as the sharpness of the photos! How close people were allowed to approach the planes and no one bothered walking to board them! I just loved how things were done in those times😍
It truly was a magical era back then. And look how people dressed to fly. Professional and elegant. Compare to today, where social media thrives on the highlighting the grotesque events and grotesque people who fly. We’ve become barbarians in certain respects.
I have a small collection of these old TCA timetables I have had for years. They were in a file folder. For a lark I thought I would check them just in case. I was totally surprised I had the TCA DC-8 intro to service schedule from summer 1960 matching these images. It was a stroke of luck!
Terrific video Henry. I particularly enjoyed your narration which gives us important historical context. One thing that blew me away was how modern that terminal building was for the time. Those cantilevered roof lines and wooden elements can be seen in some of our modern Skytrain stations!
Thank you very much this is my passion and I did my best. Few people understand the building still exists today and they do not realize the historic context of thd South Terminal building. It is fabulous to look back at the way it was 60 years ago.
What a wonderful collection of vintage photos! As an aviation historian that loves the early days of the airlines, it is a real pleasure to see the contents of this time capsule. Everything from start to finish is amazing, including the people and the cars. There are so many cool things in this video, one being that the type of airplane was listed in the travel schedule and how the DC-8 was highlighted. As an American, I naturally love the DC-8 and the 720. But as a fan of British aviation, I especially love the majestic Britannia and Viscount. They are two of the most beautiful airplanes ever made. Cheers!
Dear Aero Suite, thank you for sharing your pleasure in seeing these old views of Vancouver, my home town airport. The magic of the images is the atmosphere they capture, the people, the cars, families, loved ones, changing times (from the prop age to the then brand new jet age). There really is a lot to appreciate in these views being found after sitting for 60 years in a folder. I am glad several people offered insight into the car types. As a Canadian I love these images from New York La Guardia and Chicago Midway in the 40s and 50s. They had large decks packed with people and fabulous aircraft views. These US cities had huge populations so a lot more of such wonderful images exist. Vancouver in 1960 was a small potato in the international scale of things so such images are fewer. Thank you again for the wonderful comments.
@@JetFlix Your welcome Henry! Just a quick story... about ten years ago I was doing some volunteer work at the airport in my hometown of Bakersfield, California. While cleaning out an old building, I saw a binder laying under some debris. Much to my surprise, it was full of old photos that the airport administration had taken in the 1960's and 1970's. Among the many photos was the first United Airlines Boeing 737 to land at Meadows Field! I was delighted by what I had found and upon request was able to take the binder home with me. It is a real treasure and I feel very fortunate to have found it. Cheers!
Although I flew both Viscount and Vanguard in the summer of 1996 on cargo aircraft in the UK, I don’t remember them being noisy, but I was in the cockpit of both aircraft so I can’t speak to cabin noise in the passenger environment.
Would be neat to make a larger transparency of one of these ramp pictures, then you could hold it up at the exact spot it was taken and see through it to what is now. Even history boards with the pictures of different aircraft generations mounted on the deck at a particular spot would a neat thing for people to look at.
A similar thought went through my mind too, taking exact same point of reference shots today to compare. With mountains as the reference points. I can do it. Leave it with me and thank you for the suggestion.
@@JetFlix I saw something similar in I think NB or NL. A large history board with a large slide like picture over looking a lake. you could use the mountains in the backround to line it up.
That's a 1960 Pontiac ragtop, also another one just behind the tree behind the woman. At 4:57, the two blue cars on the left are 58 Pontiacs and the pinkish one is a 58 Dodge of some kind, Custom I think. The one on the right sure looks like a 58 Chev Delray(I have one). Back then, did you need to have a flight ticket before going on the observation deck? I faintly remember the one Wpg had, I was last on it in '82. Don't like the new airport here now.
