1944 Grumman G-21A Goose, c/n B-101, CF-VFU, FIFT. Dockside somewhere up Knight Inlet, B.C., Canada in spring 1969.

[1959 Kodak Retina IIIS (Type 027) rangefinder 35-mm roll film camera, s/n 86125, with Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon 50-mm f/1.9 Synchro Compur lens, s/n 6841319; Kodak Plus-X Pan (ISO 125/22°) 36-exposure black & white negative film]


© Copyright photograph by Uwe Kündrunar Scharnberg, 1969 / Stephan Alexander Scharnberg, March 2011





“The whole history of the Canadian North can be divided into two periods—before and after the aeroplane.”
Hugh L. Keenleyside, Deputy Canadian Minister of Mines and Resources, October 1949




Monday, November 7, 2011

1961 Douglas DC-8-43, c/n 45622/137, CF-CPI, “604”, Empress of Amsterdam, Canadian Pacific Air Lines

1961 Douglas DC-8-43, c/n 45622/137, CF-CPI, “604”, Empress of Amsterdam, Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada; powered by four 17,625-lbs thrust Rolls-Royce RCo.12 Conway Mk. 509 low-bypass turbofan engines; crew of three (pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer), seven flight attendants, seating configuration 132 passengers (dual F/Y class cabin), intercontinental narrow-body airliner; built by Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, USA; completed on April 26, 1961; delivered to Canadian Pacific Air Lines on May 20, 1961; named Empress of Calgary in May 1961; renamed Empress of Amsterdam in 1968; transferred to CP Air on April 1, 1969; re-registered as C-FCPI on January 1, 1974; sold to F.B. Ayer & Associates Inc., New York, New York, USA on November 16, 1980; the Empress of Amsterdam spent 19 years with Canadian Pacific Air Lines/CP Air before being stored, to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department in December 1982, and scrapped at Opa-locka Airport (OPF), Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA in 1988.

Felix Hayo Scharnberg and Stephan Alexander Scharnberg moments before boarding Flight 382, Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada on Tuesday, July 23, 1968. 

This was still the old terminal, what is now the South Terminal with most of the original building still existing, albeit minus the control tower and the outside observation deck. I recall looking into the distance across the tarmac to the new terminal being built to the north, nearing completion. It was sunny with some high clouds.

We had two stops en route, served with refreshments to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, then Edmonton, Alberta, followed by dinner and breakfast, arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Luchthaven Schiphol) (AMS), Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands the following morning. We rented a baby blue Renault 16 in Amsterdam and drove through the Netherlands, West Germany, and Switzerland, visiting friends and relatives. I have no record of which DC-8 we returned on, but it was Flight 381, departing Amsterdam-Schiphol on Tuesday, September 3, 1968. We had two stops en route, served with lunch and dinner to Edmonton, then Calgary, followed by refreshments to Vancouver.

1944 Grumman G-21A Goose, c/n B-83, CF-HUZ, Dryad II, West Coast Transmission Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., Canada; powered by two 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-14B Wasp Junior supercharged nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial piston engines with constant-speed three-blade Hartzell propellers; amphibious flying boat hull; crew of two (pilot and co-pilot), eight passengers, commercial transport; built by The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Bethpage, Long Island, New York, USA at Plant 2, Bethpage, Long Island, New York (F); built as JRF-5 Goose (Model G-38), powered by two 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-6 Wasp Junior supercharged nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial piston engines with constant-speed two-blade Hamilton Standard propellers; delivered as BuNo 37830 to US Navy in September 1944; transferred to RCAF; taken on strength as Goose Mk. II, “393” on October 2, 1944; No. 9 Transport Group, RCAF, RCAF Station Rockcliffe, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from 1946, became Air Transport Command on April 1, 1948 which relocated to RCAF Station Lachine, near Lachine and Dorval, Québec, Canada on August 9, 1951; struck off strength on February 14, 1956; converted to G-21A Goose; CF-HUZ, BNP Airways Ltd. (consortium of B.C. Electric/Northern Construction/Powell River Company Ltd./MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada, based at Hangar #1 (located at what is now South Terminal), Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., on February 14, 1956; engines upgraded, fitted with retractable floats; CF-HUZ, Dryad II, MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada, based at Hangar #1, Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., in 1966; CF-HUZ, Dryad II, West Coast Transmission Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., Canada from 1967 to 1977; C-FHUZ, Dryad II, MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada, based at South Terminal, Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., on January 22, 1980, cancelled on November 8, 1994; C-FHUZ, Pacific Coastal Airlines (Pacific Coastal Airlines Ltd.), Sea Island, Richmond, B.C., Canada, based at Port Hardy Airport (YZT), Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, B.C., on November 8, 1994; active.

CF-HUZ appears to be taxiing as her propellers are spinning.

[1959 Kodak Retina IIIS (Type 027) rangefinder 35-mm roll film camera, s/n 86125, with Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon 50-mm f/1.9 Synchro Compur lens, s/n 6841319]

© Copyright photograph by Uwe Kündrunar Scharnberg, July 1968 / Stephan Alexander Scharnberg, March 2011