The obs deck was open for anyone as it was a social gathering place. No tickets needed. That was part of the beauty. It was open air. No glass or barriers, you had a direct view of the operations area. It is still like this at most airports in Japan.
great video thank you from joy baker daughter of russ baker founder of pacific western airlines
Thank you Joy! I think I have maybe heard from your brother in year’s past. Maybe it was the son of Grant McConachie. You know my passion is our local airline and aviation history. I live in Vancouver so you if you have any old movies I’d love to present them so they can live on forever about your father and PWA. In addition to the Denny Ranson films I published about 15 years ago.
So great to see pics of aviation from the 60s and 70s...still a sucker for the 707 and DC8 to this day.
I love those classics too, lots of videos of them both on my channel.
Well done Henry.
Thank you Russell👍👍✈️
OMG! Henry, this video is pure gold. You have me in tears! From about 1961, when I was 12, I used to visit YVR frequently. I would take the Blue Bus from West Vancouver, to Downtown. Then a BC Hydro bus from downtown to a bus loop near YVR. And meet another bus to the YVR terminal. I even did this in the dead of winter in a snowstorm. The United Airlines aircraft would normally park right around the 90 degree angle of the observation deck. United did their check in and ticketing in the South Terminal which was used by TCA. As early as 1962, I believe, United did preclearance. After checking in with United, you would go out the doors which faced West, turn right, and follow a "tunnel", outside, directly under the observation deck. Part way along was US Immigration. You would then proceed to the right angle outside and board your flight. My first flight alone was in 1962, when I was 13. I took United from YVR - SEA - SFO. Both flights were on a 727. The photos of the Bristol Britannia are absolutely amazing! Fond memories travelling to AMS with my family. I wish I had travelled on a TCA North Star! This has to be my favorite airline video so far! Thank you so much! Cheers, Carl
Hi Carl, I am thrilled you enjoyed this effort. I was lucky to find this collection of old slides taken by the same person. Who they were will never know. My grandmother would take me on the bus too also via the Richmond bus loop.My early 1970s memories of that loop included a snack shop there and there was always long haired beer drinking delinquents that frequented the place. By this time we were visiting the open ons deck on the new airport. There was also a high end restaurant up there too, long since ancient history.
In the 50ths we were living in Dorval just across the street from the Montreal Airport and I had a lot of fun. It was great to see and listen to those old engines. The best was when our family went to Barbados on the North Star. I will never forget the sound of the Merlins. Thanks again.
Hi Michael, what wonderful memories you have!! I love Barbados and images from that airport. And Dorval had a huge obs deck too throughout the 1960s. Dorval was TCA Viscount and Vanguard City!! Being the HQ for TCA. For a Canadian aviation fan in the 50s and 60s living close to Dorval would have been a dream come true!
Very interesting. History of civil aviation
That's another first-class video, Henry, thank you.
Thank you so much Roger I’m glad you enjoyed this video. Of course it holds a veey special place in my heart YVR back in the late 50s and early 1960s. I wish I had more content to make another video but it’s just so hard to find.
Taxis are Pontiacs and the red is Plymouth with the fins.
Thank you Garth much appreciated.
In May 1960 I was 8 years old and lived in RCAF PMQ's adjacent to the button of runway 26 (only one 26 back then). My father was likely working in that hangar across the ramp on the day these pictures were taken. Thanks for this awesome video!
Wow, that is amazing that you were there back in those days Gord period. If you find any old colour slides that your dad took back then please let me know as I woukd like to use them for a future show.
In October of 1958 our family moved from Canada to Australia for five years. I had just turned eleven years old. We flew from Toronto in a Trans Canada Air Lines North Star, and after a short distance the inside starboard engine failed. We went back to Toronto, and had to take another plane to make the trip. My first flight had some excitement. We stayed in Vancouver for a few days, and then flew on a United Airlines DC3 to Seattle, and made a connection to San Francisco. After several days there it was a United Airlines DC6B deluxe flight to Honolulu. The flight to Sydney with two stops to refuel was a Qantas Super Constellation with extra fuel tanks on the wing tips. I still have my Qantas Junior Flight Certificate signed by the Captain. The final flight to Melbourne and our new home was an Ansett ANA DC6.
Our family moved from Ontario to Vancouver in August of 1965, and I took the Canadian Pacific Dominion passenger train from Toronto. The rest of the family had already arrived here. For a summer job in 1966 on a tug out of Victoria I flew in an Air Canada Viscount from the old terminal. One thing I remember clearly is the observation deck; at every airport I sought them out. In Vancouver's rainy weather there was a large bin with umbrellas at the departure gate, and after you climbed the stairs up to the plane there was a bin to put the umbrella in. The procedure was reversed for arriving in the rain. In the centre of the loop at the two old terminals there was a model rocket ship from the 1930s called The Spirit of Aviation. A new version of the original is on display at the South end of the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver.
Thank you for taking the time to share such wonderful wonderful memories of your travels as a child back in the 1960s. My very early memories of plane spotting were being taken to the observation deck on the YVR south terminal by my grandmother in about 1967. But I was only three years old at that time.
I grew up near Philadelphia, and PHL had outdoor observation decks on the roofs of each terminal. I remember it so vividly; the Eastern Airlines Connies and DC-7 Golden Falcons. Viscounts too, I remember. You could see it all and hear it all! You didn't have to have a ticket to go up there, either.
It was a different era back then. Today is not as interesting as the past.
Thankyou for this wonderful travelogue.
My pleasure
I appreciate the detail of having shared those photos so memorable for you, that like me, I love them because the 50's and 60's were very special decades for me and that I enjoyed being a child. Like you, I enjoyed visiting the international airport in my country with my father, and everything was very different from how it is now, but hearing your detailed narrative of this airport and how you continue to appreciate the details of everything you see in the photos and how We saw and remembered the special of those times, I do not doubt for a moment that you like me, we are one of the few who still enjoy the memory of those times! 👌😊 Btw ... has a beautiful and excellent collection of models! 👌 💪😊👍Especially the most vitages like the DC-7. DC-8 B-707 B-727 etc ...
Thank you for seeing the beauty in the details, that is what it is all about with these images. The amazing thing is so many people visited these decks and terminal buildings. But in a lifetime of seatching and asking peiple, these are pretty much the only such images I have ever found. When you ask 99 out of 100 people who were on these YVR decks they will say “oh I never took photos, I never had a camera, let me check my photos one day” .. that one colour slide taken inside the CPA terminal showing the check in counter is so amazing to me for this very reason. I wish I could see more inside.
I vividly remember the mother of a best friend recounting her experience of flying on a stretch DC8 of Air Canada, when they were first introduced. "The aircraft was so long, they even had us board by row number". In those days, they were still using the old south terminal. When you got a flight like that plus one or two others, the terminal was really crowded!
I can imagine Carl. Two DC-8s would be around 400 passengers plus or minus. Plus the greeters. Very different than a few Convairs and a DC-3. The new terminal was very much needed.
But that itinerary that he showed is impressive in the excellent condition it is in! As well as the sharpness of the photos! How close people were allowed to approach the planes and no one bothered walking to board them! I just loved how things were done in those times😍
It truly was a magical era back then. And look how people dressed to fly. Professional and elegant. Compare to today, where social media thrives on the highlighting the grotesque events and grotesque people who fly. We’ve become barbarians in certain respects.
Nice detective work with the timetable.
I have a small collection of these old TCA timetables I have had for years. They were in a file folder. For a lark I thought I would check them just in case. I was totally surprised I had the TCA DC-8 intro to service schedule from summer 1960 matching these images. It was a stroke of luck!
Terrific video Henry. I particularly enjoyed your narration which gives us important historical context. One thing that blew me away was how modern that terminal building was for the time. Those cantilevered roof lines and wooden elements can be seen in some of our modern Skytrain stations!
Thank you very much this is my passion and I did my best. Few people understand the building still exists today and they do not realize the historic context of thd South Terminal building. It is fabulous to look back at the way it was 60 years ago.
What a wonderful collection of vintage photos! As an aviation historian that loves the early days of the airlines, it is a real pleasure to see the contents of this time capsule. Everything from start to finish is amazing, including the people and the cars. There are so many cool things in this video, one being that the type of airplane was listed in the travel schedule and how the DC-8 was highlighted. As an American, I naturally love the DC-8 and the 720. But as a fan of British aviation, I especially love the majestic Britannia and Viscount. They are two of the most beautiful airplanes ever made. Cheers!
Dear Aero Suite, thank you for sharing your pleasure in seeing these old views of Vancouver, my home town airport. The magic of the images is the atmosphere they capture, the people, the cars, families, loved ones, changing times (from the prop age to the then brand new jet age). There really is a lot to appreciate in these views being found after sitting for 60 years in a folder. I am glad several people offered insight into the car types. As a Canadian I love these images from New York La Guardia and Chicago Midway in the 40s and 50s. They had large decks packed with people and fabulous aircraft views. These US cities had huge populations so a lot more of such wonderful images exist. Vancouver in 1960 was a small potato in the international scale of things so such images are fewer. Thank you again for the wonderful comments.
@@JetFlix Your welcome Henry! Just a quick story... about ten years ago I was doing some volunteer work at the airport in my hometown of Bakersfield, California. While cleaning out an old building, I saw a binder laying under some debris. Much to my surprise, it was full of old photos that the airport administration had taken in the 1960's and 1970's. Among the many photos was the first United Airlines Boeing 737 to land at Meadows Field! I was delighted by what I had found and upon request was able to take the binder home with me. It is a real treasure and I feel very fortunate to have found it. Cheers!
Liked a lot the historians work possible by using the original timetable to situate and date a picture taken!
Thank you, I was amazed I actually had it in my files. It was a bit of luck👍👍😀😀
I gather engine noise was far less with the Vanguard than the Viscount which was ear shattering, but only TCA and BEA ever bought the plane new.
Although I flew both Viscount and Vanguard in the summer of 1996 on cargo aircraft in the UK, I don’t remember them being noisy, but I was in the cockpit of both aircraft so I can’t speak to cabin noise in the passenger environment.
The taxis are Pontiacs; the two-tone is Dodge or DeSoto (Chrysler cars).
Thank you Charles
Would be neat to make a larger transparency of one of these ramp pictures, then you could hold it up at the exact spot it was taken and see through it to what is now. Even history boards with the pictures of different aircraft generations mounted on the deck at a particular spot would a neat thing for people to look at.
A similar thought went through my mind too, taking exact same point of reference shots today to compare. With mountains as the reference points. I can do it. Leave it with me and thank you for the suggestion.
@@JetFlix Cool, hope something works out. I like the idea of trying to do that with pictures but haven't really got started on it yet.
@@JetFlix I saw something similar in I think NB or NL. A large history board with a large slide like picture over looking a lake. you could use the mountains in the backround to line it up.
@@crushingvanessa3277 I will try and work on it .. in video form. It is a great idea. Thank you!
@@JetFlix Cool, be neat to see how it comes out.
That's a 1960 Pontiac ragtop, also another one just behind the tree behind the woman. At 4:57, the two blue cars on the left are 58 Pontiacs and the pinkish one is a 58 Dodge of some kind, Custom I think. The one on the right sure looks like a 58 Chev Delray(I have one). Back then, did you need to have a flight ticket before going on the observation deck? I faintly remember the one Wpg had, I was last on it in '82. Don't like the new airport here now.
The obs deck was open for anyone as it was a social gathering place. No tickets needed. That was part of the beauty. It was open air. No glass or barriers, you had a direct view of the operations area. It is still like this at most airports in Japan.